Hello all.
So its holidays, I'm in Sydney and Tracy is shopping with her sister. I have free time! So what to do?
All the Belletts for sale are in Adelaide or Brisbane, so next best thing, look at new cars. Well, in 5 years time when we update the Santa Fe, it will be nice to have brochures for prospective used car purchases about 5 years old.
What to look at? I still get Wheels mag, and the first drive of the Skoda Kodiak reads well. Hmm, only 4 dealers in all of Sydney, and the nearest one is an hour away, without peak hour traffic. So there is Wheels' answer to their pondering, "Why arent Skodas selling?"
So, Mazda CX-9 won 'Car of the year', lets see why!
So I rock up to the dealer, and a shiny new red top level one sits in the middle of the showroom floor. The dealer pounces, so I ask, "Can you show me the good stuff?"
He touches the electric tailgate, pauses and....nothing. He opens the drivers door, checks his pocket for the proximity key, and touches the electric seat adjuster. Nothing. Um... the battery must be flat...you know, people are always playing with stuff.
So I suggest he needs to get another battery. He points to another car outside, but its the base model, not even AWD.
So this means his pride of place car is completely disabled. Lucky the door wasn't locked, because theres no hole for a key. I tell him about trickle chargers and suggest he gets a few and plugs them in overnight. I even tell him they are on special at Supercheap auto. There is a frown.
So I go outside and check the base model out. It is huge but inside I find a high dashboard, ridiculously high console and gear lever, and small windows. Surprisingly claustrophobic after the open and airy Santa Fe. So I crank up the seat. The lever is tight, and grinds like it lacks grease. My fingers hurt after trying for a while, so I try the passengers seat, perhaps there is a fault with the drivers. Nope, its the same. So I look at other stuff, but fail to see the appeal. Perhaps you have to drive it, or try the luxury model.
So I go back in to see how he is going with the battery swap. He is sitting at his computer. There is not another prospective customer in the place. The $63,000+ behemouth is still lifeless. To hard, apparently.

Am I strange in thinking that if I were in his position I would be really embarrassed, and at least get a jumpstart pack and fire it up? I guess his chair did look comfy, and perhaps that was a really fun game of tetris.

But it made me think of a future scene of being up a muddy backroad someplace on a Sunday afternoon with a nice, shiny CX-9, or any other press button start car, locked out because the transponder has failed like it has in our Forester, and there is no keyhole. The tilt tray is going to have an impossible task.

So much for car of the year.
Still, the brochure is nice. Even if he did remind me that they are expensive to print, and I could look at one online.

Tomorrow I might go to the Mitsubishi dealer!
All good fun.
Cheers, Matt.

Hi Matt
interesting observations. I often wonder if the road test in the magazines etc actually drive the cars, they often don't see or report perhaps the glaring faults......for fear of not getting another car to test. I just bought wheels mag (1st time in years) to read about the Hyundai i30N model (202kW turbo) coming soon.... what a crap story (said nothing much at all) which reminds me why i normally read the mag in Coles instead of buying.

A funny thing though is that I think sales people are either trained or (think they) can spot 'lookers only' a mile away. It's happened to me also, perhaps because i was dressed in old work clothes didn't help much either ! Even though i was ready to buy..... i just walked out and went elsewhere...

Perhaps he sold his quota for the month and need a rest !!