Buying my new vehicle - Part 2

Ok,

So the road to my new vehicle purchase really started about a year ago when I was contemplating next steps with respect to my pending lease coming to an end.  At the time I think I was looking at RAV4's and Santa Fe's.... my how times change.  I went back to my email collection and back in September I was strongly considering buying a VW Golf Wagon but balked because they were offering me $12,500 trade.... with the tax savings that is 14,125.  I ended up getting 14,600 but that was after I spent almost $2,500 on brakes, A/C, radiator and bushings.  Let this be a lesson..... you can't beat the car guys at their game, just relent and take whatever they offer you on trade!

Anyway back to the business at hand.  So in no particular order I have been seriously interested in Rav4, Santa Fe, Escape, Sportage, Sonata, Buick Regal, BMW 3 series, Acura TL, Volvo S60, 2007 BMW 5 series, and a 2007 Infiniti that ended up being a write off from New York.  All of these have probably been posted about at one point or another but here is my summary of why I didn't buy them:

Rav 4, Santa Fe & Sportage  - decided I did not want another SUV

Escape - I was really close to getting one of these before I decided I didn't want an SUV but after a lot of research decided the fuel economy wasn't good enough and everyone seems to own one of these.  Nicest salesperson of any I have met.

Sonata - AT first I loved the styling and you get a lot for your money but after a while the styling just seemed to swoopy.

Regal - Great lease deal at $400/mth all in but it was just too old manish in the end.

BMW 3 series, Volvo, Acura - Just too expensive for what you get, especially compared to my new beauty.

2007 BMW 5 series - With the used car rate at 6% and no warranty remaining, it just seemed to expensive and risky although it was going for a good price.

2007 Infiniti - Great deal but it was a write off from new york that was put back together in Quebec, check the post on it.

Also considered the golf wagon mentioned above, subaru impreza but it is too small and underpowered, Mazda 6 just didn't seem like enough for your money.... I'm sure there were more.

So that's about it for what I didn't buy, tomorrow the discussion moves into what I did buy.