As we noted in our first post, Norm is among the newest additions to the household. He was purchased after two fairly full days of test drives and Consumer Reports review-crunching (at Starbucks because we have no home internet until the end of January) that also included a VW Golf, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3 and Toyota Prius of various ages and conditions. Since Emily is too far from work for a walking commute, and transit is limited within Camrose and non-existent to Edmonton, we bit the bullet and bought a car for the first time.
We knew we wanted a used car and we really only had four days to get it done while we had a rental car. We definitely got to know the drive back and forth between Camrose and Edmonton quite well right away as there were very few options to pursue more locally. Adding a timeline like that probably isn't great in terms of negotiating a fantastic deal, but it definitely provides focus and helps you make a choice quickly. We were shopping at the end of December and at the end of the year, so maybe there was some incentives, but the frustrating thing about buying a car is you never actually know...
Norm is a 2017 Subaru Impreza, a former adventure travel company fleet vehicle. He's got a couple of external dings as holdovers from his rural driving past (or careless drivers perhaps?), but he's otherwise in great shape.
One consideration in choosing Norm over other cars was the potential utility of AWD in a rural area, and in a part of the country where road salt is generally not used and municipalities do not plow most streets to bare pavement. [UPDATE: As our first winter wraps up, the jury's still out on how useful it's been.]
On the one hand, we've never had trouble getting out of our shared rear laneway or down side streets after 20+ cm snow dumps, and we haven't managed to skid around a corner yet (though we've tried). On the other hand, the Edmonton area gets less snow than Eastern Ontario, and it's generally lighter. (We had never seen people clearing their front walks with leaf blowers until we showed up here!)
Plus, although the Consumer Reports fuel efficiency info rated Norm as comparable to or better than the other models we were considering, we suspect his efficiency drops off much faster in cold weather than a FWD car would. Camrose is small enough that we usually arrive at our destination not long after the engine warms up, even though, like most Camrosians, we plug in his block heater religiously when the mercury drops below -15. (Unlike many Camrosians, we do turn him off when we arrive at our destination.) We're planning to make most in-town trips by bike in the summer, but for now, we're trying not to pay too much attention to the fuel efficiency gauge on those -25 days.
Overall we like Norm and we know it takes time to adjust to a new member of the family, so he'll likely stay. We're looking forward to the opportunity to have a nice road trip in the near future!
We knew we wanted a used car and we really only had four days to get it done while we had a rental car. We definitely got to know the drive back and forth between Camrose and Edmonton quite well right away as there were very few options to pursue more locally. Adding a timeline like that probably isn't great in terms of negotiating a fantastic deal, but it definitely provides focus and helps you make a choice quickly. We were shopping at the end of December and at the end of the year, so maybe there was some incentives, but the frustrating thing about buying a car is you never actually know...
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| Greg and Emily with Norm outside the dealership. We tend to think we are nice people... |
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| And he practically named himself! |
On the one hand, we've never had trouble getting out of our shared rear laneway or down side streets after 20+ cm snow dumps, and we haven't managed to skid around a corner yet (though we've tried). On the other hand, the Edmonton area gets less snow than Eastern Ontario, and it's generally lighter. (We had never seen people clearing their front walks with leaf blowers until we showed up here!)
Plus, although the Consumer Reports fuel efficiency info rated Norm as comparable to or better than the other models we were considering, we suspect his efficiency drops off much faster in cold weather than a FWD car would. Camrose is small enough that we usually arrive at our destination not long after the engine warms up, even though, like most Camrosians, we plug in his block heater religiously when the mercury drops below -15. (Unlike many Camrosians, we do turn him off when we arrive at our destination.) We're planning to make most in-town trips by bike in the summer, but for now, we're trying not to pay too much attention to the fuel efficiency gauge on those -25 days.
Overall we like Norm and we know it takes time to adjust to a new member of the family, so he'll likely stay. We're looking forward to the opportunity to have a nice road trip in the near future!
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