The headline on the WashingtonPost website today says

“ GM Plans to Lower Prices on Most Vehicles“
“General Motors Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, said Tuesday that it will lower the prices on 57 of its 76 models in North America in an effort to boost its sliding market share and wean buyers off expensive incentives.”
(quote from AP News on the WaPo site).

Of course – that didn’t help me. I WANTED to buy GM. After my car was stolen in November I was in the market for a new small wagon. I’d seen pictures of the Chevy HHR and I’d heard that GM had really improved since the bad cars they churned out in the 70s (Vega, Monza, etc) .. I wanted to give them a fair chance – so I went to Jim McKay Chevrolet to test drive a new HHR with the bigger 2.4l 4 cyl.

It had good pickup – but it felt claustrophobic – visibility seemed poor and it felt very plasticky.
The A pillars were too thick and hard to see around, the rearview mirror was in the way – the windshield seemed too low – it just didn’t seem like a comfortable car to me. It didn’t feel like a car I would still enjoy driving in 10 years – or even in 2 years. The “red Tag sale” promotional discount of $1500 or whatever it was didn’t matter if I didn’t like the car.

I guess I’ve gotten spoiled by the Honda Civic cars. I drove the 1990 Civic SI for over 10 years .
and handed it on to Emma when I got the 2000 Civic SI. After 5 years and 75,000 miles the 2000 SI ran great and felt like it was just getting broken in when it was stolen. Things fall comfortably to hand.

When we went to CarMax and test drove the Honda CRV SportUte that we quickly bought, it was due in no small part to the friendly and comfort able feel of the car. We’d had personal experience with Honda quality, the drivability was good and the car had great visibility. You felt like you were in control – and just like the 2 Civic Si’s before – you could see what was going on around you.

I’ve been driving the CRV on my daily commute for about a month now and its still intuitive and comfortable to drive. We drove it to Richmond for Christmas and it felt good on the highway as well.