Brain Fertilizer

Back in January of 2005, To celebrate an upcoming promotion at work (about 5 months early, as it turns out), I wanted to replace my 1990 Toyota Corolla with a nicer vehicle.

Unfortunately, at heart I am a skinflint. I love Hondas, and like Toyotas, but the $18k starting price on new price on an Accord made me choke, and a Camry was out of the question. I knew I could get a Civic or Corolla for about $14k, but that would still be a base model with few options.

I checked out a Ford Focus, but was unimpressed with its small size, road noise, and bumpy ride. The salesman said, "Have you thought about a Suzuki?" I sneered at first, but he seemed insistent, so I shrugged and agreed to do a test drive in a 2005 Suzuki Forenza. It was very nice, and just over $14k. It seemed fairly peppy, but not enough to satisfy me. I tested a standard-transmission Forenza and it had more of the driving feel I wanted, but the fuel efficiency on an automatic was 21/28, and the efficiency on a standard was...21/28. I couldn't understand it then, and I don't understand it now. Then I tried a 2005 Suzuki Reno, which was a chopped-off Forenza, basically. I was seeking a "hot hatch" feel, and the Reno just didn't have it. On the other hand, it had an MP3-capable disc player. Moreover, it offered slightly better driving feel and fuel efficiency over the Forenza. I almost got it, but the only one they had on the lot had a tendency to stall when you gave it the gas. Uh-uh. I wasn't going to buy a malfunctioning new car. The salesman listened to my complaints, and offered me a test drive in an Aerio. It had a better engine with more pep and better fuel efficiency than even the Reno. Ugly as sin, but a better engine inside, and about the same price. But before I even got it off the lot, I knew I hated its driving sensation. Ugh!
The Forenza had the look, feel, and price I wanted. The Reno had the price and the MP3 player. The Aerio had the engine I wanted. Put 'em together, and I would have been pleased as punch.
On a whim, I think the salesman said they had some leftover Verona's from 2004 for about the same price. It would be a step up for a discount.
I was hesitant, but on the test drive: woah.
It was the smoothest car I've ever driven. It had speed-sensitive steering that gave me precise control at any speed. It seemed to accelerate well; not sports-car level, but not bad. The salesman seemed 10 feet away in the passenger seat. The dials were nicely back-lit with a soft blue glow. The leather-wrapped steering wheel felt very nice. The car itself looked like the previous-generation Camry (which I liked better than the 2005 model, anyway). The only problem was the fuel efficiency with just 20/27.

I went home and researched the car. Edmunds.com editors gave it a 6.1 rating, but owners gave it an 8.1, which isn't bad. And every car I've driven has gotten better than the listed mileage. Edmunds.com "True cost to own" estimate seemed to indicate it would be inexpensive to keep. And it had a 7 year, 100k mile warranty!
(Foreshadowing paragraph)
It had a 2.4 liter in-line six-cylinder engine. That's about the size of competitor's 4-cylinder engines. Its strength was its smoothness. Its weakness was, well, a snarky slogan for the Verona's engine would be: "All the power of a 4-cyl! All the economy of a 6-cyl!"

But it was just $14,200. I would get a Camry/Accord-level car for a Civic-level price! The $4000 price difference can buy quite a bit of gas.
So I bought it.

It cruised very nicely. It got about 25 miles to the gallon in mixed driving for the daily commute.

I took a long road trip in it. I was going to drive from Spokane, Washington over to Montana, then down to see some friends in Denver, Colorado. We had an event planned for Saturday night, but I had to be back in Spokane for work Monday morning. So I would get up around 9am and drive straight through to Spokane in one day. That's 1,092 miles, if you don't want to take the time to look it up yourself.

All went according to plan. I had plenty of music for the (non-MP3) CD player. I left Denver Sunday morning, and filled up once in Buffalo, Wyoming, where I stopped for lunch; once in Livingston, Montana, where I ate dinner with my sister, and the next morning after arriving in Spokane.

I spent 15 hours in the car that day. I spent from 9am Sunday to 1am Monday, with two half-hour breaks. I did not feel any discomfort until the last 90 minutes. I cannot imagine spending even just 8 hours driving any other car without more frequent breaks, and without killing my back, neck, legs, etc.

Even better, that car did great in the mountain passes of western Montana. It was raining slightly, visibility was fair to poor, but the car was willing to take all the switchbacks at a continual 70 mph without protest or overworked effort. There were some times when I felt the car was riding right on the edge of traction as we went around a curve at 70 mph...so I would just cut the turn a little tighter, and the car would just settle right into the track. It was almost as if following the normal track for a car wasn't taking advantage of its full adhesion capability, so going wider increased the lateral g-force. The car was capable of going tighter without rolling, and when I used that capability, we were more stable.

That car performed better at 70 mph than any other car I've ever driven. It felt more nimble, more stable, more responsive at 70 mph than the many smaller cars I've driven, including Civics and Corollas, do at 40-50 mph.

The car truly was worth the money.

But then I moved to Hawaii. And all of its problems surfaced.

- Its turning radius was slightly below average. Its wide body was slightly wider than average. Space is at a premium in on Oahu (the main island, with 85% of the population on one of the smaller surface areas), and so parking is always tight. The car did not fit well into the parking spaces.
- Most driving on Oahu is stop-and-go, to include on the freeways. For the 14 months I drove it on the island, I never averaged higher than 19 mpg, and usually just 16. I had to fill up the car after traveling just 215 miles, most of the time. Expensive, and frustrating.
- A minor problem caused by the workers who changed the oil highlighted something I didn't realize: Suzuki never sold the Forenza, Reno, or Verona in Hawaii. That meant they didn't train their mechanics in repairs. Which, in turn, meant that the excellent warranty that helped convince me to buy the car was pretty much worthless until I moved back to the mainland. Sure, any repairs were covered, but I had to pay for parts and labor myself, and then they'd reimburse me. Even worse, there was an electronic glitch in the steering wheel stereo controls, which could only be repaired by Suzuki techs; there would be no chance to repair that glitch until I left Hawaii.

The most important thing about retaining a car is your internal dialogue. If you are constantly frustrated, constantly irritated, constantly reminded of your dissatisfaction, you won't keep the car. Every time I looked at the elapsed mileage, I knew I would need to fill up soon and it was a slap in the face of how bad the car was on gas. Every time I tried to change the volume on the CD and it skipped 3-4 tracks (the electronic glitch), I was reminded of the warranty problem. Every time I tried to park the car, or had to squeeze out of the door with 6 inches of room because the car filled the entire space, I was reminded the car just didn't fit in Hawaii. The Verona was made for the ultimate in comfortable and enjoyable freeway driving, and I didn't get to experience it in Hawaii.

I finally sold it for $10,000, just 18 months after purchasing it for $14200 (plus tax, resulted in about $15600, if I recall correctly).

I know it was the right decision. I can't imagine driving the car in Hawaii over the last year with $3+/gallon gas. And now that I drive a 2002 Ford Explorer in a daily commute (until my 1998 Mazda 626 arrives) in Texas with that same gas price, I'm stunned that the larger, heavier, supposedly more wasteful SUV still gets better city mileage (18 on last fill-up, better than the advertised 16) than my old Verona (averaged 17; far, far worse than the advertised 21).

Still, at times I miss that car. I see on Edmunds that the base dealer retail price for a 2004 Suzuki Verona S is less than $8k. You should be able to find an individual selling a low-mileage and/or excellent condition for far less. And I'm tempted, because recently I've seen other Suzuki car products (specifically, the late-90s, early 00's Esteem station wagon), lasting longer and looking better than their more-appreciated Toyota and Honda rivals. I don't see many Veronas; maybe they aren't lasting at all. But if they are, they might just be a Camry-clone steal.