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New Car, Virtual Shopping

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Last week I went out and bought a new car. It's our second car, so I didn't have a huge budget for the thing and I was pretty much sure I wanted to buy a Jeep Liberty. I also had it in my head that for the same price I might be able to pick up something really interesting like a Mustang. We shopped around a bit and to my dismay I discovered that I couldn't fit three kids into the back of the Mustang. So the woman showing us cars suggest a Ford Focus. I didn't think that sounded the least bit interesting, but I drove it around and it was fun. I didn't buy it but I decided to do a little research that night.

What I found when researching the Focus was a really active online community; very helpful people and some great online forums. The Focus it seemed had a serious fan base. It didn't hurt to see pictures of Colin McRae driving the thing around either. So it's got a great fan base and it's a cool rally car, what's left? How about a few test drives on Project Gotham Racing 2 and RalliSport Challenge? Yes, it's definatly a fun car there too.

So the next morning we headed to the Jeep dealer to buy the Liberty. At the very last second I decided to go back to the Ford dealership and buy the Focus. I mentioned to the people selling me the car that I did some test driving on the Xbox and they thought that sounded pretty cool, though I'm not sure they understood what I was talking about.

The two big takeways for me in this were that community made a difference in my buying decision, and that having the car available in a video game gave me a chance to really play with the car before I bought it. After a week I'm really quite happy with my decision.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    Brian,

    >> though I'm not sure they understood what I was talking about.

    yes. this kinda happens a lot when talking to 'normal' people.

    WM_ROFL
    thomas woelfer
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    Brian,

    >> though I'm not sure they understood what I was talking about.

    lol. yes. kinda happens all the time when talking to 'normal' people. good to see its not just me... :)

    WM_ROFL
    thomas woelfer
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    Really funny that you can go into a car-shop and simply buy it and leave with your new car. :-)

    In germany it usually takes weeks to months (months are more common) to get a new car. I never understood. Seems that the customer has to earn the respect of the dealer and proof that he is thankful enough to buy from the dealer... :-(
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    So have you racked up any Kudos in your real car? :)
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    I bought one of the first 2000 ford focus zts' that rolled out, and I still haven't had any problems with it. I am approaching 60,000 miles and its still fun to drive, great car.
  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2004
    The community is part of what I love about my Audi. We have a very active VW/Audi club around here that I'm very involved in.

    And PGR2 is part of the reason I want a Golf R32 =)
  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2004
    Come on, admit it: The real reason you bought a Ford Focus is because you want to be like Scoble: http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/03/13.html#a7001 ;-)
  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2004
    Hmmm... Maybe so! :)
  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2004
    HI EVERYONE IM BUYING A FORD FOCUS ZETEC TODAY ON A Y REG CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THEY THINK IT WOULD BE VALUED AT
  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2004
    AS I THINK THE DEALED IS HAVING MY EYES OUT