Saving the environment… the expensive way.
The wife and I had been talking for a while now about what we were going to do when our truck went off lease.  Our lease vehicle was a 4 door 2005 Chevy Silverado Z71. In all honesty it was a great truck. It seated my family of 4 very comfortably, was pretty luxurious on the interior by truck standards, but was still a truck when it came to fuel economy.  It was rated 15 city, 18 highway when I drove it off the lot.  I averaged around 14.75 mpg for the lease term. That’s expensive when gas gets up to $4 a gallon like it did back in 2007. But, truth be told we really liked the truck and it did things only a truck can do for you. Hauling garbage, mulch, towing a trailer to pick up expensive old woodworking machines…. ah hobbies.
My thoughts had varied wildly from week to week on what I wanted to replace the truck with. A good friend drives a first gen Toyota Prius and I loved the geek / environmental factor with the car. Fuel efficiency is great with that car, even if he drives it like a go cart stuck on WOT. We have a 1998 Honda Accord, and when it came down to it, having another small car just didn’t sit right with the wife. Providing the Honda lives on, she’s probably right. We liked the truck, we’d probably be very happy with another.
I briefly looked into buying a Jeep Wrangler.  Open top, rugged outdoor vehicle, stupid simple mechanics. Holy crap total bottom floor fuel economy.  I just couldn’t in good conscience buy a vehicle that got worse gas mileage than the truck I was replacing.
Since the existing lease was with Chevrolet, I was probably going to get the best deal there as a returning customer. I wanted something with better mileage (easy when you are getting 15), but I didn’t much care for the current lineup of Chevy’s. They have the hybrid Malibu (a good looker), but it’s a “lite” hybrid. It only has a very small electric motor that shuts off the gas motor at stoplights giving a very modest 2 mpg increase for city estimates. It costs 4k for the package though, making those extra 2 mpg very expensive. It comes well optioned though, so probably at least half that cost is in the vehicle options. Still it’s not a lot of value for technology.
They also have a hybrid Tahoe SUV that I briefly talked to the wife about.  It’s a more traditional hybrid similar in function to the Prius. The 2wd model gets 21 mpg city / 22 mpg highway, and the 4wd gets 1 less mpg in both conditions. But sitting at 54k it just seemed very expensive.  We’re in the middle of a huge financial crisis in the United States right now. Is this really the time to purchase a luxury vehicle?
The dealership we leased the truck from had started contacting us about a replacement vehicle. They were not pushy or anything, just offered to answer any lease turn in questions or new vehicle questions. Bryce was the salesman’s name, pretty nice fella. I asked him about the current GM hybrids, the Malibu or the Tahoe. He didn’t have any, and would probably have to order them. I asked him to send me some info on them anyways, and he said he would. (I didn’t get it… )
Fast forward 4 months… This financial crisis is hurting the banking industry a lot. GM’s financial unit, GMAC is the company we had our lease with.  GMAC had to classify our truck as an asset even though it wasn’t in their immediate possession, and it wasn’t very “liquid” at all. They are trying to buy back as many leases that they can, and get out of the leasing business all together for now. They aren’t currently offering leases on any vehicles, at least in my area. That means you buy it baby. Bryce from the dealership emailed (finally a salesman in the electronic age) an offer on Saturday morning. It was enough to make me stand up and say we needed to stop by and talk.
Later that afternoon we drove down to the dealership on our way to lunch. We test drove the Malibu, and it’s really a pretty nice car. I could live with it easily. It was the 6 cylinder car, as he didn’t have any hybrids in stock.  Drove nice, comfy, and averaged about 24 mpg during our 16 mile drive (little interstate). I next stared at a Avalanche, and it’s a pretty truck. The previous two versions of the Avalanche are all wrapped in plastic and very angular. They look like total shit if you ask me.   The new one, however, is a sexy beast. They have almost eliminated all the plastic and it looks 1.1 million percent better. But, and it’s a big double wide butt with two pitch forks and a devils tail, the fuel economy is WORSE than my existing truck. It’s EPA estimate is 13(!?) city / 18 highway. WTF? are we devolving here? (Not really, the EPA changed the testing procedures to reflect more “real world” driving). Sticker on that bad boy was 48k, and then an additional 5k for the fancy 24″ wheels and tires they put on it. Ouch. I briefly walked over to a Tahoe to look, and it was a sexy bitch as well. Very nicely equipped it stickered at 54k. Did you feel my ass pucker? We might have lost an office chair were it any closer.
Briefly talked to the wife about the options we saw. We wanted to check the offers on each model as it varies quite a bit. The cash rebates on the Malibu were 2.5k, the Avalanche was 3k, and the Tahoe was a whopping 7k. Made the Tahoe cheaper than the Avalanche.  Things were starting to get interesting. Combine the lease offer, GMS employee pricing (thanks grandma Brooke, love you like a .. uh, fantastic grandma!), the cash rebates, the federal hybrid car tax credit, and now we are talking some pretty decent music. I asked him if he could find a hybrid Tahoe so we could see the exact price in case what I saw on the website wasn’t correct, and in a couple minutes he had a print out of one from their other location in town. It was a red one, stickered at 53.3k. The hybrid models come loaded with a lot of features, and there’s really only a handful of options from the factory. The major ones being the sunroof and the rear seat DVD system. This truck had both, so I was pretty confident on the price. We sat forever while the number cruncher looked over the details and requested us to take a look with him. We looked at the end result and looked at each other and nodded that we could do that.
So Bryce was in a good mood, and I asked him to find us one in white or silver. He said it would be next week, and I told him that’s fine, we’re in no rush.  Next week came early, Monday at 3pm. He called and said he has it, and I can come take a look. We load up in the truck after work and head down to the dealership to drool over it.  It’s a pretty truck. Two wheel drive, the two main options and it’s the exact color I wanted, Summit White. I looked her over pretty thoroughly, and grabbed the checkbook.
Totally unexciting part here… it took a grueling 2 hours to get the financials worked out. First surprise was they were offering a loan with a whole percentage point higher than I got quoted on Saturday. I told them that was higher than I got quoted (extra 35 dollars a month is noticeable), and after a little back and forth between the finance guy and the general manager they lowered the rate to what I was quoted. Second surprise was the general manager calling into the finance guy’s office saying I was going to owe an additional $1320 for the early lease termination. Hold up there, Chachie. Excuse me? Shouldn’t someone have said that before I stepped in to sign paperwork? Yes, I think so. I look the fella right in the eye and said with all seriousness, “I don’t like what’s going on here.” He apologized and went to go talk to Bryce and the general manager. Apparently they got things worked out, cleared up, and I wasn’t on the hook for anything.  Finally get stuff signed, squared up, and I get the keys. Lets get the f out of there.
First drive in any new car is pretty exciting, and this one was no different. I’m going to post a review here shortly, but so far after 3 days, I’m very pleased. Is it going to save the environment? Naw, but it has more capacity, and it’s more efficient than what I did have. The wife likes it, and I like it, so we’re good.
March 26, 2009
Posted in: Hybrid
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