Rob had finally decided on purchasing the 2008 Toyota Rav4 for his new car. We were going to head in tonight to do the paperwork, the deal, and the down payment. We were then going to head in tomorrow (he was going to take the day off of work) to bring in the check and his Camry as a trade in. My Mom's going to be coming into town tonight and could watch Gabriel while we went tonight and tomorrow (I also have a follow up vet appointment for Sydney tomorrow morning). However, there was one sticking point with the Rav4... the tires.

The tires on the Rav4 are crappy cheap Yokohama tires. After doing a lot of research, neither of us felt comfortable having those tires on the car. Tires are a super important (and often overlooked) part of the car. Those four pieces of rubber are the only thing attaching the car to the road. Toyota is really cheaping out by using Yokohama tires on their cars! His Camry is a 2005 and has nice Michelin tires on them.

He mentioned this to the sales woman. She "checked" to see if anything could be done, and it can't. They will not replace the tires, even if we paid for it. First off, she was stubborn and somewhat rude about the situation and decided to argue with us that the tires were fantastic. Um... no. She also made very clear that if we didn't buy the car, someone else would due to the volume of sales this place gets. Then she LIED and said they would have no use for the Yokohama tires if they replaced them. They have a service department that stocks new tires in case someone needs a replacement from a blow out. They DO have a use for those tires.

Both Rob and I got so disgusted at dealing with Toyota that we decided not to head in tonight to make the deal. They just lost our business. But what to do about his new car...

He doesn't like the CRV because it looks (and drives) like a brick. We decided against the Subaru because the gas pedal is in an odd position and it's uncomfortable for Rob to drive. We checked into the Escape, but it's a lot smaller on the inside than the Rav4 and also doesn't have the best safety ratings. While frustrated (and complaining about the rudeness of Toyota - if they don't care if they get the sale then why should we give them our money) I mentioned that it was too bad that we couldn't use Jeff B. for the Toyota sale! He's the Lexus salesman that my Mom used for her Lexus and the same one I used for mine. He's super nice and will bend over backwards to get someone what they want. He also makes sure his customers are 100% satisfied. I think, in general, Lexus seems to treat it's customers better.

That comment got us to thinking. Why not a Lexus? Price. But they had to have lower priced models than my hybrid...

The non-hybrid RX is still out of our price range, but there is a sedan (that's only a few grand more than the Rav4) that has what we need on it. Rob doesn't care if he has an SUV or a sedan, hell, he'd keep the Camry if it didn't loose control in the winter. He wants something with all wheel drive, stability control, traction control, and that's safe. They have a sedan with all those qualifications. So, I gave Rob the card for Jeff B., told him to call him, and we'll go from there. We're thinking about heading over to the Lexus dealer tonight and seeing if there's anything in our price range that would work.

My Mom bought her car from Jeff and so did I. He gave us good deals. I'm sure he'd work with Rob to give him a good deal as well. We'll see what happens with this.

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