Car shopping

With baby on the way, I’ve been shopping around for something to replace the S2000. There’s nothing wrong with it, but Tracy can’t drive it and it’d be nice to have two cars that can carry baby and some cargo. I have a lifelong preference for Japanese cars. As a sort of a libertarian, I’ve never felt that I should buy inferior products just to support American businesses. Isn’t capitalism and America all about having competition and letting the market decide the winner? It’s like an act of patriotism buying a foreign car, I’m showing my faith in capitalism.

But back to car shopping… These days, I think the quality gap between American and Japanese cars has shrunk significantly, to the point where they are almost equal, but old habits die hard, so I’m not really looking at any American cars. The current problem is that I’m investigating a large number of cars. I haven’t even decided on a class. It could be a sedan, wagon, SUV. But I want something that will hold a stroller and baby seats, and of course safety is important. So among the cars I’m looking at are: Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon, Toyota Highlander(preferably the hybrid, but that might be too expensive), Audi A4 wagon, Lexus IS300 Sportcross wagon and RX330 SUV, and those are just the ones high on my list. I’d also consider other both minivans(like the Honda Odyssey or Nissan Quest) and sedans as well. Too many choices really, it’s a dilemma, but a fun one as dilemmas go.