First week review

[sim]

This may be a little late as a welcome, given i have posted on here since last week, but i thought i would wait a little to get the feel for my new Edge before posting about it.

 

My previous car was a Sentra, cheap, basic, good mileage, but after 106k in 5.5 years it was breaking down in all kinds of ways - window jams which we fixed, new radiator, new tires every 30k and alignments nearly annually, sensors being replaced, transmission on the way out, as well as the standard maintenance around this mileage. This was my first Japanese car and i can only say that my wife and i are never buying another Nissan. We do also have a Honda Accord, which we both enjoy though, so might continue with that until we have issues as well. My history is very much Ford based, probably because my grandfather used to build them in the UK and it just continued from there. My first car was a Fiesta, then two Escorts followed that before i moved to this side of the Atlantic and bought the Sentra. Quite happy to be back in the Ford. Other than the Accord and now the Edge, the best car i had was my 95 Escort. So we did the ueual, searched around, test drove nearly a dozen cars from Honda (CRV and Ridgeline), Toyota (Tacoma, RAV4, Highlander), VW (Passat Wagon), Subaru (Forester and Outback) as well as Ford (Escape, Freestyle and Edge). We got in touch with the 4 main dealers around here and tried to play them off each other, however it was tough to get one spec'd out quite as we wanted that was in inventory.

 

The dealer we bought from finally found one in Atlanta, in fact 3 that were almost identical to what we wanted and arranged for shipping on a transporter that a friend of his operates. The dealer offered us $2500 for the Sentra ($500 more for our trade than anyone else had appraised it for) which is a great price for that steaming pile, took $1k off the top in the offered price and we got a $500 college graduate bonus as my wife just got out of medical school. With taxes, trade in and these discounts we got our SEL+ AWD w/ audiophile, sirius, 18" chrome, roofrack and towing, in copper and charcoal (the only option we didnt get with this one we wanted was the rear cargo management system) for $32k, this is after taxes, compared with the $33.5k MSRP. We thought we had a steal - and we got the 1.9% financing which means only $1200 in interest IF we take all 48 months to pay it back. So the day arrived when we could swap keys and sign the last bits of paper, that morning driving into work i had a little issue with the Sentra.....

 

I got in to the Sentra, turned on the key, the check engine light was still on as it has been for quite some time (multiple mechanics can find nothing wrong given the code for the vacuum system), but added to that was the airbag light, indicating they need to be serviced. A little further down the road the brake light comes on - brake fluid is at a good level, so who knows what that issue was, and the battery light comes on - charging system up the creek, might need to change that alternator belt at a minimum. It was like a disco on my dashboard!!! I gingerly got into work and worried all day that it wouldnt make it to the dealership that evening. Come the evening, the battery had died, so my wife came over and we jumped the car, hightailed it over to the dealership, thankfully all lights but the check engine had gone off, so it was in the "same" condition as when i let them check it for the trade a few days earlier and i was quite happy to let them have the keys! I will gladly never have another Sentra or Nissan darken my door again.

 

We took the Edge out, drove around for work, shopping, on a quick road trip to south Florida and all in all this car is great. Its quiet, has power when needed, smooth gear changes, great sound on the stereo and so far i am beating the EPA numbers (actually with the AWD i am beating the FWD numbers) in town and on the highway. We fit more on the floor of the trunk than we could fit in the entire trunk of either sedan. There is a small downside i didnt recall in my test drives, the doors are a little tight, they could open a little further to allow easier access. What i did notice on the test drive was the manual lumbar pump and manual tilt adjustment rather than power, but thankfully my wife and i sit with approximately the same incline, so no real worries there. The memory seat/mirros are great as she is a little shorter than me. We use that feature a bit as she now likes to drive my Edge over her Accord. Although there isnt a huge selection on the Sirius, i have found plenty to fill the presets and can grab traffic every 4 minutes - less than the time it takes me to reach the highway from my office. I also found that a station i used to listen to in the UK also is on there, which is a nice touch of nostalgia - they even delay it by the time zones so the morning show is on at morning show times, etc. We are going camping this weekend, so between the two of us, the dog and my brother-in-law we should have it pretty well loaded, a little off-road action and plenty of gear - none of which we could really get together in the other two cars. So far its been great, i have yet to tow and am waiting for the roof crossbars on order - as well as a few other things to finish out the car, but performance, fit and functionality is all great for us so far.