Why an SUV? The Decision Process

I never thought I would buy an SUV in my entire life. So, what got into me? Linda asked me my criteria and since it took me a lot of research and quite some time, I decided to share my decision process.

First of all I started looking for small cars on the market. The selling price is a factor but I concentrated on total cost of ownership in the long run. There are many variables affecting that, such as gas per mileage, yearly tax, routine service, cost of spare parts, cost of new tires.

In this country diesel is cheaper than regular gas so, the car needed to be a diesel. The yearly tax is based on the age of the car plus the engine size. I checked the tax table and decided that the car should have a maximum of 1600 cc engine. For Americans that is not even an engine I know, but the gas prices in this country are 3x what they pay.

Then I looked up service charges at 15,000-30,000-45,000-60,000 etc. kms. along with spare part costs. It was such an eye opener to see how small cars were not necessarily inexpensive. Tire costs vary due to size. (My new car is expensive in that respect.)

At that point I became skeptical about small cars especially in the gas/mileage department.

Then I decided that I need an automatic car. I can drive a stick shift but as I age, it is so much easier. At that point I realized that there are not many automatic small cars with diesel engines. Then mom said she hates to get in and out of cars because they are so damn low. She even brought a thick pillow to the VW Passat, my company car that I am driving. She sits on it. I do not think it works well because after all, it is a pillow.

Mom is 75 and is getting old. So, the travel we can do together is somewhat limited to perhaps the next 10 years, may be less. I want her to be comfortable.

This way,, I started looking at crossovers and SUVs. I do not need a 4x4 since they tend to consume more gas. However, all the available options were beyond my budget. I decided that I could buy a gently used, new-to-me car below 50,000 Kms.

After looking at used cars every night online for quiet a while, I found that Nissan Qashqai, Renault Kadjar, Jeep Renegade were possible options. I found a couple of cars that were worth looking at and sent the links to a friend of mine who is very knowledgeable and who has quite a network of technicians and car salesmen. He researched the cars and told me that the new Ford Kuga (Escape) has a better 1.5 TDCi PowerShift engine. Since Ford sells many cars in Turkey the spare part industry is pretty good and this engine is fairly new with pretty good gas/mileage. The routine services are very inexpensive compared to most cars.

This way, I added the Ford to my list and started following sales ads. That is how I made my decision.

Due to a change in tax law, since this car was a 2017, the yearly tax is lower than the same exact car that is a 2018. With about 6,250 miles, it is practically new. That was my bonus. It is the simplest version. For instance, it has parking sensors at the back, none in the front. It has a screen and bluetooth but, the screen is not a touch screen. However, all the standart features are pretty good and I will not miss anything.