We pulled the trigger today.
Test drove:
Cad SRX
Subaru Forester
Subaru Tribeca
Grand Cherokeee Laredo
Porsche Cayman (V6)
She picked the Grand Cherokee, and we came home with one from Carmax- 2011 Laredo 4x2, Pentastar, NAG-1 automatic, black leather interior, Silver exterior, aluminum 18" wheels, backup aid, heated seats... pretty much everything but Nav. 25k miles. But that may not be the end of story- Carmax offered to go ahead and transfer an almost identical 2013 (same colors, all same options PLUS nav and a couple of others, 17k miles. If we prefer it, we pay the price difference ($6k, about 1$ per mile difference plus 2 years newer). Unless it has some glaring issue, I think we'll do that deal when it gets here- its only coming down the road from Dallas. It'll be another round of signing paperwork, but hey. 2 model years newer, not that big a price difference... and most importantly its got the Pentastar with the revised cylinder heads. Taking the '11 home just made sure it wouldn't sell out from under us in the mean time. After buying my Challenger there last year and now this experience, I'm really sold on the Carmax business model.
She's a happy camper, I'm OK (would have preferred 4x4, but there were some gotchas for her on all the 4x4s). And even if we keep the Pentastar with the older head design, we got enough warranty to make it good.
And as some of y'all predicted on my thread asking about the SRX a week or so ago, it was the biggest disappointment of the lot. After Cadillac has come so far, putting the Cadillac badge on that platform is just criminal.
Best surprise of all was the Tribeca. I could easily see myself in one of those, but she didn't like the available color combinations, or the fact that it had a 3rd row instead of a full-size spare in the well.
Test drove:
Cad SRX
Subaru Forester
Subaru Tribeca
Grand Cherokeee Laredo
Porsche Cayman (V6)
She picked the Grand Cherokee, and we came home with one from Carmax- 2011 Laredo 4x2, Pentastar, NAG-1 automatic, black leather interior, Silver exterior, aluminum 18" wheels, backup aid, heated seats... pretty much everything but Nav. 25k miles. But that may not be the end of story- Carmax offered to go ahead and transfer an almost identical 2013 (same colors, all same options PLUS nav and a couple of others, 17k miles. If we prefer it, we pay the price difference ($6k, about 1$ per mile difference plus 2 years newer). Unless it has some glaring issue, I think we'll do that deal when it gets here- its only coming down the road from Dallas. It'll be another round of signing paperwork, but hey. 2 model years newer, not that big a price difference... and most importantly its got the Pentastar with the revised cylinder heads. Taking the '11 home just made sure it wouldn't sell out from under us in the mean time. After buying my Challenger there last year and now this experience, I'm really sold on the Carmax business model.
She's a happy camper, I'm OK (would have preferred 4x4, but there were some gotchas for her on all the 4x4s). And even if we keep the Pentastar with the older head design, we got enough warranty to make it good.
And as some of y'all predicted on my thread asking about the SRX a week or so ago, it was the biggest disappointment of the lot. After Cadillac has come so far, putting the Cadillac badge on that platform is just criminal.
Best surprise of all was the Tribeca. I could easily see myself in one of those, but she didn't like the available color combinations, or the fact that it had a 3rd row instead of a full-size spare in the well.