Car shopping

Visited several car showrooms yesterday. To go straight to the end, our conclusion is still the car we are driving now - the 2009 Honda Accord is best. We checked out the Toyota Camry with high expectations given the solid reviews it has received but feel that the accolades should have gone to its predecessor. This new model is very cramped at the back seats and the children didn't like it.

We were roundly impressed with the tiny Honda Jazz. It is a marvel in engineering and design but feeling it is not adequate on the safety aspect, we decide to pass.

Cars here are a world cheaper than back home. An entry level Accord will only set you back 83K AED or about S$33K. We can well afford to pay cash for it. Even back home we have always not taken a car loan unless it costs more to pay in cash. Yes, this is a stranger and stranger world isn't it? Your finance and economics texts would tell you that you always pay more taking on a loan. I can't go into the details here, but the concept is quite simple. In an integrating world, and don't we already try to teach our kids in school to think integratively across disciplines, there are full of surprises. That is why the financial markets have also become so confusing. The economics we have been taught were never sufficiently integrated with other disciplines to mentally prepare us for market surprises.

Back to car shopping. The Toyota showrooms while not crowded were receiving enough visitors to keep many of their sales executives occupied. Looks like the biggest wave of the financial tsunami is still on the way. We kicked the tires of many models - I mean it only figuratively before a sales person approached us.

At the Nissan showroom, the salesman lost interest and literally disappeared when he found out where were from. It didn't matter actually. He didn't know we will pay cash. Too bad. Perhaps most Nissan buyers take out car loans.

As to why we are not keen on SUVs, well for the same reasons Freakonomics repeatedly explains why people always do not make the best choices.