On 9/24/2015 8:38 AM, leza wang wrote:
Sorry for off topic -------------------

Ohmigosh! ;-)

A friend of mine who is a senior citizen and want to buy a new car to
replace her standard old car. She is very good driver with very clean
driving history. Her current car is Volkswagen golf. She is thinking of
buying a new Volkswagen golf but automatic of course (easier to drive). Do
you have any other recommendation on which car (brand name) she should
consider. Too many options and technologies are not really required, just
basic stuff but most be automatic.

I would look at this differently. Instead of looking for a make/model,
identify her *needs* -- both now and in the foreseeable future.

SWMBO wanted a new vehicle (didn't *need* one). Her ORIGINAL short list
of required features (before she had seen anything in a dealership):
- up high (instead of "down low", surrounded by big trucks, etc.
This has a big impact on visibility.
- good visibility; not just being up high enough to see things but also
not having to bob-and-weave to see around various pillars in the
front and rear portion of the vehicle
- lift *onto* instead of *into*/outof rear storage area; easier to lift
something to a particular height and slide it into a wagon, SUV, etc.
than it is to lift it up *over* the lip of the trunk and set it down
*into* the well. (She does this almost daily with her hobby.)
- respectable gas mileage; she doesn't drive much but also isn't keen
on throwing money out the tailpipe!
- driver's seat that goes up and down (even if only manually); this
seems to be something women favor, another visibility issue?
- "substantial"; don't want a piece of tin that will get bounced across
the roadway whenever it is struck by another vehicle (e.g., SmartCar)
- reasonably small (despite other criteria suggesting big!); she
didn't want to drive a big truck, etc.
- easy to get in/out; not having to FALL into the car nor *climb* out of it
- low maintenance costs

After looking at what's available in 2015/16 (vs the last time she purchased
a vehicle), she decided to augment her list:
- power liftgate (because the *onto* storage requirement pushes you
towards a storage area that has a larger "door")
- blind spot monitors (to improve visibility of "road sheep")
- (rear) cross traffic alert (so she doesn't have to twist her neck
to look over her shoulder when backing out of parking spaces)
- rear camera (again, cut down on turning her head -- it seems that as
folks get older, this gets to be more of an issue)

The downside of many of these "requirements" is that you end up
dragging in all sorts of unnecessary prerequisites -- things that
the car manufacturer insists you have in order to get the features
that you *want*. :

Good luck in your search. Don't rush it. Dealers will always be
pushing you to "buy today" -- tomorrow is usually just as good!