A new town and new job deserves a new Brandtmobile!
Ok, we weren't actually planning on getting a new car for at least a year, but we didn't really have a choice. Last summer I managed to find Brandt a new job, closer to our family and closer to Dr. Awesome. He was on the cusp of finishing his doctorate and the opportunity was too good to pass up!
Fast-forward to a month ago, when both of our (older model) cars suddenly had warning lights go off. Mine turned out to be a bad tank of gas that angered my recently-replaced catalytic converter, but Brandt's was the airbag. In a car with manual locks, no cruise control, and an increasingly-loud chronic shake, it was time for an upgrade.
I hadn't been car shopping in a decade, and it was not a pleasant experience. I don't think it ever is, is it? Being hearing impaired adds some complexity to the experience, though. I had no interest in dealing with car salesman, but talking with people on a noisy car lot was going to prove difficult.
Thankfully the experience was not as painful as I feared, but it was still tricky. I let Brandt do the talking, but I had to jump in to 'translate' fairly often. Standing outside next to the freeway, with the sun glaring in your face, wind whistling your hearing aids, trying to lip-read a salesman with a big bushy mustache...not the ideal situation.
The two main salesmen we dealt with were professional and understanding, and didn't pull that "my manager will kill me and my kids won't get dinner tonight, but I like ya so I'm gonna make you this special deal" crap. They repeated things and didn't get frustrated. But they didn't believe Brandt when he said, "Don't call me, I can't understand you on the phone and won't answer." No one ever thinks he's serious.
We quickly narrowed our choice down to a Toyota Camry (which I grew up driving) and a Honda Accord (the previous Brandtmobile). The Accord had two standard features that were awfully tempting for someone with hearing loss: a Rearview Camera, and Active Noise Cancellation.
Our new neighborhood has a LOT of kids who play and ride bikes in the street and in driveways, and I've been fairly concerned about either of us accidentally backing over an unsuspecting child. Brandt probably would not be able to hear someone scream behind the car, so I was very excited about this feature. And I think it's a great safety feature for anyone, not just people with hearing loss! The Active Noise Cancellation works like noise-cancelling headphones, and the Accord was definitely the quietest car we test-drove. Road noise, especially on the freeway, makes it much more difficult for Brandt to understand me, so any reduction in that noise is incredibly helpful to our communication.
Ultimately we had to go with the Accord. The Camry had an optional rearview camera, and their base model was cheaper, but getting these two features standard in the base model just could not be passed up. Hurray for a new earless-friendly Brandtmobile, with six airbags and awesome gas mileage to boot!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
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