Local bike store and CT?

[samson19551991]

I'm looking for a bike for my everyday school commuting use(hope it can stand snow and rains, and not much time on taking care of it), I checked a bike store called Sweet Pete, the staff is nice and there is one bike i really like, Trel, Earl:
http://www.sweetpetes.com/product/12trek-earl-130984-1.htm

but its 552 bucks plus the tax, I'm a student and don't know if I should spend such amount money on a bike(though I plan to ride through whole university years), plus I need to worry if the bike would get stolen, but it's hell a nice bike!

so I took a look of CT, CCM Excelsior 700C Hybrid Bike, 300 after tax, but since I heard a lot bad saying about CT's bike, now I don't know if I should get this one,
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/BikesAccessories/BikesHybrid/PRDOVR~0711376P/CCM+Excelsior+700C+Hybrid+Bike%2C+Mens.jsp?locale= en#BVQAWidgetID

any suggestion? really appreciate :)

[sgsmith]

You want to drop $550 on a bike that you're going to ride in the rain, snow, & salt and you admit will have little time to maintain......go for the cheapest bike possible. Your going to destroy the machine anyway and in those conditions, a reasonably nice Trek isn't going to last a whole lot longer than a CCM.

[wushudrew]

If you dont plan on spending the time/money to maintain a nice bike, dont get a nice bike. If youre going to be locking your bike outside, well.. dont get a nice bike.

[BornRuff]

Just get a used bike of Craigslist. You can easily get one for ~100. Then when you treat it like ****, you can buy 4 more before you have gotten close to the price of that first bike.