New car advice

[MCgrease08]

I know we're both Dave fans, but what do you drive?

I drink the Dave Kool Aid to a point. I kept my boat, kept my new vehicles and followed the principles...which have done VERY well for me.

The OP asked for advice on new car shopping, not financial advice. When it makes sense, a new car is the right choice. Seeing how long he keeps his vehicles, it's definitely the right choice.

Currently I drive a '97 Toyota 4Runner with 288,000 miles on it. It's actually my fun car that makes almost no financial sense because I bought it for cheap and poured way more cash into than makes sense because it's a toy and I have no debt other than a small mortgage which I just married into two weeks ago. My new wife has a 2016 Jeep Patriot that we paid off while we were on our honeymoon last week, along with what was left on her student loans.

I figure we'll have the house paid off in about 24-30 more months and have no payments of any kind.

The 4Runner is only my daily driver right now because I got T-boned in August and my 2013 Chevy Cruze got totalled out. I paid $4000 in cash for it at an estate sale in 2018 with 23,000 miles on it. That price included new tires and a new battery. When it got wrecked it was just shy of 100,000 miles and insurance paid out $9,000. Try getting that flip-flop in value with a new car.

I'm not trying to derail the thread. I waited until someone else suggested not buying a new car. Again, people are free to do what they want. The OP might completely ignore all of this, but that doesn't mean someone else might not reconsider a decision to buy new when there are lots of good used cars out there.

I'll be looking for one soon since I still need to replace my Cruze. Just trying to decide if I go with a $9-10,000 car and just spend the insurance money, or save up another 6-8 months and buy something nicer. We'll see.

 

[MCgrease08]

But that return rate will have a lot of catching up to do to get to that 10% average if you started in 2020.



.

Sure, that's why it's a 35 year time frame.

 

[JTKelly]

Not sure I follow. I mean, they call it "incentive pricing" for a reason... they want you to buy their car. When they offer a below-market rate with a shorter term, they are targeting a specific segment of the market, namely cash buyers. If you can afford the loan, you're better off taking it than paying cash. That frees up your cash for savings, investments, or paying down higher interest debt (cards, mortgage, etc).

Where people get in trouble is buying a $60k car they can only "afford" because they finance it for 84 months at 8.9%. In that case, I agree with you, don't do it!

People get in trouble buying a used Pinto and other people get a new Ferrari every year.

Which one do you think BORROWED the money to buy it?

 

[Route 45]

People get in trouble buying a used Pinto and other people get a new Ferrari every year.

Which one do you think BORROWED the money to buy it?

Some of us like to enjoy life and don't like **** boxes.

I don't mind borrowing at low interest rates. Depreciation is meaningless if I'm keeping the car for the long haul anyway.

He who dies with the most digits in his bank account still dies.

Keep ordering from the right side of the menu. There's more to life than penny pinching.

 

[armalitesheepdog]

Good stuff here. Who says insomnia is a bad thing.

 

[JTKelly]

Some of us like to enjoy life and don't like **** boxes.

I don't mind borrowing at low interest rates. Depreciation is meaningless if I'm keeping the car for the long haul anyway.

He who dies with the most digits in his bank account still dies.

Keep ordering from the right side of the menu. There's more to life than penny pinching.

If you can convince your self, no one else matters. Best of luck to ya.

 

[Flingarrows]

Lots of good info here.

I just traded my 07 ram 2500 with 196K on it. Rust was catching up, truck runs awesome

 

[DadSmith]

I've got 2 Hondas...15 & 21 years old....about 150K on each. We're due, but they're both still running so not in a pinch. Same with the maintenance & both garage kept. I'm just trying to get ready for the first replacement as it'll be near term, perhaps after a NWI winter.

Run them until the wheels fall off. Keep them in repair, buy used transmissions, engines, and other parts at a reputable junkyard.

You'll save money to put elsewhere.

If you just have to get a newer car buy a very good condition uses car.
Even rebuilt title cars will run a very long time.

Just an opinion of a frugal old man.

 

[KLB]

Thinking about a new car. I'm an original owner of my 2 cars now (bought new) and they've run as long as I take care of them. So I want to buy new or nearly new.

Once I find the car I want, any pointers on buying through a website vs. through the dealership. I heard the stories about how the dealership can jack up the price with add-ons. I know it's a pretty vague question, but been out of the game now for a while any recommendations / pointers would be appreciated.

I'll also recommend doing the negotiations online. I bought my car earlier this year without setting foot in the dealership until I signed the paperwork. If you live close enough to the dealer, they will probably even bring it to you.

Yes, they will try to sell you all kinds of stuff when you are signing. Just say no. I was clear up front that I wasn't buying anything he had to sell. The guy at that dealer was great. He said fine and went on with the paperwork.


It's always awesome when someone asks something on INGO and people give answers that don't answer the question. "Don't do what you want, do what I do".

 

[flightsimmer]

Run them until the wheels fall off. Keep them in repair, buy used transmissions, engines, and other parts at a reputable junkyard.

You'll save money to put elsewhere.

If you just have to get a newer car buy a very good condition uses car.
Even rebuilt title cars will run a very long time.

Just an opinion of a frugal old man.

This is what I've been doing for years.
BUT! I threw in the towel when my vehicle for which I really liked a lot had a rod bearing go out and at my age I am no longer able to switch engines.
So after a lot of research, I found a low mileage engine for $700 but it would cost to much to have it installed so I just junked it out for $200.00.

I hated to do it because other than the connecting rod and crankshaft the vehicle was in very good shape for its age.

 

[DadSmith]

This is what I've been doing for years.
BUT! I threw in the towel when my vehicle for which I really liked a lot had a rod bearing go out and at my age I am no longer able to switch engines.
So after a lot of research, I found a low mileage engine for $700 but it would cost to much to have it installed so I just junked it out for $200.00.

I hated to do it because other than the connecting rod and crankshaft the vehicle was in very good shape for its age.

Sometimes it happens.
I had an old Dodge Intrepid with that high performance V6 in it. It was nice but it's was overrated after owning a 1969 Dodge Dart GT with a 340 those V6's don't come near that power.
Anyway, it's engine went out, and it had a bad electrical problem I couldn't figure out, it was messing with break lights, turn signals, headlights, etc. All lights at different times would quite working for no reason I could find.
It hand hundreds of thousands of miles on it. So I did what you did.
I tried to sell the transmission because it was a low mileage one I had replaced a few years before, then I tried to give it away, but no one was interested in it. So it got junked. I told the man who picked it up about the transmission, hopefully he didn't junk it.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Good luck with the depreciation.

If you can find 0% financing (yes, hard now but those deals are slowly starting to come back) and drive them until they fall apart, its nothing to worry about.

You are only screwed if you are the new car every 3 years kind of person.

 

[J Galt]

I test drove at a Mazda stealership and bought though Carvana. Loved the experience. No games. No salesmen. You can return it without penalty within the first 30 days or something. Comes with a warranty as well.

I am looking at a Tesla very strongly. No dealership. Tax credit you can sign back to the Tesla shop for immediate savings. Better product than the Chinese cars. High safety rating. No oil change. Fuel cost appx $60 / month. Take a look at the owner reviews on Youtube and Rumble.

 

[jkaetz]

Having just purchased a vehicle in November I can say it was pretty painless. I believe the key is being educated. Know what car you want, what it should cost, and what credit options you have before talking to a dealership. Oh and always be prepared to walk away. We did get asked about gap, extended warranty, ppf, and ceramic coating but a quick no thank you was the only thing needed.

In our case we were looking for a very specific car and have been eying them for a couple years now. Partly waiting for finances to be right, partly to be informed when the time came, and partly to wait for them to depreciate. We were getting ready to try and see one in Atlanta when one popped up locally days before the Atlanta trip (2021 with 6950 miles). Called the dealer that day and they hadn't actually gotten it delivered yet. Once they had it, I drove it, the wife drove it, we bought it all in four days. We have super prime credit (~830+ for both of us) and we could still only get 8.44% for 75 months from the dealership through Huntington. I would have done it sooner but because everything happened so fast I hadn't fully investigated finance options and we bought on a weekend. I was able to refinance it at 6.25% for 60 months almost immediately through a credit union found via Nerdwallet.

Until this our youngest vehicle was 12 years old approaching 167k miles. We also added three children since the last time we bought a vehicle and were getting a little cramped on road trips.

 

[Route 45]

If you can convince your self, no one else matters. Best of luck to ya.

I don't need luck. I have the means.

 

[MCgrease08]

we could still only get 8.44% for 75 months from the dealership through Huntington. I would have done it sooner but because everything happened so fast I hadn't fully investigated finance options and we bought on a weekend. I was able to refinance it at 6.25% for 60 months almost immediately through a credit union

 

[MCgrease08]

I've been looking for a new (to me) car for a little while now. My last daily driver got totalled out in the summer when some ding dong ran a red light and smashed my driver side all to hell. Since then I've been driving a '97 Toyota 4Runner to get around, but it's a project car and has 289,000 miles on it. When I do commute to the office it's 110 miles round trip and the 4Runner averages about 15 mpg with 33" tires on it, so that wasn't a long term option.

I'd only been half-heartedly looking, mostly through an Auto Trader search every week or so to keep my finger on the pulse for prices. I'd primarily been keeping an eye open for used Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai models.

Monday I saw a 2020 Honda Civic with less than 30k miles at a price lower than I'd seen anywhere within a 100 mile range. And it still had some time left on the factory power train warranty. So I grabbed the wife and we swung by the dealership about an hour before closing. Sales guy comes out and I ask about it, and show him the price on Auto Trader. Told him I would be a motivated buyer at that price. He proceeded to tell me they had just bought it from their sister dealership next door and it had been delivered a few hours before. They hadn't even been able to go over it yet. It had come off a 3 year lease well under the 36,000 miles. The price on Auto Trader was what they had paid for it. Well that was a mistake on his part, because now I knew exactly what they had in it.

We did a quick test drive and then haggled a little bit. Fast forward an hour and I wrote a check for $1,500 more than what the dealer had just paid for it.

It was the only car we looked at, and the only one we test drove. The dealership made $1,500 for essentially doing nothing and I'm very happy with the purchase because I didn't have to eat the depreciation or spend any time thinking about financing.

The entire process took less than 90 minutes start to finish.

 

[Mij]

JMO
1 buy American
2 buy 2 yr lease vehicles
3 pay cash.

Best o luck.

 

[DCR]

Good point. I don't need to physical be there once I find what I'm going for. Could also start up a few thread and see where I land a few different places. Thanks, never really thought of doing a little dealer distance negotiation.

Buying cars is way different than it used to be. Last two cars I bought, sight unseen, over the phone, with a credit card. I had negotiated several cars with dealers via email prior to that. Most blew smoke up my ass, one guy got incredibly pissed, but I found out exactly how much to offer that way. The second car was in Florida and they bought my plane ticket to go down to get it.

 

[oze]

JMO
1 buy American
2 buy 2 yr lease vehicles
3 pay cash.

Best o luck.

I don't even know what "Buy American" means anymore. Certainly not what the badge on the hood says. A Honda might have more NA content than a similar Chevy. If you're serious, you can spend time on the interwebs, but even then, the best you'll get is percentage of North American content. And after listening to that UAW commie Shawn Fain for a coupla months, higher American content might be a negative for some.