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I'm starting to put some feelers out on buying a new car, perhaps some of you goons can help me out. I'm still between 2 months and a year from actually committing to anything. When I do go in, I'm going to have a relatively large down payment ($10000 or so) ready on it. Full story: I currently drive a '95 Toyota Camry that I've had for the last 9 years. I payed 2000 for it originally, it's got 160k miles on it now and at least until recently had been about as faithful of a car as I could hope for. Here recently though it's starting to hit some serious problems, I've spent about 1800 on it in the last year between replacing head gaskets and some other smaller miscellaneous problems, and I'm starting to think it's time to put the thing to bed. So I've been looking at potential candidates for buying a brand new car, as I can afford it and prefer the warranties available for a new vehicle. I'm looking to stay in the same size category as my Camry or A bit Smaller. I'm single with no kids so I don't need a van/suv to tow a ton of people around. I'm hoping to find something that gets great gas milage (think 36+ highway) but still feels sporty and responsive. I'm a taller guy (6ft 2in) so I would want something that I can fit in: My brother has a Toyota Yaris and I hate it because I can only barely get my legs underneath the wheel while my head is banging against the roof. The first vehicle I looked at was a Mazda 3. I really dug the aesthetics of it and felt like it was a good combination of fuel economy and good responsiveness and sporty handling. I got turned off by my local dealer being a colossal loving shark trying to get me in the building and signing papers before I even looked at the cars on the lot. Their financing was also total poo poo even what would be my large initial down payment. On a lark, I popped over to the Toyota and Ford Dealership and looked around. I sat down in a Prius and quite liked the feel and overall look of it. The one thing I'm not super hot about is from reading online, it's apparently kind of sluggish and uninteresting to drive. I like the Toyota dealership a lot better than the Mazda one, no pressure and the sales guy stuck around and answered questions even though he knew I wasn't looking to buy right now. I will say they get bonus points because their financing at least at the time was very good. For the prius 3, which is like $5000 more expensive than the Mazda I was looking at, I would actually pay like $130 less per month than the Mazda3 for a 60 month lease. Eventually down the line, I'm also going to be checking out a few others too. On my short list right now is a Ford Focus, A Chevy Cruze, A Hyundai Elantra, and a Subaru Impreza. The Impreza is one I really want to try out, because all wheel drive would be nice for the winter, but I don't have a local dealer and I'd get annoyed if I have to drive an hour and a half in order to get the thing warranty service. The Focus I'm kind of leery on because I'm not sure how well the fancy dash electronics/infotainment poo poo will hold up to time and temperature in the long haul. I fully realize these are all basically boring people cars, but there's got to some goons around that could help me out one way or another. In any case, best case I am able to hold out a full year and I get a cheap '13 year model when they start pushing out the '14s. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 25, 2012 |
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Sep 25, 2012 19:43
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Thats actually really good advise from all of you, I'll keep it in mind. The first thing that came to my mind when I was thinking of a new car was a Mazda 3 and I may stick with it, I'm just going to avoid the local Mazda dealership here and drive out to the one the next town over and hope the salesmen aren't as (at least obviously) predatory. That being said, I'm probably going to drive my old Camry for another year and just keep my eyes and ears open.
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Sep 26, 2012 02:40
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Agronox posted:Where do you live, roughly? I might be able to direct you to a pretty reasonable Mazda dealer. Hutchinson, Ks. I haven't been to the dealer in Wichita yet, but that's probably where I'll start. ^^^ Thanks for that, and yeah, I'd be getting a loan and buying a car.
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Sep 26, 2012 13:55
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Rock My Socks! posted:Don’t buy an automatic Focus or Fiesta; there have been tons of issues with Ford’s DCT transmissions. Can confirm. I have a 2013 focus that got caught up in the DCT transmission issue and it's been a nightmare. Because of the class action I had the warranty extended until this year, but I've still had to have the transmission go through basically a full service about every year and a half. This is the first year that the clutch is out of warranty and it's just a countdown until I have a $2000 repair. gently caress Focuses Speaking of: Proposed Budget: $25000 or less US New or Used: New Body Style: Small SUV / Crossover How will you be using the car?: Daily driver - Going to work and back as well as the occasional short to medium length road trips, with or without others (think 1-4 hours one way) What aspects are most important to you? Android Auto standard. Aside from that looking primarily at reliability and fuel economy So given the top of the post, I'm at the point where I've had enough of my Focus's bullshit and I'm looking to trade it in for something new. I don't mind sedans, but I'm also really tall and my back is not in great shape with a family history of back problems. A crossover would be easier for me to get into and out of especially if it's something I plan on driving over the next 10 years. I test drove a Honda HR-V and didn't like it, the base trim level is extremely bare bones, no Android Auto and limited safety features compared to the other base trims of it's competitors. Also Drove a new Honda Civic and didn't like it for the same reason. Drove a Corolla as a flat comparison to the focus and I wound up liking it - Base trim comes with android auto standard and the best compliment of safety features of the cars that I drove - If I wasn't looking for a bigger vehicle - this would probably have been the pick. We went and looked at a Jeep Compass, a local dealer had a 2020 standard package on reduced price to 17.8k. I typically hadn't heard great things about Jeeps of recent, but my mom has a Cherokee and she likes it pretty well. It's also got Android auto standard, but it has the worst fuel economy of the lot that I've looked at. This was the only one I haven't test drove yet. The last one I looked at yesterday was a Nissan Rogue Sport. I have a friend that drives one and she swears by it. Of the cars I test drove - this was straight up the smoothest one I was on and probably my favorite of the lot with my least favorite dealership. They ran high pressure sales tactics and were trying to get me to commit to a price before I even looked at the car until I started getting visibly and audibly pissed. It's bad enough that I'm looking at the neighboring cities Honda dealerships to see if I can get something from the next county over without some shithead trying to get me to commit to a price on the spot. Looked at a Mazda CX30 and was kind of unimpressed - no Android Auto on the base trim and they are sporty, but yet even their crossover seems kind of cramped for my lanky rear end. Also it had the lowest fuel economy of the lot. A Subaru Crosstrek is on my list to scope out, but the local dealership sells WAY above MSRP. The base trim MSRP according to Edmunds is $22.2k and the dealer prices them at almost 26k. Does anyone have any other suggestions to add to the pile while I'm doing test drives? Any experience with those smaller crossover SUVs? Right now it's looking like my shortlist between the Compass and the Rogue Sport if anyone has any wisdom on either of those. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Oct 6, 2020 |
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Oct 6, 2020 17:01
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