Car Advice: sell, trade, or stay the course? (1 Viewer)

[RetroMcBananaFace]

I guess I should have been more specific. Too small for my family. My son is still in a rear facing car seat.

That's surprising to me, I have a Nissan Versa and my youngest is rear facing and there's plenty of room. He's even behind the driver's seat and I don't have to push it up at all. I would've guessed the backseat of the Prius to be bigger, it looks like a much bigger car than mine.

 

[mc4saints]

I might have an oversized car seat... Who knows?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

[Rickboy]

Buy a Porsche Cayenne. I highly recommend it.

 

[baarbogast]

If you get new ones, won't you be in the same situation in a couple of years? Is your mileage going to go down? I always drove them til they died. Car payments and high insurance are not fun.

 

[livefromDC]

Nah, I would definitely only replace one if we go that route. I'm worried they may both meet their end around the same time again.

 

[mt15]

If you don't mind driving a smaller vehicle, then it makes sense to get rid of your car. You may even go to a smaller payment, depending on if you'd be open to a low mileage used car. We bought many used cars when we still had kids at home to save money. We have only gone back to buying new now that they are no longer on the dole.

 

[bclemms]

The only thing about a Prius (or any hybrid) is if you're going to keep it long-term, you are going to have to replace the battery at some point, and that is going to be mega-expensive. Batteries are supposed to have a lifetime of about 10 years/150K miles.

Not true, very few people have ever replace the battery, the Gen II and beyond Prius are running less than 1% failure rate AFTER the 150k mile warranty.

I owned a Prius, loved it. Ran it hard and when someone ran a stop sign and hit me I was between a 2016 Prius and a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek.

Prius is a whole lot bigger than you think. It's also got better performance specs than you think, particulary the 2016 so it's not a bad drive at all.

If you want to buy something that holds it's value, is very reliable, is cheap to insure, gets good gas mileage, super safe and known to live a long time get a Subaru.

I respect that you want to buy American, only problem is American manufactures take advantage and know a large percent of consumers want to buy American and produce a bunch of crap, particularly in the small SUV and car market. They inflate the sticker price, try to keep you upside down so you continue to have to buy American cars in which they can absorb some of your upside down in the loan with the massively inflated sticker price. It's unfortunate but American cars are crap.

Stick with Honda, Toyota or Subaru and you will get ahead of the loan and end up with a car that still has value when the loan is over. Then you can drive it and save with no note or sell it and use the money as a down payment on your next car.

If you don't mind a lack of power the Subaru Crosstrek combines 34mpg in a crossover with AWD, 10" ground clearance and the reliability of a Subi for about $25k and it holds value. IMO it's the most well rounded vehicle made in regards to value and versatility.

If you want more power or size then you could go to the Subaru Outback, it's a bigger version with more power but fuel efficiency is still good at about 25mph.

If you are looking a full size car it's hard to beat an Accord or Camry.

Also, accessories are not your friend. You can get far better aftermarket items for about a third the price. I get my cars about as basic as you can get, it's the best value.

Finally, shop around. I usually save about $1500-$2000 off the exact same car I look at for the first time locally. I send mass emails out to dealers in a 250 mile radius, tell them it's a throw away email account, get approved for financing prior to buying, don't give them my phone number and then tell them the car I want and they have one chance with a price. You'll be surprised how well that works. Once you get the lowest price then see if their financing is cheaper.

If you are looking at American cars, then you can get $7k-$10k off if you buy at the right time which helps offset some of the cost from driving it off the lot with loss in resale value.

 

[B-Rich]

Stop buying GM vehicles unless you plan to keep them forever, because the resale value is crap, and even more so since you seem to put a lot of miles on cars.

THIS.

Your quote, "...the Terrain has 108,000 miles. The Terrain also just had the transmission rebuilt and will need a new AC compressor soon." should tell you everything you need to know about buying a GM car. Most cars today are (as they should be) MUCH MORE DURABLE than that. I've had other cars WAY beyond that kind of mileage and never had those kind of problems.

 

[Swampy Saint]

Not true, very few people have ever replace the battery, the Gen II and beyond Prius are running less than 1% failure rate AFTER the 150k mile warranty.

I owned a Prius, loved it. Ran it hard and when someone ran a stop sign and hit me I was between a 2016 Prius and a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek.

Prius is a whole lot bigger than you think. It's also got better performance specs than you think, particulary the 2016 so it's not a bad drive at all.

If you want to buy something that holds it's value, is very reliable, is cheap to insure, gets good gas mileage, super safe and known to live a long time get a Subaru.

I respect that you want to buy American, only problem is American manufactures take advantage and know a large percent of consumers want to buy American and produce a bunch of crap, particularly in the small SUV and car market. They inflate the sticker price, try to keep you upside down so you continue to have to buy American cars in which they can absorb some of your upside down in the loan with the massively inflated sticker price. It's unfortunate but American cars are crap.

Stick with Honda, Toyota or Subaru and you will get ahead of the loan and end up with a car that still has value when the loan is over. Then you can drive it and save with no note or sell it and use the money as a down payment on your next car.

If you don't mind a lack of power the Subaru Crosstrek combines 34mpg in a crossover with AWD, 10" ground clearance and the reliability of a Subi for about $25k and it holds value. IMO it's the most well rounded vehicle made in regards to value and versatility.

If you want more power or size then you could go to the Subaru Outback, it's a bigger version with more power but fuel efficiency is still good at about 25mph.

If you are looking a full size car it's hard to beat an Accord or Camry.

Also, accessories are not your friend. You can get far better aftermarket items for about a third the price. I get my cars about as basic as you can get, it's the best value.

Finally, shop around. I usually save about $1500-$2000 off the exact same car I look at for the first time locally. I send mass emails out to dealers in a 250 mile radius, tell them it's a throw away email account, get approved for financing prior to buying, don't give them my phone number and then tell them the car I want and they have one chance with a price. You'll be surprised how well that works. Once you get the lowest price then see if their financing is cheaper.

If you are looking at American cars, then you can get $7k-$10k off if you buy at the right time which helps offset some of the cost from driving it off the lot with loss in resale value.

Excellent advice.

I would print this and use it as a checklist.

 

[whodat79]

I am going look at the Ford Explorers for my wife. My company has the X plan through Ford. Is the X plan worth it and give good incentives for new vehicle purchases?

 

[bclemms]

I am going look at the Ford Explorers for my wife. My company has the X plan through Ford. Is the X plan worth it and give good incentives for new vehicle purchases?

You can actually get much better pricing than the x-plan discount if you shop around.

 

[livefromDC]

Ok, thanks for all the advice. If we do trade or sell one of the cars, it's going to be the GMC.

I'm going to look into the Prius and Subarus. As you can see by the mileage, we dry a ton especially since we go back to New Orleans fairly often now. I'm not a tall guy, but I need leg room.

Thanks for the continued advice.