New car.

[Jerry1]

My sister in law use to trade in her vehicles. I bought a couple off her for the price the dealer was going to give her. Those were good deals for me. I agree, you can sell it for more. Purely guessing, but I would think something closer to $1,500. A well maintained car for a high schooler to learn to drive should be worth that all day.

 

[pb4uski]

My old Ridge is pushing 200,000 miles . I keep looking and I cannot find anything I like ...

Why not a new Ridgeline? I actually like the new design much better than the old... a friend of mine has one and loves it.

 

[Another Reader]

I test drove a 2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid and a 2019 Camry Hybrid (new) yesterday. Both had incredible tork. Better than our 2002 V6 Camry. I was pleased. The 2020 Corolla came in with taxes to $23,826 with $600 trade. I think we'll sell our 1997 Camry ourselves ($600 too low for trade). I loved the Camry, Corolla not quite as comfortable. 2019 Camry came in with taxes and fees at $28,792.81 with $600 trade.

I drove the 2020 Corolla hybrid. It has a lot of good features, but it is very noisy at freeway speed and the radio is very tinny sounding. It's also the first year out, so there will likely be some issues and recalls. I would spend the extra and buy the Camry. The LE Camry gets almost as good mileage, it's quieter and more powerful, and the radio is better. The 2020 Camrys are available here now. You should get a substantial discount for buying a 2019 or wait two or three weeks and get a 2020.

 

[Jerry1]

go for the car we really want - 2020 Lexus, then we're done.

So why wouldn’t you just go directly to the Lexus? Do not pass go, do not collect $200, but it’s what you really want. How many more cars are you going to buy in life that are not what you really want?

 

[pb4uski]

....I would spend the extra and buy the Camry. The LE Camry gets almost as good mileage, it's quieter and more powerful, and the radio is better. The 2020 Camrys are available here now. You should get a substantial discount for buying a 2019 or wait two or three weeks and get a 2020.

+1 $5k less to the heirs but a more comfortable car that you can enjoy.

 

[FreeBear]

+1 $5k less to the heirs but a more comfortable car that you can enjoy.

+1

I’d go for the Camry. We spend lots of time in the car on road trips. The improvement in terms of overall comfort are well worth it.

 

[Rianne]

Thanks for responses. I checked on Carmax, 1997 Camry's with equivalent miles go from $1200-$1500 (ours 194,850 mi). One owner, no accidents and we saved all the oil changes and repair ppwk. A little OCD over 22 years.

I'm in for the Camry. I have to convince frugal DH it's worth the extra few grand. There are many differences. The lumbar support in Camry is one. My Lexus dream will live on, until SS and pension kicks in (3-4 years). By then, we should have Lexus Hybrids that drive themselves, stop for coffee and order food online.

 

[Teacher Terry]

There is a noticeable difference in comfort between our Corolla and our Honda Accord. We always take the Honda on trips for that reason.

 

[Wincherr]

Dealer may only put 3k on credit cards. I don’t bother with that for my last two cars.

That’s up to the dealer. Put $8k on the card on my last one. It’s part of the negotiation.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Just bought a new 2020 Red Hyundai Santa Fe. Had to unfreeze my credit with Equifax for a $10k loan that I will pay off in 91 days. It gave me a $1.5k savings to do that so I figure after any small amount of interest during that time I will be at least $1k ahead of the game. I also plan to charge the payments on my CC if possible. That should get me a lot of points for an airplane ticket somewhere.



The deal was good and I would have needed about $3k or more to correct the issues on my trade-in that was at most a $7k trade value.


Now I don't have to worry about repairs, new brakes, etc. for quite a while. The drive train is good for life. I tend to keep my cars a long time and only drive about 7 - 10k miles a year. I hope they are still in business when it comes time for a new engine or transmission.


For now it is all I can do to just drive the car without being distracted with all the electronic gizmos. Sensory overload to a person that has deficient technology genes.


Seems to be a nice car.



Cheers!

Hyundai only warrants them for 10years/100k miles so is the warranty through the dealer?

 

[zippy2020]

I liked my Fusion, but wouldn't recommend you buying a used OR new one since (1) they will stop making them after 2021, and (2) gas mileage sucks; even the hybrid doesn't do that well altho a lot better than the gas engine.

I liked my Hyundai Santa Fe much more - but it was an older model and underpowered. As it aged it just couldn't make up an incline even if you floored it. A trip down to Los Angeles to visit my family in 2015 sealed its doom. I thought I would going to die on a freeway entrance ramp that was even worse than the ones we drive on at home (uphill and short) - the LA one was steeper AND shorter!

Seeing a loaded semi bearing down on my rear bumper at 70 mph was.....um, kind of heart-stopping!

I spent the next 18 months researching and test-driving before buying our current SUV. I'm still not sure I'd take that particular freeway ramp again, however, next time I visit SoCA, LOL.

I don't like all the new "bells and whistles", but some of them I absolutely love - well worth the money. Give yourself some time to play with it; they can be pretty intimidating at the start.

 

[foxfirev5]

So why wouldn’t you just go directly to the Lexus? Do not pass go, do not collect $200, but it’s what you really want. How many more cars are you going to buy in life that are not what you really want?

A no brainer in my mind. Buy what you want and keep it. Our Lexus will be 15 years old next month. When we bought it I tried to explain to DW that it was over 5K more than the alternative. Her answer was simple - I want the Lexus.

The only downside is that there is no reason to replace it. I'd love to get a new GX SUV but the old gal is as good as new from a reliability perspective. We'll probably get 20 years out of it if we're lucky.

I can't say the same for my GM SUV.

 

[meleana]

We have a 2016 Sante Fe Sport we bought used at a Hyundai dealer. It was previously a rental car with Enterprise and also had a previous owner. We love it! We would buy one again in a heartbeat.

Enjoy the car.

 

[Buckeye]

My sister in law use to trade in her vehicles. I bought a couple off her for the price the dealer was going to give her. Those were good deals for me. I agree, you can sell it for more. Purely guessing, but I would think something closer to $1,500. A well maintained car for a high schooler to learn to drive should be worth that all day.

A cheap, reliable used car can be a godsend for someone trying to support a family and just getting by.

 

[DrRoy]

We have been very happy for 2 years with our 2018 CRV.

 

[Badger]

Hyundai only warrants them for 10years/100k miles so is the warranty through the dealer?

I still have the factory warranty but yes the lifetime is through the dealer.


With my driving nowdays I doubt I will ever get to 100k miles before 10 years.



Cheers!

 

[Rianne]

Last Tues. could not pass up:
New 2019 Hyundai Sonata SEL-heated seats, Appleplay, all the bells and whistles.

Have not bought a car in 17 years. This rolling computer is a little confusing.

5 yr. bumper to bumper warranty
They gave us $1400 for trade in, $4000 rebate, plus another $1000 if we financed for 3 months. Out the door taxes, fees...$22,400.
The trick is I can pay $21,000 for the first payment, then $900 the 2nd payment, then $500 3rd payment. Pay off in 3 months, was worth the extra $1000 off.
I had to unfreeze my TransUnion. Good luck to anyone trying to see my credit report. I forgot my pin, we planned to pay cash. Had to jump through major hoops + a 2nd verification call with hard questions. One question was "what is the maximum credit allowance on the CC you got in 2006?" It took 3 calls for me to find that, to the penny. They did not say which CC it was. I had to remember.

 

[pacergal]

Did you buy it new?

Yes we did.
We also bought 2015 Avalon limited new, as the 2016s were coming out. Dealer wanted to get rid of the 2015s to make room, Toyota offered 0% financing, so we took it.
Both of our previous cars were 10 and 15 years old, had >150,00 and 200,00 miles--so we splurged just before retiring!

Love both of them. Have only ever had 3 new cars in the past 40 years, usually buy quality used ones.

 

[Rianne]

Yes we did.
We also bought 2015 Avalon limited new, as the 2016s were coming out. Dealer wanted to get rid of the 2015s to make room, Toyota offered 0% financing, so we took it.
Both of our previous cars were 10 and 15 years old, had >150,00 and 200,00 miles--so we splurged just before retiring!

Love both of them. Have only ever had 3 new cars in the past 40 years, usually buy quality used ones.

You sound like us with old cars, but Hyandai is coming on strong. We struggled with walking out back to Camry. Were in the dealer for a couple of hours. Avalon is nice. Sigh.

 

[Oakster]

Congrats on new car. We're looking in a few directions:
-Toyota Camry Hybrid, 2019 (new) $27K - dealer but exact car and price on Carmax. I looked it up as we were negotiating

-Ford Fusion 2019 (new) with some rebates @18K-through dealer

-Used < 70K Lexus Hybrid varies in price-varies in year
We're in flux and can't decide what to do.
Edit: I'm including taxes and fees. I want bottom line cost. Our trade in is the 1997 Camry (200,000K miles $600?)

I would give the trade in to a kid or a single mom before I gave it to the dealership for that little amount. That may not be the case if it was a mechanical liability.