New car, old car, same car?

[yelnad]

Plus with the two rear seats (and a baby seat) in, theres not enough room for dogs. So I'd be taking the baby seat and the two rear seats out almost every day, and putting them back in almost every day

Haha! That is way too much work. When we have kids, they will be covered with dog hair just like we are.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Yeah, my wife has wanted a CR-V for a while, but with the price difference of less than $2K it makes it much hard to choose between the Pilot and CR-V.

I'd love to wait until some "used" 2006 Pilots hit the market, but I always wonder why people are selling a 2006 vehicle with 10K miles. Makes me worried it was a lemon or problem vehicle.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I have two words for you: Mini. Van.

I have several word pairs for you.

Same. Mileage.

Lower. Resale.

Lower. Reliability.

Costs. More.

Both the odyssey and sienna get roughly the same mileage, have lower resale, lower reliability records, lower owner satisfaction, and oh yeah, theres that whole "you're driving a minivan" thing.

What problem were we trying to solve here?

Bill - dont bother with 1-2 year old hondas and toyotas. The depreciation is so weak you're practically paying new sticker on them. Granted theres probably more room to deal, i'd rather not save a grand or two and buy someone elses mystery problem. Different with a lot of other cars, but these two brands are not super worthwhile to buy used unless you've got one with at least 3-4 years of depreciation, and even then you might be surprised what people get for them.

I'm still going to be surprised if I actually GET the car for this price though, its pretty stupendous. Almost 2k under dealer invoice. For reference purposes, 5 years ago I bought my wife the rav4 for $400 more than the pilot is going to cost...granted her rav has leather, a sunroof and pretty much every other option on it, but the pilots equipment level is pretty good too.

 

[brewer12345]

Both the odyssey and sienna get roughly the same mileage, have lower resale, lower reliability records, lower owner satisfaction, and oh yeah, theres that whole "you're driving a minivan" thing.

The Pilot gets 28 to the gallon on the highway? I sincerely doubt it. I think the reliability is a wash (not likely different). Owner satisfaction? Dunno about you, but I only care about one owner's satisfaction: mine. Resale, well, you got me there. I generally keep vehicles forever, so I couldn't care less. Other than that, I can't help you the psychological issues (you are what you drive).

You wanna buy the pilot. Just do it and stop agonizing over it. We'll help you decide on your next toy when you get tired of one of the three remaining cars.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

No, its unachievable EPA highway is only 24, but the odyssey is only 25. According to CR and Edmunds, the "real world" gas mileage is the same. Probably because they're built on the same chassis with the same drive train. And the odyssey is rated #1 in gas mileage among minivans sold today.

According to consumer reports reliability ratings, the pilots reliability records are substantially better than the odyssey and sienna. But not quite as good as the highlander, although you're splitting some rather fine numbers at that point.

How other people rate the car does carry a message for me. When 80-something% of people who buy a car say they'll buy it again, vs 50-60% for another model, that tells me a little something.

I'm also sorry to break to you that I'm not at all what I drive, unless you're suggesting that I'm trying to correlate myself with a fairly benign, milktoast sort of middle of the road japanese SUV :

Now if I wanted to buy an excursion or a hummer and drive it by myself to work and back for a two hour a day commute, you're welcome to crap on me. Bugging on me for this is pretty stupid.

But if it makes you feel better, I did consider something like the Scion xb. Aside from not being able to put the family and dogs into it for a day trip to Tahoe or the Bay Area, something we do often, I'd save about 5 gallons of gas a month.

Wow, thats worth turning up the Liberal over...

By the way, werent you the guy that took a job with a long commute a year or two ago?

You must really hate america.

 

[brewer12345]

Wow, those psychological problems of yours must go deeper than I originally thought.

Enjoy your new SUV.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Sounds like a lot of semantics.

 

[Nords]

I'd love to wait until some "used" 2006 Pilots hit the market, but I always wonder why people are selling a 2006 vehicle with 10K miles.  Makes me worried it was a lemon or problem vehicle. 

Could be, but it's more likely that it's a problem with the owner's credit rating or bank account.  Or a new addition to the family.

Whenever we make a Craigslist buy we're amazed at how excited some sellers are to see us show up with cash. I've even learned to pull a couple $20s out of my pocket, hesitate, and say "Can I talk with you a minute?" to my spouse... that alone is good for a 10% discount.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Could be, but it's more likely that it's a problem with the owner's credit rating or bank account.  Or a new addition to the family.

Whenever we make a Craigslist buy we're amazed at how excited some sellers are to see us show up with cash.  I've even learned to pull a couple $20s out of my pocket, hesitate, and say "Can I talk with you a minute?" to my spouse... that alone is good for a 10% discount.

Cash is king, and people are far more willing to give you a better price than if you give a check or use a credit card. The former requires taking the risk of the check bouncing and the hassle of cashing it at a bank (fees, etc...), while the latter charges a merchant 5-6% for the "privilege" of accepting the card. Besides, with cash there's usually no electronic paper trail for the IRS to follow.

 

[73ss454]

Cash is not king in the Car Biz. Dealers are looking for the financing. They make money on every deal that goes through a bank. They still make the same amount on the car so they don't really want cash deals.

 

[Nords]

Cash is not king in the Car Biz.  Dealers are looking for the financing.  They make money on every deal that goes through a bank.  They still make the same amount on the car so they don't  really want cash deals.

Screw the dealers.

I'm talking about a place where the real money can be made-- the private customers.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Cash is not king in the Car Biz.  Dealers are looking for the financing.  They make money on every deal that goes through a bank.  They still make the same amount on the car so they don't  really want cash deals.

I agree with you about cash and car dealers. In most other cases not involving financing, cash is a good idea.

 

[thefed]

I love these kinds of posts. You had our mind made up before you posted...jsut wanted someone to help you justify it


I do the same!

good luck!

 

[Bimmerbill]

Is that an AWD version of the Pilot, or 2wd for that price?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Bill - 2wd. Got it today. Just an LX, 2wd, no options. Even the base comes with power windows, locks, mirrors, ac, cruise, cd player, etc. I'll put some tire cords on it if we take it up to Tahoe rather than horse up another couple of grand and 1-2 mpg for the 4wd. If you go to the carsdirect web site, they'll give you the price on the 4wd without your giving any personal info.

Price was correct, $22,644, plus taxes, license and some ordinary DMV fees. Car was washed and full of gas when I got there, took about 45 minutes to get out the door. Paperwork was all ready to be signed.

And for the first time ever, I bought an extended warranty. 7 years, 85k miles for $745, bumper to bumper excepting wear items and maintenance. I can get all of that back if I change my mind within 60 days, and all but $25 of it back if I cancel before the 3 year regular warranty expires. Way cheaper than any other maintenance deals I've seen.

$25,299 out the door, with the warranty and sales tax included. Not bad.

Very smooth, very easy. Only problem was having to drive a couple of hundred miles round trip, but given that none of the local dealers were interested in coming near their price, well worth it. Apparently I'm not the nuttiest customer, cuz some guy drove down from Reno NV for a pilot. I'm guessing thats about a 10-12 hour round trip at best if you hit the traffic right.

Talked up the guy while I was there, he said he makes about $250-300 a car, mostly in advertising reimbursements and other miscellaneous kickbacks from the manufacturer. He and the other guy in the "internet/fleet" department move about 80 cars each a month, because they agree to the cut to the bone pricing, so they have a bit of a wide radius customer base.

Really funny/odd part...they bought the car from a dealer in Napa Valley, had a kid go pick it up and drive it down to the dealer I bought it at, which was in the San Fran east bay. Would have been shorter for me to drive to Napa myself and get it, but that dealer wouldnt sell it for that price. Neither would the one a mile and a half from my house, who had the identical car on the lot.

TheFed - yeah, you guys were just supposed to tell me to go for it, not fiddle with my rationalizations. Most of you got it right

 

[REWahoo]

~$100K in new car purchases this year...and it's only May! CFB, thanks for doing your part to keep the economy humming right along.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Come on...its only about 85k!

We kept the old ones a while, and so far according to my overstuffed driveway...we're still keeping them...

 

[rs0460a]

~$100K in new car purchases this year...and it's only May!  CFB, thanks for doing your part to keep the economy humming right along.

I'm sort of confused about CFB's "status".  Is he/she interested in E.R.?  Is he/she already F.I.?  Is he/she working/retired/other?

Just wondering, since it seems that he/she spends a lot of $$$, and a lot of time on this board!!!....

- Ron

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

it took a while for someone to mistake me for a lady, and I didnt even have an appropriate picture to cajole the error

I'm a boy, I quit working 5 years ago as a single ER with a pretty good size portfolio made from the tech stock mania and california real estate, got married a couple of years ago and we had a hurricane baby.

My wife still works a couple of days a week in the medical field ("I went to school for a hundred years to do this, i'm going to do it!").

We actually DONT spend a lot of money. We average keeping cars about 7 years. We live in a modest middle class home in a modest middle class neighborhood. We dont travel to exotic places, since we live near about 50 of them that are a days drive away. We dont wear fancy clothes, we dont eat out, and we dont have any expensive hobbies. Our spending is well under $50k a year at the high water mark. A couple of years ago our total spending was around $24-25k for a year.

The "big spending" on cars this year is pretty simple: we have two old cars that smell like dog and one is continuing the fine american car trend of breaking down. My wifes never had a REALLY nice car and she works her butt off, so she got a new Lexus, which believe me...we'll own a long time. My 16 month old will probably learn how to drive in it. He's already practicing...his favorite thing is sitting in my lap in the car, tooting the horn and pushing ALL the buttons.

We'll probably own the Pilot for a good 7-10 years.

So no more car purchasing threads from me for quite some time...

 

[Nords]

So no more car purchasing threads from me for quite some time...

Are you kidding? Your smiling mug is probably already posted on 8"x10" glossies all over the tri-state dealerships! I'm sure you'll be offered many more shopping opportunities over the coming months...

 

[laurence]

Cars are my one splurge item, too. I plan on keeping this house for life, or at least until I retire and down size.

If I had CFB's net worth, I'd own a Porsche yesterday. I'm all about enjoying the finer things in life, I just know it's foolish to spend money you don't have. I bought the nicest car I could without impacting my retirement goals and not have to do any real financing (paid it off already), a Volvo S60, which I hope lasts me until I'm around 40, then I plan on getting my Carrera Cabriolet. San Diego is the place to have a convertible!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I had a porsche. Never again. Every other month its a trip to the mechanic, and everything that costs $50 on a regular car costs $500. Bearing in mind this was about 20 years ago and adjusting for inflation, two thousand bucks for a pair of mufflers...five hundred bucks for a spring. And I got so many BS tickets while driving it (speeding 57 in a 55, speeding 58 in a 55, "improper starting/stopping/turning" twice, etc) that I finally gave it up.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Are you kidding? Your smiling mug is probably already posted on 8"x10" glossies all over the tri-state dealerships! I'm sure you'll be offered many more shopping opportunities over the coming months...

Maybe. We'll see. Until I get rid of at least one of these driveway blockers, i'm out of room.

I might hear from one of the honda dealers, although they're pretty late to the game at this point. I dropped the two nearer ones emails to their "internet/fleet" department with the price I got from carsdirect to see if they would consider coming close enough to match it that I'd forget about that long drive. Neither one responded with an email or a phone call. It MUST be a pretty good price if they wont even try to talk me up from it.

 

[John Tuttle]

I have a question for anyone who has recently bought a new car. We were at the dealer today to take care of some paper work. I told them we were paying cash. The salesperson gave me a credit form to fill out and I reminded him we were paying cash. He said he needed the form filled out so we put down our names and address and left the social security number blank. He said he need our social security number. I said I don't give it out. He said it was company policy. I said it was my policy not to give it out. Moreover, I told him, I didn't think he had a legal right to ask for it and I wanted to see the regulation that gave them the right to ask for it. At this point he asks if I want to see the manager.

The manager comes out and says that the Patriot Act requires it. That even if we came in with a bag of cash, they would need our social security number to run against a database to verify that we were who we said we were. At this point, having spent a half hour on this and knowing that my government is data mining my telephone records and reading my emails I said okay, and gave it to them.

After a little internet searching I think I was within my rights not to give it to them. I would like to hear from others on this.

 

[73ss454]

In NY state any cash transaction over 10K must be reported to the Gov. by the dealer.