We bought a new car last week!

[Retiredmajor]

My wife and I will be 3 years retired in a few months. This is the first major purchase since retiring and I was curious how it would go reporting income. It couldn't have been any smoother. I just reported our monthly income and all was well. We have a great credit score, which helps.



We bought a 2020 Toyota Camry XLE Hybrid. This is our first hybrid and thus far I'm very impressed. Mileage is in the range of 45 mpg. It's very comfortable, roomy and quiet. They had 0% interest for 60 months, so THAT was a no-brainer!



Anyway.....just sharing! Have a great day! Major

 

[Llep]

Congratulations. I bought a gently used car earlier this year for cash so I didn’t have to show anybody any income. When you say you showed income was that from verifiable sources? Did they verify? The reason I ask is all of my income is investment income. I monthly have a fixed amount sent from my investment account to my checking account and I call that my “income”. My apartment landlord had no problem with it but I always wondered if I could use that for a car loan.

 

[pacergal]

Congratulations!
We bought a 2016 Camry XLE hybrid just prior to retirement. Love it!
I am sure you will, too.

 

[gerntz]

Driving 7K/yr & $2 gas, the cost of a hybrid will never payout, impressive or not.

 

[Koolau]

Enjoy your new purchase! I think it would be fun to own a hybrid. I can imagine trying to tweak the last mpg possible out of it. I'd be watching the dials and gages, trying to figure the best driving style to get maybe 50 or even 60 mpg out of it. Even on my 2012 (not hybrid) I watch the "instantaneous" and "average" mileage gage and try to improve my "style." I get 25 mpg on my SUV - virtually all "city."

Having said that. I JUST filled up the tank (of ONE of our 2 cars.) Last time for both was in late February or early March. Tank got down to half, so I figured I'd better fillerup. I don't think I could justify buying a new car at this point in my life - even when Covid 19 is in the rear view mirror. BUT, if I DID buy a new car, I think I'd get a C8 Corvette! How's that for a non sequitur? YMMV (literally!)

 

[travelover]

I think you'll enjoy that car. Camrys are nice anyway and the hybrid gets amazing fuel economy. I had an Escape hybrid for ten years and really like the hybrid aspect, though I worried, needlessly it turned out, about it breaking down and not being able to get it fixed in Nowhere USA. Let us know how you like it after a year or so.

 

[frayne]

Congrats, Toyotas are bullet proof.

 

[aaronc879]

I really like the Toyota vehicles except for one major problem. The center console is too wide and my very long legs don't have enough room to safely fit in the Camry. Looking at pictures I assume I also will not be able to fit in the Rav4 Prime which is the vehicle I would like to buy over the Camry since I live in snow country. I know the Camry hybrid is a great car(if you can fit in it) and you should enjoy it for many years. Good luck

 

[11522914]

Congratulations. I've owned Toyotas for the last 25 years and been very satisfied with their reliability - which is very important to me.

They keep going on forever with minimal expenses.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

What did you think of the plain LE model?

 

[Bamaman]

Toyota's built over 1.5 million hybrids, and they have them down pat.

I have a 3 year old (2018) model Camry Hybrid LE with the lithium batteries. At 62K miles, it's never seen the shop. I do my own maintenance--just oil changes.

It's got plenty of power, is very quiet and smooth. And my car cost substantially less than the average car sold. My fuel mileage right now averages about 46 mpg with 1/2 city & 1/2 highway driving.

Other than a cost premium, the Camry Hybrid has no con's as far as I'm concerned. They're using the new generation engine/motor combo in many different models now.

 

[Retiredmajor]

Driving 7K/yr & $2 gas, the cost of a hybrid will never payout, impressive or not.

Ya think $2 gas will be around forever? Good luck with that! Driving cheap wasn't my goal......driving efficiently was.

 

[travelover]

Ya think $2 gas will be around forever? Good luck with that! Driving cheap wasn't my goal......driving efficiently was.

Hybrids have no obligation to "pay for themselves". If you like it and it gives you joy, go for it!

 

[Retiredmajor]

Hybrids have no obligation to "pay for themselves". If you like it and it gives you joy, go for it!

Yep, to some people everything's about money, to me it's about pleasure and discovery. The one lesson I apply every day is "life's short"! Major

 

[RobLJ]

If we get rid of the Silverado 4x4 (which we use for the off/rough roads for hiking), the new RAV4 plug-in hybrid really looks attractive. To get to the Cloud Dome trail (wilderness in Eastern Nevada), I basically had to crawl the Silverado through a crater to get to the trail head and almost scraped the back bumper coming out of the crater. But that's one incident in the last year I've really had to use the low-gear 4 wheel drive on the Silverado. Usually, I just use the auto mode that switches between 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive.

We have solar and a Bolt, so we're paying nothing for that part of the transportation (we use the Bolt about 60% of driving and the Silverado the other 40%), if you ignore the up-front costs. I do have to take the Bolt in to the dealer at 12k so they can check the fluid levels, which is a bummer. The panels will take another 6-7 years to pay off; the Bolt will take about 5-6 years; it looks like COVID has decreased our driving about 2-3 thousand miles/year, so it might take 7 years for the Bolt to pay for itself.

 

[rk911]

Congrats, Toyotas are bullet proof.

Not my buddy's experience. everybody builds problem cars.

 

[wrigley]

Enjoy your new purchase! I think it would be fun to own a hybrid. I can imagine trying to tweak the last mpg possible out of it. I'd be watching the dials and gages, trying to figure the best driving style to get maybe 50 or even 60 mpg out of it. Even on my 2012 (not hybrid) I watch the "instantaneous" and "average" mileage gage and try to improve my "style." I get 25 mpg on my SUV - virtually all "city."

Having said that. I JUST filled up the tank (of ONE of our 2 cars.) Last time for both was in late February or early March. Tank got down to half, so I figured I'd better fillerup. I don't think I could justify buying a new car at this point in my life - even when Covid 19 is in the rear view mirror. BUT, if I DID buy a new car, I think I'd get a C8 Corvette! How's that for a non sequitur? YMMV (literally!)

That's a long time to leave gas just sitting idle in your tank. Might want to consider adding a "fuel stabilizer" in the future.


Mike

 

[MRG]

Enjoy the ride.

 

[bizlady]

My wife and I will be 3 years retired in a few months. This is the first major purchase since retiring and I was curious how it would go reporting income. It couldn't have been any smoother. I just reported our monthly income and all was well. We have a great credit score, which helps.



We bought a 2020 Toyota Camry XLE Hybrid. This is our first hybrid and thus far I'm very impressed. Mileage is in the range of 45 mpg. It's very comfortable, roomy and quiet. They had 0% interest for 60 months, so THAT was a no-brainer!



Anyway.....just sharing! Have a great day! Major

I have been curious about this also. Did they verify income, or just run a credit check? I have been hesitant to give anyone our income and so we have always just paid cash. But with the 0% rates now... have to consider since DH will buy a new truck next year.

 

[gerntz]

Ya think $2 gas will be around forever? Good luck with that! Driving cheap wasn't my goal......driving efficiently was.

Unless some group decides to raise gas taxes a lot, yes I do think gas price will stay low. Folks like you driving hybrids & more electric cars & more working from home should keep gasoline demand & thus prices in that range for the foreseeable future.

Not sure what you mean by driving efficiently. Fuel costs/mileage, or total cost/mile driven? In my case, keeping vehicle investment down is the best overall cost efficiency. My car lease will be up in 6 months & I'm switching to a $!5K lower cost vehicle.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Driving 7K/yr & $2 gas, the cost of a hybrid will never payout, impressive or not.

 

[pj.mask]

I think the efficient comment (at least how I feel about it) is we should always try to use less resources and not waste things.

If I can get more MPG from a car, I should try to do that. I would like to keep as much resources for future generations. Although I know many in my generation will see less demand as an opportunity to waste more at cheap prices.

 

[Koolau]

That's a long time to leave gas just sitting idle in your tank. Might want to consider adding a "fuel stabilizer" in the future.


Mike

Good idea. I just never went almost 6 months between fill ups before. I used to stabilize gas I stored in the yard barn (back in the day) as well as in the mowers, etc. Just never thought about it for the car. Thanks!

 

[Retiredmajor]

I have been curious about this also. Did they verify income, or just run a credit check? I have been hesitant to give anyone our income and so we have always just paid cash. But with the 0% rates now... have to consider since DH will buy a new truck next year.

No, they didn't verify our income. We just filled out the form and they ran a credit check. Easy Peasy!

 

[ikonomore]

Since multiple people are saying they will get a Toyota RAV Prime you should know that's probably not happening this year. Toyota is only bringing 5k of them here for the entire model year. There are waiting lists and dealers advertising them for many thousands over MSRP.