Author Topic: Car-buying  (Read 2215 times)

sockfight

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Car-buying
« on: January 05, 2020, 07:44:51 PM »
My wife and I are moving to Austin, TX in March and will need to buy a car. We're moving from overseas, which means we are definitely selling our current car and starting from scratch.

I reckon we drive about 10K miles a year, more city than highway. If money were no matter, I'd get a Tesla (or at least some kind of all-electric car), but obviously money is important, and I'd like to make a Mustachian decision. I want a sedan or hatchback, would love to have a hybrid or electric car, and my wish list includes a backup camera and Apple CarPlay, but I'm open to being steered towards the most sensible decision. I generally don't care much about cars beyond comfort and practicality.

I'm honestly not sure how to proceed. How many years back to look, which models to consider, and even whether a new car should be among the possible choices. I've perused used-by-owner listings on OfferUp and Craigslist, where I have generally observed that 3-5 year old cars seem to be about $10K and 10-15 year old cars seem to be about $5K. But I haven't seen much as far as models that have grabbed my attention. I've even toyed with the idea of whether a new car is justifiable (e.g. a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV, which is about $25K but because it's part-electric comes with a $4.5K tax credit and a $2.5K state credit, plus a five-year warranty).

I realize this is a very broad question, but if anyone has any advice on how to approach this, I'd appreciate it.

chasesfish

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2020, 04:59:58 AM »
Personally...given your needs, price point, and potential urgency for a vehicle, I'd go to the car rental company's sales page and buy a Hyundai Elantra or similar off a rental fleet.  It'll run between $13,000 and $14,000, has all the technology/safety, some level of warranty, and gets 40+mpg, which is hybrid style mileage without the battery.

At the pace you're driving, it'll depreciate around $2,000/year.  If/when you find the perfect car and fully understand your situation, sell the Elantra and get what you want.  Electric also gets better every year - efficiency, batteries, charging stations.  Its okay to delay adopting this for a bit longer and not trying to make such a big decision until you're settled in with everything else in your new home
« Last Edit: January 06, 2020, 05:07:45 AM by chasesfish »

RWD

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2020, 07:29:22 AM »
You can get a 2015 Prius for under $10k. 50/46 mpg (or 53/46 mpg for the Prius c). Extremely reliable. 21.6 cu ft of cargo space. If you don't care about boring it'll be hard to beat that for cost of ownership.

frugaliknowit

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2020, 08:56:50 AM »
You can get a 2015 Prius for under $10k. 50/46 mpg (or 53/46 mpg for the Prius c). Extremely reliable. 21.6 cu ft of cargo space. If you don't care about boring it'll be hard to beat that for cost of ownership.

+1

researcher1

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2020, 11:55:22 AM »
I've even toyed with the idea of whether a new car is justifiable (e.g. a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV, which is about $25K but because it's part-electric comes with a $4.5K tax credit and a $2.5K state credit, plus a five-year warranty).

Assuming you are in good shape financially, I would buy new.
Get a modestly priced new vehicle and drive it for 15 years/150K miles.

You can buy a new Honda/Toyota/Nissan/Hyundai for well under $20K, which will cost very little to maintain during your ownership period.
Then sell it private party after 15 years and recoup a good chuck of that purchase price (I just sold a 14 year old Honda with 180K miles for $4500).

This allows you to have a brand new car with no use/abuse, unknown maintenance/accident history, ect.

sockfight

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2020, 12:23:56 PM »
Thank you for the replies so far. Definitely a range of ideas: Used Prius, ex-rental car, new car. It's a fair point about being under a sense of urgency to get a car and it possibly being worth putting off getting 'just the right car'. On the other hand, I'd like to avoid buying a car and then selling it a couple of years later.

@RWD / @frugaliknowit Would you specifically recommend a 2015 Prius? Craigslist and similar sites are full of Priuses, but most are 2007 - 2012. It's hard to know where the line is where they stop being a good deal, or if some years are to be avoided.

Also, I suspect there's definitely a little bit of emotional attachment to the idea of a hybrid or electric car. With mostly city driving, those cars get better MPG, but if I did the math on fuel costs vs. purchase price, I wonder if it's justifiable...

Dave1442397

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2020, 01:02:43 PM »
I wouldn't normally suggest leasing, but if you're new to the country and not sure what to get, you might want to look into cheap leases.

Here's one from Hyundai that seems like a pretty good deal. It expires today, but something similar will probably pop up again soon.

Lease: $79 Per Month For 36 Months. $999 Due At Signing For Select 2019 Hyundai Ioniq EV Electric
Manufacturer Offers
$79 per month for 36 months
$999 cash due at signing
Offer only valid 11/02/2019 through 1/06/2020

chasesfish

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2020, 01:15:39 PM »
I've even toyed with the idea of whether a new car is justifiable (e.g. a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV, which is about $25K but because it's part-electric comes with a $4.5K tax credit and a $2.5K state credit, plus a five-year warranty).

Assuming you are in good shape financially, I would buy new.
Get a modestly priced new vehicle and drive it for 15 years/150K miles.

You can buy a new Honda/Toyota/Nissan/Hyundai for well under $20K, which will cost very little to maintain during your ownership period.
Then sell it private party after 15 years and recoup a good chuck of that purchase price (I just sold a 14 year old Honda with 180K miles for $4500).

This allows you to have a brand new car with no use/abuse, unknown maintenance/accident history, ect.

This is also a perfectly viable option.

At 225k on my Honda, purchased new.  Had a slug of repairs at 150k and its hummed along for the last 75k without issue.

RWD

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2020, 01:25:10 PM »
@RWD / @frugaliknowit Would you specifically recommend a 2015 Prius? Craigslist and similar sites are full of Priuses, but most are 2007 - 2012. It's hard to know where the line is where they stop being a good deal, or if some years are to be avoided.
Yes, I think it's a good option. If you can't find a 2015 for a reasonable price and are willing to go older then that's fine too. Looking at Dashboard Light and CarComplaints you'll probably be best served by a 2009 or 2011+ (2010 apparently has oil burning problems).

Prius fuel economy by model years:
2004-2009: 48/45 mpg
2010: 51/48 mpg
2011-2014: 49/46 mpg
2015: 50/46 mpg
2016+: 54/50 mpg

sockfight

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2020, 01:38:57 PM »
I wouldn't normally suggest leasing, but if you're new to the country and not sure what to get, you might want to look into cheap leases.

Here's one from Hyundai that seems like a pretty good deal. It expires today, but something similar will probably pop up again soon.

Lease: $79 Per Month For 36 Months. $999 Due At Signing For Select 2019 Hyundai Ioniq EV Electric
Manufacturer Offers
$79 per month for 36 months
$999 cash due at signing
Offer only valid 11/02/2019 through 1/06/2020

Do you have a link to that deal? I couldn't find it. I normally dismiss leasing as a bad deal, but that actually works out to about $1300/yr, which doesn't seem bad, and getting to make a new choice in three years time.

Side note: Cars like the Ioniq EV or PHEV are only available in a handful of states, so I guess you'd have to find a dealer who could bring the car in...

sockfight

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2020, 01:41:53 PM »
And actually, I think Texas will give you a $2500 rebate even on a three year EV lease...hmm

ketchup

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2020, 02:41:02 PM »
If your wishlist includes features like a back-up camera and Apple CarPlay, understand that you can add both for a few hundred bucks to any car, old or new.  I'm probably going to do something similar with both our cars this spring (and they are a 2001 and a 2010).

sockfight

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2020, 03:37:19 PM »
If your wishlist includes features like a back-up camera and Apple CarPlay, understand that you can add both for a few hundred bucks to any car, old or new.  I'm probably going to do something similar with both our cars this spring (and they are a 2001 and a 2010).

Brilliant

Dave1442397

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2020, 03:58:24 PM »
I wouldn't normally suggest leasing, but if you're new to the country and not sure what to get, you might want to look into cheap leases.

Here's one from Hyundai that seems like a pretty good deal. It expires today, but something similar will probably pop up again soon.

Lease: $79 Per Month For 36 Months. $999 Due At Signing For Select 2019 Hyundai Ioniq EV Electric
Manufacturer Offers
$79 per month for 36 months
$999 cash due at signing
Offer only valid 11/02/2019 through 1/06/2020

Do you have a link to that deal? I couldn't find it. I normally dismiss leasing as a bad deal, but that actually works out to about $1300/yr, which doesn't seem bad, and getting to make a new choice in three years time.

Side note: Cars like the Ioniq EV or PHEV are only available in a handful of states, so I guess you'd have to find a dealer who could bring the car in...

Here's the link - you might have to select IONIQ Electric from the drop down box to see the lease deal.

https://www.hyundaiusa.com/offers.aspx

sockfight

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2020, 12:38:16 AM »
Here's the link - you might have to select IONIQ Electric from the drop down box to see the lease deal.
https://www.hyundaiusa.com/offers.aspx

Interesting, I see $109/mo and $2500 down when I click that link. Might be location dependent. This is for Texas, where they don't even have these cars. I wonder if the dealer could bring one in. But it's kind of moot since the deal ends today.

mozar

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Re: Car-buying
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2020, 07:00:31 PM »
For used cars check out carcomplaints.com