Time for a new car?

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m2go
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Time for a new car?

Post by m2go »

Last weekend, my car started to seriously overheat. I dragged the car to a shop, and the verdict is that the motor is dead. Head gasket, and generally in a bad shape, mechanic says nothing left to rebuild. (It was overheating repeatedly this past year, and various mechanics made almost 1000$ changing water pumps, radiator, etc.) In the past, that shop has encouraged me to get a new motor for old car in other such situations, or to rebuild... not really this time.

When I asked about putting a new motor in, the muted answer was at least 1200, plus 500 labor, and if I wanted that, they'd be happy to do, but did not seem like a ringing endorsement. We're looking at a Corolla 2000. (Edmunds says the car is around 1300 for trade-in, 2000 dealer price.)

What do BHs generally do here? Get a new one, or put it together again? Seems at this point I might be throwing good money after bad? (Some cosmetic problems, but I am not a cosmetics person...) I am not what you would call car-savvy, and have neither the time nor inclination to become so at this time in my life (family and work seem to take > 100% of my time already). I drive 25000+ miles to work each year, so my sense is that if I get a new car, it will be an old car in short order...

If the answer is get another car, what's the suggestion? New? Used? (I am not car savvy, and don't know anybody who is, so I might be buying a wreck that falls apart on the way home.) If new, what is a good car? (Crown Victoria does not cut it, it needs to look a bit more upscale given my position at work. ETA: My point is that Corolla or so is probably OK while at the low end, but it can't be a total beater that can stand unlimited abuse - which I might be tempted given the mileage involved otherwise.)

I'll appreciate your experiences, advice and suggestions.

ETA: With respect to "a bit more upscale", I am not angling for validation/endorsement to buy a luxury car. Rather, I am trying to put in a lower bar to avoid suggestions to go for absolute "beater cars" like a Crown Victoria that may run forever, because the mileage per year involved is prone to destroy almost any new car and turn it into an "old" car in short order. While many at work, incl. those who work for me seem all to drive nicer cars than me, I think I should probably be fine with a small sedan type car w/o marquee brand, although I am curious as to how much folks have noticed it impacting perception of leadership staff. Oh, and those recommending being a trendsetter and ignoring popular opinion - you have to pick your battles, and there's little in this battle to win for me. I am not interested in teaching/lecturing/setting an example for others. I'm interested in earnings potential, a good career, and things I can do for my team (even if they turn around and plow any raises I get them into more expensive cars for them...)
Last edited by m2go on Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
ScottW999
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by ScottW999 »

Since you are not a car guy, but you need a good ride for work and drive 25K miles per year I would suggest getting rid of this clunker and buy new. By buying new you will have the advantages of warranty, reliability and respectability. Also a new car well cared for should last many years longer than a used one. My choices would be in this order Mazda, Honda or Toyota. The individual models would depend on your budget and the size vehicle you require.
Calm Man
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Calm Man »

Definitely a new car but realize that in 4 years it will have 100K miles and become sort of old. This isn't exactly what you are asking but I would seriously see if I could alter either my job or living situation or commute as 100 miles a day is a lot of miles for a car and for a human.
Jerrybaby
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Jerrybaby »

A lot more information is needed to give you good advise, but I would first wonder why you would need a car that is "a bit more upscale" when you current car is a 2000 Corolla.

When it comes to mechanics feedback, I generally advise people to get a second and third opinion. I've saved thousands doing that, but it sounds like you've had a lot of problems with this car in recent years, and the value of the car is low with higher than value repair costs.

With this limited information I would certainly advise to purchase another car. I purchase used cars from time to time and have been very fortunate to find great cars, but I tend to purchase new cars if I feel I'm getting better value that way. Meaning, I did my homework and knife-fought the salesman successfully.
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yatesd
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by yatesd »

Replace with a used car that still has 5,000 miles of factory warranty remaining. Example 30K mile, two year old rental car that includes a factory 36K bumper to bumper warranty.

IMHO this is just enough time to get unpleasant surprises addressed while under warranty.
btenny
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by btenny »

You need a newer car. I suggest you buy a nice used car and sell your old car for junk.

I have a LIncoln Zephr 2006 that is a wonderful upscale nice car. The newer (2007-2014) version of this car is a Lincoln MKZ. It is very reliable and is good on gas and holds 4 people in comfort and has a huge truck if needed. But it is not too big a car so it is easy to maneuver in parking garages and so forth. I know you can find a nice used version of this car around your area for $15-$20K with low low miles. A good used one will last for 160K miles or more with little maintenance. Here are some in my area.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... E8F3&Log=0

Or you might look at a nice used Toyota Avalon. This is another great upscale car that can be bought for a great price on the used car market. It seats 4, has a huge trunk and gets good gas mileage. A good used one will last for 160K miles or more with little maintenance.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... E8F3&Log=0
weltschmerz
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by weltschmerz »

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Last edited by weltschmerz on Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
john94549
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by john94549 »

The agony of choice. Were there but three or four autos from which to choose, I would be a happy camper. Sometimes, I wonder if it were be easier to use a dartboard.

My wife assures me I need something "cushy", with nice seats, and a big trunk. Regrettably, such variables don't do well in your on-line searches. Mostly, I get odd videos (use your imagination).

That said, the old Buick (1994) is literally nearing the end, as it were. The door handle on the driver's side has once again failed (already replaced it once, parts no longer exist), and I have to open the door from the inside. Which is OK if the weather is nice, not so nice if it's raining. In a pinch, I can enter through the passenger-side door, reach across, and operate the interior driver-side door latch. I usually just keep the passenger-side window down, rain or not.

I think I need a new car.
Last edited by john94549 on Sun Mar 02, 2014 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jerrybaby
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Jerrybaby »

The Dan wrote:Spending <$2000 for a new engine seems like a good deal to me, and then the car could be driveable without major headaches for many years
Unfortunately, we don't know that to be the truth.
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Watty
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Watty »

You are driving more than double the miles that people typically do so safety should be twice as important to you since you have double the chances of being in an accident. I didn't look it up but I would assume that a 2000 Corolla does not have side airbags or ESC so getting a newer car with some of these safety features would be a good choice.

If you are able to deduct the car a business expense then that might change your plan some.

If the millage is not just a long commute but comes in spurts, like you are on the road one week a month, then you should look into renting a car the week when you will have a lot of millage. The weekly rental costs from non-airport locations(to avoid special charges and taxes) often is not all that high.
yatesd wrote:Replace with a used car that still has 5,000 miles of factory warranty remaining. Example 30K mile, two year old rental car that includes a factory 36K bumper to bumper warranty.

IMHO this is just enough time to get unpleasant surprises addressed while under warranty.
+1

With driving 25,000 miles a year buying a new car with a 36,000 warranty does make sense and even the typical 60,000 powertrain warranty would run out quickly.

I have not owned one but Hyundai's have a 100K powertrain warranty so they would be worth looking at and while they are not perfect some Hyundai models have gotten decent reviews and some of them are reasonably upscale.

A lot of what you do depends on your situation. Given that you need a somewhat upscale car for your job I would assume that you have an equally somewhat upscale job. If that is the case then I would run the numbers on buying a new Hyundai and keeping it for 95,000 miles then selling it to buy a new one since it will get a better price while it is still under warranty. That will not be inexpensive but that could just be the cost of doing business in your job.
Jerrybaby
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Jerrybaby »

+1 on a Hyundai. Bought a 2013 Sonata Turbo and it is a really good car. I've been more than pleasantly surprised and feel it was the best value purchase I could have made, so far.
sport
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by sport »

IMO, the best cars on the road are made by Toyota and Honda. However, that opinion is shared by so many people, that the prices on good used ones are almost as much as new ones. So, if you can afford a new car, choose one you like from either of those two manufacturers. They will be reliable, efficient, and hold their value better than most others.
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thomasbayarea
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by thomasbayarea »

Do not buy a new car!

At 25,000 miles a year, you are going to "destroy" the car in 6-8 years. You might as well destroy a 15k Camry instead of a 40k Lexus.
Jerrybaby
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Jerrybaby »

thomasbayarea wrote:Do not buy a new car!

At 25,000 miles a year, you are going to "destroy" the car in 6-8 years. You might as well destroy a 15k Camry instead of a 40k Lexus.
I've always done well purchasing a 3-4 year old car with below average mileage from among the traditionally dependable group of cars.

If you take a used car to a chain repair shop to have it checked out, it might not hurt to flip the mechanic an extra $50-100 to give it a very good once over. Otherwise you are not always guaranteed to get a great inspection, since they will probably not be the ones doing any repairs they may find.
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seeshells
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by seeshells »

Good luck on your search!
Last edited by seeshells on Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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fishnskiguy
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by fishnskiguy »

I'm a big believer in buying new and driving the dang thing till the wheels fall off.

If I were to buy a new car today, the one thing I would insist on in a gas engine is direct injection. Gas mileage is dramatically better than the older, but still made, port fuel injection. Among domestic manufactures, Ford, IMO, is the leader in small but powerful and efficient direct injection engines. The current Ford Focus (about the size of your Corolla) get EPA 26/36 MPG.

But with your driving 25K miles per year, you should take a hard look at a diesel car. The best diesels in the world come from Germany, and the one in the VW Jetta (again about the size of your Corolla) is as good as any. It has an EPA rating of 30/42 MPG. However, in my experience while a carefully driven gas engine can do 2-5 MPG better than the EPA estimate, a carefully driven diesel can do 5-12 MPG better than EPA estimate. That's hybrid like mileage with none of the extra complexity. Plus, a diesel engine should last at least 50% more miles than a similar gas engine.

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Topic Author
m2go
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by m2go »

thomasbayarea wrote:Do not buy a new car!

At 25,000 miles a year, you are going to "destroy" the car in 6-8 years. You might as well destroy a 15k Camry instead of a 40k Lexus.
The "destroy" worry is indeed one of those I associate with buying a new car... It's 115 mi to work roundtrip are bound to turn any car into an old car very quickly. So, you buy a new car and within a year or two, when you have 50k mi on it, you have an old car that's out of warranty ...

Can't be a used car from rent-a-wreck, either, because the folks working for me (big corp with some pecking order) all have nicer cars. I'm fine with that, and am happy to put money into ETFs rather than cars, but there's some peer pressure that the boss needs to have a nicer car than the employee. Stupid, but if it impacts promotion, it matters. For now, I am trying to assume it has to look respectable, not that it has to be a luxury brand, but difficult to gauge as many colleagues in my position - sans the commute - drive luxury brands.)
bigspender
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by bigspender »

Just a different thought. If you are driving 25,000 miles per year, you really need a safe and reliable car.

If I were you, I would just get a base no option 2014 Toyota corolla brand new. That should easily last 200-300 thousand miles and easily will give you 8 to 10 years with no issues. Also, they sometimes have 0% financing for 5 years.
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Ged
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Ged »

Camry or Accord. These are the cars that have the best track record over the past few decades. They will be significant upgrades over your current Corolla.
stoptothink
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by stoptothink »

m2go wrote: Can't be a used car from rent-a-wreck, either, because the folks working for me (big corp with some pecking order) all have nicer cars. I'm fine with that, and am happy to put money into ETFs rather than cars, but there's some peer pressure that the boss needs to have a nicer car than the employee. Stupid, but if it impacts promotion, it matters. For now, I am trying to assume it has to look respectable, not that it has to be a luxury brand, but difficult to gauge as many colleagues in my position - sans the commute - drive luxury brands.)
I'm a director for a ~400 employee organization, all of my 100+ employees drive nicer cars than I do. Literally every single one. I'm the boss and am paid commensurately much more than they are. How does anybody even know what car you drive let alone it impacting promotion opportunities (it certainly had no barring on mine)? I hear this all the time (especially in regards to physicians), but unless you are driving around clients all day I don't see the logic.
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Tortoise
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Tortoise »

My wife loves her Prius. She had a 1996 Corolla prior to that. We bought the Prius new to make sure the battery pack would last a long time. My wife almost always gets 50+ mpg, and she's a bit of a lead foot. I think we paid $24k.
"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest." --Mark Twain
ripete
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by ripete »

Firstly, you need a new car. Congratulations, you got a lot of mileage out of a car that's 14 years old! It's time! It's time!
Now, as far as the choice to buy or lease, here are my thoughts, based on personal experience.

I had a Sentra, drove it 108,500 miles, stick shift, had it for about 9 years, and only had to get rid of it because I had a second child coming and I didn't think we could comfortably fit two in the back of a two door car, plus mommy would want to be back there too! So, it was time to buy a family car (so perfectly named!). We got a Camry, which I absolutely loved, until one day, it snowed and snowed and snowed. And the only vehicles that were getting anywhere were SUV's. So, I traded in the Camry, which was not even two years old, and leased a Pathfinder. Then, every three years, I faithfully leased a new Pathfinder. This happened for about 9 years, and the next 3 years I leased a Murano, also a beautiful vehicle.
Then, I succumbed to purchasing again. Why? Because I said I had absolutely no equity in the automobiles leased. At the end of three years, the maximal depreciation time had finished, and someone else could lease/buy this vehicle, probably for a lot less. Now, I'm good to vehicles. I bring them to the dealership (even though I know I'm paying more) because I need my vehicle to be 100% reliable for work. So, whoever gets the vehicle I lease was getting a gem, with between 10 and 12,000 miles a year on it for 36 or 39 or even 42 month lease.
I finally decided to buy again, because I read that 6 years was the break even point, and I knew I could hold onto a car for at least that long. I figured not only could I last that long but even longer, and then I'd have some money to trade the vehicle in, because, after all it was my car, not the leasing company.
A funny thing happened though.
As I mentioned, I take the car to the dealership. The dealership always seems to 'find' something to do for maintenance that winds up costing hundreds of dollars. Go in for an oil change, you're buying a timing belt, just to cite one example. Fuel injection cleaning is another. And so on.
So, in the end, I figure I'm spending a small fortune just to maintain my vehicle, and mechanical things do eventually break, requiring a part here, a part there.
The upside of a lease is that, within those three years, there's really very little that can go wrong, and there are no major overhauls that need to be done. And if something is found to be wrong with the vehicle, guess what, in 3 years, it's somebody else's problem. Case in point: the vehicle I own, from one of the top auto manufacturer's, went in for a routine oil change. Told that engine was burning oil, needed new engine, not covered any more as out of warranty. I googled the problem and found out that a lot of people had this problem with this model in this model year. But the manufacturer refused to issue a recall, for if they did, they'd be putting new engines in thousands of vehicles, which is probably pretty expensive. It worked out all right in the end, but I would've had a lemon on my hands. Had I leased it, it would've been the manufacturer's problem.
So I think I've come full circle, and I think the next time around, I'm going to lease.
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Watty
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Watty »

stoptothink wrote:
m2go wrote: Can't be a used car from rent-a-wreck, either, because the folks working for me (big corp with some pecking order) all have nicer cars. I'm fine with that, and am happy to put money into ETFs rather than cars, but there's some peer pressure that the boss needs to have a nicer car than the employee. Stupid, but if it impacts promotion, it matters. For now, I am trying to assume it has to look respectable, not that it has to be a luxury brand, but difficult to gauge as many colleagues in my position - sans the commute - drive luxury brands.)
I'm a director for a ~400 employee organization, all of my 100+ employees drive nicer cars than I do. Literally every single one. I'm the boss and am paid commensurately much more than they are. How does anybody even know what car you drive let alone it impacting promotion opportunities (it certainly had no barring on mine)? I hear this all the time (especially in regards to physicians), but unless you are driving around clients all day I don't see the logic.
+1

There is a difference between someone that is projecting an image that you are driving a beater because you are having problems with your personal finances and someone that is driving a modest car because they are frugal with their money.

I am in a much different position but people at work know that I am frugal by choice when it comes to things like cars and that sometimes gives me extra credibility at work when I say that the company needs to spend money on something.

At one point I worked a lot with people in a very large purchasing department and I'm sure that they made good money but it was part of their department culture that if you were not
freddie
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by freddie »

From a money point I am guessing the Prius is likely the cheap way of going. Getting 50 versus 35mpg is going to save you 1.5k+/yr in gas and that will go up if we get to 5 dollar gas in the next 10 years. I am a bit worried about how they will do with 200k on them but that is true about most cars.
Tortoise wrote:My wife loves her Prius. She had a 1996 Corolla prior to that. We bought the Prius new to make sure the battery pack would last a long time. My wife almost always gets 50+ mpg, and she's a bit of a lead foot. I think we paid $24k.
wander
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by wander »

m2go wrote:Last weekend, my car started to seriously overheat. I dragged the car to a shop, and the verdict is that the motor is dead. Head gasket, and generally in a bad shape, mechanic says nothing left to rebuild. (It was overheating repeatedly this past year, and various mechanics made almost 1000$ changing water pumps, radiator, etc.) In the past, that shop has encouraged me to get a new motor for old car in other such situations, or to rebuild... not really this time.
You need a new mechanic who knows what he is doing. It doesn't make sense to be overheating repeatedly without a true solution. If you got overheating once, keeping it is debatable. But if it happens twice, then consider to sell it.
sambb
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by sambb »

Its time to buy a new car. Get something mainstream, like an accord or camry. They last a long time. And good resale.
Jerrybaby
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Re: Time for a new car?

Post by Jerrybaby »

m2go wrote:
thomasbayarea wrote:Do not buy a new car!

At 25,000 miles a year, you are going to "destroy" the car in 6-8 years. You might as well destroy a 15k Camry instead of a 40k Lexus.
but there's some peer pressure that the boss needs to have a nicer car than the employee. Stupid, but if it impacts promotion, it matters.

If someone has told you that you have an image to uphold, that is one thing, and you are right to follow that course. And if you really just want a nice car, be honest about it. But I'm not personally looking for sheep who follow the crowd. Maybe you are frugal, but maybe you are one of the few that couldn't care less about the opinions of others. A trend setter, someone not afraid to step out and be different. If most zig, my eye will be on the one who zags. You should make sure your boss is not like me.
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