The insanity of the car market....

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

My Honda CRV will be ten years old in November, and I'd "like" a flashy new car but I really don't "need" one as long as this one keeps going. even though it has 33k on the clock !!!

Even in kilometers that would be low mileage around these parts.

[guitargabor]

Like the housing market, the car buying experience is brought with deception, chicanery , and "fraud".

The best scenario for your pocketbook and the panel is to drive your vehicle "to the ground".

[6L6]

I've always owned my cars since I bought my first in 1965 (a used '61 VW beetle).

I'm a car guy and a good maintenance freak. I typically keep my cars about 20 years. The highest mileage on one of these was 284,000 miles (mostly highway) on my former 1966 Mustang (289 A-Code, auto tranny). Never had to rebuild the motor (oil & filter every 3000 miles) or auto tranny (changed filter & fluid every 15,000 miles).

Automakers hate guys like me.

Here was my Mustang the day I sold it with 284,000 miles on the clock. I owned it 24 years. It was at least as good as the day I bought it. A/C, Rally Pac, PS.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I'd "like" a flashy new car but I really don't "need" one as long as this one keeps going. even though it has 33k on the clock !!!

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Even in kilometers that would be low mileage around these parts.

Originally Posted by 6L6

Here was my Mustang the day I sold it with 284,000 miles on the clock. I owned it 24 years.

284,000 miles is from Dover to John O' Groats and back 190 times.

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by guitargabor

Like the housing market, the car buying experience is brought with deception, chicanery , and "fraud".

The best scenario for your pocketbook and the panel is to drive your vehicle "to the ground".

Except then you have to deal with those things in the service department

[KenL]

Originally Posted by fitness1

No kidding - it's Honda number 17, and the best driving car I've owned.

And here I thought I was a loyal Honda driver, but you've got me beat.

The Pilot and the Ridgeline sitting in my garage right now are #s 11 and 12.

They are a 2018 and a 2019, and neither has hit 60k miles yet.

[1neeto]

A year later and the thread still relevant. Used car prices have stabilized but it’s still a crazy market out there. I’ll drive my old cars to the found. It’s how I’m wired.

[SFCRetired]

I would rather have a root canal than go to a dealer and buy a car. From my experience car dealers are the least trustworthy people I have ever encountered. Worse than a pawn shop and that's saying something.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

I would rather have a root canal than go to a dealer and buy a car. From my experience car dealers are the least trustworthy people I have ever encountered. Worse than a pawn shop and that's saying something.

The direct sales Rivian and Tesla do is far superior.

We found the best brands and models were fairly straight forward.

Franchise seems to make a difference. The Stellantis shop of same owner as Subaru on same block illustrated that. Subaru and Toyota were basically "Here's what we got, here's what's coming, and prices are marked." and the Jeep/Dodge/Ram tried to disguise their problems and junk in "What monthly payments do you want?". I said none.

I had pity for the Jeep/RAM/Chrysler salespeople on the busy Saturday. Most all the traffic and people writing orders were the Subaru and Toyota salesrooms. They even had some 2023s not yet sold with all those incentives.

Used buying will probably always be a game.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by imwjl

Used buying will probably always be a game.

The negotiation game I don't mind, if it's straight up. I'll discuss the price or (maybe) even loan terms. It's the other sleazy tricks that give car salespeople bad names. I once had a salesperson try to get me to sign a *blank* loan authorization form, giving me some made-up spiel about the "USA Patriot Act" requiring it. I immediately walked.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

We are rare.
We buy our cars outright. When we are ready, we sell (no trade-ins ever). Then we take that cash plus some of our own and go buy the new one.
We generally drive them for about 8 years, they are in immaculate shape and have less than 60k miles on them when we sell.
No payments, no monthly leasing, no interest, no worries.
It’s kinda’ anti-American.

Just bought a Mazda CX 5. Had to bite the bullet because it was getting to be a pain for me to get in and out of our beautiful 2016 Kia Optima. That car has 50K miles on it and it is immaculate. We sold it to our grandson at a “family-friendly”price.
The CX 5 is my car. The wife drives our 2018 Kia Sorento which also has very low mileage, is immaculate and loaded with goodies.
While the CX 5 doesn’t have the resale value of a CRV, doesn’t get as good of gas mileage and is a bit smaller, I didn’t care. It’s way more fun to drive and has a “best in class” luxury interior. As always, we didn’t borrow the money and in all honesty, I didn’t spend a lot of time negotiating a better price.
Time is getting short, too short to care about that stuff anymore.

[SFCRetired]

Originally Posted by imwjl

The direct sales Rivian and Tesla do is far superior.

We found the best brands and models were fairly straight forward.

Franchise seems to make a difference. The Stellantis shop of same owner as Subaru on same block illustrated that. Subaru and Toyota were basically "Here's what we got, here's what's coming, and prices are marked." and the Jeep/Dodge/Ram tried to disguise their problems and junk in "What monthly payments do you want?". I said none.

I had pity for the Jeep/RAM/Chrysler salespeople on the busy Saturday. Most all the traffic and people writing orders were the Subaru and Toyota salesrooms. They even had some 2023s not yet sold with all those incentives.

Used buying will probably always be a game.

We did have a subaru dealer who was good to work with. I don't buy anything not labeled Ford or Chevy but my wife does. She had nothing but good things to say about them. BUT, now they just sold out to the biggest dealer in the area and I'm sure that will now all change.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

We did have a subaru dealer who was good to work with. I don't buy anything not labeled Ford or Chevy but my wife does. She had nothing but good things to say about them. BUT, now they just sold out to the biggest dealer in the area and I'm sure that will now all change.

An acquisition is not automatically bad. The best Toyota dealer here just sold after 100+ years in same family. The new owner is better.

It is getting harder for even sizable firms to compete with some giants. Where I work we're being acquired. The acquiring firm is $10 billion but Kroger's 150X that. The cool thing is all those coming in have a fantastic culture and made the purchase to grow and succeed.

On Ford and Chevy, I sure hope they can better get it together but for now our Model A is my only Ford. My domestic hope are on Rivian. I got a really interesting poll from them (we have R2 reservation). More about the R2 and R3 have been released and shown. They are seriously neat stuff I hope succeeds.

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

We did have a subaru dealer who was good to work with. I don't buy anything not labeled Ford or Chevy but my wife does.

I'm a Mopar (Dodge/Ram) truck guy, but my wife has a Subaru Forester Wilderness that I drive when we take road trips. It's a cool car except for the multiple "Nanny" beeps that go off all the time to "warn" you of everything under the sun.

And the dealership "upsells" when you go to get an oil change is making the cost of ownership annoyingly high. We may not get another one because of those.

[MrDB]

Our main car is a 2016 Acura RDX. It's been a great car. 85k now. I know we may need to replace it some day, but I hope not. If it would go 200k we may be able to run it til we're done (we are 72).

My truck is a 2010 GMC Canyon with just 88k. I'll run it forever as I'm retired and it sits in the driveway days at a time without moving.