Stupid Expensive Cars

[Wifezilla]

Used cars are in short supply due to the cash for clunkers deal. The prices of those available are stupid right now.

 

[Leta]

Yeah, ssfm and WZ, that is where I'm at with this, too. It seems stupid to buy used for just a wee bit less, and forgo a warranty in the process.

Right now, I think I'm going to wait until we have our contractor paid off (less than $1K to go) and then try to snag and end of year deal.

Still think cars are stupidly expensive, though.

 

[Marianne]

I hear you.
We drive ours until they are no longer fixable. Both vehicles have around 250,000 miles on them and still going. DH's 2000 (?) Chrysler 300M drives me nuts! It cost us almost $300 to have a new battery put in because of how the dang thing is designed - they even had to pull a wheel off! But it's still cheaper than a car payment...

DH puts so many miles on his car, we don't buy new. We did that twice through the years, but taxes, insurance, etc outweighed the benefits of new.

BUT!! we haven't had to buy another vehicle since everything went nuts. Agh. I feel your pain, I'm afraid we're going to be in the same boat eventually.

 

[Leta]

Cash for clunkers ends this month. I wonder if we can hang on long enough to see everything get back to being more normal.

I get the point behind cash for clunkers, really I do - let's replace the fleet with more efficient cars. But it's regressive and I'm not convinced that it will actually cause us to save gas (as a nation, I mean).

 

[miss_thenorth]

The resale on Jetta diesels are gonna be high, b/c they are such great cars. Resale on Hondas and the like are high also, for the same reason. Buy an american made car, and you will have a much lower resale value.(except for diesels.)

Case in point--we have a 96 jetta diesel, 388 000 km on it. Still in great driving condition. We have had to replace normal wear and tear parts, 5th gear, (manual) which was easy peasy.

We lucked out, we have had our diesel for several years now and paid 1600$ for it. Immediately put in 1000$ and we had a great car for 2600$.

In your situation though, if you can't find a reasonalby priced used jetta, I would have to say go for the new. But when you buy new, they also (at least her in Canada)tack on freight tax, this and that tax etc and you roll off the lotpaying a coupla grand more than sticker. Also, on a used jetta, there may be a transferrable warranty . Decisions decisions. As far as paying cash or making payments--that is totally your call. Me? I don't want any more debt, so I would drive a clunker until I could pay cash for a better car. YMMV

 

[Henrietta23]

We have a 2003 Jetta TDI. DH gets asked almost every time he stops to fuel up if it's for sale. Nope, DS will be driving this car when he's old enough. He's 9 now. So, I'm not any help. We love our Jetta, we bought it new and paid off loan as quick as we could. Now that DH's commute has more than quadrupled he is so glad we have it. We have 5 different families in our small church who all have them. One guy and his adult son have traded theirs in for newer models but other than that we've all still got them.

 

[Wifezilla]

We have a 97 Golf. Weird random plastic stuff keeps breaking, but mechanically it is in great shape. We paid $3000 over 3 years ago. We had to do a few minor repairs and Helga is getting ugly, but we will drive her till she blows up.

My "new" car is a 94 Ford Explorer. We paid $1100. Had to get new tires (around $400) and replace the fuel pump and some other fuel system parts ($300 total). But even with the fixer upper stuff we are still under blue book value. My mom heard I got an old Ford and freaked. Because of the use of road salts, they replace their cars about ever 4 years. After that the "road cancer" eats the cars up. I had to explain that in Colorado, even old cars look great and will run forever if you keep the oil changed. They do not use raod salts out here so we don't get all that horrible corrosion.

 

[FarmerChick]

I strive for debt free but at some point I could care less....I will buy things that put me in debt (a little bit but thru the roof debt LOL)

 

[Leta]

That is part of the problem, here, is road salt. People here spend an insane percentage of their income on transportation. A house costs less than a truck, and you'll need a new truck every five years because of all the salt.

People who drive diesel VWs absolutely love them, which is why we are committed to that. That, and the fact that we consistently have the highest gas prices in the state, and the fact that I know how to brew biodiesel (we have a good grease source). Everything I've read has said that if you buy a TDI VW new, you'll be driving it in 15 years, which sounds brilliant. I just always thought new cars were a rip off.

But, really, this is all about gas mileage for me. Maybe I should buy a Tata Nano and have it shipped here!

 

[miss_thenorth]

That is part of the problem, here, is road salt. People here spend an insane percentage of their income on transportation. A house costs less than a truck, and you'll need a new truck every five years because of all the salt.

People who drive diesel VWs absolutely love them, which is why we are committed to that. That, and the fact that we consistently have the highest gas prices in the state, and the fact that I know how to brew biodiesel (we have a good grease source). Everything I've read has said that if you buy a TDI VW new, you'll be driving it in 15 years, which sounds brilliant. I just always thought new cars were a rip off.

But, really, this is all about gas mileage for me. Maybe I should buy a Tata Nano and have it shipped here!

I used to live in Windsor. where they mine windsor salt. I totally understand the salting of the roads. Unbelieveable. but if you oilgard your car, you should be fine. Like I said, ours is a 96, and was oilgarded until we got it. It is just starting to rust now.