Minimum Requirements
* Automatic Tranmission
* AWD (Full-blown 4WD is overkill, terminology matters here)
* Will fit in my garage (~5200 mm =~ 17.06 feet)
Working Notes:
Family set deadline and hinted at price range
Safety and frequency of maintenance are the highest priorities, followed closely by total cost of ownership
Seriously looking at used cars
Seriously thinking about "buying blind" and having the car driven from afar
Still need to test drive: (list may grow)
* Acura RDX
* Acura MDX
* BMW 3xx-xi
--- concerned about ride smoothness
--- the 4-year "ultimate service" warranty is enticing
* Infinity G35X
* Used Only: BMW 5-series
* Used Only: Mercedes E-class with 4matic
* Used Only: Mercedes S430 with 4matic
Definitely will not get:
* Mercedes C-class
Random: Actually toyed around with a <$32k used 2002 Mercedes CL500, but they only come in RWD
It wasn't a harsh mandate, but something along the lines of cost. Given the past repair history of my car (~$2000/year), it's simply not worth driving it much longer. Winter is a good threshold, since that's when a new car with AWD will help the most.
As for the future of my current car, it seems my dad still wants it. Therefore, I'll likely ship it or have it driven back.
Also, there seem to be more arguments against new cars now, especially due to my low mileage driving (<1000/year). I still have a silly fear of used cars though. No doubt, some of this is from Florida car auctions with bullet holes, potential blood stains, etc. There's also the timebomb notion that they're closer to breakdown than a new car.
The counter argument to the timebomb option is the instantaneous drop in value of the new car once you purchase it.
If I were going to be a car owner again, I'd buy a used car with no history of repair problems and sell it every couple of years, optimizing for the most trouble free operation at a reasonable cost.
If you really only put 1000 mi/yr on car, maybe you need flexcar? It exists in D.C. The key is whether there is one easily accessible from your house or not, of course.
Flexcar seems much too inconvenient and out of the way. The closest locations are within the beltway and definitely not accessible from my home. Thanks for the suggestion though, since I didn't even know it existed.
As for the used car route, I have to agree from a financial standpoint. The price drop is obscene, seeing that I could've gotten a 5-year old $90,000+ Mercedes CL500 for less than $32,000.
Yea, I went with the cheapo civic since it made no sense (socially or financially) for me to buy a larger/expensive vehicle. Certainly don't have to worry about snow here. I only drive around 5k/year myself. Currently still on my 2nd tank of gas getting around 35mpg.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.
VLSmooth wrote:Flexcar seems much too inconvenient and out of the way. The closest locations are within the beltway and definitely not accessible from my home. Thanks for the suggestion though, since I didn't even know it existed.
If you were living in arlington you could've gone with flexcar or zipcar, in fact there are probably 10 cars in 10 minutes walking distance from me
I believe northern VA is a good place to buy a used car though. You just need to look for a luxury vehicle. I recommend a BMW, probably from sterling BMW. The reason is that there are so many trophy wives in the northern VA area and they all get new cars about every 2 years. So you can find lots of lightly used recently bought vehicles.
Other than that, I can't really help recommend a vehicle because I'm way too biased.
Flexcar just started in Pittsburgh last month (13 cars, apparently), and I've been considering signing up. What are your thoughts on it, Jon, since you've used it?
Don't use it as a replacement for owning a car. It's too expensive.
As an alternative to regular car rental, it is perfect. You can get a car rapidly from near your house (assuming they have one, since we live downtown there are many). You can reserve it for a silly amount of time, like an hour, that would be simply too weird for a regular car rental place.
We signed up on a promotion so there was no startup fee, and we're on the 0 dollars per month plan. So all we pay for is the car usage. When Amber took the GRE, she started planning out her bus trip, and I said no, I'm going to drive you. This was great for using Flexcar.
We're pretty pleased with Flexcar, but at the same time we use it almost never. It's good to know that cars are readily available should we require them, though.
This should not make a huge "impact" in a purchasing decision, especially since I doubt many plan to get in an accident, but it's nonetheless interesting:
The worst performer in the pack of 11 midsize luxury cars that were tested was the Infiniti G35 which sustained almost $14,000 in damage - that's more than double the cost of repairing a BMW 3-Series for God's sake! The Infiniti was a disaster,” said Institute senior vice president Joe Nolan. "There shouldn't be much or any damage in collisions at these speeds, especially to expensive and presumably well-made cars." The best performer was the Saab 9-3 which sustained "only" $5,243 in damage while the Audi A4 was quite close with $5.831. From the 11 cars tested, 4 broke the $10,000 barrier.
When I hit a pillar at work, it cost about 800 bucks to fix the door, the side panels, and one bumper. The damage wasn't too bad and the internal door components were fine, so they just had to pop it out and smooth it over.
