What Is Parked In Your Driveway?

[mooby]

Originally Posted by MTK

Anyone got advice for buying a new car? For the last 20+ years I just bought directly from my brother who sold Fords, so now I'm on my own. Been reading up on how to approach a dealership, things like getting pre-approved before going in, focus on the "out the door" number vs monthly payment, don't talk trade-in until the end, etc. Anything else I should have in mind?

There's an argument to be made for used and new - new cars depreciate quickly. But if you plan on buying a car and making it last for 10+ years go for new - with a used car you have no idea how the previous owner drove it or why they sold it with presumably low miles.

Go get a car loan from your bank and take that to the dealership and let them convince you to finance through the manufacturer for a better rate - I got offered 2.9% from Navy Federal back in 2018 and I flipped that for 1.9% from Honda. Definitely focus on the out-the-door cost vs monthly payment - they will ask you what you want your montly payment to be and you should just tell them you want your OTD cost to be under x instead because they can do that funny math in a hurry to get you to sign. You've hit the good spots - don't talk trade in until the end because they will always try to low ball you. Treat it like a separate transaction. Actually take your car to Carmax first and get them to give you an offer then when you go to buy a car see if the dealership can beat that offer. Also never take the first offer - get it in writing and take it to another dealer and see if they can beat it.

Personal manufacturer rankings are subjective - for me it was always Toyota and Honda 1a and 1b. Now that I have a Civic that I bought brand new and it has 140k miles on it and I've witnessed firsthand the shit quality of certain aspects (battery died after 40k miles and the warranty only covered it to 36k, I've had 3 axles put in it under warranty because the boot keeps tearing and they're still having issues) I'm pretty jaded towards Honda. I think they're living off their reputation from the 90's. Going back to Toyota for my next car.

I also have the luxury of working on a fleet with 6k vehicles and most of our light duty units are Ford, Chevy, and Dodge - I'm jaded for life after working on these shitboxes. I would rank them Ford then Chevy then Dodge - Dodge has powertrain issues out the ass. We have Chargers, Caravans, Pacificas, Rams and they all have suspension and powertrain issues. Chevy is better but not by much. We're predominantly a Ford fleet and they have all kinds of issues from electronics in the new models to suspension/powertrain/etc issues in the older ones (but I also work on police cars and they beat the piss out of those). I don't think I'll ever buy domestic again unless it's an old shitbox that I can fix up and keep as a basic beater.