First time purchasing a car

[Dryr]

Craigslist. New=extra $800+/yr for insurance rates/requirements and annual taxes/fees (for the life of loan/decade on fees). If you don't have cash, dealers can typically get you a better loan than banks but, you are paying an extra 30%+ on the vehicle purchase price. There is a reason dealers are suing to keep Tesla out of their business, they are worthless middlemen.

Gamble on repairs if you can't determine the condition of a vehicle v. known ripoff.

[Kalmado]

Another one for do not buy brand new. Cars depreciate. I drive a 2002 Toyota Solara VLE and it's been nothing but problems. I guess I got the bad one because they are regarded as extremely reliable. My next purchase will be a Ford car of some sorts since my brother in law works there and I may work there in the future.

[Psion]

Definetly make sure you know the cars history and get it from a reputable source if you go used. My first car was a 1983 toyota corolla that cost 500$ as a gift from my parents. it proceeded to go flat on all 4 tires within 4 months, earned me a fix-it ticket for a taillight that decided to go out for no reason, blew a fuse twice more with the rear taillight, blew out all 4 tires again within a year, had a paltry 15 mpg, had its rear end smashed up by some bad driver while it was parked at work (i didnt notice for a week because it was so fugly already), and struggled to even hit highway speeds. Oh yes, and it was terrible at hills. a few times it nearly wouldn't make it up some of the steeper hills in socal, and once it even started to go slowly backward until i used the emergency brake to stop it. (battery decided to die on me while driving, yay!) This was on top of it having an inch of dust inside when i got it. I am certain my parent purposely shopped for the car most likely to kill me either directly or by driving me to suicide.

All told that damn 500$ car probably cost over 6000$ in a few of years from maintenance, poor mileage, replacing dead batteries that mysteriously corrupted in a year or two, replacing no less than eight (8!) tires, and probably more i forgot about, replaced fuses, maintenance worker costs, and more. Oh yes, and i had to refill its oil and coolant almost weekly because they leaked. Otherwise it would overheat in about half an hour of driving and id have to wait for over an hour for it to cool down enough to make it home. I cant express the amount of sheer joy i had when that bastard finally kicked the bucket for good and had to be taken to a scrap yard.

[Celeras]

Buy new. Just to counterpoint all the poor ass motherfuckers caring about depreciation. Swag it up, man. Life's too short to be sitting in busted ass Japanese rides bragging about how many miles it has on it.

Based on what you're looking for I'd also recommend checking out the CX-5. And edmunds is another website to check out along with truecar. Good luck

[shepardG]

with used you run the risk of buying a car someone didn't maintain properly, which can lead to problems later on. I bought mine used... from the original owners, my parents. It's been great. The used cars they've gotten over the years... not so much. Almost always some sort of problem that crops up after a relatively short period of time.

The real trick with buying used is getting it from an owner who took good care of it. Best used car my parents ever had came from this little old lady who bought new, hit every scheduled oil check, kept it in a garage, and then got too old to drive.

Bane's car:
http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...-car-toilet.jp

[BaneTheBrawler]

he has the lid down

[Dantrag]

I say, Subaru Forester or Outback, new or certified pre-owned(better warranty than new for w/e fucking reason).

[Quixon]

Don't get into old ass fucking cars off craigslist if you are not mechanically inclined. If you can perform basic bolt on part repairs, yeah buy an older car. Craiglist is a literal crap shoot these days. New or certified pre-owned is the way to go. If $800/year for insurance is a big deal, yeah you shouldn't be even considering a new car..... get a better paying job first.

Just an FYI you aren't getting any kind of deal on a CRV. So expect to pay near sticker with whatever standard financing Honda or your bank offers. The CRV has the best safety ratings for cars in that class, Honda likes to throw that in your face every time you try and ask for a deal on one.

Rav4 is a phenomenal car reliability wise. Toyota is offering .9% financing for 60 months on the Rav right now which is a great deal.

The Juke, meh I test drove it. The Rogue is a better option if you like driving "up high". The Juke drives like a much smaller car, stiffer suspension, etc.


Do not buy any of these without test driving The Subaru XV Crosstrek or at least a Forester/Outback. Their AWD system shits all over the cars you have listed.


Also keep in mind the Rogue/Juke, CRV, and RAV4 are not All Time 4WD vehicles. They are FWD 99% of the time you are driving. When the traction system detects a loss in traction, the Traction will come one.... then the 4WD will kick in if the traction control does correct the problem. These cars can have the 4WD turned on manually with a button on the dash.


The Subaru's are AWD all the time, and their AWD system is light years ahead of the other offerings.

[Mojo]

I bought a 2007 Forester XT last year. It's fun to drive, very nice in the winter (love the AWD), overall a really great car although the design of the doors is flawed. Here's a visual.

http://images.thecarconnection.com/m...00073850_m.jpg

There windows are not framed by the door. This is not big deal on the rear doors although the passenger and driver side doors have a window gusset where the mirror attaches. It creates a non uniform seal between the window and the frame. The gusset becomes warped over time because everybody always closes your door by pushing on the window instead of the actual door. The result is a lot of wind noise that you can never truly get rid of. You can replace the gusset and it mitigates although eventually it will get warped again. Personally I find it to be too annoying, I'm considering selling mine if you're interested and this doesn't bother you. It's a 2007 with 120K miles, same color as the picture, and in mechanically pristine condition if you're interested.

The issue has been resolved on gen 3 Foresters (2009+) and other Subaru vehicles.

http://images.thecarconnection.com/l...00348910_l.jpg

The newer trims look more soccer mommish if that bothers you.

I'm looking into buying a CX5 right now. Probably going to test drive some this weekend. The other option is installing a ton of sound damping material (http://store.secondskinaudio.com/) into the Forester and replace the gussets. If you're interested in a CX5 I recommend trying out 2014+ Touring an Grand Touring trims. People complained about earlier models because they don't have enough horsepower. The 2014 and onwards have a 2.5 liter engine (vs 2.0). I haven't test driven any yet, probably going to over the weekend. Will post here about it.

[Dantrag]

The forester and outback look different again. Just a heads up.

What price range are you looking at?

[ronin sparthos]

I'm gonna just throw this in here since it's a fucking auto thread already.

First time car buyer: Does brand really mean shit? I mean outside the obvious luxury brands is there a difference between me getting a Kia or a Honda? A Volvo or a Suburu? We're talking buying a standard middle-of-the-road vehicle here.

What I mean to ask is if I should be avoiding any specific brands.

[Quixon]

Does brand really mean shit? I mean outside the obvious luxury brands is there a difference between me getting a Kia or a Honda? A Volvo or a Suburu? We're talking buying a standard middle-of-the-road vehicle here.

Yes and no.

Volvo is not comparable to Subaru really. Volvo is more in line with Audi and BMW.

Honda/Mazda/Nissan/Hyundai/Subaru/etc. all make cars in various classes that are very comparable to each other. A honda civic and a toyota corolla are extremely similar, camry/accord, etc. Subaru being the outlier as all of their newer vehicles (aside from the RWD BRZ) are AWD.

You will not find an AWD civic, corolla, camry, etc.


Kia you gotta be careful of. If the car wasn't made in the last 5-10 years.... do not touch it. Same thing with Hyundai. Kia's new cars are in line with most japanese manufacturers like nissan/honda/etc. Hyundai/Kia are really trying to, and are succeeding at, changing around their image. A lot of their new cars have much better interiors and styling then other cars in their class.

[FNH]

The Rogue is a better option if you like driving "up high". .

Worst vehicle I have ever driven. Needed a rental for a week and they gave me this at the compact price because they were overbooked. I took it back the next morning it was so awful. Not as spacious as it lets on, and it seemed underpowered for its size.

[Quixon]

I have one, last model year before the refresh. It's a 4 Cylinder, so unless you are driving a Compact SUV w/ an optioned 6 Cylinder.... they are all that sluggish. Good for commuting, but if you want something fast don't get a 5,000LB 4 cylinder powered vehicle lol.

I haven't had any issue with size either, I'm 6'1 and sit all over the darn car. Passenger, Driver, back seat. I just did a month's worth of grocery shopping with the wife and new baby. Had no problem fitting the adults, car seat + baby, $350 in groceries, stroller, etc. in there. The rear seats fold down flat for extra long stuff too. I've hauled 2x4's and 6' sections of pipe from home depot many times.

The CRV and Rav4 are rated higher, but you will be paying more for them as well. I have top tier credit so I was intent on making use of it. (0% financing or close to it)

When we test drove all these Compact SUV's they all felt relatively the same. The Honda felt a bit more solid, but the finance offers sucked balls, same with the Rav4 at the time. The Rogue had the best fully loaded interior out of the bunch, so my wife chose that one since all other comparisons were pretty close to a wash.

If there was a V6 option available in any of the Compact SUV Class we did not test drive it. No need for the V6 power in a Compact SUV for us, fuel mileage trumps power in a commuter econo car.

[Mojo]

I'm gonna just throw this in here since it's a fucking auto thread already.

First time car buyer: Does brand really mean shit? I mean outside the obvious luxury brands is there a difference between me getting a Kia or a Honda? A Volvo or a Suburu? We're talking buying a standard middle-of-the-road vehicle here.

What I mean to ask is if I should be avoiding any specific brands.

The auto industry of today is very different than what it was 20 years ago, at least for foreign cars anyways. Constant changes in design and manufacturing processes make it difficult to generalize by brand. Even iterations of the same model can be very different in both features and reliability. Adding to what Quixon said, it's best to group automobiles by demographic (i.e. AWD crossover) and compare them to eachother on their own merits.

Also, I agree in that 4 cylinders is all you need although you can certainly notice a difference between 2.0/2.5 L.

[Mojo]

In regards to establishing the value of a car, there are three go to places I know of of. KBB, Nada, and Edmunds TMV. They all differ somewhat based on how they collect their data. Edmunds tends to report what the cars actually sell to consumers for. Nada is something dealers use and relies on their data or whatever the dealers decide to disclose to them. Regardless, it's still kind of a useful too. KBB does something similar.

[FNH]

I have one, last model year before the refresh. It's a 4 Cylinder, so unless you are driving a Compact SUV w/ an optioned 6 Cylinder.... they are all that sluggish. Good for commuting, but if you want something fast don't get a 5,000LB 4 cylinder powered vehicle lol.

I haven't had any issue with size either, I'm 6'1 and sit all over the darn car. Passenger, Driver, back seat. I just did a month's worth of grocery shopping with the wife and new baby. Had no problem fitting the adults, car seat + baby, $350 in groceries, stroller, etc. in there. The rear seats fold down flat for extra long stuff too. I've hauled 2x4's and 6' sections of pipe from home depot many times.

The CRV and Rav4 are rated higher, but you will be paying more for them as well. I have top tier credit so I was intent on making use of it. (0% financing or close to it)

When we test drove all these Compact SUV's they all felt relatively the same. The Honda felt a bit more solid, but the finance offers sucked balls, same with the Rav4 at the time. The Rogue had the best fully loaded interior out of the bunch, so my wife chose that one since all other comparisons were pretty close to a wash.

If there was a V6 option available in any of the Compact SUV Class we did not test drive it. No need for the V6 power in a Compact SUV for us, fuel mileage trumps power in a commuter econo car.

If I were in the market for a compact SUV, my choice would be Ford Escape Turbo 2L w/ 4wd.

[Effluo]

I have purchased used cars every time until recently. Wifey needed a new car, so we went with a brand new vehicle this time, since she drives so much for her daily commute plus going to school. I don't know if it was/is every dodge dealer, but we got here a brand new Dodge Journey, and paid the extra for a lifetime bumper-to-bumper warranty. I read every inch of that warranty, and it is well worth the investment if you plan to keep the car until it falls apart. They cover everything except normal wear and tear (tires, brakes, etc). Haven't seen a real bumper to bumper in my lifetime

[LinktheDeme]

I got a Honda CRV for about 400 cheaper than the True car "target price" but significantly lower than the "Average paid". Did I do good or was that about the real average? Also what is this destination fee bullshit? I figured it was a scam so I kind of refused to pay it and started leaving until they dropped the price of it .

[FNH]

I got a Honda CRV for about 400 cheaper than the True car "target price" but significantly lower than the "Average paid". Did I do good or was that about the real average? Also what is this destination fee bullshit? I figured it was a scam so I kind of refused to pay it and started leaving until they dropped the price of it .

Cost of the vehicle delivery from the factory to the dealership.