Got the news yesterday from my mechanic that the problems facing my 1993 sedan will cost two to three times the car's worth to fix. It really is the end of the road for the old girl. And the problems are so serious that I'm driving on borrowed time. I have to buy another car this weekend, or in any case no later than next.
I don't drive a lot. I put 7,000 miles, max, per year on my car, pootling around Dallas. I'd just as soon buy a safe, reliable car that gets decent gas mileage, and drive it for 15 years. I'm looking at models like a four-door Honda Civic, or a Volkswagen Jetta. I'm strongly disinclined to buy a new car, but the frustrating thing is that the models I want are so high-quality that they depreciate very slowly. There's not a lot of price difference between a new Jetta and a three year old Jetta, according to my Internet research. I can't afford anything that costs more than $18,000, and I'm hoping for at least a couple thousand on my trade-in. The idea of signing on for a three or four year car note depresses me, but I've got no choice. Gloom, despair and agony on me!
Car people, give me advice, please!
New car blues
Thursday March 22, 2007
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Kirk writes: Regarding the VW diesel, diesels don't get significantly higher gas mileage, in my opinion. Diesel fuel costs more, which eats up the any savings you would expect from the higher mileage. Diesel fuel isn't *that* much more. My Jetta TDI gets 30% better mileage than the gasser Jetta. To break even, diesel would cost $2.80 while gasoline cost $2.10. Maybe that's the ratio where you live, but diesel is hovering around the premium gas price where I am.
M.Z. Forrest writes: You don't drive enough miles to get a disposable car. You sound like my friend who tells me I need a Tivo (with its monthly subscription fee) even *more* because I only watch my television an hour or two a week. (My television viewing is *that* much more valuable!) I don't get it.
This probably won't help Rod's purchasing decision, but 2008 is going to see an updated Scion xB (with rounded edges) and a new xD (replacing the xA). For pics go here.
My girlfriend and I recently bought a Mazda 3 and VW Rabbit. Between the two of us we drove just about every economy car out there and what struck us was how cheap the Honda Civic felt, how poorly it drove, and how expensive it was compared to the other cars in its class. Now Honda surely does boast strong reliability but I suspect most manufacturers have made significant strides in this area. Both of us still bought an additional two year warranty (for a total of 6 years/75k miles) for 1k and our total cost (w taxes, tags, and extended bumper to bumper warranty) was below the mid level Honda Civic (the basic civic doesn't come with AC or a radio both of which I view as necessities in congestion ridden and hot and humid d.c.).
On Certified Pre-Owned and buying a used car from a dealer in general, don't. While I was buying my car I looked at the 2006 Mazda 3 hatchback, loved the car but alas I found the driver seat a bit constraining, and thus opted for the Rabbit. When I was shopping for my girlfriend's car we were at a chrysler dealer and we noticed a used 2006 Mazda 3 hatchback. It had 13k miles on it but other than that it was the exact same car as the one I had contemplated buying. There was another similarity, it had virtually the same price, maybe $50 difference. The dealer gets a phenomenal margin on their used cars, especially in the economy segment where their markup over invoice on a new car might be as little as $500. The dealer probably bought that car for around $15k and have turned it around with hopes of selling it for essentially a new car price. What value have they added: a routine inspection, a thorough cleaning and maybe pulled a couple of dents. Yes you get the warranty the car has but that is one less than if you had bought it new, and no different if you bought from somebody else. Further, the dealer doesn't really provide that much peace of mind. Does this justify a $3k difference, probably not. You can do a private party transaction and get your mechanic to look the car over. If you want to get a used car, surely you have some friend that is meticulous or even anal when it comes to cars that you can buy from at a blue book rate for private party transactions (which is significantly less than the dealer rates). Buying a used car from a dealer is the worst of all worlds, you are buying somebody else's problem without the savings. Do yourself a favor and look at kelly's blue book and look at the three rates for used cars (trade-in, private party, dealer).
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