Top 5 Reasons To Buy A New Car

[bowtieguy]

yup! that car had/has the camaro(v6) engine. i had a 91 RS w/ hatch. oh the people i surprised off the line w/ an otherwise unassuming "station wagon!"

i wish i would have kept fuel logs back then!

[GasSavers_Scott]

After owning my forcus for the last two years, I'm practically ready to wear animals skins, fall off the grid, grow my own food, and sell hand made candles. I just fixed the PCV, took the whole thing apart, and now I have a diner plate size puddle of water underneath it. Two years ago I replaced all the hoses at 300 bucks. Now I have a leak between the fire wall and engine. It's 20 outside and I have to crawl under the thing and find the leak. My previous Corolla ad MR2 had nothing but electrical problems and I'm tired of it.

I'm planning on getting a VW Beetle and with a distributor and header change will get 31 mpg. I'm not even going to install an electronic ignition. Points last 30k in a bug.

New cars are heavy, you get to make a payment each month, your insurance goes up, and you still get the same mileage as a Beetle. I also have my eye out for an old Mercedes Diesel.

The smog laws will get worse next year in California, making it easier to fail, costing you money. Will it get as bad as Japan? At 45,000 miles, you have to replace the engine?

I'm tired of every commercial being an add for a new car, locking you in debt for the rest of your life, with a house you can barely afford.

For all these reasons, I can see no reason to buy a new car.

[Ford Man]

Last time I bought a new car was when I bought my '97 Escort LX wagon. At the time we were living in NC had small children and my parents living in KY so I wanted something dependable to make the trip in a few times a year. I looked at used and new and was able to buy new almost as cheap as I could buy a 1-2 year old used Escort with 30-40K miles. At the time Ford had a credit card that gave 5% rebate toward the purchase of a new Ford for every purchase made using the card. I had one of those cards and used it for my daily purchases and had accumulated about $1700 worth of rebates on top of the savings I got by negotiating my best deal. I couldn't have used the rebates on a used car. The credit card didn't have any annual fees and I always paid it off at the end of the month so there was no interest on my purchases. I paid cash and was out the door for about $9300. I still have the '97 and it now has 32K miles, about the same number of miles a used one would have had at the time of purchase. If I'd bought used it would probably now have about 65-70K miles. If I ever wear out some of my higher mileage cars and the '97 starts getting several miles I may buy another new car, but until that time I'll keep the '97 and use it basically for longer trips. Since I like to have a more dependable low mileage car for longer trips if I bought used for this purpose I'd just be having to buy them more often so maybe not saving anything in the long run. I carried collision/comprehensive for about the first 3 years of ownership which I'd have probably done on a 1-2 year old used car. At the rate I've put the miles on the '97 if I continue at this rate I'll be about 85 years old when it reaches 100K miles. I'll probably not even consider replacing it until it's got at least 100K miles. It stays in the garage most of the time so when it's cleaned up it still looks and runs as good as a new car. I didn't buy new to impress anyone it just seemed the way to go at the time and would do it all over again under the same circumstances. As most of you know from my '88 Escort with 518,500 miles I drive cars until they wear out so this one is in the family for the duration.

[Suarez83]

Hm...Is there really a number of reasons for buying a new vehicle?))) I always thought it's only your desire and income to play the main parts in this question)) Anyway, the list of reasons looks quite reasonable...Though I think that when my time for buying a car comes, I'll forget all the advice))

[JanGeo]

Originally Posted by bobc455

I know some people feel that it's important to impress people with a car, but unless that car is a Ferrari, Lamborghini, *maybe* a $250k mercedes, a classic car, etc., I'm not impressed. People think their scions or fancy subarus or celica GTs are impressive- not to me.

- Bob C.

Hey Bob I hope you are not putting me in this Scion category! I just like my xB because it has AC that gets cold in 10 seconds and handles well and can fit 4 adults with 5 bags of luggage in comfort and still get over 40mpg in a head wind like I did after you put those two $65 pirelli tires on last Sunday. Not to mention it is about the greenest car made due to simple engineering, a proven motor design used in other models and low budget advertising. It was the third and final year in production for that style body and engine and has had no recalls. I got it for function not style but I just happen to keep it clean and shiny because it did cost a good chunk of change and my friends like to ride to and from the airport in something the dog didn't get fur all over.
This is my third and possible last new car I have bought in my lifetime and I hope to make it last a good long time until I can build the sleek all wheel drive 4 motor direct drive 800 HP electric monster car my partner and I have been designing.

[bobc455]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

Hey Bob I hope you are not putting me in this Scion category!

I was thinking the little 2-door coupe thingy. Not yours.

Yours is cool and impressive for other reasons. (But let's face it - not exactly a chick magnet for cruising the strip...)

-Bob C.

[JanGeo]

Originally Posted by bobc455

I was thinking the little 2-door coupe thingy. Not yours.

Yours is cool and impressive for other reasons. (But let's face it - not exactly a chick magnet for cruising the strip...)

-Bob C.

Yeah the tC is a bit lame unless it gets a turbo and then it screams, but my toaster does turn a lot of heads and not from a sweet sounding exhaust note. You should have heard the guys in the body shop " ooooh the xB " when they found out it was mine, keeping it very clean makes a good impression. If you ever saw my office you would wonder how I keep my car so clean . . . But anyway the body shop made a mess of it and stunk it up with a dirty soapy rag on all the door panels, I had to literally spray the panels with water to clean off the film they left and no more new car small after 5 years. Took it out last night in the light rain, yeah those Pirelli P4 tires are definitely much quieter that the stock Goodyear LS tires.

[JanGeo]

Ok guys and any gals? My girlfriend found a 1999 1/2 Golf TDI looks good but we are talking 13 years and 135k miles for $5800 . . . I do not think a diesel is for her but it seems a bit high according to edmunds, and yeah it's green with sunroof and leather seats. Whaddathink?