Help Yi Buy a Car

[Admiral Yi]

Lease trade ins are great deals--capped mileage for 3 years, and somebody else already ate the depreciation.  Never been unhappy with a lease trade-in.

Repeat transmission in English.

[CountDeMoney]

Lease trade ins are great deals--capped mileage for 3 years, and somebody else already ate the depreciation.  Never been unhappy with a lease trade-in.

Repeat transmission in English.

Somebody leases a car for 3 years.  Then they turn it in for another car.  The dealer sells it.  It's a used car, but they're usually in much better shape due to the mileage restrictions (10k to 12k or so a year) and people usually take much better care of them.

[Admiral Yi]

Somebody leases a car for 3 years.  Then they turn it in for another car.  The dealer sells it.  It's a used car, but they're usually in much better shape due to the mileage restrictions (10k to 12k or so a year) and people usually take much better care of them.

So like a certified pre-owned blah blah blah? Sure I could go for that.

[Barrister]

Beeb: Crossovers seem like such soccer mom cars to me.  I've never had a mid life crisis car.  I deserve one.

They are soccer mom-ish for sure.  Though hugely practical - I thought our RAV4 would be super boring, but I really have grown to like it.

But I still miss my truck.  Come on you live in Iowa - the chicks will dig it if you get a nice F150.

[Admiral Yi]

They are soccer mom-ish for sure.  Though hugely practical - I thought our RAV4 would be super boring, but I really have grown to like it.

But I still miss my truck.  Come on you live in Iowa - the chicks will dig it if you get a nice F150.

But do I want to be dug by the kind of chick that digs a nice cool F150?

[CountDeMoney]

So like a certified pre-owned blah blah blah? Sure I could go for that.

yeah, practically the same thing.  Nice thing is, because lease agreements have mileage caps, they're usually pretty low.  My Jeep was 3 years old with only 27K on it, and IIRC, when I got my Cadillac it only had 18K after 3 years.

Very popular with old people, people with money and people that just like to drive new cars every year or three.


So you can spend less money for a higher end car than buying a lower end car brand new, taking the immediate depreciation hit.

[crazy canuck]

My mom, who is in a hospice, wants to give me some money to buy a car.  I've bought exactly one car in my life and didn't do a great job.  What do I need to think about?  How should I go about it?

I'm leaning towards a Jeep Wrangler, hopefully with a detachable roof *if* I can get some assurance it's not too fucking cold in the winter.  Need a car that can handle snow and ice.  I love the idea of program cars, those cars you take for test drives.  My mom's last two purchases were program cars and it seemed like the price reduction for car with 500 miles on it was fantastic.

My brother is pushing the idea of one of those online services that get nearby dealerships to bid.  TrueCar??

Should I wait for giant savings at the end of the model year?

Look at the Subaru Impreza, less expensive and better quality than the wrangler.  Especially if you are comparing for winter driving.

[DGuller]

(And keep in mind that if you are going to make payments, you'll have to carry full coverage insurance instead of just liability, so your insurance premiums will be much higher.)

They will be higher, but whether they'll be much higher really, really depends on too many circumstances to mention.  It's never a bad idea to get online insurance quotes on various options and compare for you own circumstances.

[dps]

Getting a 4x4 for winter is certainly not a bad idea, but I'd tend to stay away from a Wrangler. It's not very good on gas, not very great on roads, and the soft-top has all the disadvantages that have already been mentioned.

Yeah, that's why I suggested that he stay away from the Wrangler, not because of the possibility of it being hard to keep warm in winter.

My info on how bad the heating system is appears to be out-of-date, going by what others have posted.  I guess I should have mentioned that what I had heard was from people who owned Jeeps back in the 1980s or even earlier.

Why not do like everyone else and get a nice cross-over?  Or just go out and buy a full 4x4 truck like a nice Tacoma?

As I said, he doesn't have to get a SUV, cross-over, or pickup.  There are lots of AWD cars available too, and FWD isn't unreasonable in bad whether.

BTW, Yi, if you do decide you want AWD, you should consider whether or not you want full-time AWD or some sort of part-time or on-demand AWD.  Generally the part-time or on-demand systems drive better on dry roads and are better on gas mileage, but that varies a lot from vehicle to vehicle, and some of the part-time systems are pains in the ass.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't need AWD.  I need a car can handle slick and has some cool.

[Zanza]

Get a Mercedes.

[Admiral Yi]

Get a Mercedes.

Got any idea how much a three year old lease return entry-level Merc would go for in the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids market?

And do you have a secret password I can use to shave a couple clams off the price?

[Zanza]

No and no.

It's just my general unreflected advice to anybody who needs any kind of vehicle.

[Berkut]

Aren't Jeeps like the most unreliable, shitty cars in America?

[mongers]

No comment.