Buying a car?

Looking at getting rid of my 2010 370Z and getting something a little more practical. trying to stay around a 36-37k budget i can't decide if i want a Lexus IS 250, or the new Mercedes-CLA coming out later this month. I've had speedy cars for a while and looking more for luxury at this point. i commute 80ish minutes a day round trip.

I have never owned a Mercedes before, is the service cost etc similar to BMW? i owned a 335xi for a bit and the service was outrageous once it was out of warranty.

Wife and I are torn between Acura MDX or Honda CR-V. Buying new. Either get the nicer, bigger MDX, or the CR-V and use the 10g we'd save to get downstairs bathroom redone and a jacuzzi for out back. /firstworldproblems.

Needs are getting my wife, a nurse manager, to work in bad condition and chauffeuring our two boys to various sports/activities.

jeydax_sl said:

I thought they actually looked OK but have heard they've had some issues. Did you drive it at speed at all - did it sound like you were in a wind tunnel if so?

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I took it up to about 65-70 and didn't notice any unusual wind noise, only thing I hated was the awful speaker glowing system which I found a switch to turn it off. Stupid cars are marketed to Obama's son.

Lleauaric_sl said:

Wife and I are torn between Acura MDX or Honda CR-V. Buying new. Either get the nicer, bigger MDX, or the CR-V and use the 10g we'd save to get downstairs bathroom redone and a jacuzzi for out back. /firstworldproblems.

Needs are getting my wife, a nurse manager, to work in bad condition and chauffeuring our two boys to various sports/activities.

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You totally need an Escalade/Suburban if your wife is going to chauffeur a kid around, it's impossible to do it in anything smaller.
(I'm 100% out of the loop on new honda's but I'd say go for Honda since it's the same platform with less technology.)

So my 2008 Mustang GT is getting up there in miles (nearly 90K) and I really don't want to keep piling them on. I really, really love the car so I decided to just keep it and buy an affordable, yet fun commuter car to go back and forth to work with.

I have no desire to buy a used car that already has a ton of miles. I put about 70 miles a day on my vehicle so I want something that I know (or reasonably certain) will be reliable and repair-free for a few years. So, I've been looking for a low-mileage (i.e. under 30K) sub-compact. Other than some Fiat 500s -- which I'm extremely skeptical of -- I can't find a damn thing. At least, nothing that, price-wise, isn't already close to buying new.

And that's the crux of the situation and something I mentioned before in this thread. "They" always say never buy a new car but I think that's only true if you're okay with buying a high mileage vehicle. Even still, a decently equipped high-mileage car will come darn close to the cost of a brand new something else.

For example, I did a quick search for a used Honda, under 100K miles, manual transmission (a must), no older than 2008. I got some DX's for about $10K but they are bottom of the barrel equipment-wise. Oh, here are some Si's but they are more than $15K. I could buy a nicely equipped 2014 Ford Fiesta for a little bit more. Yeah, a Fiesta is no Civic Si but it also doesn't have 100K miles on the odo.

So that's what I've settled on is ordering a '14 Ford Fiesta SE from a local dealership. The quote they gave me a extremely reasonable. I would go for one off the lot but finding one with a manual tranny is almost impossible unless I want a base "S" model.

Anyway, just curious what other opinions are on the subject. I'm really kinda 'meh' towards plopping down 18K (which is what the Fiesta will be with taxes, etc. etc). But looking at the entire picture I really fail to see how a used vehicle will be a better deal given the requirements I presented.

Wanting a low mileage, manual commuter car is a niche market i'm afraid.

sumdain x_sl said:

Looking at getting rid of my 2010 370Z and getting something a little more practical. trying to stay around a 36-37k budget i can't decide if i want a Lexus IS 250, or the new Mercedes-CLA coming out later this month. I've had speedy cars for a while and looking more for luxury at this point. i commute 80ish minutes a day round trip.

I have never owned a Mercedes before, is the service cost etc similar to BMW? i owned a 335xi for a bit and the service was outrageous once it was out of warranty.

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Pretty much. Part of owning a luxury vehicle. For reference, I worked at my brother in law's service center. I will say of all the European cars, Mercedes seem to have the least problems. Audi owners were in that shop every fucking day, it was ridiculous.

I bought a 2012 focus last year for 14k, had 10k mileage. My dealer must have been new because I just completely dominated the negotiations. 230 a month, full roadside assistance, free key replacements, 5 year financing. Important thing was just laying out what you want and what you want to pay for it. I pretty much told him I wouldn't go over 230 a month, even when he offered 240.

Also bought my dad's old 2003 ford f150 in July from him for 2500 but that's family pricing ect.

Itlan_sl said:

Pretty much. Part of owning a luxury vehicle. For reference, I worked at my brother in law's service center. I will say of all the European cars, Mercedes seem to have the least problems. Audi owners were in that shop every fucking day, it was ridiculous.

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If you're going strictly by numbers of cars you saw at the shop and equating that to reliability (or lack thereof), it's really not a fair comparison. BMW outsells Mercedes by a significant margin, something like 200k cars to 300k cars in 2012, and the gap used to be even bigger.

Full M3 / M4 specs. Looks amazing!

Official BMW M3 M4 Specs: 430HP, 369+ LB-FT, Under 3306 Pounds, Bi-Turbo Inline 6 Cyl

Eomer_sl said:

If you're going strictly by numbers of cars you saw at the shop and equating that to reliability (or lack thereof), it's really not a fair comparison. BMW outsells Mercedes by a significant margin, something like 200k cars to 300k cars in 2012, and the gap used to be even bigger.

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I'm talking a 3 to 1 ratio, probably. Audi was like 10 to 1, god those cars suck.

Because Audi is just an overpriced VW, and noone realises it.
Funny thing is the small VWs are usually more reliable than the more expansive fancy nancy premium Audi cars.

Dyvim_sl said:

Because Audi is just an overpriced VW, and noone realises it.
Funny thing is the small VWs are usually more reliable than the more expansive fancy nancy premium Audi cars.

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The Audi s7 is such a nice car to look at/drive though, if money wasn't an issue for me,
that would be my car.

Vinen_sl said:

Ford Sync is fucking terrible.

The UI is far too complex for use while driving, its laggy and overall shows of being developed by Microsoft.

That said, I'm still considering buying a Ford Fusion Energi w/ Sync.

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A lot of the touch screen systems are still a bit wonky for all the brands. Overall the UVO system which also is microsoft made for my KIA works pretty well but it can get a bit laggy as well from time to time. Most touch screens no matter how good their UI are going to be unusable while driving simply because they lack tactile feed back so you are forced to look at them to make choices unlike older stereo systems. The KIA system I have is at least reasonable it has buttons for most major things that you need to futz with a lot and a competent if not outstanding voice command system which works well for genera and artists but takes a few tries if you are trying to get it to play a specific song. These car entertainment systems have some improving to do before they catchup with smart phones for quality/usability.

Vinen_sl said:

Ford Sync is fucking terrible.

The UI is far too complex for use while driving, its laggy and overall shows of being developed by Microsoft.

That said, I'm still considering buying a Ford Fusion Energi w/ Sync.

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I actually like Sync on my 2010 Fusion better than the version in my 2013 Explorer.

It's loads better than 90% of the other voice activated shit

Not quite sure what I want to do. I own an 08 F-150. Just moved from the midwest to LA, so no need for it at all and it is just too goddamn big for out here. I have about 8-10k in equity and not sure what I want to do.

I wanted to initially just buy a beater as I have to do street parking a lot and I'm done with car payments, but used cars are stupid expensive. I'm not gonna drop 8k to drive a fucking PT cruiser.

So I've decided I want to either just get: Ford Focus, 370z, like a used 335 or such. As much as I'd like to get something cheaper, I'm 26 living near the beach, I would want to drive a nice car.

can anyone give some tips on refinancing a car? Would a year after the initial purchase of the car be a good time to try and do it? My payments are too damn high.