And...I have not even been out to the lot yet lol. So I'm thinking of getting a new vehicle at the end of this year and I am struggling. It needs to hold at least 4 people (2 car seats) and a dog. Obviously I care most about price/safety/mpg/reliability in roughly that order. I have a predisposition of sorts for trucks because that it what I drive now, but I'm really not sure if that makes any sense. In the truck world it appears that my best options are the 4 door tacoma or a 4 door f150 with a v6. Both get about the same mileage (ford is actually slightly better with the new v6) and price wise it's close. But...what about a mazda5? Anyone have one or an opinion on one? I am also really tempted by the VW jetta wagon with the TDi (50 mpg highway) but VW reliability and repair costs are ugly. Or what about small SUVs like the escape or the CR-V? My only problem with those is that they are ugly generally. Any thoughts or opinions? Help a brother out; I'm at an impasse.
Mazdas are great cars. Can't go wrong there. You should read reviews (on sites like edmunds, caranddriver, automobilemag, etc) to get an idea what the pluses/minuses of each car is. Narrow down the list and go on a few test drives.
Every time there's a car buying thread there's a ton of great advice, and I always forget what was said. Especially about buy vs. lease and the "four box" trick.
I've read mountains. Heck, that's half the problem. Every time I try to narrow down my list I get stuck because there are so many damn options. I've come to the conclusion on price and mpg that it really makes very little of a difference except for the satisfaction I would get with less gas purchasing (excluding the TDi and hybrids of course, those are a slightly different story). Even saying that, I still don't have a good take on how to whittle down the lists with respect to mpg! I suck at this.
http://www.truedelta.com/ That site will give you maintenance history of prior years models and survey out of 100 how many times a vehicle had to enter the shop. http://www.realcartips.com/ That site is a survey of how much people actually paid at the dealership, no one pays MSRP so if the dealership gives you the MSRP price, they are ripping you off and hoping you don't know any better.
I'm with you. I already know what I want but negotiating gets old even doing it via email. I'm hoping they have more incentive to sell at the end of the year.
Mazda's are now good cars? That's good to hear. What is the feeling about Toyota now? What are car makes/models to stay away from? Might be looking myself next year.
Toyota is good. All that stuff about sudden acceleration seems to have been BS... I'm still skeptical about American cars.
I can't speak for a Mazda 5 specifically, but I have driven a Mazda 3 for the last three years and I've loved it.
Agreed. Toyota is the way to go. Usually good on gas, long-lasting, affordable, and alot of the newer models actually look presentable.
Agreed. My current vehicle is a toyota. It's been indestructible. ~140k miles and zero problems except for an O2 sensor that went out. I'm really liking the mazda5. Minivan functionality without it being, you know, a minivan. Anyone have experience with a family of four in a 4door truck? Is it effective? How are road trips?
I bought a car over the summer, doing all of my negotiating via email. It was a little awkward during the test drive phase, since I was going to dealerships to test drive different makes/models and then leaving without even going into the dealership to discuss pricing. Once I had chosen the car I liked, I used truecar.com to get what local deals were being made. I then requested quotes from local dealers on very specific make/model/option combinations. Once I got every dealers quote via email, I let the dealers know that I had received a quote of $X and would go with that dealer if they couldn't beat it. Really easy. Actually, I got quotes right away that were thousands below MSRP and pretty close to the truecar.com and edmunds.com invoice price. I showed up at the dealer, looked at/test drove the actual car, and finished the paperwork. I was suprised at how smoothly everything went. Not sure if that was just the dealer I was working with or not though.
Our neighbors just bought a CRV. Its actually pretty roomy inside. It doesn't look that big fro the outside, but it had a lot of room inside. Not sure what your price range is, I think the CRV starts a bit higher than the Mazda5. I liked the Subaru wagons/SUVs a lot too. Subarus really hold their value, which would be a plus years down the road. I was looking for a 4door to replace a 4door civic. I needed room for 2 car seats, so I had to step up in size. I looked at the Camry, but ended up with an Accord. Honda was offering 0.9% for 60 months, and Toyota was only offering 3.9% at the time. I was amazed at how easy it was. I had quotes on a Camry, an Accord, and a Ford Fusion, and knew what the finance rate would be. It made it easy to plug those numbers into a car payment estimator tool, and figure out the monthly and total cost of each deal. Going to the dealer was actually exciting, because the hassles were already over. I was just going to pick up the car.
Just curious. Did you pick the Accord strictly based on the financing? I'm debating those three vehicles as well. I like the Fusion a lot.
