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There are some interesting EVs on the market but depending on your price point only really since this year has there been much choice. They're also hugely variable in terms of range, power and price so a good recommendation is going to need some idea of what your needs are. You can ask in the EV thread in AI and probably have the benefit of starting an argument where everyone defends their purchase to the death.
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Jul 8, 2021 13:05
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Shine posted:The Prius is a ubiquitous car now, and any remaining douchiness it had has been swallowed up by Teslas. 
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Jul 8, 2021 14:31
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I personally know someone with a Tesla and a "pluglife" license plate.
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Jul 8, 2021 15:56
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Buttpluglife
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Jul 8, 2021 17:24
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Frabba posted:I was recently in the market for a plug in hybrid. The Prius prime is nice, and it gets really good gas mileage, but the interior is a bit lacking IMO. The Camry is available as a hybrid but nothing with a plug, the only two Toyota’s that come with a plug right now are the Prius Prime and the RAV4 prime. The thread is a big fan of the Prius in general, but that’s because most people come in looking for gas mileage + reliability. Lexus 200ct is a prius with a nicer interior and (imo) exterior, so that might be an option if you like the prius mechanicals but not the car. I think someone in thread bought one and is happy with it.
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Jul 8, 2021 17:43
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the problem with the Clarity, other than the fact that it's being discountinued and is very rare on the used market due to low sales, is that its really, really ugly, and although you don't have to look at the outside of your car very much, you still need to do it. this is also a problem shared by the current Prius which looks loving atrocious.
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Jul 8, 2021 17:44
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bird with big dick posted:Buttpluglife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-uFGusRNf4&t=1436s
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Jul 8, 2021 18:45
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Ok, I've got "money" again and am once again looking for a small-ish, low to the ground, manual transmission, crossover/passenger van. I want to use it for both work (hauling tools, small amounts of material, loading the top with boards/stock/ladders) and everyday life (moving people and a giant dog). It's got to be as small as I can get it because I'm in Chicago and do work in the city, low to the ground so it's easy to load, and manual because I want to enjoy driving it a little bit. What I really want is a Transit Connect, but they are automatic only and are either equipped to move people or tools and I need to be able to swap between the two with ease My budget is hanging around $5-7k and I'm landing on mid to late 00's Elements or Mazda5's. I'm particularly looking at the Element for its AWD and pretty Spartan interior that won't hold onto as much construction dust. Plus it has super easy to remove rear seats, but I can't find much negative about them other than "poorer than average fuel economy and lots of wind noise from the boxy shape", and that makes me suspicious. I know the Mazda5 has aggressive rust issues and the automatic transmissions are kind of garbage, but again, manual only, so that's a non-issue
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Jul 8, 2021 19:20
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It's not quite a van, but a 1st-Gen Toyota Matrix is right in that price range, somewhat available in a stick, has tons of interior space, seats that fold flat and is pretty drat fun to drive with a stick. I'd imagine it's a lot easier to park than a transit too. Mazda 5 with the stick would also be great but they are quite rare.
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Jul 8, 2021 19:29
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DildenAnders posted:It's not quite a van, but a 1st-Gen Toyota Matrix is right in that price range, somewhat available in a stick, has tons of interior space, seats that fold flat and is pretty drat fun to drive with a stick. I'd imagine it's a lot easier to park than a transit too. Mazda 5 with the stick would also be great but they are quite rare. I've thought a lot about 4dr hatches/wagons and I just worry about having enough vertical space, because my toolbox doesn't fit into my dad's Outback unless it's laid on its side, same with my fiance's xA. I wish it were different because then I'd quit hunting unicorns and just get a Mazda3 wagon, an xB, or a Matrix since those are everywhere
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Jul 8, 2021 20:05
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How big is the toolbox? My brother has a 1st gen matrix and I could measure the height of the trunk if you'd like. I want to say it has more vertical clearance than something like an XA or Outback but I'm not positive.
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Jul 8, 2021 20:23
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DildenAnders posted:How big is the toolbox? My brother has a 1st gen matrix and I could measure the height of the trunk if you'd like. I want to say it has more vertical clearance than something like an XA or Outback but I'm not positive. Just 34"x16"x22". A Packout knockoff
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Jul 8, 2021 20:57
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With today's dumb used car prices, I'm looking at 15-18k for a 2018 corolla with 40k miles. At what point does it make more sense to just look at new cars and take advantage of low interest financing offers?
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Jul 13, 2021 03:49
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All market conditions considered, a new Corolla is hardly a bad idea IMO. Theres really nothing irresponsible about buying a (modest) new car, maintaining it, and getting every bit of life you can out of it.
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Jul 13, 2021 04:37
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Aren't typical wear items like timing belts and headlight assemblies like $4k each nowadays, meaning every new car is immediately totaled the second it gets into an accident or out of warranty?
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Jul 13, 2021 05:29
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DildenAnders posted:Aren't typical wear items like timing belts and headlight assemblies like $4k each nowadays, meaning every new car is immediately totaled the second it gets into an accident or out of warranty? No? Especially not on mass-market vehicles. Very few new vehicle still have timing belts instead of chains (Honda's V6 is one of the last ones I can think of) and even at full dealership gently caress-you pricing you'd still be well under $4k to do a timing belt. That's also a 100-to-150k mile maintenance interval. nitsuga posted:All market conditions considered, a new Corolla is hardly a bad idea IMO. Theres really nothing irresponsible about buying a (modest) new car, maintaining it, and getting every bit of life you can out of it. This. Especially when you weigh the increased purchase cost against incentives / subsidized financing.
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Jul 13, 2021 06:06
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DildenAnders posted:Aren't typical wear items like timing belts and headlight assemblies like $4k each nowadays, meaning every new car is immediately totaled the second it gets into an accident or out of warranty? Nah its not that bad at all. Parts have gotten expensive though. The LED headlight assembly on our 2017 Explorer my wife had an accident in was over 900 dollars which was a lot more than I thought it would have been. A relatively minor single car accident was about 9500 in parts and labor. The last timing belt job I paid for was a little under 700 bucks on a 2000 civic and that was at a dealer, but that was over a decade ago. The going rate on a water pump job, which involves replacing a ton of timing chain stuff on my car is about 1900-2100 dollars. A 4K repair is still really significant. Thats almost replacement engine territory for a normal car.
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Jul 13, 2021 06:29
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i'm currently leasing a 20 corolla se which is up next may. residual on the car is about 14k, and i'm already getting offers on the car from the dealership for about 19-20k. carmax is around the same. i do know that toyota is one of the manufacturers that are blocking 3rd party lease buyouts, which isn't a big deal because i'm planning on staying with toyota. i was planning on making a move in the next few months on either a tacoma or 4runner. i'm not expecting a redesign to happen, but when are they going to release any news on the 22 4runner/tacoma models? i know about the trd sport, but they have to have more than that, right? i'm expecting to have a decent amount of equity to throw into a new lease. i'm hoping it's not that difficult.
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Jul 13, 2021 07:07
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DildenAnders posted:Aren't typical wear items like timing belts and headlight assemblies like $4k each nowadays, meaning every new car is immediately totaled the second it gets into an accident or out of warranty? how is a headlight assembly a wear item exactly? also not that expensive as others have posted, and used headlight assemblies are readily available on most mass market cars. timing belt is a 100k mile / $1000 dollar job on most cars DEAR RICHARD posted:i'm currently leasing a 20 corolla se which is up next may. residual on the car is about 14k, and i'm already getting offers on the car from the dealership for about 19-20k. carmax is around the same. i do know that toyota is one of the manufacturers that are blocking 3rd party lease buyouts, which isn't a big deal because i'm planning on staying with toyota. i was planning on making a move in the next few months on either a tacoma or 4runner. you don't have equity in a lease. sorry. you have an agreed on buy out price for the car in your lease paperwork, which you can exercise. but if you don't exercise it, Toyota just takes the car back free and clear. You should exercise that option and then flip the car to Carmax, it's a bit more work but it will certainly be worth your while. 2022s are out, what you see is what you get. Very minimal changes.
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Jul 13, 2021 14:08
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:how is a headlight assembly a wear item exactly? also not that expensive as others have posted, and used headlight assemblies are readily available on most mass market cars. timing belt is a 100k mile / $1000 dollar job on most cars Headlights get banged up by stones and fog up due to UV exposure over time, but shouldn't be an issue form the first 15 years or so
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Jul 13, 2021 15:02
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i mean at the 15 years mark a whole lot of stuff is "wear items"
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Jul 13, 2021 15:09
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DEAR RICHARD posted:i do know that toyota is one of the manufacturers that are blocking 3rd party lease buyouts, which isn't a big deal because i'm planning on staying with toyota. If Toyota isn't letting you do a third party buyout, it means you need to buy the car yourself from them (so secure the cash or financing to pay off the residual), settle any DMV fees and taxes related to that, and only then you can sell the car. It's a big deal that they aren't letting you do it because it would probably save you thousands of dollars and a bunch of bullshit.
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Jul 13, 2021 15:48
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mobby_6kl posted:Headlights get banged up by stones and fog up due to UV exposure over time, but shouldn't be an issue form the first 15 years or so They'll get hazed by UV well before 15 years here, but then... you polish them with a $10 kit, or pay a detailer $100 to do it for you.
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Jul 13, 2021 15:57
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I used a kit like that to polish three cars, and it both worked perfectly and was very easy; I'd strongly recommend anyone who already owns or can borrow an electric drill try it before either replacing the housing or even paying a dealer. It's like the oil change of body work.
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Jul 14, 2021 12:34
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KillHour posted:If Toyota isn't letting you do a third party buyout, it means you need to buy the car yourself from them (so secure the cash or financing to pay off the residual), settle any DMV fees and taxes related to that, and only then you can sell the car. It's a big deal that they aren't letting you do it because it would probably save you thousands of dollars and a bunch of bullshit. Third party in this case means a non-Toyota dealer. This is true for all of the captive finance companies that are currently prohibiting third party buyouts. And even US Bank apparently. You can still trade the car in to a Toyota dealer and keep any equity if you wanted to do that. The captives want their dealers to have used cars to sell. That's the only reason for all these recent changes. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:you don't have equity in a lease. sorry. you have an agreed on buy out price for the car in your lease paperwork, which you can exercise. but if you don't exercise it, Toyota just takes the car back free and clear. You should exercise that option and then flip the car to Carmax, it's a bit more work but it will certainly be worth your while. You're talking about at the end of the lease term. If it's before that it's treated like any other car transaction where you pay the remaining balance due with the equity and keep any overage.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:00
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TheWevel posted:Third party in this case means a non-Toyota dealer. This is true for all of the captive finance companies that are currently prohibiting third party buyouts. And even US Bank apparently. You can still trade the car in to a Toyota dealer and keep any equity if you wanted to do that. The captives want their dealers to have used cars to sell. That's the only reason for all these recent changes. Why would the Toyota dealer offer you more than residual? Seems like a losing proposition unless they're absolutely desperate and a third party would probably still offer more.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:15
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Why do you keep using the word "equity" in regards to a lease?
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Jul 14, 2021 16:16
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Like, I know what you're both getting at but again current market conditions don't align with what you're talking about. edit: OP was talking about trading into a Toyota dealer with a current Toyota lease that isn't near end of term.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:32
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Toyota has some ridiculously good deals for lease turn ins if you buy a new car, advertised on some dealer websites. Simply because they have little on lot inventory. I dont get it either but it is real. At some dealers.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:46
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Motronic posted:Why do you keep using the word "equity" in regards to a lease? What would you call it? The car is worth more than the lease buyout. My house is worth more than the outstanding mortgage, that's equity right? Of course a lease is different, but the vehicle lessee controls the ultimate outcome of the vehicle. It's very commonplace to call this equity. KillHour posted:Why would the Toyota dealer offer you more than residual? Seems like a losing proposition unless they're absolutely desperate and a third party would probably still offer more. There's generally multiple Toyota dealers in a geographical area, and they're all hurting for quality used cars. It shouldn't be hard to get someone to offer over the residual. The only downside to buying the car and then selling it to a 3rd party, is it may be a taxable event depending where you live. Here in TX buying a car at the end of the lease is a new sales transaction and you've got to pay the sales tax on the buyout amount. My last vehicle that was over 1800 dollars, so make sure to factor those costs when figuring out what you want to do with the lease.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:46
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skipdogg posted:What would you call it? The car is worth more than the lease buyout. My house is worth more than the outstanding mortgage, that's equity right? Of course a lease is different, but the vehicle lessee controls the ultimate outcome of the vehicle. It's very commonplace to call this equity. It's very commonplace for people who are terrible with money to claim they have equity in a vehicle, yes. It isn't the slightest bit like home equity, which is actually a thing. And the vehicle lessee does not "control the ultimate outcome of the vehicle". You have whatever options are in the lease and those apply only at the exact time the lease says they do with whatever fees the lease says they get to charge. We're at a particular point in time where it often makes sense to buy out a lease even if it doesn't allow third party buyouts and eat the transaction costs because you can likely sell it for more than the negotiated buyout price + transaction costs. But to take advantage of this it means you've likely made a bad financial decision in the past (leasing a personal vehicle) that just happened to maybe work out for you because of a completely unpredictable event. So what do you call that? I don't know, but it's not equity. Calling it that without a bunch of *'s and a paragraph long footnote isn't doing any posters seeking reasonable financial advice any favors.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:57
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So your entire argument is parsing word definitions, got it edit: even in the before times, it was entirely possible to have equity in a lease
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Jul 14, 2021 17:07
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Motronic posted:But to take advantage of this it means you've likely made a bad financial decision in the past (leasing a personal vehicle) that just happened to maybe work out for you because of a completely unpredictable event. Are you actually arguing that leasing a personal vehicle is de facto a "bad financial decision"? A lease is an options contract with some fees and some tax benefits and you have to weigh that against a straight purchase. If I buy options in a stock and that stock becomes worth more than my option to exercise costs, I have equity in that stock. I paid a fee to have that flexibility, but it doesn't change the calculus of whether I can make money off of exercising that option. I'm leasing my new BMW because the lease rates and fees are so low that not having to pay 9.25% tax on the ~$55k residual makes it an objectively better choice than buying unless I decide to keep it long-term (which just lol at the idea of keeping an M car out of warranty).
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Jul 14, 2021 17:13
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TheWevel posted:even in the before times, it was entirely possible to have equity in a lease I've leased multiple vehicles, and every time (except for 1), I've ended the lease early, and used the excess value of the car over the lease buyout price, to put towards my next transaction. I'm going to call that equity, many others that lease vehicles call that equity. The one time it didn't work out, I ended up buying the car at the end of the lease and trading it in 6 months later. It was basically a wash. I still lease our primary vehicle, and as long as interest rates stay stupid low I'll probably continue to do so for the next 25 years or so. The pro/cons of leasing and being dumb with money is another discussion. OP wanted information on maximizing the value of the current leased vehicle.
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Jul 14, 2021 17:19
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KillHour posted:Are you actually arguing that leasing a personal vehicle is de facto a "bad financial decision"? Why are you inserting "de facto" where I used the word "probably"? Is it because that's the only way to make whatever point you're trying to make? It's quite well understood which types of leases/marques leasing generally works out on. You gave an example of that. This is not the case for the vast majority of vehicles that are leased, where it's used as a method of lowering the monthly payments for people who are overspending on a vehicle. If their situation changes during the term of this "options contract" they are often screwed (increased commute that would push them over the mileage cap, needing a different size/type of vehicle), unlike in a situation where they purchased and finance a vehicle. There are very good capex vs. opex reasons to lease a vehicle for business purposes. Those don't exist for individuals. TheWevel posted:So your entire argument is parsing word definitions, got it Yeah, it's almost like words have specific meanings or something. Motronic fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 17:23
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Bought a new car for $30k 3 (4?) years ago, and it is now worth $26k. Don't know what to do with this information, but it's getting real tempting to just buy a bike/vespa
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Jul 14, 2021 17:36
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Motronic posted:Why are you inserting "de facto" where I used the word "probably"? Is it because that's the only way to make whatever point you're trying to make? Why are you being pedantic? If you say "you probably made a bad financial decision (leasing a car)" you're implying that leasing a car is a bad financial decision. I don't even think it's probably a bad financial decision or even likely a bad financial decision. It's just a financial decision. Leasing a car you can't afford is a bad financial decision, but the starting assumption here is you're buying a specific car and need to choose whether to lease or buy - not you're choosing between buying a 3 series and leasing a 5 series. KillHour fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 17:40
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KillHour posted:Leasing a car you can't afford is a bad financial decision, but the starting assumption here is you're buying a specific car and need to choose whether to lease or buy - not you're choosing between buying a 3 series and leasing a 5 series. But yes, thank you, you're very smart for leasing a high end car that falls apart outside of warranty. Meanwhile over here I'll be not taking options contracts on things I require to stay living
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Jul 14, 2021 18:23
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zedprime posted:An important qualification to make in a thread otherwise full of car selection experts and amateur or professional accountants is that this is actually the normal way people shop and the experts are the exception without getting on a soap box to tell people "stop looking at your monthly note." You're absolutely gonna be upsold by a slimy dealer if you exude buying a base model but can be convinced to get in a more dealer advantaged lease on a higher model or trim if you don't shut down the option by going in knowing what you actually want (another advantage held by the experts but not the normals). You missed my entire point, which is that said person had already leased a car and was asking how to get the most out of their lease turn in, and motronic took issue with the idea that you could expect to get something out at the end of a lease. Nobody asked if they should lease, just what they should do about the lease they already had.
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Jul 14, 2021 19:03
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KillHour posted:motronic took issue with the idea that you could expect to get something out at the end of a lease. You either have reading comprehension problems are are willfully misrepresenting the things I've said. It's easy, you can just scroll up and re-read if you've become confused.
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Jul 14, 2021 19:18
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