Buying a New Car (IN THIS ECONOMY???)

1to392831weretaken said:

Too vague. What do you want in a car? How far do you typically drive in a day? How many people/skis/four-legged creatures/shrubberies do you transport on the regular? Are you the kind of person who loves to drive or are you the kind of person that is more concerned with cupholders/infotainment/etc.? Do you have easy access to charging infrastructure at home, e.g. a garage or carport? I guess I could just ask @Swaye what he's observed during his stalking, but I figure I'll be polite and ask you directly.

I've had to replace two vehicles in the last three years, and in both cases I simply created a spreadsheet to determine what would be the most economical purchase, as what car I drive is way lower on my priority list than a lot of other things I'd rather have. I only have one rule and that is that I'll never own another thing with a Honda emblem on it, but that's personal.

Anyway, there's a vehicle for just about everything, so what are you looking for and how much are you looking to spend?

Swaye said:

Just go buy any new Toyota you can afford and have years of trouble free driving. Or, if you want to be a baller, go buy a new Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. This has the added benefit of telling cuck dudes you mean business and you could probably take his woman and kick his ass afterwards. Win win imho. I'll help you get a good deal if you give me a pair of your socks. Unwashed.

1to392831weretaken said:

Doog_de_Jour said:

Only requirements I have so far are 1) it can make over mountain passes in the dead of winter 2) decent gas mileage 3) has Bluetooth connection capabilities.

1.) The list of cars that satisfies this requirement includes all of them. Mountain passes are either open or they're not. If it's rough, they require chains. If it's even rougher, they close them. I've never heard of a situation on I-90 where they say, "You can only drive on this pas with x amount of ride height and 4WD." The obsession with AWD around here is a bit silly to me. It's nice, but a seemingly little known fact is that it doesn't--at all--help you stop. Tires do, but people spend thousands extra to get an AWD vehicle and then run the stock shitty all-season radials year round. Best investment is to spend the $1000 in the first October/November you own a new vehicle to get a second set of wheels with some dedicated winter tires. Modern studless winter tires are absolutely amazing. I keep a running tab every winter because I'm a smug asshole: Vehicles in the ditch are overwhelmingly SUVs (particularly large ones) and trucks. A couple of years ago, during a decent winter storm, I was passing a line of about 50 cars on a straight stretch of Highway 20 because they were all driving like they'd never seen snow. About three cars into this, the guy in the Tundra took offense and sped up to try keeping in front. I had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid T-boning him as he spun a full 360 degrees and ended up in the ditch on the side of my lane. And I was in a RWD small car, but running Blizzaks on cheap steelies (best winter wheel if you're the function over form type).

AWD systems add weight and sap fuel efficiency. Winter tires are better. AWD and winter tires are better still but completely overkill 99.9% of the time unless you rally race in Michigan.

2.) If fuel economy is a concern, I'm assuming overall economy is as well. If you have access to charging, electrics are going to win the spreadsheet exercise 10 times out of 9. Unfortunately, Chevy's subsidies expired, so the Bolt is a lot more expensive than it was at first and not the value proposition that it used to be. The market is soon to be flooded with long range options from companies other than GM and Tesla, though, so there will be a lot of choice. Never having to stop at a gas station is fucking awesome, and spending less than $3 for a 70 mile round trip commute is awesomer still. If your workplace offers free charging, reduce that by half. Since you want to go long range (over the mountains), the only game in town currently are Tesla (too expensive to win on TCO), Chevy Bolt, and the sister Hyundai/Kia crossovers. Those last two would be very economical in the long run after federal rebate. There's also waiting for things coming very soon from VW, Ford, etc.

If gas is your thing, Mazda's lineup is probably the best bang for the buck in the automotive world. They look good, they're reliable, they're typically fun to drive, and their SkyActiv platform is incredibly fuel efficient for gas. I've owned a Mazda 3 and really liked it. My brother owns a current gen 3, and it's great. You can pick these things up used for a pretty good price and still pull off 40 mpg from a 2015 or newer. They're currently running 0% financing and no payment for 90 days, too, so that's pretty good.

3.) Is there anything that doesn't have standard bluetooth capability anymore? If so, that would be a serious mistake by that manufacturer.