Do you like to give advice? Help me pick a used compact SUV!

[Anonymous]

I just bought a 2015 RAV 4 for $23,000. It only had 30,000 miles on it which is quite low. I did a lot of research and this seemed a reasonable price. I love it!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I guess this matters for judging my frame of mind since a couple of folks have asked why I'm starting to think about giving up the 2010 car.

I'm a single (widowed) mom, so there is no backup car or easy "help" if my CRV breaks. So I might be a little more risk averse than your average two-parent, two-car, family because I'll have very little time to come up with a plan.

Do you have $20k or you want to cap it at $20k? Because if it's the first I'd just get a new CRV or RAV4, put $20k down and pay like nothing a month for 3 years.

If it's the second, I think you have at least another year or two in this car. Start saving your "car payment" each month now and you'll have another $5-10k for the down payment. When you buy a really popular, reliable car like this, you don't save very much buying used unless it's like 5 years old, and replacing a 9 year old car with a 5 year old car doesn't seem worth it to me.

I like this advice. I'm the first PP who asked why you were replacing it. It's very hard to find a good, reliable car gently used for $20k. You don't want a Kia or a Chevy that will be done in 8 years instead of 12-18 years. We looked for a bit and then finally settled on spending $26k to get a brand new Subaru that would last us 15 years. So yes, I'd consider saving a bit for the next year or 2. 150k miles isn't that high for a Honda. Yes you want to plan for replacing it in the coming years, but if you need a $1k repair that is still WAY CHEAPER than buying a new car right now. So I'd keep fixing your current car until you can afford a $25k new car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just bought a 2015 RAV 4 for $23,000. It only had 30,000 miles on it which is quite low. I did a lot of research and this seemed a reasonable price. I love it!!

This is exactly what I'm talking about. We walked out the door in December 2017 with a 2017 RAV4 new from the dealer for $24,500. Some negotiating and buying end of year gets you new for a used price when it comes to Hondas and Toyotas, because they simply don't depreciate quickly. We initially wanted to buy used but the savings just isn't there.

[Anonymous]

How often does it break down? Honda's are known for lasting for a long time. My mechanic told me always try and buy Honda or a Toyota(if I can), even used one is better than most brand new other cars. I find that to be true myself. If you aren't having trouble with it, it is a good advice by other pp to keep if a bit longer.

[Anonymous]

I’d get an Outback

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just bought a 2015 RAV 4 for $23,000. It only had 30,000 miles on it which is quite low. I did a lot of research and this seemed a reasonable price. I love it!!

This is ridiculous. You could have gotten a brand new one for not much more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How often does it break down? Honda's are known for lasting for a long time. My mechanic told me always try and buy Honda or a Toyota(if I can), even used one is better than most brand new other cars. I find that to be true myself. If you aren't having trouble with it, it is a good advice by other pp to keep if a bit longer.

Don't expect the new cars to last as long with all of the electronics and the CVT transmissions. You'll be lucky to get 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just bought a 2015 RAV 4 for $23,000. It only had 30,000 miles on it which is quite low. I did a lot of research and this seemed a reasonable price. I love it!!

This is ridiculous. You could have gotten a brand new one for not much more.

And many more safety features

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How often does it break down? Honda's are known for lasting for a long time. My mechanic told me always try and buy Honda or a Toyota(if I can), even used one is better than most brand new other cars. I find that to be true myself. If you aren't having trouble with it, it is a good advice by other pp to keep if a bit longer.

It actually has only broken down once in the past 18 months and that was one morning at my home, not while out driving the kids around or anything.

[Anonymous]

We keep our cars FOREVER and are just on the verge of replacing our 2007 RAV4. We're going with another (used) RAV4 mostly because of familiarity. I don't think you can go wrong with another CRV either.

I've been researching like a maniac because my oldest is 15yo and this will be the car he learns to drive on. For Toyotas, there are a lot of additional safety features that became standard as of 2017 for RAV4s (and for a number of other models.) To get the most safety stuff (e.g., automatic braking or steering instead of 'just' the warning beeps; the difference is Toyota Safety Sense P rather than 'just' Toyota Safety Sense C) you need to get a trim level above the basic LE level. RAV4 got a major redesign in 2019 if you care about that, and I think they just introduced an electric version as well as the hybrid which has been around for awhile. (Our driving isn't sufficient to justify the extra cost of a hybrid, based on some calculator that I found on Google.)

I'm a researcher for a living and the idea of my goofy teenager driving terrifies me so I'm way overthinking this. I've found cars.com very useful for getting information about different cars: https://www.cars.com/research/ or even better use this link to compare cars/years/models: https://www.cars.com/research/compare/

I've been doing some online comparison shopping at cargurus.com. The one dealership we visited for a test drive literally offered us nothing for our decrepit old RAV4, but CarMax gave us a $2k offer, which is probably generous. So it's worth comparison shopping on the trade-in value for your CRV.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We keep our cars FOREVER and are just on the verge of replacing our 2007 RAV4. We're going with another (used) RAV4 mostly because of familiarity. I don't think you can go wrong with another CRV either.

I've been researching like a maniac because my oldest is 15yo and this will be the car he learns to drive on. For Toyotas, there are a lot of additional safety features that became standard as of 2017 for RAV4s (and for a number of other models.) To get the most safety stuff (e.g., automatic braking or steering instead of 'just' the warning beeps; the difference is Toyota Safety Sense P rather than 'just' Toyota Safety Sense C) you need to get a trim level above the basic LE level. RAV4 got a major redesign in 2019 if you care about that, and I think they just introduced an electric version as well as the hybrid which has been around for awhile. (Our driving isn't sufficient to justify the extra cost of a hybrid, based on some calculator that I found on Google.)

I'm a researcher for a living and the idea of my goofy teenager driving terrifies me so I'm way overthinking this. I've found cars.com very useful for getting information about different cars: https://www.cars.com/research/ or even better use this link to compare cars/years/models: https://www.cars.com/research/compare/

I've been doing some online comparison shopping at cargurus.com. The one dealership we visited for a test drive literally offered us nothing for our decrepit old RAV4, but CarMax gave us a $2k offer, which is probably generous. So it's worth comparison shopping on the trade-in value for your CRV.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much. This is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

I just posted under other question here but here it is again just copied and pasted my own post..
I am new car person and would do anyting to avoid used if possible because the peace of mind you get from a car that
has everything covered for good few years is priceless. Also this car can be had for peanuts really comparint to most and
it is very nice roomy car with pertty good safety record. I would go with this for the reasons posted below.

2019 Volkswagen Tiguan
here is why, because it is SUV and it is pretty safe, and bigger for a kid as a kid grows so much more comfortable then sedan.
Because it has wonderful warranty for you not to worry about anything: :6 yr/72,000 mi basic, 6 yr/72,000 mi powertrain

And because it is really inexpensive

MSRP: From $24,295

If you negotiate it right you can get it for about 18 to 20K without much effort considering new next year model is around the corner.

MPG: Up to 22 city / 29 highway

You can easily find a car for under 22K in our area and remember that those prices are BASE for negotiations so you can negotiate way more down from this:

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action...lowest&stkTypId=28880&zc=22044

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/new/searchresults.ac...rtType=PRICE&sortDirection=ASC

SUV is such that once you own one you never want to look back at sedans. SUV's have so much more room, air and so much easier to get in and out.

[Anonymous]

Tiguan is a compact SUV but has a legroom comparable to a large size. it is really big inside. You might want to check it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just bought a 2015 RAV 4 for $23,000. It only had 30,000 miles on it which is quite low. I did a lot of research and this seemed a reasonable price. I love it!!

This is ridiculous. You could have gotten a brand new one for not much more.

Nope, this was the top of the line one with all the extras I wanted. Couldn’t get that new for even close to $23,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tiguan is a compact SUV but has a legroom comparable to a large size. it is really big inside. You might want to check it out.

OP here and please remember I know nothing about cars. I love the look of the Tiguan, but are VWs pretty reliable? Pretty easy to find a mechanic for? I've only ever owned Japanese cars.