Car advice - new attending - what to buy?

[Tim]

Be careful buying a Honda. They tend to become part of the family, even nicknames.

2007 CRV
2008 Accord
2012 Accord
2013 Civic (replaced 2003 Civic).

Services were held for the 2003 Civic in 2013. Civey was rear ended sitting in a left hand turn lane in Austin Texas. The right rear frame was completely collapsed 90 degrees to absorb the impact as designed. The ultimate sacrifice of a ten year veteran protecting my 2 kids through high school and college.
Sound effect: Sniffle, sniffle.

Getting rid of a Honda can be difficult.

[MPMD]

Tim wrote:

Be careful buying a Honda. They tend to become part of the family, even nicknames.

2007 CRV
2008 Accord
2012 Accord
2013 Civic (replaced 2003 Civic).

Services were held for the 2003 Civic in 2013. Civey was rear ended sitting in a left hand turn lane in Austin Texas. The right rear frame was completely collapsed 90 degrees to absorb the impact as designed. The ultimate sacrifice of a ten year veteran protecting my 2 kids through high school and college.
Sound effect: Sniffle, sniffle.

Getting rid of a Honda can be difficult.

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Asked my excellent mechanic what the best cars were.

He sort of smiled and said "Toyota/Honda, Nissan .... then everything else."

[mxg67]

childay wrote:

Please don’t buy a prius.

Check out the toyota avalon and the lexus ES.  You could also get a few years used for some savings.  We have a few years old ES350, super reliable and spouse likes the heated everything..

Admission, somewhat of a car guy.  Also, man both my recommendations are pretty ugly in recent years (OMG the grills).  But since you don’t want something flashy..

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Care to elaborate?  I'm considering something like a prius or hyundai Ioniq.

[Craigy]

mxg67 wrote:

childay wrote:

Please don’t buy a prius.

Check out the toyota avalon and the lexus ES.  You could also get a few years used for some savings.  We have a few years old ES350, super reliable and spouse likes the heated everything..

Admission, somewhat of a car guy.  Also, man both my recommendations are pretty ugly in recent years (OMG the grills).  But since you don’t want something flashy..

Click to expand…

Care to elaborate?  I’m considering something like a prius or hyundai Ioniq.

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They're depressing.

[Caligas]

No love for Sonota or Optima?

60k/100k warranty!

[NaOH]

Caligas wrote:

No love for Sonota or Optima?

60k/100k warranty!

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For that matter, the Stinger gets the same warranty...  8-)

[JK]

Wow, been busy the last few days and just getting back to see all the responses from my original post. Definitely appreciate the feedback - lots of great ideas.

One wrinkle that I guess I didn't mention in the OP but has become more apparent as I approach the end of our lease and had an opportunity to look things over in more depth is to possibly buy out the lease. Our current situation is two 2016 CRV (long story beyond this post for why we have two of the same) - one owned and one lease. I just found out that the buyout for the leased CRV is ~18k-19k. Although I originally planned on a smaller car (hence the original post), talking with my wife a bit more, she seems to think that just buying out the other SUV is the way to go. She likes the larger car for kids, we only have to "know" one vehicle, no hassles of haggling for a new vehicle, etc... I do have a slight preference for smaller cars (gas mileage, maintenance, etc...) but the CRV certainly hasn't been bad at all the last couple years I've driven it and now isn't out of the question to just buy it out (happy wife, happy life). The plan would still be to drive it into the ground.

So...I'm wondering if this additional information with pricing would change anyone's minds or provide other guidance. Essentially buyout our leased CRV for ~18-19k or purchase a new vehicle amongst the many already mentioned in this thread which would probably be in the 25-35 range depending upon what I ended up going with. Also not sure the maintenance cost + gas difference between a CRV and one of the smaller vehicles mentioned would be. I'm guessing negligible but I really don't know cars.

Many thanks.

[smartmoneymd]

JK wrote:

Wow, been busy the last few days and just getting back to see all the responses from my original post. Definitely appreciate the feedback – lots of great ideas.

One wrinkle that I guess I didn’t mention in the OP but has become more apparent as I approach the end of our lease and had an opportunity to look things over in more depth is to possibly buy out the lease. Our current situation is two 2016 CRV (long story beyond this post for why we have two of the same) – one owned and one lease. I just found out that the buyout for the leased CRV is ~18k-19k. Although I originally planned on a smaller car (hence the original post), talking with my wife a bit more, she seems to think that just buying out the other SUV is the way to go. She likes the larger car for kids, we only have to “know” one vehicle, no hassles of haggling for a new vehicle, etc… I do have a slight preference for smaller cars (gas mileage, maintenance, etc…) but the CRV certainly hasn’t been bad at all the last couple years I’ve driven it and now isn’t out of the question to just buy it out (happy wife, happy life). The plan would still be to drive it into the ground.

So…I’m wondering if this additional information with pricing would change anyone’s minds or provide other guidance. Essentially buyout our leased CRV for ~18-19k or purchase a new vehicle amongst the many already mentioned in this thread which would probably be in the 25-35 range depending upon what I ended up going with. Also not sure the maintenance cost + gas difference between a CRV and one of the smaller vehicles mentioned would be. I’m guessing negligible but I really don’t know cars.

Many thanks.

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The maintenance costs between the CRV's and most of the other cars mentioned is pretty negligible, especially if you'd rather spend your free time doing something else other than learning about cars.  What might be more practical in the long term is to find a reliable mechanic to service the car as needed.

[Tim]

2007 CRV
2008 Accord
2012 Accord
2013 Civic

Ideally, spacing years 5 years apart is fine. The residual value is usually an impartial estimate, I had read, two firms provide the service, the baseline. From a maintenance cost, coupon shopping from dealer or your mechanic will make a bigger difference.

[LIFO]

As a new attending, I will advocate for a lease that is properly negotiated.  You need reliable transportation now.

With a lease you get:
Limited risk - can always give the car back at end of lease term
Reliability - A new car will be reliable.
Subsidized payments - A lease rate has a money factor which is a gussied up interest rate.  Many car companies will subsidize this to near zero percent.  You cannot get that on a used car loan
Defined expenses - No maintenance/repair surprises
Limited increase in debt - Buying a used car at 30k is still a big loan for someone who wants to agressively pay down debt
Time - shopping for a good used car takes a lot of time.  Get a lease broker, tell them what you want to pay, let them do the legwork.

You can lease a new Jetta for less than a cell phone payment.  Lots of options.  Leashackr is a good resource.

At the end of your 3 year lease term, you are settled in your job, home, environment and will know what you want.  Then buy your car.

[MPMD]

LIFO wrote:

As a new attending, I will advocate for a lease that is properly negotiated.  You need reliable transportation now.

With a lease you get:
Limited risk – can always give the car back at end of lease term
Reliability – A new car will be reliable.
Subsidized payments – A lease rate has a money factor which is a gussied up interest rate.  Many car companies will subsidize this to near zero percent.  You cannot get that on a used car loan
Defined expenses – No maintenance/repair surprises
Limited increase in debt – Buying a used car at 30k is still a big loan for someone who wants to agressively pay down debt
Time – shopping for a good used car takes a lot of time.  Get a lease broker, tell them what you want to pay, let them do the legwork.

You can lease a new Jetta for less than a cell phone payment.  Lots of options.  Leashackr is a good resource.

At the end of your 3 year lease term, you are settled in your job, home, environment and will know what you want.  Then buy your car.

Click to expand...

This all makes sense for a new grad who has decided not to live like a resident and basically wants a new car.

If you are committed to driving a late model car right out of residency I agree with you that leasing isn't the end of the world.

The issues of reliability and maintenance has been discussed endlessly on other threads but new care =/= no maint and used care =/= always at the shop. A Camry or an Accord with 100k miles on it is probably realistically going to be in the shop <1x/year which is just as often as you are going to have to be doing regular maintenance on a lease.

[treesrock]

I think we are overthinking this.  OP clearly does not care about having a "cool" car (OP has two CRV's...), which is not an insult at all.  I could care less about how cool my car is.  If you're happy with the '16 CRV just buy out the lease and drive the cars into the ground.

Does the leased CRV have the modern driver assist features?  I've been surprised at how much I enjoy using the adaptive cruise control w/ lane assist on my '18 Subaru, makes long drives so much easier.

[Kamban]

JK wrote:

Our current situation is two 2016 CRV (long story beyond this post for why we have two of the same) – one owned and one lease. I just found out that the buyout for the leased CRV is ~18k-19k. Although I originally planned on a smaller car (hence the original post), talking with my wife a bit more, she seems to think that just buying out the other SUV is the way to go. She likes the larger car for kids, we only have to “know” one vehicle, no hassles of haggling for a new vehicle, etc… I do have a slight preference for smaller cars (gas mileage, maintenance, etc…) but the CRV certainly hasn’t been bad at all the last couple years I’ve driven it and now isn’t out of the question to just buy it out (happy wife, happy life). The plan would still be to drive it into the ground.

Click to expand...

Get the one you are leasing. You know the car. You got it new and drove it well. One driver cars do well long term because it has not be abused by multiple drivers.

Another option is to look at 2018 models of comparable CRV trims and see if the price difference is acceptable to you. The 2019 models are coming in and the dealers are trying to clear the 2018 ones. You might get the 2018 ones for 24K or so. See if it is worth the price for a 2 year newer model with more features.

[LIFO]

MPMD wrote:

This all makes sense for a new grad who has decided not to live like a resident and basically wants a new car.

If you are committed to driving a late model car right out of residency I agree with you that leasing isn’t the end of the world.

The issues of reliability and maintenance has been discussed endlessly on other threads but new care =/= no maint and used care =/= always at the shop. A Camry or an Accord with 100k miles on it is probably realistically going to be in the shop <1x/year which is just as often as you are going to have to be doing regular maintenance on a lease.

Click to expand...

That is a generalization and inaccurate.  Look at monthly costs.  You can lease a new car for $150 - 200 /month with no money down.  It gets new car gas mileage.  It has new car safety.  It has brakes and tires that won't need replacing.  Most new cars have first maintenance included.

That's a total cost of $7,200 over 3 years.  Show me a $25k used car that doesn't depreciate by that amount.  Then you have to replace the brakes, tires, and any other little thing along the way.

Also, we aren't talking about 100k mile camrys.  That is a different discussion and not relevant to the OP.  Yes, you can save more money that way if that's your thing.  I wouldn't recommend anyone who doesn't know squat about cars and doesn't want to learn buy a 100k mile car.

[Anne]

LIFO wrote:

MPMD wrote:

This all makes sense for a new grad who has decided not to live like a resident and basically wants a new car.

If you are committed to driving a late model car right out of residency I agree with you that leasing isn’t the end of the world.

The issues of reliability and maintenance has been discussed endlessly on other threads but new care =/= no maint and used care =/= always at the shop. A Camry or an Accord with 100k miles on it is probably realistically going to be in the shop <1x/year which is just as often as you are going to have to be doing regular maintenance on a lease.

Click to expand…

That is a generalization and inaccurate.  Look at monthly costs.  You can lease a new car for $150 – 200 /month with no money down.  It gets new car gas mileage.  It has new car safety.  It has brakes and tires that won’t need replacing.  Most new cars have first maintenance included.

That’s a total cost of $7,200 over 3 years.  Show me a $25k used car that doesn’t depreciate by that amount.  Then you have to replace the brakes, tires, and any other little thing along the way.

Also, we aren’t talking about 100k mile camrys.  That is a different discussion and not relevant to the OP.  Yes, you can save more money that way if that’s your thing.  I wouldn’t recommend anyone who doesn’t know squat about cars and doesn’t want to learn buy a 100k mile car.

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My Accord with almost 200k miles had a total maintenance cost of $762 in 2017.  Total vehicular running costs including maintenance, gas, and insurance was $2262.  Not sure yet of 2018 totals (obviously--still have December to go) but so far seems to be tracking similarly.  Yes, I know this is anecdotal.  Just wanted to brag on my Honda