My wife is pregnant with our first child, she currently drives a 2006 Toyota Avalon with 160k miles on it. With the exception of one very stressful out of warranty problem, when ended up getting covered 90% of the cost as it got recalled, we have had no major issues with it. That problem happen about a year after we got it, though we have owned it for about 6 years and the only other issues we had was an O2 sensor and a broken cruise control lever. She has been talking about getting a new car for a couple of years. She is wanting a small to midsize sedan as she finds people like to damage her car in the parking lot. Though at the same time as we are having a child the large room not only makes the car safer, but also easier to get a child in and out of the car compared to a smaller car. The other thing that is bugging her about it is the tires. The car being the "touring", has low profile tires which are not only expensive, but less comfortable on our roads that are torn up by winter every year. She is also wanting something that has AWD. I know tires are king when it comes to safety and granted she only goes with all season, though I would like to go with winter tires and new rims, if we keep the car and swap them out in the spring. She is also worrying about repairing the car, the cruise lever and the O2 sensor happen this year.
I took a look at some midsize AWD cars and I was stunned about how much they wanted for used cars, let alone new cars. What ever happen to you lose 10% of the value of the car by driving off the lot. I see cars that are marked only about 15% that are 3-4 years old, I thought they normally depreciate around 40% in that time. We do like cars and think they are a marvel of engineering, though we both agree cars are just a tool and a means to get me to point a to point b. I don't understand why people would spend boat money on a means a transportation, I mean that is crazy right? I don't mind spending money on doing a project on my house and I wouldn't mind spending a lot of money on a new boat, though I like being on my boat and in my house. Both of our vehicles have been paid off for about a year.
I took a look at some midsize AWD cars and I was stunned about how much they wanted for used cars, let alone new cars. What ever happen to you lose 10% of the value of the car by driving off the lot. I see cars that are marked only about 15% that are 3-4 years old, I thought they normally depreciate around 40% in that time. We do like cars and think they are a marvel of engineering, though we both agree cars are just a tool and a means to get me to point a to point b. I don't understand why people would spend boat money on a means a transportation, I mean that is crazy right? I don't mind spending money on doing a project on my house and I wouldn't mind spending a lot of money on a new boat, though I like being on my boat and in my house. Both of our vehicles have been paid off for about a year.