I leased an 05 Mazda 3 about 3 years ago- it was the first year of this new model- I was in love with this car when I bought it, but it has a few quirks I’m not in love with.
I have my eye on the Dodge Caliber, and got to drive one as an Enterprise rental yesterday while my Mazda was in the shop.
Here are the options I have in front of me, moving forward. My goal is to save money:
Lease a newer Mazda which hopefully has some of the quirks ironed out (do they iron out quirks after the first year of a new model?).
Lease a Dodge Caliber.
Buy a Dodge Caliber from Enterprise (I got the “we only sell the top 3-10% of our fleet, which are fully certified after a rigorous 105-point inspection, and they come with a one year power train warranty” spiel.) For example they have an 07 Caliber with 18000 miles on it for $14,000)
Buy out the Mazda I have now.
What kinds of things should I take into consideration when looking at the above options? What’s the smartest thing to do?
Just out of curiosity, what are some of the quirks you’ve had with your 3? I have a lease on a 2006 that I don’t intend to buy out. It’s been a pretty good car, but it has a brake squeal the dealership hasn’t been able to figure out, and now every time I fill it up it stalls out and takes forever to start, because the solenoid fuel valve or something needs to be replaced. And the part’s on backorder from Mazda, which makes me think it was a bad part. As I recall, the buyout price is pretty high compared with what it’ll be worth when the lease is up.
I’m going to be in a similar situation with my 2007 Dodge Caliber at the end of the year (27 month lease).
I don’t have any advice for buying vs. leasing, but the Caliber has quite a few quirks of its own (many huge blind spots, slow acceleration). Please make sure you test drive the hell out of it.
Mine has the VERY brake squeal problem of which you speak. When I have to leave early in the morning, I’m sure my neighbors imagine all the ways they could disembowel me so that they never have to be woken up again.
methinks this problem has not been “ironed out”…bah…
Other quirks are: sometimes the brights come on when I hit turn signal- I’m sure people in front of me love that. Sometimes car lurches from first gear to second when the engine is cold, but my last visit to the service dept seems to have corrected this (some kind of computer upgrade fixed it)
When I drove the Caliber, I actually found it to have fewer blind spots than the Mazda 3. I’ve been forced to become a head-turner in my Mazda, which I know isn’t safe.