Help me choose a new (to me) car

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last Thursday I was rear ended by a man who ran a red light. I am completely fine and no one was injured but I did hear back from my insurance company today and they have declared my 2010 Corrolla a total loss. We aren’t 100% finished processing the claim but at this point it seems pretty certain we are going to receive payment from the other driver’s policy to replace the car and pay for our rental while we get it replaced. But now we will need to get a new used car and I’m not finding anything comparable listed online. There are 07 and 08 Corrollas but I don’t want an older vehicle than I started with if I can avoid it. There are Kia Spectras and Souls but I don’t know how a Kia compares to Toyota in safety and value. There are Nissan Versas but those drive like they are made of legos.

I guess I’m just a little frustrated that it looks like we won’t be able to be “made whole” so to speak. We loved our car! It was safe, affordable, new enough that we weren’t going to run into major repairs for at least a few years, etc. And we are crazy busy right now as we are in the middle of closing on a house, so this could not have come at a worse time. :frowning:

I’d like to have a little bit more to go on than just Need Car Now as a guide to choosing a vehicle so I’m turning to the dope for help. We are going to be looking at somewhere between 10 and 15k as a payout and we want to end up in something as close as possible to what we had before. I’ve never been keen on Ford, GM or Chevy but I don’t know how much of that is based on memories of complaints about the brands when I was a kid. How are the American cars, quality-wise? Is there anything we should seek out or avoid? Are there better options than Carmax for people who do NOT want to haggle over prices?

2

The insurance company should provide enough money to make you whole, including sales tax on a replacement vehicle. So, you should be able to buy a replacement 2010 Corolla. My wife’s 2009 Venza was totaled by another driver and I was quite pleased with the payoff amount, which included an allowance for sales tax. In preparation, you should look on cars.com, autotrader.com, edmunds.com and similar sites to see if you can find 2010 Corollas like yours listed for sale near you. Carmax is the king of no-haggle, but there are other no-haggle used car dealerships around. I know of three large ones near me.

As for a replacement vehicle, if you decide on something different, I would certainly take a look at 2012 +/- Hyundai Sonatas and Kia Optimas. Both were redesigned for 2011 and get favorable reviews. They are a little larger than a Corolla, but much nicer than the smaller Spectra, Soul and Elantra. The Honda Civic is comparable to a Corolla, as is the Subaru Imprezza.

3

Orwell saved me some typing.

4

Kias are terrible, or they were 10 years ago; my least favorite car to own was a Kia and it didn’t even make it to 90k before needing a new transmission. Check Consumer Reports before ever considering one.

5

Just got a 2013 Kia Optima. Awesome car. Previously they didn’t have a great reputation but they made lots of changes for this model year and this is a nice car.

6

They’ve gotten considerably better actually. They also come (at least the new ones) with a 10 year, 100,000 power train warranty and a 6 year, 60,000 bumper to bumper warranty. I’ve had a Rio for two and a half years and haven’t had a problem with it.

7

Regarding the CarMax thing: don’t put too much weight to the no haggle gimmick. You can buy a car anywhere without haggling if you pay the asking price and CarMax’s prices often aren’t any cheaper than the asking price at your local dealerships. They’re often even quite a bit more than your not-so-local dealerships; i.e. ones that specialize in out of town internet sales.

Another thing to consider is if you are looking at cars that are only a few years old is that used car prices are currently pretty high. You might want to consider new. Especially if you drive a bunch of miles per year, buying new might in the long run end up costing about the same or even slightly less than buying slightly used.

As for specific car recommendations, I personally think the depreciation is so minimal on a slightly used Toyota or Honda that you might as well buy new. With Hyundai and Kia, both have shown fairly decent reliability numbers over the past 5 years or so (they’re owned by the same company.) Some Kias are still getting criticized for somewhat chintzy quality, but the Hyundais are mostly fairly nice cars. Both brands still depreciate fairly quickly, so there can be some good used deals there. With the domestics, I think Chrysler and GM’s smaller car offerings are still pretty crummy but the newer Ford Focus and Fiestas are pretty darn nice and can be had for a pretty good discount used. If I were shopping in your price range, a nice used Focus is probably what I’d be looking for. The Nissan small cars are just about on par with Ford both in terms of quality and reliability as well as depreciation, so they might be another possibility.

Subaru and VW have both also seen pretty big jumps in reliability over the past few years. They also tend to hold their value fairly well, so they’re not stellar used car buys, but some people really like them (hence the higher resale) and so they might be worth considering if you want something beyond a basic driving appliance.

8

Kia and their Hyundai cousins were horrible years ago. Those built in the 90s were a joke. However as another poster mentioned, both brands are much, much better vehicles now.

My son has owned 3 Hyundais with two of them going over 150K miles. He says that the 100K warranty is a ripoff as he never got to use it. :smiley: In other words, no problems under the 100K mile warranty. I did have to change the heater blend door actuator at 140K miles on his 2008 Elantra so that the heater would work. Easy job.

Both my daughters, one son-in-law, and I own Kias. Mine has been in the shop once for warranty work for the speedometer. It was a defective speed sensor. The others haven’t needed anything except for routine repairs. My daughter’s Soul required new front brake pads for the first time at 98K miles and they weren’t all that worn out.

My wife’s PR Cruiser required more maintenance work than all the family’s Hyundais and Kias combined. It was in the shop about every 3 months for things like a transmission rebuild towards the end. We got rid of it at 98K miles. For some reason, my wife bought a Nissan!

9

Serious question: How often does the power train on a car go bad in 10 years? That always struck me as a silly warranty.

10

Good advice up thread, but unless car payments are an issue you may even want to look at new. $15 k would put you into a new Focus or a 2014 Impreza with a little dickering. Kia and Hyundai are also worth a look, and as mentioned have vastly improved their products. 10 years ago I wouldn’t have touched one with a ten foot pole, but when it comes time to retire my Subaru Legacy, the Optima is definitely one of the contenders.

11

My normal advice, echoed by others, is that it seldom makes fiscal sense to buy a used Honda, Toyota or Subaru. Used car prices for these brands are high, making a new vehicle the better value in most cases, if one can afford a new one. I would suggest Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Ford represent better used values - since they depreciate faster - so long as you carefully pick the year and model (to avoid unreliable and undesirable models), as well as normal used car considerations such as condition, mileage, maintenance, etc. And, yes, I left GM and Chrysler vehicles out of the discussion on purpose, as there are none I would want to buy, with the possible exception of a Corvette or certain Cadillacs.

I also echo sentiments above that Kia and Hyundai used to be fairly lousy cars, but seem to have improved dramatically within the past decade. My son has been driving a 2010 Hyundai Sonata that he bought used in 2011 and it has been mostly trouble-free.

12

Get whatever used BMW you can afford. Just plain awesome cars.

13

Agree on the BMW, but coming from a Corolla you should look at the poor person’s BMW, the Mazda 3. Really great.

14

Yeah, at ~$15k, I’d shoot for a new car and figure out how to make up the small difference. Besides the obvious advantages, not least of which is a full warranty, it’s a hell of a lot easier shopping for and buying a new car for a great price without haggling. If all you want is a simple, basic compact car, it should be easy to walk out the door under $20k, maybe even well under that, depending on your wants and needs.

Once you figure out the make/model you want, go to truecar.com and get a ballpark idea of the “true” price, but DON’T sign up for their service to contact dealers for you. Find all the dealers in the general area and go to their websites and try to get the email address and/or phone number for their Internet or Fleet sales rep. Email address is preferable, but gather whatever info you can find for each dealer before you start contacting any of them. Some you’ll have direct email addresses for, some will only have some sort of “Contact Us” web-form or dealership-wide contact email, some only the rep’s phone number will be on their site. Some might not even have any of the above, and you’re probably better off just skipping those unless the other options are sparse.

Start in the order given above, contacting those where you have the direct email address for the Internet/Fleet sales rep. For each dealer, see if they have their inventory listed online, so you can see if they actually have the make/model/color/options car you want, and how many of them they’ve got. (The more of the exact same they’ve got, the more eager/willing they’ll be to move them quick.) In the email, tell them the specific make/model/color(s)/option(s) you want, mention that you see a few in their inventory, and then say that you want their best possible “Out the Door” price including Dealer AND Destination fees. The only acceptable costs/fees excluded from their quote should be Tax/Tag/Title. (Two “D’s” included, three “T’s” excluded)

Prominently mention that you are similarly contacting various dealers for their best “Out the Door” price, AND that you will be paying with a cashiers check and will NOT require financing through them. Once you get your insurance check, figure out how much more you’ll need and secure the funds yourself, whether through your bank/credit-union/etc. You might also mention that you are purposefully NOT using a car buying service like Truecar/Costco/AAA/etc, and you hope that they’ll appreciate your direct and straightforward approach by being direct and straightforward with you. (They’ll be happy to save any fees they’d have to pay for those services.)

Hopefully you were able to get a few direct email addresses to send the above email to. Give them a day or so depending on what responses you get, then move down the contact list to the dealerships that only had a general “Contact us” web-form and see what you get. Depending on the results, then move on to the dealerships where you were only able to get direct phone numbers to the Internet/Fleet sales rep, and be well prepared to verbally tell them the same terms you wrote in the email.

The key is letting them know that you are contacting various dealers for their best prices, are aware of how the game is played, and won’t need financing through them. At that point, they’ll know to give you the best possible price and have a shot at getting the sale, instead of letting one of their competitors get the sale. They make enough money on the Dealer fee and whatever Incentive fees they get from the manufacturer, they just won’t be hitting the jackpot when you walk in the door.

15

Hmm, I thought I replied to this yesterday but apparently the computer gremlins ate my post.

Anyway, new cars and/or car payments are not an option for us. We close on our house on the 23rd and the process of buying a home has sucked up every extra cent we might ever have had. With a mortgage payment and essentially no savings (except for a small amount for emergencies) the only money we will have to replace the vehicle is the check that the insurance company is going to hand us once they are finished with all the paperwork.

I’ve done a little research and I’m not finding Hyundais or Kias to be much cheaper than a Toyota or Honda, though I’m still looking so I might find something awesome and affordable soon enough.

16

The whole thing? Never. But it’s certainly not rare for cars that are less than 10 years to need transmission or engine parts replaced.

FWIW, I’ve owned two Hyundai Elantras from new (2002 and 2008 model years) in a row. Both have made it to 100K miles with no issues at all with the exception of a CD player that thinks it has a CD it in when it doesn’t.

I’m seriously considering buying another one next year, though I’ve always wanted an Impreza WRX.

17

I just heard from the insurance company and we are getting just over $11,000. Now I suppose we are off to look at cars this weekend and do some research online.

18

That’s not a lot of money for a car but I did a search for recent model year, low mileage, Hyundai Sonatas. Found a bunch with well below 40,000 miles and under $12,000 (before negotiation).

This one caught my eye: http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/613547715/overview/

Probably nowhere near where you live but if you are open to buying a car over the phone, then it’s not hard to arrange shipping through the dealer.

If you are more hands on, I don’t see why you couldn’t find something in your area, with low mileage and no older than 3 years with your price requirement.

Good luck.

19

What has your research indicated as the value of your previous totaled car? Did the insurance company offer enough to make you whole - value to replace your old car plus sales taxes? You don’t have to automatically accept it if you don’t think it’s enough. Present evidence from edmunds, cars.com, kelly blue book, nearby used car dealers, etc. if you think you should get more. Weren’t you expecting more?

20

Another good idea if you do think the settlement offer is a little light is to talk to your own insurance company. They’re usually willing to help you negotiate with the other company in these situations and they’re in a much better position both to tell you whether the offer is reasonable and to negotiate if not.

On the car search front, plugging <$11,000, <4 years old, and <50k miles into autotrader showed me a bunch of Hyundais and Kias, as well as do-not-want cars like Chevy Aveos and Dodge Calibers and just a couple of Fords and Nissans. I do think the Koreans’ market penetration is a little more in the western states so if you’re somewhere that those cars are less common, you may want to focus on something else. This is also a price range where there’s a lot of fairly nice used rental cars, so if one of the big rental chains has a direct sales place near you that might be worth checking out.