Another car buying thread (in spite of the others)

I've said it on these threads before and it looks like it's picking up steam.
Go drive a Civic, Corolla and Elantra.
Now compare the price and drive the Elantra home, because it is a ridiculous amount of (highly reliable) car for the money and has been now for more than a decade.

 

Please, please, please do not finance a car for 72 months. Hell, don't even go 60 months. You'll be so upside-down that if, in three years, you want to trade, people are going to laugh you out of a dealership.

I know it's enticing, but it's a pretty big mistake.

 

Broth,

Why are you saving up for a down payment? If you can get a really good interest rate, you can probably find better uses for the money.

 

To prevent upside-down-ed-ness, I hope.

 

Agreed. I'm in a 2001 Elantra. It runs well, isn't the ugliest car on the road (and the newer ones are nicer looking) and hasn't had many troubles (knock on wood). Nearing 100,000 miles now.

 

Agreed, but the worst case scenario is that when I finally get ready to make the car purchase, I'll have some extra cash left. I just finished paying off a couple grand on my credit card and my bank accounts have suffered because of it. I want to make sure I can save some up and at least have extra money at my disposal if I need it for the car.

 

Anyone here drive an Accent? I'm thinking of trying to set up some test drives starting next week and plan on hitting up the local Honda/Toyota/Hyundai dealership. I'm definitely interested in an Elantra but paid attention to an Accent I was walking by today and was interested.

 

Th Accent is smaller than the Elantra, Civic and Corolla. It is analogous to a Yaris, and I guess, a Fit.
All of those are real buzzy (I have an Echo, the car the Yaris replaced). If you want the smallest class of car you can get, loolk at those. But the Elantra is MAYBE $1500 more and you can fit four adults in it.

 

The Accent is billed as the cheapest car in Canada---$9,995.00 for the basic model. (standard, no air)

The Toronto Star's auto writers and editors drove one for six months and blogged the results.

http://thestar.blogs.com/budgetwheels/

All in all, pretty positive reviews with a few complaints about some of the details.

 

So here's a thought ...

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I don't drive a manual. The automatic adds about $1,000 onto each car, in addition to some "basics" like air conditioning and power windows/locks (I don't absolutely need power windows/locks, but prefer them in my car).

Here's a comparison of 2009 models of Civic, Versa, Elantra, to give an idea:
http://www.edmunds.com/apps/nvc/edmunds/VehicleComparison?op=0&tab=pricing&isbasecar=false&modelid=&styleid=&refid=&maxvehicles=5&vehicleindex=&removestyle=&numCars=3&just=center&disclaimer=false&modelId0=100526429&styleId0=101116698&modelId1=100526054&styleId1=101061141&modelId2=100525414&styleId2=101020470

Seems like a roughly $2,000 difference, but for that much, is it just better to get a Civic if it's considered the better car?

.... Can't wait to finally test drive them and see for myself, aside from what I read online.

 

One other thought: Resale value weighs strongly in the Honda's favor.

 

lono is right about cost of ownership. Go to Web-sites that have that info and check the models. If you intend to drive it 5 years, 5-year COO may be important to you. Take it out to 7-10 years and they will be more equal. Also, get insurance quotes for you final two vehicles, because can differ by hundreds of dollars a year.