Sigh; gotta buy a car.

J

JustinR32

New member
Well, I don't HAVE to, but the insurance deductible on our demos just went to $5000, and I don't feel comfortable with that, no siree.



Just so everyone knows, it's not any easier doing this even if you work at a dealership. Yes, I have no problem getting a good deal, but it''s not any fun spending $16000 instead of $17000.



If I go used, which I probably will, I'll probably go with a Malibu Maxx. I can pick one up at auction with less than 20K for around $16000. Not that it's the best car, but it's nice enough.





Tom
 
My way of looking at it, is that if you have a 5K deductible you only stand to lose 5K if you have a wreck. Chances are you won't use it. Now as we all know, any car especially an american car will depreciate rapidly. After two years or less you will lose at least 5K in value on a car you buy. However, with the demo you will be out zero dollars unless you have a wreck etc. I'd personally take the 5k risk, and collect interest on 5k in the bank and put wear and tear on the demo.
 
Mosca,



I'm surprised you'd buy a relatively new car. Wouldn't you be in a better position to cherry pick the higher mileage luxury cars at a dealer only auction?



I figure for $16K you should be able to get some great Acura RLs or TLs, Infiniti G35s, Q45s, or Lexus GS/LS400s? Even in the >60,000 mile range, those cars should be nicer and more reliable than the Maxx, especially if you get the dealer pricing.



Wish I could go to dealer auctions.
 
I wouldn't worry about the deductible either. Accidents just aren't all that likely/unavoidable. My "deer incident" was the first one I've ever felt I couldn't have avoided had I been more on the ball, and looking back, I dunno about that one either...gets back to my "if you're the driver and it happens to you, it's on you" approach to driving. Buying a car you're not crazy about (let alone for that kind of money) isn't my idea of fun, or of a wise expenditure either.
 
The other problem is, in PA, any damage over $500 and the car can't be sold as new. I would be responsible for any lost value when the car was sold, ie the difference between selling price and actual cost. zevo, even taking that into account as part of a pure calculation your numbers are correct, but there's value in spreading the potential loss over time. I can take the hit, but I don't want to have to. And, the hit isn't "once and then never again"; the potential is there for a repeat. One employee had his demo hit in his driveway by an uninsured drunk driver while he was asleep upstairs; it cost him over $3500, and that was when our deductible was $1000 (the deductible and $2500 lost value).



jvcn, I thought about that, but I'm a "warranty" guy. By my reasoning, I can get a 1 year old car that has depreciated between 30% and 50% of its original cost, and take $800 or so and "buy back" twice the warranty that the car had as new. Those are cool cars, but I wouldn't want to be on the hook for anything major, even if the risk is smaller. And, the GM cars are pretty reliable these days; you see the biggest differences not in repair statistics but in refinement, materials used, and fitment of cosmetic parts.



Both the "accept the risk" strategy and the "pass the risk" strategy are valid; a person has to go with which one he feels most comfortable. I'm more comfortable with spending a bit now to even out potential bumps later. I've had enough "that'll never happen" moments already.





Tom
 
Mosca- The "can't sell as new"/lost value thing didn't occur to me. Sounds like you've got this pretty well thought out. Just give the same careful consideration to *which* car you get ;)
 
Could you buy an insurance policy to cover your deductible and lost value? I get a company car and put over 70 miles on it daily. Belive me that is a great fringe benefit (plus free maintenance and gas).
 
Heh, so no one likes the Maxx, ehh? I think they are kinda neat and I'm glad to see GM get into station wagons again. Now if it only had a V8 and RWD...
 
Aurora40 said:
Heh, so no one likes the Maxx, ehh? I think they are kinda neat and I'm glad to see GM get into station wagons again. Now if it only had a V8 and RWD...
Click to expand...



dodge magnum srt



<drool>
 
Aurora40 said:
Heh, so no one likes the Maxx, ehh? I think they are kinda neat and I'm glad to see GM get into station wagons again. Now if it only had a V8 and RWD...
Click to expand...



The only thing about the Maxx I don't like is that it isn't a *true* station wagon. It's got that half-cargo/half-trunk thing going which doesn't quite do it for me :nixweiss
 
Aurora40 said:
Heh, so no one likes the Maxx, ehh? I think they are kinda neat and I'm glad to see GM get into station wagons again. Now if it only had a V8 and RWD...
Click to expand...



...and better styling, and a less bland interior....



Too much 'rental car' look for me, even though I understand underneath the ugly they are actually pretty decent.
 
Mosca,



It does sound like you know what you want. But one last question: I thought that the top luxury cars are easy to warranty even at the 65K range? I've seen 3rd party warranties on Lexus and Acura go for <$2000 to cover up to 4 years. Again, since you're in the biz, I figure you would know which companies to go with. Here again, the reliabillity of these brands is in their favor. So I'm not sure where the greater risk is with say a 2001 Certified Acura RL vs a one year old GM anything.



The reason I ask is I'm trying to figure out how much extra info people like yourself have over schmoos like me who just have to deal with hearsay and Web research and who are locked out of dealer only auctions.



But what do I know?



Good luck.:nixweiss
 
I can't speak for the Acuras but the LS400s will run forever with little costs. Most of the costs of repair come from letting the dealer service it which isn't neccisary. Like you I wanted the warranty so I bought my ES300 over a 3 year old LS400 with 35k for about the same money but I'd have been fine in the LS. My dad put almost 160k miles on his 98 LS before he traded it on a new one last year and the only out of the ordinary repair was the lower ball joints around 120k. When he traded it the air struts were starting to loose air which would have been a $4k job but thats easily fixed by getting one with standard suspension (the air is rare anyways) Thats pretty damn good. My next car will be a brand new LS that I'll drive the wheels off of no question, probably in 2008. If its well taken care of no car takes miles like a Lexus LS. Come to the LOC and see how many 1990 LS400s we have with hundreds of thousands of miles that still have loving owners.



You can get into a nice 98 or 99 LS nowadays for that money at auction with 60-70k miles. They're just getting started at that.
 
"I can't speak for the Acuras but the LS400s will run forever with little costs."



So true. It's amazing how many of these cars are still in capable service.



"My next car will be a brand new LS that I'll drive the wheels off of no question, probably in 2008."



Me too hopefully. By the way, do you know these LS 430 cars do 0-60 in 5.8 seconds!! Hooowa! :shocked :D
 
Mosca, I'm confused. You say that your insurance deductible on demos is up to $5K. Then you say that if you have an accident with more than $500 damage...the car can't be sold as new. I'm presuming that most customers won't buy a "new" car with a thousands of miles...does that mean that you guys drive cars off the lot for a few hundred miles and then swap to a fresh one? Is that a standard perq for dealer employees? I always thought the demo cars that were driven by salesmen, etc., were sold as used, with the remainder of the warranty intact.
 
Goodnclean - Trust me the acura's and honda's will go FOREVER given you do the normal maintanence. Same with lexus and toyota, honda and toyota make the best cars flat out. If only BMW's had the reliability of the japanese manufacturer's!!
 
"I can't speak for the Acuras but the LS400s will run forever with little costs."



I intend to test that theory with my 95 LS400. So far, so good. Bought it used with 95k miles and, except for a broken radio antenna, it's been well behaved for a couple of months. But I also recognize that the LS series is not everyone's cup of tea.



Me -- I wouldn't trade an LS for all the Ferraris in the world (Or only if I could sell them).
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Mosca, I'm confused. You say that your insurance deductible on demos is up to $5K. Then you say that if you have an accident with more than $500 damage...the car can't be sold as new. I'm presuming that most customers won't buy a "new" car with a thousands of miles...does that mean that you guys drive cars off the lot for a few hundred miles and then swap to a fresh one? Is that a standard perq for dealer employees? I always thought the demo cars that were driven by salesmen, etc., were sold as used, with the remainder of the warranty intact.
Click to expand...



I drive a demo as a perq, yes, but it's not standard, not anymore. There aren't many dealers giving demos any more, and those that do only give them to certain people. I drive a car 6000 miles max, and then it gets sold as a demo.



You'd be surprised what people will buy. I actually bought MY OWN demo a few years ago. I liked it, my wife liked it, I knew the miles were easy on it, so I bought it. Now here it is 4 years later and she only has 33000 miles total, so we got the full use of the warranty.



I haven't bought the car yet. I'm waiting until after the first of the year. Things have gone into a strange flux at work, with people getting shuffled and pay plans getting adjusted and health care getting changed. It's not fun. I'm not in any danger, but it's not fun.





Tom
 
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