I advised my sister to buy a new honda

[t walgamuth]

Yesterday I got a call from my sis. She is a 53 year old widow. Her beloved hubby Jack died a couple of years ago. She had an older PT and a Jimmy (which had been Jack's). My mom lives with her now.

She called and said she was looking at a 09 Honda civic and was prepared to buy it for 15K. It was not a color she really liked and had 46K on it. I looked on NADA and found she was paying about the book price for a clean example with those miles so said it probably wasn't too bad a deal, but then asked what a new one went for.

I also said with a new one the interest rate would probably be less so she might come out bout the same financially.

I also said she might considering selling the Jimmy as it is an expense to have a spare car and did she really use it much?

She came back and said a new one was about 18K and at 1.9% where the used one was 3.9%.

So she got a new one and in her favorite color blus. She said also that she was probably going to sell Jack's Jimmy too.

I am almost as excited as if I had bought a new car myself!

I'm pretty sure some of my other sisters will give her a hard time for buying a new car bs I told her to tell them she'd rather have Jack back than a new car and that she wanted a car she could depend on so she can take Mom out of town with no worries.

[tbomachines]

Nice deal on new vs. used! I am surprised the difference is a full 2% even with promos and negotiations. FWIW, NADA is highly inflated and the prices are often too high, good for insurance claims and selling a car but not so great when buying. Either way, sounds like she is happy and will definitely be an improvement over a PT cruiser.

[elchivito]

Hard to go wrong with a Civic. Good advice on the new one. The other one was beyond warranty. We've owned a bunch of them and on the extremely rare occasion that anything weird did happen, it always happened during the warranty period. After that, they just seem to run forever. My wife's AWD Element, which is on the Civic platform, is bombproof and runs like new at 125K.

[MBeige]

Great advice.

Didn't realize the interest was that much between a slightly used and a new one!

I'd feel just as happy myself if I were in your shoes.

[Stretch]

I was sorry to see my 23 year old Civic go - it never let me down - the only thing that is bad about a Honda (in my opinion) is the cost of the spares - luckily they don't seem to go wrong that frequently.

Great deal on the new one - I'm surprised that the second hand ones haven't started to plummet in price...

[Fulcrum525]

I guess after cash for clunkers the world just started to hate used cars

[t walgamuth]

if that were true the price for used cars would be lower.

The days of losing 10K in value on buying a new car are gone on sensible cars like hondas.

[Skid Row Joe]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

Yesterday I got a call from my sis. She is a 53 year old widow. Her beloved hubby Jack died a couple of years ago. She had an older PT and a Jimmy (which had been Jack's). My mom lives with her now.

She called and said she was looking at a 09 Honda civic and was prepared to buy it for 15K. It was not a color she really liked and had 46K on it. I looked on NADA and found she was paying about the book price for a clean example with those miles so said it probably wasn't too bad a deal, but then asked what a new one went for.

I also said with a new one the interest rate would probably be less so she might come out bout the same financially.

I also said she might considering selling the Jimmy as it is an expense to have a spare car and did she really use it much?

She came back and said a new one was about 18K and at 1.9% where the used one was 3.9%.

So she got a new one and in her favorite color blus. She said also that she was probably going to sell Jack's Jimmy too.

I am almost as excited as if I had bought a new car myself!

I'm pretty sure some of my other sisters will give her a hard time for buying a new car bs I told her to tell them she'd rather have Jack back than a new car and that she wanted a car she could depend on so she can take Mom out of town with no worries.

With the exception of paying cash for my cars, I was faced with the same decison 12 years ago when shopping for an upgrade MB diesel to replace my 16 year old '83 300SD with 305K miles on it.

A nearly four year old '96 E300D with 75K miles and a nasty fender scratch on it was selling for $35K asking price at a wholesaler in Richardson, Texas. No warranty.

After shopping a few MB dealerships for a new MB diesel, I found the one I have now at a dealer that discounted it to $42,500 brand new. 4 year, 50K mile warranty.

I went for the new one with zero miles on it. I still believe I made the best decision.

That said, a Honda is probably the best dollars money can buy in an automobile. An aging American brand SUV is likely a money-pit, versus a Honda.

[TylerH860]

Not bad, good decision on the new. I could have gotten your sister a 2009 with less than 40,000 miles for under $11,000 to her door.. There are 192 to choose from on a dealer wholesale site right now.

[Hatterasguy]

Good cars, buying Japanese cars slightly used rarely makes sense, they tend to hold there value rather well.

[professor]

Agreed, Honda is a great choice. New is even better due to the lack of steep depreciation on the brand.
I bought my wife a Honda Fit and it was a perfect fit for her and for hauling kids and animals around town. The car is underpowered but it gets great gas mileage and handles well on most road conditions. It was fantastic during the last snow storm too. Highly recommended, yet I am a Benz freak and will still buy a Benz for myself. I have my eye on an SLK as a cool commuter but unlike Honda, I will buy the Benz used.

[engatwork]

If I had to purchase a new car right now it would be a Honda. One of my favorites so far (through my life I've owned Accords, Civics and a CRV) was a CRV. 1997 model that got to around 250k miles before the oldest son killed a brick mailbox with it. It was still going strong, good mileage for a suv and everything worked. Needless to say it was totaled and the ex would not give it to me. Based on the pic I saw it could have been rebuilt. I wish Honda would put their diesel out in the US.

You can't go wrong purchasing a Honda product in my opinion. Oh yea, they are easy to work on too.

[TylerH860]

I believe there's a problem year around 2003 with the accord v6s right?

Ive never bought a Honda for my inventory because they are so dang expensive compared to the domestics. Gm 3.8 and 4.3 platform cars and SUVs can live for just as long as the honda for a fraction of the price used.

[Hatterasguy]

A few models had bad transmissions for a few years.

[gerkebi]

I've always had good luck with Hondas, we've owned 5 or 6. They're a bit tight to work on, though, in my experience.