ladysprite: (steampunk)
ladysprite ([personal profile] ladysprite) wrote2014-01-22 03:45 pm
Entry tags:

Totally

I just got the call from my insurance company; my car has been officially declared totalled.

RIP Little Silver Saturn. October 2001 - January 2014. You lasted almost forever, you drove nearly 200,000 miles with me, and you gave your life to protect me. You were the first treat I bought myself after graduating from vet school, and the first car I bought that wasn't an ancient death trap.

I miss you.

Coincidentally, I now find myself in the market for a new car, having not actually paid any attention to cars for the past decade-plus. In a perfect world I'd just go on driving Saturns forever, but sadly that's not an option.

So, anyone out there who knows more about cars than I do (which is likely most of y'all), advise me. I'm not looking for brand-new; I know that's kind of a sucker deal. I want something small - not Smartcar small, but I don't need or want an SUV. Easy to take care of and good fuel efficiency are important; I'd like a hybrid if I can but I'm not sure how they fare in the used market. And affordable is a plus; I've been out of work for 4 months and I'm not going to be getting huge amounts of money back for my poor lost baby.

Advice? Suggestions? Spare vehicles you have lying around?

[identity profile] bikergeek.livejournal.com 2014-01-22 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
At 0.9%, it's actually cheaper to buy on credit. Assuming you had the cash on hand to pay cash outright for the car, you could probably exceed a 0.9% rate of return on investing the money quite easily. Profit!

The only difference would be if you could make up the difference by negotiating a lower price on the car. FWIW, "sale price less invoice price" isn't the profit the dealer ends up making on the car; they end up receiving dealer holdback (http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/dealer-holdback/), a percentage of MSRP that's paid to the dealer after the vehicle is sold, so they're still making a tidy sum even if they sell the car for "invoice".
Edited 2014-01-22 23:35 (UTC)

[identity profile] ninjarat.livejournal.com 2014-01-23 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Cash that I did not have on hand.

[identity profile] bikergeek.livejournal.com 2014-01-23 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, most people don't.