Hooniverse Asks- What’s The Worst Piece of Car-Buying Advice You’ve Ever Received?
Buying a car, either new or used, is not something done on a whim, that is unless you’re pre-bankruptcy Nick Cage. For the rest of us, signing on that dotted line is an act that requires extraordinary intestinal fortitude, and hopefully some sound advice. Of course not all car-buying advice is sound, otherwise how would you explain seeing Pontiac Azteks on the road. Also, I’d like someone to explain Carrot Top to me.
Car buying advice, of course, is usually free, and nowhere is the old maxim you get what you pay for more appropriate. I once had an Econ teacher at my JC – huge guy, really large – and he would spend about a half hour of the class going over Econ, and then would spend the remaining hour talking about crazy, totally off the wall stuff. One day he went off about how he and his brother teamed up to negotiate the purchase of a new car. The salesman kept having to take their offer to the manager, and it occurred to him that they were probably listening to them during that absence, in an attempt to determine how high they could reasonably go in their counters. The brothers, or so he related, decided to sit stone silent when the salesman left, so as not to tip their hand. Well, after the second or third time doing so, he said the salesman came back all flustered and sputtered something about agreeing to their terms. His advice; don’t say jack when the salesman leaves the room.
Bad advice? I don’t know, I think the worse advice was the recommendation to take that class in summer session. Regardless of my experience, you’ve surely had an occasion where you were planning to make an automotive purchase and someone has offered their two cents? Of those incidents, what was the worst advice you received?
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- Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Worst Piece of Car Advice You’ve Ever Received?
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- Hooniverse Asks- What Was Your Worst Car-Buying Experience?
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Buy a Ford.
Oh, you're here.
"That car you're driving is starting to turn into a POS, you should go ahead and LEASE a new car"
"uhhh thanks but not thanks dad its actually a paid off POS"
now granted I am getting rid of this car because it is starting to have constant mechanical woes that are getting more and more expensive. But I will replace it with a cheap used car, probably a Honda Odyssey for our growing brood
"If you're going to make a car payment, it may as well always be on a new car."
-Extolling the 'virtues' of a lease.
I call it Fleecing ala Dave Ramsey. Unless I have the disposable income to do so, I will not on principle buy a car new.
I have access to an honest mechanic
I can find a slightly used car with 2K miles on it from a private seller
or a all the bells and whistles car with lowish miles from a place like Car Max
But if you got the cash at hand then why not? ( But even then I probably wouldn't and use the money I save for other things)
Wife & I were at the dealership buying our first new car. Sales drone kept telling us we should lease – it was so much less per month and we could drive it 30k miles.
I asked him if they had a lease plan that covered 25,000 miles per year. He stared at me, then repeated that we'd get 30k in the lease package (2, 3 years? I don't remember it was a while ago). I told him we commute about 100 miles a day and that wouldn't really cover it. Here's the green slip (F-I-L is Chrysler employee, we get a good price), now go order me a car.
He kept trying to push the lease. I almost walked out.
We bought into a lease on a C Class. At the time, my wife's work was literally down the street and could walk there. Of course right after the we got the car, she lost her job and found a new one 30 miles away. We ended up having to buy the car at the end of the lease since the mileage was double what the lease allowed. Paid $14k for a car that was worth $9k.
A friend's immigrant parents were conned into leasing a Subaru with almost no miles allowed. For the last 18 months before the lease expired, it stayed in the garage because it had reached the mileage limit.
"I heard Kia makes a good car" LOLOOL
They do. Now.
So does Hyundai. But don't ever–EVER–buy an Excel.
You know, in the past month or so, I've see three Excels, even though I'm in the rust belt – a few good ones escaped somehow. I've even seen the odd Pony within the past couple years.
But yes, there are 6 Hyundais and Kias currently in my immediate family – we've had good experiences with all of them.
I owned a Sonata and loved it. And if I were buying a new car right now, I'd be conflicted as to whether to buy the Sonata Turbo or wait a while for the Turbo Veloster.
For the last ten years they've been one of the best values around. Now, kinda out of the blue, they've become really exciting cars too.
I can't recall ever getting any car buying advice, good or bad. Everyone apparently knows I'll end up doing what I feel like doing.
Yeah, I'll agree.
No one really offers it to me either, but I tend to get asked for advice quite a lot.
I do my best not to give any, though. Don't want to see my words given as an answer to an enthusiast-website daily question.
Same here.
C'mon, muthalovin, you can afford it! Treat yourself!
<img src="http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Homers-Conscious.gif">
"You should wait a few months, the new model comes with a Jaguar Supercharged engine."
Sorry, but no. I will wait for the V12.
"It's highly rated on the internet"
Worst advice I ever took: "Don't worry about it, third gear always whines like that in these."
Worst advice I didn't take (from car salesman): "You should move, there are nuclear ICBM silos across the street."
"American cars are the only cars that will last on American roads!"
The only bad car buying advice I get comes from my own impulses.
That's why I don't have an ebay account.
My complete set of Topps Desert Storm cards and I understand your problem.
Dude, those are an investment.
You want them?
Not really. That's a line from Garden State (one of the guys is defending his collection of them)- I wasn't sure if anyone would pick up on that…
The big problem is that there is a buy it now button. THAT MEANS I COULD BUY IT RIGHT NOW!!!
Well, yeah, unless you wimp out. You're not going to let that happen, are you? Click it!
If you would have bought that Niva then I would listen to you.
No, no, no. This thread is about receiving bad advice, not following it.
Besides, as I recall the seller wanted way more for that Niva than I've ever spent buying any single car. I could buy several other things instead, which I'm proceeding to do.
I need to switch to cars like yours, my habit would be much more sustainable. Right now I have five cars, four of which are large. I could fit 15 Freeways in the space of one LS400! C'mon! My CRX HF should become the big car.
Well, okay, but try not to drive up the prices.
Don't worry, my most expensive vehicle right now was my tow vehicle at $1695.00. That was a splurge.
It was $4000 for a LIFE OF LUXURY.
If you buy an H Van to park your KV Mini 1s and HMV Freeway in, I'll forgive you though.
What part of my fleet suggests I have any interest in a life of luxury?
The Skyliner, the P4 and the 96s.
I'll grant you the Skyliner, but my level of interest is manifest in the fact that I haven't bothered to reassemble it during the last twenty-odd years of ownership.
In fairness, the only luxury I was speaking of was a car with low enough miles that it will run when you turn the key.
Oh. In that case I won't even grant the Skyliner.
Originally. You changed the definition of the statement.
It's never too late to follow your dreams!
http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-tru…
Your dreams, in this case, are in Owen Sound, Ontario.
If I left now, I could be there by 2:15AM! It's a totally rational plan!
Wait, this one is even closer! I could be there just a little after midnight! http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-other-Ni…
What could possibly go wrong? Nothing. Nothing could go wrong.
I still wish I had the Niva pickup I found last month in my driveway. It probably would have been a bad idea, but I still wish I bought it.
"I've haggled so much off the price, I'll have money to fix all the things that need fixing!"
A year later:
- Brake cylinder overhaul
- Refabricated rockers
- A/C fix
- CV joints on both sides
- Oil pan resealing
- Complete belt job with crank, cam, balancer shaft seals
- Battery
- Two sets of tires
- Muffler
- Tie rods
- Dashboard lighting, steering column command center still dark
To do: Windshield (damned hard to find a new one)
"No, don't buy a car now, just drive the family car until you're 25, then you'll have lower insurance premiums when you do. Plus, we don't have a garage, so you have nowhere to put it anyways."
*throws tantrum (Okay, I didn't. But still! Grr.)
From my wife: "I like the Z3, let's get it" This was the only car I have ever bought as an impulse purchase. It is a 1996 Z3 with an S52. It needed a new engine withing 400 miles of me buying it. In less than two years that engine needed a new head due to overheating issues. I've put WAAY too much money into this great deal of a car. It is for sale by the way.
Also from the wife, when I was fed up with the problems with the Z3 and was having some problems with the old F-150 and we had a baby on the way. "You should buy a new truck." Now I'm stuck with payments that are too high for too long. the new truck decision probably wasn't THAT bad. I plan on driving it into the ground and everyone is much happier with the baby riding in the back of a 2011 Silverado extended cab than in the back of a beat up old '88 F-150 extended cab.
Wives! Mine convinced me to buy a Chevy Celebrity off a lot when the Prelude I went to look at was sold. Mind you it was just for a winter beater but that was the saddest car I've owned. Comfy, but sad. She has steadfastly refused to give car buying advice since then.
I'll take your Z3 but you probably wouldn't like the price. What part of the country are you in? I'm in Ohio.
I'm asking $6000 (that's bottom dollar, any less and I would be better off selling the drivetrain and chassis separate) for the Z3. I live just north of Atlanta, GA. http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/2780747981….
Crap, that's actually a great price. I had thought you meant it needed a new head now, but you meant you did the head work. Wow. I'm (probably) not interested at the moment but you should definitely be able to sell it for that.
I have two problems. I really don't want to sell it and it doesn't pass emissions, which is an issue here. Also for some odd reason it doesn't appear in the Craigslist search results. the emissions has to do with a missing fuel evap system and doesn't really affect the way it runs and drives.
"Son, I've never had a problem with Chrysler products."
/pretty sure this advice constitutes child abuse.
I grew up in Chrysler products and have been near them all my life. I own a Chrysler minivan right now.
Given this, I could declare with a decent degree of confidence that the only people who have never had problems with Chrysler products are people who have never owned Chrysler products.
A friend's father would, at random intervals while driving, bellow at the top of his lungs, "KILL A CHRYSLER FOR JEEEEEEZUUUUUUUSSS!"
I didn't ride anywhere with him.
HA HA! I think I would die laughing!
My father in-law was a bit more colorful, "Chrysler makes damn fine vee-hick-uls". At the time he had both a Volare and an Aspen. Poor bastard.
In truth, I've had three over the last ten years. No major complaints, but this ought to be the modern Mopar theme song…[youtube 0HEW5bXqKbU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HEW5bXqKbU youtube]
I would say that the worst piece of advice about buying a car would be any/ all ads from 90's Chrysler.
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From my Dad, recalling his experience with a Fiat – "Don't buy it, you'll regret it."
Sixteen years later, it's one of the best purchases I've made. It's taught me a lot of things … about roadside repairs, suspension rebuilds, electrical gremlins, engine and tranny swaps, giubos, POR 15, parts cars, rev matching … the list goes on.
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-COi5kG8XndI/S6O-0dh96aI/AAAAAAAAAGM/NEcWFDh95vk/s640/2010-03-19%25252013.11.53.jpg"width=500>
What year is the Fiat?
It's an '84 Alfa. My Dad assumed correctly that the reliablility would be about the same. He assumed incorrectly that I would be a checkbook mechanic.
I had an '82 Alfa Spider for a few years that I bought in '93. By some twist of fate I never had a single failure to start, breakdown or electrical fire. In fact the only reason I sold it was I had bought it to try and recapture some of the magic of the '68 Fiat Spider (Deniro!) I had owned from '84 to '88. But you can't go back and that didn't work. The Fiat never stranded me either, but I did sacrifice virgin oil to the Italian auto gods on a regular basis for both cars.
I think reliability is a hit or miss proposition with these cars. Mine was absolutely terrible initially but we've come to understand eachother.
The worst car buying advise I ever got was to buy new.
Yes, it's nice having a car that no one else has ever had, one you know hasn't been abused or smoked in or flooded in a hurricane or had a sad old man die in it.
But for the price of a cheap new car, I could buy, say, an E21 Beemer, re-do the entire interior, put in a monster brand new motor and transmission, re-paint it, buy a spare parts car, and end up with a ride that is completely unique, awesome, and more truly mine than something I'd've just gone out and paid for.
I might have perpetrated that when I steered my Mom to the FIAT dealer to look at the all-new Bravas that had just come in.
We had a 131 (aka "Superbrava"). Don't be surprised if you're written out of the will.
Oh, oh! I did too!
I'm not sure I ever got advice that was ever that bad, though my dad did like to keep cars within the family which was kind of annoying when shopping. So I'll go with a friend of mine, who has never had to haul anything larger than a small television in his life, whose brother was badgering him to buy an F-150. The F-150 is a fine truck, sure, but it probably was the least appropriate vehicle for this particular guy.
"Stop."
All the really bad advice I've ever gotten came from my own head. All apply to the '01 A4 1.8T I bought in '07.
"You can afford that payment."
"Maintenance won't cost that much."
"It's ok not to put money down. You're making enough that you'll pay it off quick."
That's not advice, that's making rationalizations. Totally different thing.
There is good advice and bad advice, but there are no good rationalizations.
There are no good rationalizations, unless of course that A4 was the gorgeous blue!
I forgot, there ARE good rationalizations — one ones you cleverly provide to others.
"But Mom, if you let me by a motorcycle, you won't have to drive me back and forth to school everyday."
…heh heh heh…
It was gold. It was the only stick-shift car I could find in the dealer network I worked at with less than 100k miles, and less than $15k.
It had better have been alllottt less than 15k for a 6 year old A4..
Sadly, after taxes it was pretty close. The market for that car was pretty strong in my area at the time, and I was young and dumb with a big paycheck.
People keep telling me: You really NEED a bigger car.
Me: No, I don't! Why? See below!
*Still happily drives a small car every day*
<img src="http://carremaths2.yellis.net/fichier3/27041165R5_le_car_20US.jpg">
A bit late to correct, but still: "Le gas goes slowly. Le Car doesn't."
Parallel construction coupled with appropriately memorable use of the model name. This should not have been difficult.
That's what I thought too… Strange that Le PR-boys didn't see that.
They can't fool me with the blurred background either, look at the wheels.
"Step-on it! Look there's place to pull over."
"I've mashed the pedal to the floor. It won't budge! Just keep smiling I don't want to risk getting creamed any longer than I need to for this stupid shoot."
"Le gas goes slowly. Le Car doesn't go."
Do you still own the same blow dryer?
Someday, you've got to take me for a ride in it.
Are you doing the car show this year? Maybe the weather will be more cooperative.
Yep—first Saturday in August, as usual.
"Every car on a used car lot is one the original owner wanted to get rid of. When you buy a used car, you're just buying somebody else's problem."
- My parents
Even with CarFax, it's still a crapshoot. You just hope that the car will last.
My RX-8 had so obviously been crashed that it was funny. But the salesperson kept waving CarFax in front of me like it was going to make the mismatched rear panel and improperly reattached trim on the undercarriage magically not be there.
Just a warning, that trim may have been perfectly reattached. It tries to separate itself from the body as often as possible.
In late 1983: "Why do you want to buy a piece of junk like a Honda CRX? Buy something American – like a Pontiac Fiero!"
Fortunately, I didn't listen.
The worst advice was that I gave myself – buying that '78 Audi Fox. It cost $7428 brand new (yes, that number is burned into my mind), and three years later I got $2800 for it as a trade-in (I still owed $2200) on a '68 Bonneville four-door sedan with 87,000 miles. Fortunately, the CV joints didn't make any noise when the appraiser test drove it.
You should really take the company car (lease). You won't have to worry about anything.
Leasing cars where I work are Mazda 3 1.6 automatics, Renault Fluence 1.6 automatic, Hyundai i30 automatic or Toyoto Corolla 1.6 automatic. I took the money instead (company paying me whatever they'd have to pay for the lease car every month), and I'm very happy with my Passat TDI Variant with manual transmission. My fuel budget lasts way longer too.
My dad always used to give us this advice:
1. No Foreign cars.
2. No Front wheel drive.
3. No Fords.
I called it the 3 Fs. And I followed it… for my first two (technically 3) cars. But after the Plymouth Sapporo (the 3rd car) and a Honda Civic, there was no turning back. Still haven't owned a Ford, although an older Focus could be in my future. Have owned a Geo Prizm and Dodge Colt to skirt #1. Currently own 2 Saturns. Although I think dad has gone lax on #2, as he drives a Park Ave, now.
Can we discuss the lease versus buy subject please?
My family needs a honking big SUV. We do. I promise. It will probably be a Yukon XL, Suburban, or similar and can't be an old one for business purposes. A 2009-2011 used model is fine. We will probably only keep it for four years or so. By the time depreciation is factored in, isn't it pretty much a wash?
For example, low mileage 2011 Yukon XLs are about $40,000 from dealerships. This equates to a $782 per month payment over four years at a 5% interest rate. A similar, but new, 2012 Yukon XL at lease is $776 per month with a thousand less at signing.
Sure, I can play around with getting a slightly older used model and searching Craigslist or not getting certain options on a new one but none of that will make a gigantic difference. I'm more interested in the downside of leasing a new car versus buying one that is only a year or two old.
Well, on the purchase, after four years of making your $782 per month payment, you own the 2011 vehicle outright. If you have maintained it even just reasonably well, at that point you have a vehicle worth around $20,000. You can either continue to enjoy it or sell it for that $20,000.
On the lease, after four years of making your $776 per month payment, you have to turn the vehicle back in. If you have maintained it absolutely perfectly and haven't driven it very much and there isn't a single piece of wear on it, you MIGHT be able to walk away not owning anything – meaning zero dollars either way. Just as likely is you have to sweet talk the dealership into the privilege of paying them $10,000 in order to walk away with nothing.
So, in the best of cases the difference is $19,000. Worst case, the sky is the limit. In either case you're responsible for maintenance and, outside of any warranty, repairs.
Depends on how much you are going to drive and you are SURE you won't go over that mileage. You also need to be SURE you will want to get rid of it in about 3 years. At the end of a lease you own NOTHING. At the end of 4 years of payments, which seems kind of short if you are doing 0 down, you will own a 4-9 year old vehicle that will be worth a good bit.
Wait, a lease on a new one is $776/month? On the GMC website it's telling me $419/month with $2300 DAS, plus taxes and fees for a base-model Yukon XL. Are you looking for a loaded one?
EDIT: Well, the lease special was for a non-XL. But still, $8 difference lease/buy on a four-year term loan seems off to me.
Edit2: Sheesh, you really can option the heck out of one of those, can't you? I guess if a new one is $60k+ and a used one is $40k, maybe the lease would cost the same.
Here's the car salesman response. Don't compare a used purchase to a new lease. If that's the budget, and that's the comparison, buy the used.
If you own your own small business, and can write off the lease payment against your taxes, leasing is awesome, and totally worth it. Also: same car to same car, leasing CAN be a good deal. If you were going to finance over, say, 7 years or 4 year leasing, the payments would be about the same. In that situation, you'll actually probably do better leasing, and then paying it out, assuming the financing isn't at 0%.
Say it's a $60,000 car, and you'd have a payment around $750/mo. (Yeah, it might not work, I'm just going off the top of my head here.) If your buyout was around $22k at the end of the lease (on a domestic, that's reasonably normal), you could refinance that through a bank and be good to go. If you did 84 month financing, at that same point you'd still have 36 months remaining, times $750/mo, or $27,000 remaining.
Obviously those numbers depend on the deal they're offering, but that's one of the little inside tricks that often — but not always — works.
In your comparison, however, I'd recommend buying the used car, unless you're one of those people who likes to change-up to a new car every few years. In that case, also lease. The depreciation on the car will probably cost you almost as much as you would have paid leasing. After all, leasing is basically structured to have you pay the depreciation cost.
One thing many dealerships won't tell you is that leases are TOTALLY flexible in how they're set up. You can change the number of miles (or kms, up here), the term, the payment, whatever. If you're a really light driver, you can take fewer miles at a significantly lower payment. If you're a heavy driver, put more kms on it, and then turn it in, because at a certain point, it's really not worth much for you to keep it. But that comes back to my original point: leasing is best for work vehicles, not the vehicle you're buying because you love it.
when i was discussing the purchase of my beloved 3er Hans before visiting the dealership, i was greeted with a look of absolute shock, and told that i had a serious mental illness for ordering a manual transmission.
The doctor recommends a quick downshift, a stab of the right foot, and two cranks of the wheel, whenever this condition arises.
"The Jeep Wrangler scored too low in our tests to be recommended."
I'm sure I read a Farago take on the Challenger at some point in time.
When I got the $2400 insurance check from my totalled dodgubishi Colt, I was scouring the local classifieds on my lunchbreak and my boss said I should use it as a down payment on a new or newish used Honda or Toyota compact. I said, "Fuck that, why would I want a car payment? I want something old and cool ." I used $2k of it to buy Molly ( my 62 Lancer). That was 11 years ago.
"Buy something from a dealer – you're less likely to get something with problems." My parents, paraphrased, on buying my first car. They also approved of the Intrepid I ended up with, that needed a rebuilt transmission within 25k kms of buying it (granted, that's part naivety on my behalf).
My Dad talked me out of buying a MKII Golf for a 1988 1/2 Escort. The worst advise I have ever received. I still bug him about that almost 25 years later
This week:
Me: "I need a sensible reliable daily drive -Prius type- [Cause you can't just rely on 2 old French hatches]"
My hoon friend : "I saw a cheap Mazda RX7 for sale"
o_O
My uncle talked me out of a 1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V and into a 1990 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat 4×4. No denying the F-150 has come in useful, has been a lot of fun, and girls like it. Richard Hammond said it best when talking about his Toyota FJ; "This has to be the only malfunctioning Toyota Land Cruiser in the world, and therefore, that makes it probably priceless."
Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of my hard earned cash has been sunk into the various problems that truck has had over the past two years. Just three months after I had it, the engine seized up, bending connecting rods and destroying the crank case. That was just the beginning…