Why I buy what I buy (cars)

DGS49

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2012
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Pittsburgh
I am about to sell or trade my '08 Chrysler Pacifica on something newer. Although I love the Pacifica and it has and does everything I want a vehicle to do, I am a little freaked out about it being more than ten years old now (after the first of the year), so I'm going to move it.

As I review the other similar cars (Journey, Edge, Acadia, Sorento, Pilot), I find that ALL of the knowledgeable people bad-mouth the vehicle I'm leaning toward,, specifically a '17 or '18 Dodge Journey GT. This one is a little quicker, this other one handles a little better, that one over there gets one or two miles per gallon more, they all have more high-tech bullshit, they all have better repair records...

None of this stuff ever makes the decision for me. My question is, which of the vehicles in the target group has all the stuff I want, performs well enough to get out of its own way, and provides the most vehicle for the money. And by those criteria, the Dodge wins, hands down.

I can easily find a 2017 or even 2018 LOADED GT, with low miles for twenty thousand or less. And that vehicle has everything I could ever want (except, apparently, adaptive cruise control). For the same money, I couldn't get anywhere near as much content in a car that new. In fact, the Journey's lousy resale value works very much to my advantage. The one car I'm looking at - a 2018 black one - had an MSRP of $35 thousand, and I can get it for $19,000, with only 15 thousand miles on it. And this is not some special one-of-a-kind thing. There are a dozen or so similar vehicles all around the country.

I look at dozens of sites where they evaluate new and used cars, and I don't see any of them that looks at the proposition the way I do, and by my way of thinking I always come out ahead. My Pacifica is another vehicle that the Consumer Reports people badmouth violently. But I had it for three years of trouble-free service; it is loaded with comfort and convenience stuff, it gets 25mpg on the highway, and runs on crap gas. I found one with 26,000 miles on it in Texas, flew down to get it, and it has been great.

Find the best vehicle you can for the money you are prepared to pay. Look for cars with terrible resale value. It almost always works out great.
 
some of my past cars that 'moved'....
1971_Buick_Riviera_black.jpg
 
Two kinds of people buy Subaru vehicles:

1. Over emotional hippies who somehow think they're going to single-handedly "Save the ___________" (fill in their flavour du-jour/

2. People who appreciate the advantages of all-wheel drive and the engine that will outlive them.

They're easy to tell apart. Look for the bumper strips. If there are none you're dealing with Case 2.
 
Buy a Toyota Sienna or a Highlander.

Toyota legendary reliability and great resale value.

You can't go wrong. .... :cool:


My wife had two Highlanders and loved them. However, last year she traded a Highlander in on a Honda CRV and loves it. More passenger room and a little less rear storage but much better gas mileage.

I wanted her to buy a Pilot but she liked the CRV better.

Meanwhile I continue to drive my Tundra truck. I resisted the urge to trade it on one of the new Honda Ridgelines.
 
My wife had two Highlanders and loved them. However, last year she traded a Highlander in on a Honda CRV and loves it. More passenger room and a little less rear storage but much better gas mileage. I wanted her to buy a Pilot but she liked the CRV better. Meanwhile I continue to drive my Tundra truck. I resisted the urge to trade it on one of the new Honda Ridgelines.
Honda's have really good engines but their automatic transmissions are somewhat prone to failure.

An old school mechanic I really trust told me that it's rare to have a Toyota automatic transmission fail.

Toyota makes the most reliable, low maintenance cars and pickup trucks. ... :cool:
 
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My wife had two Highlanders and loved them. However, last year she traded a Highlander in on a Honda CRV and loves it. More passenger room and a little less rear storage but much better gas mileage. I wanted her to buy a Pilot but she liked the CRV better. Meanwhile I continue to drive my Tundra truck. I resisted the urge to trade it on one of the new Honda Ridgelines.
Honda's have really good engines but their automatic transmissions are somewhat prone to failure.

An old school mechanic I really trust told me that it's rare to have a Toyota automatic transmission fail.

Toyota makes the most reliable, low maintenance pickup trucks. ... :cool:


If the transmission fails on my wife's CRV then I will tell her that we were warned by Sunni Man.

To me you can't go wrong with either a Toyota or Honda.

If I needed a truck for work where I would run the hell out of it for four or five years, putting on 200K miles, and writing it off as a business expense then I would buy a Ford F-150.

However, my Tundra has served me well in retirement. Of course it is a 2013 that I bought new and I don't even have 20K miles on it yet.
 
I am about to sell or trade my '08 Chrysler Pacifica on something newer. Although I love the Pacifica and it has and does everything I want a vehicle to do, I am a little freaked out about it being more than ten years old now (after the first of the year), so I'm going to move it.

As I review the other similar cars (Journey, Edge, Acadia, Sorento, Pilot), I find that ALL of the knowledgeable people bad-mouth the vehicle I'm leaning toward,, specifically a '17 or '18 Dodge Journey GT. This one is a little quicker, this other one handles a little better, that one over there gets one or two miles per gallon more, they all have more high-tech bullshit, they all have better repair records...

None of this stuff ever makes the decision for me. My question is, which of the vehicles in the target group has all the stuff I want, performs well enough to get out of its own way, and provides the most vehicle for the money. And by those criteria, the Dodge wins, hands down.

I can easily find a 2017 or even 2018 LOADED GT, with low miles for twenty thousand or less. And that vehicle has everything I could ever want (except, apparently, adaptive cruise control). For the same money, I couldn't get anywhere near as much content in a car that new. In fact, the Journey's lousy resale value works very much to my advantage. The one car I'm looking at - a 2018 black one - had an MSRP of $35 thousand, and I can get it for $19,000, with only 15 thousand miles on it. And this is not some special one-of-a-kind thing. There are a dozen or so similar vehicles all around the country.

I look at dozens of sites where they evaluate new and used cars, and I don't see any of them that looks at the proposition the way I do, and by my way of thinking I always come out ahead. My Pacifica is another vehicle that the Consumer Reports people badmouth violently. But I had it for three years of trouble-free service; it is loaded with comfort and convenience stuff, it gets 25mpg on the highway, and runs on crap gas. I found one with 26,000 miles on it in Texas, flew down to get it, and it has been great.

Find the best vehicle you can for the money you are prepared to pay. Look for cars with terrible resale value. It almost always works out great.
/—/ Keep the Pacifica and drive it till the wheels fall off. As long as it’s dependable why get rid of it?
 
I'm a Subaru guy for life....The AWD has literally saved my life.....Beside that, they're little pocket rockets.


Moi aussi. I bought my Subaru in 2014. I'm a convert for life.
 
However, my Tundra has served me well in retirement. Of course it is a 2013 that I bought new and I don't even have 20K miles on it yet.
If you decide to sell it let me know. ... :eusa_angel:


In retirement I use it occasionally for trips to Lowes/Home Depot and going out to the rifle range. Every once in awhile I will take it to church or an errand when my wife is using the car.

I have 19,200 miles on it. That is less than 4K miles a year.
 
With unlimited wherewithal, I would love one of these ...

i665527.jpg


1906 Stanley Steamer. Set the world land speed record in 1906 with 127 miles an hour. The record stood until 1911.
 
You couldn't give me a Dodge. Everyone I know that owns one has TROUBLE with them. Have a friend that bought a 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT new, and that thing spent more time in the shop than it did out. Now it's out of warranty and the dash lights are all screwed up. He also has a 2006 Dodge truck and it's a rusted out POS. The thing drives like a lumber wagon and looks like shit. His son ran it out of gas and even though he filled the tank, he couldn't get it restarted, had to have it towed to the shop to get the thing running again. Had two other friends that bought brand new Dodge trucks and traded them off for Chevy's before they even had 10,000 miles on them. They had so many problems it was ridiculous. I don't know what it is with Dodge, but they build CRAP. Their reliability is in the toilet, and their vehicle bodies and paint are garbage.
 
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