DGS49
Diamond Member
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.
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.