Best small SUV for under $10k?

[Rick Lee]

That Outback looks interesting. I still have a hard time with that kind of mileage, though I know Subies go a looooonnngg time. My office parking lot is huge and I can usually find any kind of car I'm considering on my long walk to the front door. Will find one of these tomorrow and see how the cargo area looks. Ice cold a/c is very important in these parts.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by aigel

Ugh - I would not buy a VW with auto trans.

G

The modern VW runs a 6spd Tiptronic just like the Porsche 987. It is actually quite good and head and shoulders above the older VW slushomatics of the 90s. It may be the best-in-class trans these days where VW was DFL in automatic trans for 30 years.


Rick, if you need to finance the purchase, look for lower mileage cars as interest rates on over 100k cars get stupid high. If you can pay cash, just over 100k is a very sweet spot to buy because demand drops off rapidly. A Subi crate replacement motor is $1,600 new which make these cars very miserly long term keepers. The Subi motor is probably good for twice the distance of a VW 2.0T and should easily run 200k if cared for.

[RWebb]

review the discussion above re head gasket leaks on some Sube motors - and find out which ones for sure

- do you really need AWD? if not, a lot more options open up

[Rick Lee]

Dealer caved on the Hyundai after much back and forth. $10,950 out the door with a $12.7k KBB value. Picking it up tonight.

[Rick Lee]

And she's home.



Dealer F&I guy was a bit of a douche about my not taking their financing or warranty. Maybe I should have just cut him off at the intro and told him to save his time. But I wasn't sure if he was bringing me to his office for paperwork or the financing and warranty pitch or both. It was both. I think I did ok on this and only spent $950 over my budget. I sure look forward to giving the 993 a bit of a break from commuting and hauling band gear.

[RWebb]

congrats!

same experience here - I enjoyed wasting their time tho...

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by RWebb

I enjoyed wasting their time tho...

I would expect nothing less.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Congrats Rick. The finance guy is the biggest sleazeball in the dealership, he portrays himself as a professional taking care of the paperwork when in reality he's just trying to sell you more worthless crap. They're all dirtbags.

[Cajundaddy]

Nice car with a very high build quality. Enjoy!

[aigel]

They ALWAYS put you through the wringer with added warranties, interior and paint treatments etc. I know a LOT of people falling for this. This is where they make the most money - at least on new cars, so they are super-aggressive about it.

Looks like a nice car - hope you have fun with it.

G

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

The finance guy is the biggest sleazeball in the dealership.

Me thinks you overlooked the service manager, a truly soulless bastard.

[LeeH]

Looks nice. Interested to hear how you like it after you've put on some miles.

I tell the salesperson to tell the finance guy that I've never bought anything besides a car at a dealership and please don't waste my time. Usually works pretty well.

[Rick Lee]

They were trying to get me to go with their financing and really pushy about it. My bank offered 2.49% and dealer offered 2.59%, which turns out to be literally pennies per month. But I like my bank and the loan officer, have had many loans from them in the past and want this loan officer to get paid for his work.... and save a few pennies. So, since I didn't have the money with me tonight, they made me qualify for their financing and then said I have until next Mon. at 9pm to get them certified funds or they'll put their loan through. Their purchase contract paper is literally 28" long and as thin as one of those old gas station receipts. My scanner won't take it. So I photocopied it onto two legal sheets and scanned them, which, of course, looks like hell. Then I noticed they put 5.6% as the rate on their loan, in case I don't get my own loan or cash. I don't know how to get this to my bank. In fact, having my bank FedEx a check will cost far more than the difference in interest paid between my bank and their lender. But now I hate this F&I guy, so I'm willing to pay it, just to make sure he doesn't get credit for this loan.

[porwolf]

I would not go for any dealer financing if it costs more per month than a loan from your bank. Your bank gives you a straight loan with no after thoughts and fine print finessing. For your dealer the finacing busines is a "value added" service where both your dealer and their finace institution make monney off you no matter how the dealer camuflages the offer.

[onewhippedpuppy]

We financed $10,000 of our last vehicle purchase to save several thousand off of the purchase price, then paid it off over 3 months. This was the agreement that we reached with the sales manager, but when we reached the finance guy he slipped into the contract (without telling us) financing $20,000. When I called him on it he initially played dumb, then said that it's only a few dollars difference over 3 months and that he would get in trouble if he financed any less. I told him that he was breaking our deal, and if he didn't rewrite the contract that we would walk. Eventually we got our way, but had I not read the fine print of our contract that lying snake would have gotten me to finance double what I agreed to. No good dirty bastard, I wonder how many people they manage to successfully rip off each year?

[Rick Lee]

I'll knock this loan out as soon as the commission checks start coming again. But if I have to take this dealer loan because my bank can't get the check to them fast enough, I will refi it before the first payment is due. Still chaps my ass that they changed the interest rate on the paper.

[RWebb]

both of you need to post on yelp & Google reviews - make sure other consumers know about this

and, in general, you always need to be able to stand up and walk out of the dealership (or let them stop you at the door) - I learned that as a kid from my mom - she'd just stand up and the start to walk out

[porwolf]

Originally Posted by RWebb

both of you need to post on yelp & Google reviews - make sure other consumers know about this

and, in general, you always need to be able to stand up and walk out of the dealership (or let them stop you at the door) - I learned that as a kid from my mom - she'd just stand up and the start to walk out

That is the way I got my new '79 SC from a dealer. Walked out several times leaving him with my phone number, telling him to call me if he is ready to accept my price.