Buying a new vehicle

[LyleG]

For the past 10 days I have done nothing but read about new cars. I have been to every dealership 10 times and pretty much hate every salesperson in town. With the exception of one dealership, I have never experienced such deceitfulness, misrepresentation and outright lying. The Dodge salespeople were so bad i nearly punched one guy out. I literally stood up and told him he was seconds away from getting knocked out if he didnt change his tone with my wife. The prick nearly started to cry.

Anyways, in the end there is no doubt in my mind why the big 3 are in the trouble they are in. Bad cars, and horribly misleading sales techniques.

So we finally settled on a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe with the 3.3 engine. Best price, best warranty, and great reviews.

 

[eclark53520]

Hyundai's are solid cars now-a-days.

Good choice!

 

[Rockford35]

So we finally settled on a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe with the 3.3 engine. Best price, best warranty, and great reviews.

SOLID purchase. It was second in line behind our Legacy.

My director bought one last summer and always give me huge props for recommending it.

It's a stellar vehicle. Great choice.

R35

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

So we finally settled on a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe with the 3.3 engine. Best price, best warranty, and great reviews.

I will never buy a Big 3 Car again. I can't even rightfully call them American anymore.

I have a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe and a 2006 Honda Pilot. While between the 2 I think the Honda is a better car (and cost more as well), the Santa Fe is fantastic and very reliable.

In all the time we have owned each, the Santa Fe has about 106k miles (95k of which were in the first 3 years) and the Pilot has about 80k. Between the two, we had to replace a Oil Cooler in the Santa Fe. Pretty strange part in front of the radiator. The Pilot only had some minor radio reception issues when we first bought it, and would not have been an issue if our local Honda Service that we bought the car from were not so incompetent. Was fixed within a day of going to another. After 106k the Santa Fe just started dripping oil, which is only apparent because I park in a garage and drips a drop or two every time I park it in the garage. Just stuck a piece of cardboard under the car.

When we trade in after another year, if I drove more miles I would probably keep the Santa Fe for the milage, and that it is "more" fully loaded. Although I like bigger cars, and my wife drives all the miles. So by keeping the Pilot she will be able to buy another smaller SUV if she desires and we can use the Pilot for travel.

Again, I like bigger cars, but the Santa Fe is a fantastic car. 2 of my friends and my sister own them as well, and have had zero issues.

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

SOLID purchase. It was second in line behind our Legacy.

The Legacy was the first car we ever bought "Non Big 3", and marked the beginning of our seeing why not to buy from the Big 3.

I would buy either the Santa Fe or Pilot again in a heartbeat and the Santa Fe will likely be on our list in the next year or so when my wife upgrade. I figure we will either stick with Honda, the Santa Fe, or possibly Toyota may be the only other we would consider at this point. Have also owned Suburu and Isuzu and like both, but not as much as the Pilot. The Isuzu Trooper was probably my second favorite car but guzzled gas. The only Big 3 car I ever still liked when we got rid of it was a Geo Tracker, which was designed by Suzuki. Would have made a great golf cart.

My wife traded in a BMW for the Santa Fe, and in all honest I like the Santa Fe better, and it is certainly a more reliable and less costly vehicle. Won't buy BMW again either.

 

[David Hillman]

Just a heads up to the Legacy owners. At least one of you will probably suffer a blown headgasket. Don't expect Subaru to honor their warranty, they've stopped doing that because it cost too much money to replace half their headgaskets. Both of my Subarus blew their motors under warranty, and in general, about half of them do so.

If, one day, your heat stops working, or worse, your oil has a head on it, trade it in as soon as possible. I made the mistake of expecting Subaru to stand behind their cars, and wasted two months arguing with their entire Service organization chart to no avail... they simply refused to pay a dime.

Hope you have better luck than I did.

 

[ezra76]

I'd still consider Ford,GM,Chrysler for a new or newer car. The price difference is a lot between them and a lot of the foreign cars. When my GF got her Pontiac, she tried to get a Civic or Accord first. Unfortunately the $13K Pontiac was all she could get a loan for. The Civic was over $22K and Accord over $26K. Sure, more reliable but not as reliable as two Pontiacs.

 

[Bakemono36]

Id gladly pay more for a Japanese car. In the long run, its worth the money. American cars will need more repairs over the course of 200,000 miles and dont have as much resale value.
Not to mention theres a good chance that the big 3 wont even be around 5 years from now.
Ive owned a couple Toyotas 10 years ago, have owned a couple Fords since then (a '99 Ranger and currently a '99 F-150) and Im planning on going back to Toyota when its time for something new, either a Tacoma or a Tundra.
I tend to keep my vehicles until they have 200,000-250,000 miles on them and Japanese cars age a lot more gracefully than their American competitors.
Im personally not a fan of Korean cars (IMO, they are cheaply made), but as long as you like it, thats all that matters.

 

[slickpitt]

:needpics:

:ugly25:

 

[FATC1TY]

I've got a Big 3, and a Honda.

The '05 FX4 has 103K, and the Honda has 225K.

Both run fantastic, although I think my transmission is slipping in the honda a little lately.

The next on the purchase list is a G37 sedan, in about a year.

 

[limpalong]

Have driven GM all my life. In 50 years of owning cars, only had two that were not GM. Both of the others were Fords and both were disasters.

Put 185,000 on the last Chevy. Zero problems. Have 125,000 on this Silverado. Zero problems. But... will NEVER buy another GM product.

I'm on the road a lot. I don't know Merle's from Bert's from Fred's repair shops. So, if I have an issue, I find the closest Chevy dealer. Had a small issue with a battery. Chevy dealer fixed battery problem but while doing so, ruined my speedometer!!!????? Yes, the mechanic said he hooked up an instrument that pegged the speedometer and broke it. They would not replace it. Told me with that many miles on the vehicle it probably would have gone bad anyway!

I insisted on speaking with the owner of the dealership. He proceeded to tell me that 1. I did not buy the truck from him, and 2. That I was not from his area and, probably, wouldn't ever buy a vehicle from them. Therefore, there was nothing they could do.

So, I called Chevy's customer service line. Got a customer service person who could not speak understandable English. Went through the entire scenario, having to repeat myself many times. She said she would call dealership and call me back. 30 minutes later, she called back. Said she'd talked to the dealership and they would not assist me. Duh! Told her that was why I called her in the first place. She then said she was sorry but they could make demands of dealers and, therefore, "have a nice day"! As much trouble as we had with communication, I find it hard to believe she was even located in the U.S.!!!

The instrument cluster replacement required cost me $425.00 at my local Chevy dealer. For the first time in my 62 years, I'm using Small Claims Court to file a suit against a business!!! And, will never purchase another GM product!

My wife's car is a Chevy. Daughter and son-in-law both have Chevy's less than 2 years old. Other daughter getting ready to trade in one of the last Oldsmobiles. NONE will replace with GM, due to my treatment by both the dealership and Chevy customer service.

Will, probably, go to Toyota Tundra when I replace my Silverado!!!

 

[mddubya]

I've got a 98 F-150 with over 225,000 miles on it. All I've done so far is replace the battery twice, 2 brake job's, and a major tune up at 150k. So far so good, and the good Lord willing, it is what I'll be driving to Tn. in April.

 

[warbirdlover]

Solid choice on Hyundai Lyle! I've owned two now and both are as good as anything on the road.

And the 10 year 100,000 mile warranty means it will still be under warranty when it's paid for.

Have driven GM all my life. In 50 years of owning cars, only had two that were not GM. Both of the others were Fords and both were disasters.

Put 185,000 on the last Chevy. Zero problems. Have 125,000 on this Silverado. Zero problems. But... will NEVER buy another GM product.

I'm on the road a lot. I don't know Merle's from Bert's from Fred's repair shops. So, if I have an issue, I find the closest Chevy dealer. Had a small issue with a battery. Chevy dealer fixed battery problem but while doing so, ruined my speedometer!!!????? Yes, the mechanic said he hooked up an instrument that pegged the speedometer and broke it. They would not replace it. Told me with that many miles on the vehicle it probably would have gone bad anyway!

I insisted on speaking with the owner of the dealership. He proceeded to tell me that 1. I did not buy the truck from him, and 2. That I was not from his area and, probably, wouldn't ever buy a vehicle from them. Therefore, there was nothing they could do.

So, I called Chevy's customer service line. Got a customer service person who could not speak understandable English. Went through the entire scenario, having to repeat myself many times. She said she would call dealership and call me back. 30 minutes later, she called back. Said she'd talked to the dealership and they would not assist me. Duh! Told her that was why I called her in the first place. She then said she was sorry but they could make demands of dealers and, therefore, "have a nice day"! As much trouble as we had with communication, I find it hard to believe she was even located in the U.S.!!!

The instrument cluster replacement required cost me $425.00 at my local Chevy dealer. For the first time in my 62 years, I'm using Small Claims Court to file a suit against a business!!! And, will never purchase another GM product!

My wife's car is a Chevy. Daughter and son-in-law both have Chevy's less than 2 years old. Other daughter getting ready to trade in one of the last Oldsmobiles. NONE will replace with GM, due to my treatment by both the dealership and Chevy customer service.

limpalong

And this is why I quit buying GM products in the 1980's. Experienced the same thing on a brand new car! Why go through this when the foreign car makers kiss your ass? I can't believe the big 3 still "just don't get it"... :shocked:

Im personally not a fan of Korean cars (IMO, they are cheaply made), but as long as you like it, thats all that matters.

Bakemono36

TOTALLY disagree!! Don't say that stuff until you've owned one. <!-- google_ad_section_end -->

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

And the 10 year 100,000 mile warranty means it will still be under warranty when it's paid for.

Not if you are my wife and get anything more than a 3 year loan. :laugh:

Kinda funny, Honda called 2 days ago about an extended warranty. Asked if the car had over the 36k. When I said it had over 80k she didn't sound like she quite knew how to proceed and simply said "So, do you think you still might be interested in the extended warranty", didn't even give and option as to what.

And this is why I quit buying GM products in the 1980's. Experienced the same thing on a brand new car! Why go through this when the foreign car makers kiss your ass? I can't believe the big 3 still "just don't get it"... :shocked:<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

This was the main reason I stopped even looking at Big 3 cars. The last Ford I owned kept having major issues and had 80k on the car. The Ford mechanic got frustrated in not being able to fix all the issues and one would lead to another. Actually said "You shouldn't expect a car to last more than 80k miles", to which I responded I can replace it with one that has a 100k mile bumper to bumper warranty standard, it the same price range as that car. I think that is one of the big keys, even many of the dealers and service people do not have faith in their own vehicles, which says a lot. If you don't have faith in your own product, how can you expect the public too. The entire "Buy American" ship sailed long ago, and it crashed and burned down towards Mexico.

 

[VtDivot]

I figure we will either stick with Honda, the Santa Fe, or possibly Toyota may be the only other we would consider at this point. .

We have a 4Runner, definitley recommended, if you decide to go Toyota route. Our next car will prob be the Odyssey