Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

corvette

@Michaell - so, what you're saying is, Colorado encourages the keeping of hooptie fleets, since they're only taxed $3.00 per car per year?

nyccarguy

With the 4xe turned in, this month's payment allocated elsewhere, & off my insurance policy, I can finally get more serious about car shopping. My son is supposed to take his permit test today too. Here's my (not so) short list in no particular order:

2025 Volkswagen Jetta Sport: 4 year/50K factory warranty. 1st 2 services paid for by VW. Strong, safe, & solid German sedan. Lots of standard features and safety tech features. Excellent gas mileage for a non hybrid vehicle. Traditional automatic transmission. Very reasonable $25K MSRP. $1,500 rebate plus 4.9% financing for 60 months. I'd lean toward a purchase on this as the lease programs are ok-ish.

2025 Nissan Altima SR AWD: Giveaway leases on these. I can probably lease one with a $32K sticker price for $320 all in for 39/15K. Lots of tech. Lots of safety tech. AWD.

2025 Honda HRV Sport. All the safety tech features. Mini-Me Macan Styling. Decent lease program. AWD.

2025 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE AWD. Probably more than I want to spend. I know it is going to last. Stellar gas mileage. DOB (my cousin vinny reference) reliable.

2025 Honda Civic Sport: If I am looking at the Jetta, then I might as well give the Civic a look too. Cool car. Sporty styling. I happen to like the black wheels.

I think @stickguy suggested that maybe I should buy/lease a new car for my wife and turn the keys for the Highlander over to the kids. It's in dire need of a detail. My wife graciously grazed a concrete pillar at the mall last month

qbrozen

I’m debating.

This is ending in a few hours. Do I want another diesel? Would it be quick enough for me after I tune it? https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-porsche-cayenne-diesel-79/
At least it would be well below my budget. Shouldn’t break $11k, IMHO.

On the other end, I have a call schedule this afternoon with a salesperson in Iowa with a blue on tan 2014 Cayenne S with 50k miles. I’m probably looking at $18k for that one. So quite a lot more.

Michaell

corvette said:

@Michaell - so, what you're saying is, Colorado encourages the keeping of hooptie fleets, since they're only taxed $3.00 per car per year?

Yep.

The other $67 on the registration costs are for various fees, and the actual registration.

corvette

@nyccarguy - I'd be cautious about purchasing the Jetta Sport as a long-term holding. The HR-V's acceleration is not strong.

tjc78

I haven’t even posted much because I am so all over the board on cars I feel like our poster buddy @stickguy right now.

The beater search is stalled and I wonder if it’s even worth it… but eyes always open Just not much time to go out and test drive

Ram goes back 8/2. Plenty of time … but keep looking.

Ram leases are solid - 72k+ Laramie nicely equipped 42 month/12K is right around $688. Don’t like the 42 month but it won’t stay past warranty for sure

If I wanted to go wild there are sub $900 leases on 90K Infiniti QX80. I’m rolling the dice but speculation is that when the Armada production ramps up that there will killer deals on those especially considering the lower MSRP compared to the QX

JGC still seem to decent deals as well. One broker has an 82K Overland 4XE for sub 700

Ford Lightning pick ups are also a fire sale right now.

I need to stay off of LH

tjc78

@nyccarguy
My vote is to lease the Altima. No capital outlay, small payment. It will be reliable while you own it. They are pretty tough.

I’ve have dozens as rentals. There are many worse things to drive.

qbrozen

Ok, apparently I'll have no chance at that diesel anyway. People are DUMB! I could go buy these for full asking prices at dealers and flip them on BaT for a big profit, evidently.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-porsche-cayenne-diesel-68/

Michaell

tjc78 said:

@nyccarguy

My vote is to lease the Altima. No capital outlay, small payment. It will be reliable while you own it. They are pretty tough.

I’ve have dozens as rentals. There are many worse things to drive.

+1 on the cheap Altima lease. Good size, AWD, inconspicuous.

au1994

@nyccarguy put me down for the Altima as well. It seems to be the best deal out of any of them. Plus BAE.

@tjc another Ram lease doesn't look like a bad deal, but like you, I am intrigued by the new Armada. I've seen a few on the road and it looks pretty good. Lets hope they upgraded the tech.

au1994

This weeks rental...another Wagoneer but the extended version this time.

It was absolutely filthy inside and out. Must have been driven through some of the storms we had recently in the SE. There were cups, a beer can and peanuts on the floor in the back.

It had 32k on the clock and there was significant wear on the light colored leather on the drivers seat, wind noise from the drivers side window and the power tailgate quit working. It would also show as ajar if I hit a bump too hard. Only had it for 2 days and we were in a hurry otherwise I would have refused it but that would have been a whole 'nother set of issues to get one brought to the FBO.

tjc78

@au1994 said:
@nyccarguy put me down for the Altima as well. It seems to be the best deal out of any of them. Plus BAE.

@tjc another Ram lease doesn't look like a bad deal, but like you, I am intrigued by the new Armada. I've seen a few on the road and it looks pretty good. Lets hope they upgraded the tech.

Ideally I really want another truck or truck based SUV. I’m happy with my Ram except the build. Although it’s a Built to Serve and unique it’s not as equipped as I want. The Laramie seems like more what I’m looking for. A good option load staying under 75K.

We will see on the Armada. Nearly everything in the Nissan fleet seems to be leasing well… if there are deals to be had the brokers will get them.

Any of the other truck based SUVs are $1000 minimum it seems. Even the Wagoneer which I do like (but scared of that rental that didn’t hold up well) aren’t leasing well.

stickguy

Geez. I’m eating too much time swamped at work. I’m falling behind.

Bradd, given those options the Altima is probably a good move. Especially if you and the boss will also be using it in a time share. Highlander seems like overkill for the teen to use. And will be more expensive to replace that since your wife would want something bigger and nicer to replace it. Plus you can swap around as needed between the 3 vehicles.

Tom, pricy stuff. Man SUVs and trucks are expensive. Quite the scam! Get whatever deal falls into your lap but I would say to avoid a 2nd full EV in the fleet. How about a grand Highlander? That big enough for you?

Or just get another ram if that works well for you.

stickguy

And NY and NJ have never been known as low tax states but at least neither one runs the personal property tax scam. Just on houses!

tjc78

@stickguy
Yeah anything truck based is just crazy expensive. The Grand Highlander and variant's are all nice but I really don’t want another FWD based SUV …. Although they make the most sense. 80% of the room and better fuel economy. I haven’t even looked into what they lease for.

We will see - do tend to agree another full EV is probably not the smartest thing ever.

laurasdada

@nyccarguy Love the conversation you had with the Jeep folks!

Getting new sneaks for the A7 next week, decided on the Conti DWS06+, great reviews. And a bit less dear than the Michelin Pilot Sport AS.

Why penny pinch? Well, it seems that every time I lace up a new set of sneaks for my car, within 6 months I get a new car! Chrysler 300M became an Acura TL which became a Jag XK which became a Jag XF which became the A7. So, I've got that specter to live with.

But what next? I think in May (work likely won't allow it earlier) I may road-trip to the Lucid showroom in Natick and test drive an Air Touring. If my boat doth floateth and I'm not electrocuted (or eaten by sharks, our President's preference), perhaps the cycle will continue. I'll have to 240v the garage and 99% sure, for the first time ever, I'll lease. They have some great incentives, which of course will disappear the night before I make the decision.

The oft-mentioned Porsche itch still irritates, but I'm not sure there's a Goldilocks version for me (true four-seater wise, that is. 911, yeah that'll do fine but would replace the M240 vert. Which the wife loves, so unless she tells me that I have free will, oh well...).

stickguy

I’m Almost glad I don’t really need anything. Too much pressure having to do something. Though that for us really means losing 2 cars since we only really need 1!

qbrozen

Won’t call it a punch yet, but looking like I’ll be getting the 2014 Cayenne S. I’ll have to give story details later. He is in the process of sending me lots of pics and they are replacing the battery and giving it an oil change. A bit more than I wanted to ideally spend but I guess it makes sense to get one with 54k miles in my ideal color combo.

qbrozen

Nope. Scratch that. Super nice guy who found damage when he started probing. So we’re gonna pass on that one considering it would be top dollar and it is missing a large piece of trim and light. I’m guessing a good $1k, if they are lucky.

stickguy

surprised they don't just fix it for you. Will need to do it for another buyer, or lower the price since they should have to disclose it now that they know.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

anonymousposts2025 said:

We’ve been shopping all the inexpensive EV lease deals. $0 due at signing is rare, they usually all want at least first month’s payment. I don’t do cap cost reduction on leases, ever.

The Si is great, if a bit tiring to get into and out of. It’s my daily driver at the moment. My better half drives the RAV4 Hybrid daily and the van is for when we’re all together.

Our oldest son is finally ready to drive and we need a car we can put on his own insurance policy. We’ve been trying to find a Scion xB but the ones we have seen are in rough shape.

I really don’t like buying used cars anymore. But new doesn’t make sense for him.

Used car shopping isn't fun at all. If the cars aren't beat up and miled up, they have had the oil changed and been detailed so they look perfect. You don't know if the coolant, brake fluid, differential fluid, or transmission fluid has ever been changed. You don't know if there were any codes that were cleared and your check engine light is going to go on in 2 days after you've driven 50 - 100 miles.

When I bought my truck I knew the oil was changed but I changed the transmission fluid and coolant so that I would have a baseline on all three.

You can see if the codes were cleared with a cheap scan tool. It will indicate ‘monitors not ready’ if the codes were cleared.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

Now things are starting to make sense. The city where I live changed the way they vaule motor vehicles for personal property tax purposes. This benefits the City of Stamford of course. The new state mandated depreciation schedule is based off the vehicle's original MSRP as of 10/1/2024. The old method was to calculate the tax based off of the car's current value. Starting with 85% up to year 1, then a 5% drop each year until year 15. So I'm paying personal property tax on the Wrangler based on 75% of it's original $60+K sticker price instead of it's current less than $30K value.

Sounds like the anti-car snobs have decided to punish you for your degradation of the environment. Great way to put even more people on foot.

explorerx4

When I lived in CT, there were years where the value of my 25+ year old Mustang went up and combined with the usual higher mil rate, the property tax on it went up.
No vehicle property tax in Ohio.

corvette

@qbrozen - wait, what happened? Was the $22k bidder a shill?

sb55

So the big Kia dealer in Albany has some CPO Tellurides on their website. 2 we wanted to see were sold and still appear anyway.
The weird thing is that they aren’t prepped before showing to the customers (us!). One was filthy and full of dog hair, had mismatched bald tires, a dent and a spare tire hanging out in the back. Salesman said all would be cleaned and fixed. But….no thanks.
My daughter did like it and may end up with one from somewhere.

qbrozen

@corvette said:
@qbrozen - wait, what happened? Was the $22k bidder a shill?

Beats me.
But I was referring to the blue 2014 S I had a line on. The BaT one was a diesel, and the $22k was for one I wasn’t even looking at. I was watching the 2nd one that was auctioned today. That one hit only $16k, for some unknown reason, and stranger still, the dealer had a reserve higher than that! $16k was a home run. No clue what these people are smoking.

roadburner

@nyccarguy said:
And then there were three…

Dropped the Jeep off tonight. Yes I had them sign that they received 2 keys on the odometer disclosure statement.

Quickish and sort of easy process. Of course the guy who got my phone number and has been trying to get me to look at something else wasn’t there today. The dealership tried to tell me that since I didn’t buy it there they couldn’t take the lease return. Once I mentioned the guys name and that he told me I could drop it off there they said OK.

They made a valiant attempt to sway me to look at something else and said they’d give me a “smokin” deal. Little do they know that my definition of smokin’ is different from theirs. They asked some standard prodding questions.

“What are you going to get next?”
“I’m not sure yet. Nothing from the Stellantis portfolio though.”

“Why not?”
“I do a lot of driving and don’t trust these vehicles once they are out of warranty.”

“You know we offer high mileage leases and extended warranties?”
“Yes, but high mileage leases get very expensive. Plus that would mean I have to deal with your service department. They are terrible.”

“Well, just to let you know, we hired a new general manager a few months ago. He’s really cleaned house and got rid of some bad people, specifically in the service department.”
“That’s good to know, but every time I tried to make a service appointment there was a 3-4 week wait. No courtesy loaner cars available or cheap rentals. I have 2 Toyotas. I call up and am always given an appointment the next day. They don’t have loaners, but cheap rentals available.”

“Ok. Well, here’s my card. Let me introduce you to our new General Manager.”

We shake hands. I thank them for their time. And off I went.

I won’t tolerate a bad service department. I actually liked the new Bronco but the three nearest Ford dealers are just horrible. Even my uncle (a Ford retiree) won’t patronize them.

anonymousposts2025

We have shifted our search away from EVs, the Prologue and other Ultium products seem problematic. Good deals on the Ioniq 5, but ICCU problems.. non - Tesla EVs seems to have issues. Good deals on Tesla, but not going there again.

So we started looking at small SUVs yesterday. Mazda CX30, Honda HRV, etc. We’ll see where that goes.

My better half would love a Grand Highlander, they are scarce in this area and dealers charge a premium. We could combine the RAV4 and the Odyssey into a Grand Highlander, but the kids are attached to the RAV4 and have asked us not to include it in our plans.

stickguy

CX30 is nice but likely way too tight for a tall person. Not very roomy. Hrv is nice. Or go fancier and look at the new Acura ADX

kyfdx

HR-V is pretty darn slow.. The CX-30 is better.

In that class, better off with a turbo (Seltos?)

nyccarguy

anonymousposts2025 said:

We have shifted our search away from EVs, the Prologue and other Ultium products seem problematic. Good deals on the Ioniq 5, but ICCU problems.. non - Tesla EVs seems to have issues. Good deals on Tesla, but not going there again.

So we started looking at small SUVs yesterday. Mazda CX30, Honda HRV, etc. We’ll see where that goes.

My better half would love a Grand Highlander, they are scarce in this area and dealers charge a premium. We could combine the RAV4 and the Odyssey into a Grand Highlander, but the kids are attached to the RAV4 and have asked us not to include it in our plans.

This is what I like to hear!

ab348

I'm not a fan of the CX-30. The HRV is a slug, although I hear Honda has/will be introducing a hybrid variant that will cure its sluggishness, if not its unattractive styling. I hesitate to suggest Hyundai/Kia small CUVs, but they do sell a ton of them and they too have hybrid offerings.

kyfdx

ab348 said:

I'm not a fan of the CX-30. The HRV is a slug, although I hear Honda has/will be introducing a hybrid variant that will cure its sluggishness, if not its unattractive styling. I hesitate to suggest Hyundai/Kia small CUVs, but they do sell a ton of them and they too have hybrid offerings.

Acura is going to have the ADX, which is an HR-V with a turbo and 190 hp. But, with a big bump in price, I'd expect

ab348

anonymousposts2025 said:

We have shifted our search away from EVs, the Prologue and other Ultium products seem problematic. Good deals on the Ioniq 5, but ICCU problems.. non - Tesla EVs seems to have issues. Good deals on Tesla, but not going there again.

So we started looking at small SUVs yesterday. Mazda CX30, Honda HRV, etc. We’ll see where that goes.

My better half would love a Grand Highlander, they are scarce in this area and dealers charge a premium. We could combine the RAV4 and the Odyssey into a Grand Highlander, but the kids are attached to the RAV4 and have asked us not to include it in our plans.

Subie Crosstrek seems to check many boxes for a lot of people.

nyccarguy

ab348 said:

anonymousposts2025 said:

We have shifted our search away from EVs, the Prologue and other Ultium products seem problematic. Good deals on the Ioniq 5, but ICCU problems.. non - Tesla EVs seems to have issues. Good deals on Tesla, but not going there again.

So we started looking at small SUVs yesterday. Mazda CX30, Honda HRV, etc. We’ll see where that goes.

My better half would love a Grand Highlander, they are scarce in this area and dealers charge a premium. We could combine the RAV4 and the Odyssey into a Grand Highlander, but the kids are attached to the RAV4 and have asked us not to include it in our plans.

Subie Crosstrek seems to check many boxes for a lot of people.

They also make an Impreza Hatchback that doesn't have the ground clearance or cladding that the Crosstrek has. It is cheaper too.

stickguy

I love the crosstrek.

xwesx

Michaell said:

It's sort of the same where I live - the personal property tax is on a sliding scale, based on 85% of the base MSRP:

Vehicle Model Year Tax Assessment
First Year 2.10% of taxable value
Second Year 1.50% of taxable value
Third Year 1.20% of taxable value
Fourth Year .90% of taxable value
Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth years .45% of taxable value
Tenth and each later year $3.00

Three dollars?! I know what sort of vehicles I would have!

Edit: Oh, wait. Nevermind. I already have those.

qbrozen

Oh boy. Now in talks about a gorgeous Panamera 4S.

sda

SC tag renewal isn't too costly. However, the annual vehicle property tax can be an eye opener. I transferred the tag from the 06 TL to the 21 Arteon. Last year's registration/tax on the TL was $57. March this year the tag renewal was $530.00 for the Arteon. I was expecting around $350.00. It's a 4-year-old car and not worth that much. Sheesh. It is about $250 each for the 16 Q5 and 18 Passat. I don't know if there is a tax cap. It doesn't pay to have something nice.

stickguy

Can a panamera tow? That should be interesting.

qbrozen

stickguy said:

Can a panamera tow? That should be interesting.

yes. More than a Maverick. Go figure.

Probably helps to have 400 hp and weigh more than 2 tons.

laurasdada

qbrozen said:

Oh boy. Now in talks about a gorgeous Panamera 4S.

Gen 1 or 2?
Details...

oldfarmer50

sda said:

SC tag renewal isn't too costly. However, the annual vehicle property tax can be an eye opener. I transferred the tag from the 06 TL to the 21 Arteon. Last year's registration/tax on the TL was $57. March this year the tag renewal was $530.00 for the Arteon. I was expecting around $350.00. It's a 4-year-old car and not worth that much. Sheesh. It is about $250 each for the 16 Q5 and 18 Passat. I don't know if there is a tax cap. It doesn't pay to have something nice.

One of the few good things about NY is that they have a flat registration fee based on weight. Maybe $75 a year average.

qbrozen

@laurasdada said:
Gen 1 or 2?
Details...

2011. I’m not familiar with gens

anonymousposts2025

We looked at a Panamera years ago, it was Gee’s dream car. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even sit in it, much less drive it. Beautiful cars though.

stickguy

HP isn't the issue usually with towing. Suspension and ride height are big issues. trailer brake or sway controller is also handy. Would think something that low without a tow package would not be well suited for a large trailer.

Maverick tows 4k, so not a lightweight.

nyccarguy

@roadburner

I was thinking of you earlier. I saw an MB E63 AMG S with the vanity plate: TRY M3

corvette

I saw a black Arteon that was extremely clean and shiny the other day. It looked great!

stickguy

for the 5 minutes or 5 miles, whichever comes first, before it is dirty again?

qbrozen

@stickguy said:
HP isn't the issue usually with towing. Suspension and ride height are big issues. trailer brake or sway controller is also handy. Would think something that low without a tow package would not be well suited for a large trailer.

Maverick tows 4k, so not a lightweight.

Oh, I know.
Panamera is 4850 in Europe.
Usually more power and more weight are accompanied by heavier suspension and brakes. It is a whole package deal. Was it here we talked about the YouTuber who turned his Lamborghini into a tow vehicle (before the Ursus was a thing)?