Looking for a steal in california for a 3 row suv or minivan, not looking into an expensive car at all. The options I was looking at were the Ford Explorer, Chrysler Pacifica, VW Atlas, Chevy Traverse (mid tiers, have to indulge somewhere).
I was getting deals for 2k down, 7.5k miles, all of them closer to 800+
Am I just looking at the wrong time?
I’m not an expert by any means but from my experience and observation, you should follow these main rules.
For gas or hybrid cars that dont depreciate much (honda, toyota) , I’d recommend buying a slightly used vehicle, and then selling later
For luxury gas cars or cars OR electric vehicles that depreciate a lot (BMW, mercedes) I’d recommend leasing with a good deal. They’re usually at the end of the month/year.
Most cars shouldn’t be bought new unless you’re planning to keep it forever.
In your case, I’d look into preowned and then selling later.
Or waiting for a better deal when a new model comes out. I’m not familiar with deals for your target vehicles,
That’s just my two cents. Good luck
You can get an Atlas for 500-600 range with low DAS.
Sounds like either your credit is bad or you are talking to sales people not brokers, managers or fleet reps.
24 Vw Atlas se/tech
44,xxx MSRP
2k down plus first payment
36 months
10k miles a year
532 + tax
This is first thing I see with 30 second of search in marketplace
All vans are expensive, don’t expect deals on family vans and haulers. Sienna still sells for markup easy
Good points.
Speak to sales managers and not sales associates. Most of the time, sales associates don’t know the numbers themselves.
And you also NEED good credit for leases to be worth it.
Did you forget the ascent ?
You can ask @Jeff_BeachCitiesAuto for the 
Are you just asking for prices?
@Jeff_BeachCitiesAuto has a Kia Telluride LX for like $450 with 2k. And it has 3 rows.
Please don’t do this.
Just get a broker.
Sincerely,
A sales manager who watches customers blow by my sales staff to ask me pricing BEFORE PICKING OUT A CAR
I can do a gas xle awd grand high for 700 with $0down
4runner sr5 prem with 3 rows around 550
Respectfully disagree. I think a slightly used Honda or Toyota is, in general, not a good idea because they depreciate so little (as in, you can probably get a better deal on a new car), esp w/ interest rates (esp on used cars) being pretty bad right now.
They do depreciate some, just not much.
For example, a new 2024 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport L in my area is about $35,000.
From the same dealership, you can buy the same car for $30k. 15k miles approx.
From my understanding, the two cars are more or less the same. That’s a difference of $5k for a similar if not same car.
Will the difference between your new car interest rate and used car interest rate be enough to make up for the difference? If it was a redesign, maybe. But in most cases, I’m not sure if it’s worth it.
What are your thoughts?
Out of curiousity, what do you value as the cost per mile? 0.25/0.30/0.40? For wear and tear etc?
Honestly, for reliable Japanese cars, I haven’t really taken that into account due to the fact that I’ve never had to do anything in terms of routine maintenance
How would you translate those items into cost per mile?
How are they the same? Thats 15k miles worth of farts?
If you read what I wrote, I am talking about the difference between a MY23 and MY24 of the same trim.
You can actually clean cars by the way.
If you believe in the data, AAA has a website you can use to query this cost per mile. I have no clue where they source their data though.
A 2023 Honda Civic LX going 20k miles per year apparently costs $0.65 per mile over 5 years. They estimate $16k of maintenance and repair costs over that duration.
A 2023 Jeep Renegade Latitude going 20k miles per year apparently costs $0.84 per mile over 5 years. They estimate $20k of maintenance and repair costs over that duration.
Before clicking on the link I’m guessing they use a combination of the recommended service schedule plus maybe the cost of each service from the manufacturer.
I believe it’ll be quite a bit of an overestimation though.
Thank you for the link. It was helpful!
Edit:
I looked at the calculator itself and I believe it’s using a formula similar to what I said.
However, I don’t agree with its maintenance estimation for 5 years on the same Honda Civic.
What kind of maintenance are they doing?
Oil, filter, and brake changes arent done that often and are all under $300 each. (huge overestimation). Maybe tires at $500 But still, that would be once in the 5 years.
Even if you do the other maintenance 5 times in 5 years, that would still be just about $2000 in total.
I don’t consider 15K miles in one yr to be “slightly used.” You’re almost half way through the warranty, at that point.
I also assume that there’s more margin for negotiation in the selling price of a new car than of a used car (esp one that’s not selling particularly well in LA, such as the current Accord).
So the actual delta is probably less than $5K.
For me, if I’m keeping a car for 6+ yrs, I’d rather spend a few grand and have a brand-new car.
Hondas aren’t particularly reliable anymore. The only consistently reliable Japanese brands are Toyota and Mazda.
You should be able to get $3-4,000 off a brand new Accord. Does that change your view of the used one?
I used to work at a car shop, which is how I have come to know what’s “used” vs “slightly used”.
The car has only been driven for a year. What is your definition of slightly used?
Why would there be more room for negotiation for a new car?
I’m sure you’ve seen what products are usually heavily discounted at stores, regardless of what the product is. It’s the year old or open box items that have been put on clearance. Across all depreciating assets, this is usually the trend.
And I don’t know what your definition of “not reliable” means earlier. If you look at most of the critics, you’ll see Honda in the top 5 year after year.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/