I’m currently abroad, but I’ll be back in the Portland, Oregon area on April 10 (I’m actually a Washington state resident). I have a unique situation: I need pretty much any car.
My intent is to drive it for April through Sept/Oct, then I’ll be heading abroad again and will store for several months and start driving it again Jan/Feb of 2024. I really just need a vehicle. My only real preference is that it’s not a sedan since I’ll be be putting a hitch on it to carry my bike. But, if the deal is cheap enough, I’d do a sedan. Prefer hatchback or small SUV.
My single goal is to minimize how much I’ll spend on a vehicle for the duration of the lease. (Obviously I could buy a cheap car on Craigslist, but I’ll be in rural areas and want something reliable, plus I just prefer modern car comfort and conveniences.)
Is the Nissan Frontier still a thing? Really, I’m down for almost anything. I guess I’m looking for options that have the highest residual values. Is there a website that just aggregates all current residual values?
Nissan whatever small crappy thing is probably the best option, although with their fiscal year closing up a few days ago, deals probably wont be as aggressive as they were over the last couple months
Ahh, I wondered why Nissan was being so aggressive. I was really interested in those Frontier deals I saw on here in January, but can’t seem to find them anywhere now. That makes sense
You probably should just buy something used and cheap, and resell when you’re done with it. Something that has already depreciated but will be easy to offload like an older RAV4 or CR-V.
This gives you the flexibility that a lease cannot.
Yeah I’m looking at cheap used cars. I don’t really want to spend more than $6k, which gets you a RAV4 or CR-V with 200k miles, it seems. But I’ll be in rural Canada most of the year, and the idea of an old, well-used vehicle makes me uneasy. I’ve been in new car leases since 2010, and the worst thing that’s happened since then was my auto-up function quit working on one of my cars.
Just a thought, maybe look into monthly rentals thru Sixt or Sixt+. The cost of leasing, storing the car for 4+ months, insurance, etc might not make sense with the high upfront cost of getting a good deal (max msds, one pay, etc) it’s a gamble what the car market could be in a year, you could get lucky and have some equity, or have trouble paying someone to take the car off your hands.
Oh wow. I had no idea a program like this was out there. Interesting. Looks like it’s would be $700/month for a RAV4 (or similar). So about $3,500 to drive a car for the summer (+ some sort of insurance, through them or my own policy). That’s not insane considering it’s a new or near new vehicle.
I know that a sedan can have a hitch on it with a bike, and I had a sedan before that did. It’s more about gear management. Having all your stuff in the trunk of a sedan with the bike rack on the back is a hassle.
Nissan Murano is probably the cheapest lease you’ll find for what you’ve stated. Check the marketplace. There are a couple California brokers who have posted pretty sweet deals on these:
