I'm getting a new car...help me make my decision

It varies from the automaker, but most will be having their year-end stuff in the next couple months. My advice if you're looking for a new car, wait until you see 5 years at 0 percent.
If you're going used and drive a lot, can't recommend a Honda enough.

 

If you want to get there fast, I highly recommend:

 

I'm starting to really think a used car a couple of years old with low mileage may be the best way to go. Damn. Now I'm torn.

 

Just do your research. If you can afford the payments on a new car and qualify for a great rate, I think it's the better way to go. If you go used, you may have to pay for extended warranties and interest rates are high even if you have good credit, so you're going to be way upside down UNLESS you have a lot to put down.
And the Internet has made this process a whole lot more manageable. Just do your homework .... and don't listen to your ego. It'll only get you in trouble.

 

I got an '89 Camry from my uncle back in '96 or so. He'd never had any problems with it, and neither did I. I finally got a new car in 2002, and the beast was still running fine. I miss it...

 

My first car was an 86 Camry my sophomore year in high school (96). It would've lasted a lot longer except I totalled it on the way to my high school graduation.

 

If you buy a new car, enjoy that new-car smell. You'll pay a shitload for it.

And, dude, don't lease. Run the numbers. It's not that hard to figure out that leasing = getting fucked with Colgate lube.

 

I drove a 91 Nissan Sentra for a while, put 154,000 miles on it before it blew a head gasket. Very reliable car. The gas milage was over 30 MPH, which could be a consideration with gas at 3 bucks a gallon.

 

Guy I know was leasing a Mazda RX-8, and he absolutely loved that car. The lease was up at the end of the June and he was hoping to pay the cash difference and keep the car.

The dealership was absolutely willing to put him into a new RX-8 under the same lease terms as before but kept giving him reasons he couldn't buy the car he'd been leasing for the past three years and had an emotional investment --- kept claiming they were doing him a favor, preventing him from having negative equity in his investment and that sort of bullshit. Just every possible excuse in the world, even though the people at Mazda corporate were on his side.

Eventually, he gave up fighting and his RX-8 is now sitting in the local Mazda dealership's used car section.

Fuck leasing. The upsides are vapor. If you want to rent a car, go to Hertz or Avis.

 

And Mazda wonders how it got into the financial nightmare that necessitated a buyout by Ford?

 

Mazda was on my guy's side. The dealership was an absolute box of chopped assholes.

Ford ought to be glad Mazda's on board --- without the 6, there would be no Fusion (which is a decidedly less-interesting car).

 

Hopefully word gets out and that dealership either wakes up or goes under.

Ford is lucky to have Mazda around, but not vice versa. Mazda vehicles are now leaning more on Ford mechanical bits, and Ford doesn't have the strongest record of reliability recently. I liked the 6 and was looking at one when I was last looking for a car more than four years ago. When my mechanics reminded me that the 6 was powered by a Ford motor, that immediately tossed that idea in the trash. Quickly.

Thing is, while the Mazdaspeed 3 has been getting rave reviews, I question its long-term viability to owners who aren't trading in every 18-24 months.