Car buying advice

[navyasw02]

Looking for someone to talk me off the ledge, close to pulling the trigger on a new(er) car.

Bought a 2008 BMW X3 last year, put about 2k into it in maintenance. I took it to the dealer for the annual state inspection and they did an inspection and found about 1k+ of work that they recommended. Nothing major or serious, but nothing is cheap on a BMW. I dont know how much I want to spend on maintenance on a 7 year old car I'm not enamored with that gets terrible gas mileage, so I'm tempted to trade for a new(er) Prius. Just a quick check of kbb, trade in vs Prius purchase will run 5-8k out of pocket depending on which one I go with. Worth it?

Other thought is to get the new Lexus NX 300h I test drove while waiting for my car to be done, but that goes against my principles.

[hendi_alex]

An Altima might be worth a look. I have three family/friends who own them and I have ridden in them often. To me, they are as nice as our Infinity G37 but they get much better gas mileage at about 31 mpg on the open road. My daughter bought a very low mileage 2011 late last year for only $16K. At the time Carmax had 2012's generally available for $18K/$19K. These were well appointed cars with leather seats and plenty of bells and whistles. IMO the car represents a tremendous value and a great compromise between performance and gas mileage. The ones mentioned above are all four cylinders which have pretty good acceleration. I don't know what to expect in gas mileage from the six cylinder version.

[navyasw02]

Thanks, I'm definitely looking at a hybrid though. I noticed that most of my commute is driving and hitting every stoplight getting to the highway for 15 min with Honolulu traffic and smooth sailing for the 10 minutes I'm on the highway. My average speed is about 17-20 mph in town and 45-55 on the highway.

[hendi_alex]

Prius would probably be my first choice for your kind of driving if much mileage is involved. Obviously, less mileage equals a slower payback. Also, some of those standard gasoline engine cars that get around 40 mpg might represent better value, if the most basic kind of car is suitable. The wife and I drove Tercels and Corollas for our many years of commuting 90-100 mile round trip per day. Those usually got 34-38 mpg which was pretty good back in the 80's and 90's. Now that we are retired and put limited miles on the auto, we don't pay as much attention to gas mileage.

[navyasw02]

(08-23-2015, 10:15 AM)hendi_alex Wrote: Prius would probably be my first choice for your kind of driving if much mileage is involved. Obviously, less mileage equals a slower payback. Also, some of those standard gasoline engine cars that get around 40 mpg might represent better value, if the most basic kind of car is suitable. The wife and I drove Tercels and Corollas for our many years of commuting 90-100 mile round trip per day. Those usually got 34-38 mpg which was pretty good back in the 80's and 90's. Now that we are retired and put limited miles on the auto, we don't pay as much attention to gas mileage.

Yea the mileage is a concern. Living in Hawaii, I drive 6k-8k miles a year, payback will take a while. I dont really know when I'm transferring or where I'm going for my next job, but that will likely be in 12-18 months. I mainly want to get out of my aging X3 and into something more practical for my commute conditions.

[benjamen]

You should look at the Honda Fit. Even new, they run less than 20k, get 35 or more MPG, and are very reliable.