Car advice. New long commute

[Coronita]

There’s like 35+ toyota dealers in north of us in LA county. I’ve pretty emailed all of them at one point.

And there’s plenty of sienna minivans. Might not be able to get below MSRP, but definitely shouldn’t be paying above it.

3 here:
https://www.southcoasttoyota.com/inventory/?model=sienna&type=new&ordering=display_price-asc

7 here:
https://www.toyotaofglendale.com/new-inventory/index.htm?model=Sienna

24 here:
https://www.keyestoyota.com/inventory/new-toyota-sienna/

8 here:
https://www.toyotaoforange.com/inventory/?model=sienna&type=new&ordering=msrp-asc

and so forth.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I was thinking maybe it’s just status. Why am I driving this beat up old Honda given who I am. Discussed with my son. He said look, you’ve been driving an old silver Honda your entire life, maybe that’s who you are. My old civic was silver, and so is the accord.

He has a point. How much of wanting a new car is about a car, and how much about wanting to be or be perceived as someone else. Or imagining life will be different.

So I replaced the wiper blades. One was really thrashed. I think I can make it through the winter with this car. In the spring, I will rethink things.[/quote]

It’s just a car and won’t change anything. That is unless you’re the parent of young children. Then it’s life altering. Minivan is the only sound choice in that case

[Coronita]

[quote=gzz][quote=Coronita]Gzz, you know this is calling for you….

[/quote]

I am not against a minivan, I learned to drive in one. But the Japanese ones are expensive now, and as you mention, there are minimal savings going used. Selection of used ones is very limited too.

The Odyssey starts at 39k after “fees” and before tax.

Sienna has zero in-stock inventory at my closest two dealers, and they appear to be marking them up 11k over MSRP, so they practically start at $54 before tax.[/quote]

Why are you restricting yourself to just san diego dealers? You’re not going to find a good deal unless you shop against LA dealers. That’s just a fact. Galpin Mazda for instance has some of the cheapest prices and they have much larger inventory. I always use their prices to price match down here (with former Hines Mazda and Mazda of El Cajon)….

Same could be said about Toyotas.
There’s Longo Toyota, Toyota of Orange, Cerritos Toyota. You don’t even need to talk to anyone in person, just do it all over email get a written OTD price over text or email, and then show up and pick it up. That’s it. That’s how I always bought my cars. Never in the showroom. Those salesman are sleesy. The internet sales guys do it based on volume so they get to the point.

If you’re really lazy, you can try Costco auto buying program or maybe something like truecar, though you don’t get the best prices from truecar.

[spdrun]

A minivan with a VW Microbus style pop top camping conversion would be pretty bad ass (and actually have enough power to go up mountains, unlike an actual Microbus).

https://www.mountainpoptop.com/

[gzz]

[quote=Coronita]

And there’s plenty of sienna minivans. Might not be able to get below MSRP, but definitely shouldn’t be paying above it.

[/quote]

Here’s a post from a month ago on reddit:

I live in Virginia and it’s very hard to even find the available Sienna 2023 due to its popularity. I contacted 10 + dealers and the average wait is 6 – 12 months or you gotta pay an extra $8k – $10k markup price for immediately available Sienna 2023s.

All 8 of the Toyota of Orange are listed as “in transit” and “call for price.”

If San Diego dealers are charging 11k over MSRP I really doubt they are MSRP in LA.

The obvious solution is to wait for the coming recession! Or maybe buy this 2011 Toyota Sienna Limo:

View post on imgur.com

I dealt with this a year ago and ruled out Toyota for this reason. Seems to be slightly better but the recession hasn’t really hit Toyota dealers yet.

[sdrealtor]

Did you wait for a recession before spending around $1.5M for a house in East County? Hell no!

[Coronita]

.

[svelte]

We drive nice cars. Always have.

When we couldn’t afford a new nice car, we bought a used nice car. We kind of live by the adage buy the best you can afford and take care of it so it lasts forever.

Right now we have four vehicles may be up to five in late 2023 or early 2024 (an EV).

We have a 2004 that I ordered new from the factory and took delivery Oct 2003. I searched all of California inventory and there wasn’t a single one like I wanted so I ordered, invoice price + $200. Vehicle now has 135K miles and looks new. I still get compliments on it. American made.

A 2006 we bought new off the lot after it had sat there almost a year. It now has 135K on it and now is a “leisure” vehicle…doesn’t get driven to work often, just take it out for fun once in a while. Looks new except where the leather is cracking on the driver’s seat, wife is after me to get new leather in it. American made.

A 2019 we bought new after it sat on the lot for a year – got it 25% off. Was new on the showroom floor when we bought it, now has only 3500 miles on it. Made in Italy.

A 2019 we leased new after it sat on dealer’s lot in Santa Monica for a year. We just bought out the lease on Friday…I totaled up all lease payments and the buy-out…total we paid is over 20% off MSRP sticker, approaching 25%. Made in Italy, has 28K miles on it right now.

We will probably own those four for a long, long time. Probably the last ICE vehicles we ever buy.

Next year’s EV will be a lease. I figure we’ll lease EVs until my wife retires, then turn the EV in and live the rest of our lives with the four ICE vehicles. The EV will keep the miles off the ICEs and once we retire we won’t drive much anyway.

[gzz]

Hyundai Tucson?
Toyota Highlander?

Those sound very big for a solo commute.
They seem to be a waste of gas, and harder/less fun to drive.

The Highlander is the #1 mom-mobile in Rancho San Diego. I have seen three of them all parked next to each other in the grocery parking lot.

Some sharp large and semi-lux sedans that caught my eye on my commute:

Camry V6 TRD (301 HP!)

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid (starts at only 28k)

Mazda6 (discontinued last year, but looked really nice when I was at the dealer)

The Toyota Avalon is nicer inside than entry-level BMW/Lexus/Mercedes. I have been driven in them in Uber and the back seat is huge too.

[drboom]

[quote=scaredyclassic]In Temecula, today, on the cheapest leaf, 30k, they want 8000 over sticker for add ons. Jeeeeez.

Mazda in Temecula is asking MSRP on everything[/quote]

We bought a 2022 Leaf SV about a year ago in what should have been an even worse environment than today. I’d heard about markups and such, but while we had to wait a week or two for our desired paint color to come up (we had feelers out with a few dealerships), we didn’t pay a dime over list and we of course were able to reap all the tax benefits.

Escondido Nissan made it ultra easy and even delivered & did paperwork on our dining table.

Is the market even worse now? I was under the impression that it had improved.

[drboom]

[quote=sdrealtor]
It’s just a car and won’t change anything. That is unless you’re the parent of young children. Then it’s life altering. Minivan is the only sound choice in that case[/quote]

That’s not my experience, unless you have have enough rug rats to go from man to zone defense. My credentials: two teenagers born 2.5 years apart, for maximum baby/car seat time. Our oldest was actually aged out and then was legislated back into a car seat.

The best car experience we had, including various rental cars & minivans, for our two-car-seat years was our 2006 “Popemobile” Scion xB. The rear passenger doors and back seats were roomy, with ridiculous headroom. There were fewer places for an errant dirty diapers and assorted baby junk to hide, too. Finding somewhere to park was laughably easy and we hardly had to do a jot of work beyond maintenance on that car until my wife totaled it in 2015 or so with 110k miles–and we got 56% of what we paid new in the settlement!

The next car wasn’t bad (2013 Kia Soul+), but still better than a minibarge overall.

Everyone brings up road trips in this context. Only people who can’t do math go on long road trips in their own cars. We rent. This means we randomly end up in BMW X7s or whatever while paying the minivan price or less. We pay the extra insurance and don’t sweat it when some homeless guy goes nuts with a metal implement on the windows & windshield while we’re parked at Fisherman’s Wharf in SF.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=drboom][quote=sdrealtor]
It’s just a car and won’t change anything. That is unless you’re the parent of young children. Then it’s life altering. Minivan is the only sound choice in that case[/quote]

That’s not my experience, unless you have have enough rug rats to go from man to zone defense. My credentials: two teenagers born 2.5 years apart, for maximum baby/car seat time. Our oldest was actually aged out and then was legislated back into a car seat.

The best car experience we had, including various rental cars & minivans, for our two-car-seat years was our 2006 “Popemobile” Scion xB. The rear passenger doors and back seats were roomy, with ridiculous headroom. There were fewer places for an errant dirty diapers and assorted baby junk to hide, too. Finding somewhere to park was laughably easy and we hardly had to do a jot of work beyond maintenance on that car until my wife totaled it in 2015 or so with 110k miles–and we got 56% of what we paid new in the settlement!

The next car wasn’t bad (2013 Kia Soul+), but still better than a minibarge overall.

Everyone brings up road trips in this context. Only people who can’t do math go on long road trips in their own cars. We rent. This means we randomly end up in BMW X7s or whatever while paying the minivan price or less. We pay the extra insurance and don’t sweat it when some homeless guy goes nuts with a metal implement on the windows & windshield while we’re parked at Fisherman’s Wharf in SF.[/quote]

He also has older parents living with him. That seals the deal. Mini van it must be

[barnaby33]

Seriously, 3 pages for this thread? Just buy the damned mini van already! You’re old and white, why do you give a damn what other people think? Mini vans aren’t sexy but they are super utilitarian and easy to drive. Plus there’s a lot of them out there, so you blend in. Unless you’re going for the bald spot covering Lucid I’d just by the Mazda and be done with it.
Josh

[drboom]

[quote=sdrealtor][quote=drboom][quote=sdrealtor]
It’s just a car and won’t change anything. That is unless you’re the parent of young children. Then it’s life altering. Minivan is the only sound choice in that case[/quote]

That’s not my experience, unless you have have enough rug rats to go from man to zone defense. My credentials: two teenagers born 2.5 years apart, for maximum baby/car seat time. Our oldest was actually aged out and then was legislated back into a car seat.

The best car experience we had, including various rental cars & minivans, for our two-car-seat years was our 2006 “Popemobile” Scion xB. The rear passenger doors and back seats were roomy, with ridiculous headroom. There were fewer places for an errant dirty diapers and assorted baby junk to hide, too. Finding somewhere to park was laughably easy and we hardly had to do a jot of work beyond maintenance on that car until my wife totaled it in 2015 or so with 110k miles–and we got 56% of what we paid new in the settlement!

The next car wasn’t bad (2013 Kia Soul+), but still better than a minibarge overall.

Everyone brings up road trips in this context. Only people who can’t do math go on long road trips in their own cars. We rent. This means we randomly end up in BMW X7s or whatever while paying the minivan price or less. We pay the extra insurance and don’t sweat it when some homeless guy goes nuts with a metal implement on the windows & windshield while we’re parked at Fisherman’s Wharf in SF.[/quote]

He also has older parents living with him. That seals the deal. Mini van it must be[/quote]

Well, I was referring to the part I quoted.

I guess if you have two+ kids and two grandparents who don’t drive and the whole crew gets schlepped around on the regular, that amounts to the zone defense I mentioned.

[drboom]

[quote=barnaby33]Seriously, 3 pages for this thread? Just buy the damned mini van already![/quote]

Dude, we’re all standing around waiting for Rich to crunch the latest Case-Schiller numbers. What else do you want to talk about? Elon? Kan(Ye)? Tons of other places to do that.

[Author]

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