How do you choose a new car?

[RamblingMad]

They say the average American drives right around 13,500 miles year. Then there are folks like you on the high end, and folks like my mom on the low end. She had a 16 mile round trip commute to work and never ever in her life put more than 3,000 miles per year on a car. When she retired it dropped to 1,000 a year. She put 77,000 miles on her 1976 Ford Pinto in 27 years. She replaced it with a Ford Focus and when she passed it had just hit 10,000 miles.

With COVID sending everyone to work from home, I put maybe 5 thousand miles on my car last year. I'm not expecting to put much more on it this year. It looks like my car is going to last longer than I expected.

 

[tvguy]

With COVID sending everyone to work from home, I put maybe 5 thousand miles on my car last year. I'm not expecting to put much more on it this year. It looks like my car is going to last longer than I expected.

Yeah, I just checked. My commuter car usually gets 10,000 miles a year. In the past year, 2,500 miles. Been working at home 6 weeks short of a year.

 

[yeahdisney]

Well. I don’t think I’m getting a vehicle. The dealership has called back to say they can’t get the Jeep, The other dealership that has the Jeep in Iowa won’t trade it to them.

The dealership, they will sell it to me outright for more $ then this dealership and it’s 5 hours away, one way.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I just chose something cheap to get me from point A to point B. So boring but that’s how it is.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Just bought a new car over the weekend. I like to buy new. I needed an AWD, crossover/smaller SUV. Went through many reviews and lists of the top models in that category. Narrowed it down to 3 or 4, then went through and decided which car had all the features I wanted. Price was a factor, but was low on the list of importance for me. Decided on the Honda CR-V Touring edition.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Just bought a new car over the weekend. I like to buy new. I needed an AWD, crossover/smaller SUV. Went through many reviews and lists of the top models in that category. Narrowed it down to 3 or 4, then went through and decided which car had all the features I wanted. Price was a factor, but was low on the list of importance for me. Decided on the Honda CR-V Touring edition.

DD has this same car. She loves it and I think it looks sharp.

 

[disneygirlsng]

DD has this same car. She loves it and I think it looks sharp.

I love it so far!

 

[mrodgers]

Generally agree, every Mazda I’ve driven, rentals and test drives the information system/radio is awful and visibility is poor. The general feedback is the CX-5 is “great”, but a quick test drive compared to the Subaru Forester was night and day in touch surfaces and visibility. We went with the Forester over the CX-5, CRV and RAV-4. The RAV-4 is where we thought we’d land, but the engine was louder than we expected inside the cabin and it just seemed cramped overall.

Complete opposite opinion. But I don't do the radio/infotainment stuff no matter what vehicle. My Mazda is a 2016 and I'm thankful I have actual separate dials for the HVAC. I don't listen to the radio because I want quiet after 26 years of manufacturing work and cell phones don't belong in a vehicle hands free or not. My kids mess with it with their phones, my phone is inaccessible in my front pocket of my pants. Interesting you say the CX5 has poor visibility as that is my biggest complaint, but I put that more on the steeply raked windshields and thick air bag filled a-pillars of today and the Mazda 3 is a small car. Visibility is an issue with all small cars today.

As for interior finish, my little 3 is beautiful inside, MUCH higher scale than the $17,500 price tag suggests.

I could never drive a Subaru (or a Nissan or Honda now) as I could never drive a rubber band transmission. I can't even stand a regular automatic and my Mazda is a manual so I can't comment on the auto being bad in Mazdas. Mazda's manuals are fantastic, so smooth I can't even remember the last time I've used the clutch other than to start from a stop. I float the gears and it slips right into gear.