Judy, do you know that Lexus is the lawyer's car of choice around here? All you have to do is look at a garage full of them to realize what business is upstairs. Do you really want to have the same taste as them?

Then again, I have this thing against Camrys.... and I can never kick a car love unless it's completely beyond my budget, so if you've been behind everything in Toyota/Lexus' line up and still dream of that one, then.....

Thankfully, I've only had good dealings with lawyers, so I don't mind;-)

Besides, they do their homework, just like I did when I shifted from Chevrolet to Toyota, main reason, less trips to service dept.

man, I thought that one would work.

You know, for me, the only way around it is to not look at cars... which is what I'm really trying to do now (it's been 5 years...), so you're not helping!

this might help: write down any minor repair or maintainance issue that the new car might need eventually and price out the repair including labor. just the costs of a tune up can be worse than sticker shock. good luck

I don't know..I've never had it..

My Cavalier is 9 years old and gets me where I need to go. That's all any automobile can do for you. It's not your life, it really doesn't make a statement (at least in my circle of friends). It's a big hunk of metal..

However, I do plan on trading in the next couple of years to get an environmentally responsible car--some hybrid or something.

I'm with Clint, a car gets me from point A to B, as long as it has A/C, a sunroof and decent radio (but even that's now irrelevant with my iPod),I'm happy. I bought an Accord coupe new 18 years ago, I'm still driving it.

I was thinking of finally buying one of those Honda convertibles, when I sell my house and move to Florida. Cause, I admit I've been drooling over them since they first came out, but then it occurred to me, that if I ever had to evacuate because of a hurricane, it would be difficult to squeeze me, the dog, two birds and the computer in that car.

No doubt, I'll buy another Accord.

Gosh - think about all the orchid goodies and gas you could buy by getting a less expen$ive model of Toyota or Subaru or whatever. I've kept my cars over the years 8 years, 9 years and nearly 11 years. Currently have a Subaru - and plan to drive it to 200K with luck.
I agree you probably don't need an SUV, but a reasonable vehicle that lasts a long time is a long term gift to your personal finances (think of insurance and excise tax costs!) compared to a volatile thrill (that you feel right now).

How'd I do with that?

Maryanne (frugal yankee)

We have one car (that is Yenderme) has a car. It is a two door Hyundi hatch. I hate driving and i hate wasting money on cars. My best friend is a car nut. There is something wrong with his mind. His idea of a fun time is to visit car salesrooms, talk to those con men and collect brochures.

Sorry Guys. The rest of the world has this vision of you all driving around in a great big yank tank. Paying a pittance for petrol and wasting resources. I can see from the posts above that the vision is not entirely true.

Went to a seminar many moons ago on managing money. The first thing the Guru started on was cars and what a waste of mney they are. His advice was to drive the cheapest car that your ego could stand.

paying a pittance, for sure, it was $1.93 per gallon earlier this morning at Sam's, YAY!
At least it'll be cheap while I drive the yank tank around to find something smaller;-)

$1.93 a gallon is a pittance. Sure some people. farmers, people with lots of kids, need bigger cars.
But do you really need a prestige car delivering 150KW of power to drive around stuck in traffic. I see from reading this morning's paper that Ozone Man might be running for President. That should be interesting.

Judy, I'm sorry we aren't any fun. If I could come up with a legit reason to buy a Honda J2000, I'd be ecstatic.

Um, gas for under $2 a gallon, I never notice Sam's prices, only Costco and K-Mart. I thought I was doing good getting it for $2.35 yesterday.

I've noticed in life, we all "wear" certain things. We won't discuss what my horses have been worth.

My mom can't stand the fact I'm driving such an old car. She wanted me to trade it in when it was less than 10 years old. Once again tonight over dinner we had a "discussion" about my car.

Mom-"while you're getting rid of all this junk, you may as well take your car to the scrap yard".

Me- "why, it runs fine".

Mom- "it's leaking oil".

Me- "so what, it spits out a little oil when I start it, no biggie".

Mom- "it's leaking some fluid from the back end".

Me- "no it's not, sometimes I back into the garage, other times I pull straight in".

Mom- "it's transmission fluid coming out".

Me- "no, transmission fluid comes out of the front end and it's pink".

Mom- "it could be the axles".

Me- "no, I replaced them about 6 years ago".

Mom-" you did a nice job painting the trim on the house".

How old do you have to be before your mother quits pissing you off?

L

Judy, i'll apologise. There must some one here who loves cars?

My father was a car nut. He used to belong to the Hudson car club. Enormous pre war gas gusslers. He had his running one and half a dozen wrecks from which he he salvaged parts.

I was just thinking today that car salesmen are lawyers and politicians without education. Of course, when the time comes to trade in the old wreck, i'll let the dragon woman do the talking.

We tend to keep our cars for about 100,000 miles. We would buy used, but most of the time there is a great incentive (like 0% financing or 0.5% or some ridiculous thing). At present, our oldest car is a 1999 Mazda 626. I love that car. It's ruby red, with mag wheels, and a stick shift, and I get 36 mpg hwy, 28 city. Love it. I'll be really sad when it comes time to get rid of it...although I was pretty tweaked when we last had the tires rotated and the idjit who used the pneumatic wrench (I swear it was a hammer) really scratched the wheels. bummer.

I'm afraid that the way we look for cars is by going first to consumer reports, looking at mpg, cost of repairs, and what we can afford. I seriously doubt we will ever have a car especially since dh's first new car (a Lazer) was hit by a drunk driver running a red light three days after he bought it. After that, a car is just a tool to him.

drove an Audi this morning, love it, too:-(

Audi A6
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I've got to quit building these fantastic cars online and get my mind back on cleaning out closets!

hey judy, I vote against an audi ;-)

how about one of those cute tiny cars with lotsa power? *snicker*

but, ki, the audi was a hottie!
and fast!!
don't tell me.. serial killers drive them?

I appreciate all of this, also the private emails giving me your experiences. I thought this was interesting:
(I'm gonna drive a Passat this morning;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: safety

pretty car, Passat
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you know, you don't get to test drive all that often. How about a saab and a jag - just for comparison...?

I love(d) both my Acuras.

jag is what started this whole thing..
at the post office, there it sat, cutest-looking little european touring vehicle I've ever seen!

But, DH says jags are for tinkerers, not his thing..
(My dad would have loved it; he and my brother could drop a transmission on Sat. morning and have that navy blue GTO ready by evening for us to circle the DQ, having a brazier burger and a dilly bar, as we lapped the square and back to the DQ, over and over again;-)

I drove the Passat earlier, another fabulous car, and salesperson did a superb job demonstrating why I should choose VW. Of course, now I'll all confused. I wish I could find a good used one, I'd save over $10K on all the $40K range models.

At least, THANK GOODNESS, Robert is now for me getting something smaller; he saw it was a no-win situation. I'll need to take him around and see how small I can go. Saab place next door to others, Ki, we'll drive one of those, too. thanks, everyone!!

I've had two friends who got Passats and hated them. They pretty much agreed the engineering wasn't very good and to fix one little thing usually required taking half the car apart. $$ Ask around more about this one before buying.

Yeah..Passats are overpriced German U-boats..

I saw this car from China called a Chery M14 that won Best at the Geneva auto show. Should cost about 15K US and probably won't be sold here until 2008 or 2009, but it's a hottie!

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thx, shady, I'll probably stick w/Toyota..
drove an Avalon like this one awhile ago..
unbelievably nice, handled like a dreamboat!
I got it bad:-(

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wow, clint, we were posting at the same time..
that is a DOLL !!!!!
wonder if Roberto would fit in there;-)

and the chery has retractable hardtop.. how cool is that??
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The car lunatic will be here soon to collect all the car bits from the papers saved for him. While i'm typing this I'm looking at that monstrosity with the fold up roof. He'd love it.

Of course since he bought his RAV4 he has done nothing but complain about the price of petrol and car depreciation.
So if you buy that thing does the value drop thousands of dollars as soon as you drive it out of the showroom?
Guess i'm just a stingebag.

Am I the only one who thinks the Honda S2000 is sooooooooooooo sweet?

Y'all have no taste.

Laura, i just looked up the details on the net. It is some $34000US dollars. eeck.

The wreck cost $14000A some five years ago . Guess i'm just a scrooge.

What sort of car does Warren Buffet (sp?) drive?

My daughter drives a Barina. I think that is rather cute though its probably called something else in the USA.

Laura, Ok. I agree. It is rather nice. Classic shape i think the car buffs would say.
Can you imagine yourself driving, hair streaming in the wind on the road to Palm Beach on a glorious Sydney day?

I know it's not the fanciest but, I got a Honda Element and really LOVE it. But those Toyota FJ Cruisers are really coowlll too!gb

ginni, the Elements are sooo cute..
we have friends who have a Scion,
lots of room inside, surprised us,
plus great mileage!