OK, my husband and I really need a new car and car buying just turns my husband and I into emotional wrecks. It’s such a traumatic event for him that he just delegated the job to me the last three times, but I’m retired now and he’s now footing the entire bill, so I think he deserves more input. We are pondering what is the better choice: to buy a new but lesser rated and less expensive car or buy a used but highly rated make with a long record of reliability (Honda - Toyota)? The used would be about the same price as or a couple thousand more than the new. The category is small or compact sedan. With a kid heading off to college this year, we really need to be frugal and sensible about this decision.
New and cheap I buy chevy sparks 1 yr old and hand them over to the kiddos 8-10 airbags.
You can get them 12.5k, 40mpg hwy, auto, infotainment, power door locks, small, 4 door, and the best 100k warranty from the factory.
I’d go for the higher end car especially if you’ll be traveling a lot. A nice quiet ride is worth it. My other considerations would be some of the safety features that are available like the mirrors with blind spot lights, parking aids and easy to use navigation system.
Having a reliable car that requires little or no maintenance is priceless! We are sticking with such cars, since we keep cars forever.
Small or compact sedan? Toyota Corolla. We’ve owned 3 of them (1 sedan, 2 Matrices), and they were all awesome. Hyndai makes nice smallish sedans. Mr. B always picks either a Toyota or a Hyndai whenever he rents a car.
The pros and cons are pretty much what you stated. You can either get more car, or the same but cheaper when buying used. The biggest con when buying used is warranty, but if you get certified pre-owned or extended warranty you can eliminate that concern.
IMHO a 3-year old car coming off lease is a great deal, when certified and/or with remaining factory warranty.
I just read an article that there is going to be a glut of cars coming off lease because of the great lease deals offered a few years ago so it is a good time to buy a used, certified pre-owned, low mileage car.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2017/05/27/off-lease-used-cars-flooding-market-pushing-prices-down/350927001/
I don’t think this article is behind a paywall but not sure.
Have you ever heard of the radio show The Car Pro? http://www.carprousa.com/ they give great advice about car shopping. I hate hate hate car shopping! They have a no hassle fair deal program with certain dealerships you can sign up for a VIP certificate free on their web page. I have become a very loyal customers of our “certified Car Pro” salesman.
We recently needed another kid car and bought a new Scion iA for a really good price because they are now “rebranding” Scion to Toyota. We also found that newer cars with more safety features are cheaper to insure.
I’ve found Toyota’s to be very reliable.
I am a fan of buying high end reliable used cars. My last 2 cars have been a pre-owned Lexus. Both are going strong, the older one with over 200K miles.
Ask your agent about the insurance costs before making a final decision. The difference in insuring a used Subaru Outback & a used Subaru Impreza with about the same miles on it when I bought my last car was over $1000 a year!
Wow–that’s an impressive difference in premiums–more than we pay for insurance for 2 drivers and 3 cars!
@intparent I don’t get that. Why? Subaru is considered one of the safest cars right? Why would there be a difference in price? Were they different years? Did one have better safety features or was more expensive?
Thanks everyone! Good advice that backed-up what I had in mind. We saw a few certified low mile 2015 Toyota Corollas for about 12K that we’re going to go look at. Send us good thoughts!!
@LeastComplicated we had the same issue a few years ago. We looked at new Camry, Accord, Fusion.
I was getting rid of a 15 year old,Volvo Sedan with 220,000 miles on it.
We decided to buy a one year old Volvo Sedan…which was just a tad more expensive than a new Camry or Accord.
I would always go with a good used car. You can often find good deals with things coming off lease or perhaps a loaner car from the dealer. I have a contact who has a used car place and he will go to the auction and look at all the “20xx Honda Civics” and then give me a list of all 10 of them and we can decide if we are okay with some dings in the door in favor of better mileage, or a better stereo with higher miles etc.
OP, I think it is risk of theft that drives the insurance difference. Apparently an Impreza is more desirable in my example.
I wish we could afford “high end” with all the bells and whistles. But we’re going to have to stick to highly rated make well known for reliability at this point - and all points forward unless we hit the lottery! But we currently own a 2004 Dodge pick-up without power windows! (only 60K miles tho!) and a 2008 really embarrassing make and model that I am not going to share with you (has 100,000+ miles and needs $3K in AC/Heater repairs and the car’s not even worth that). I will hint that it is silver with purple flame decals on it and it attracts a lot of attention from 5 year old boys 
. So a Toyota Corolla is a big step up for us! Our past cars have included Toyota Tacoma’s, Honda Odyssey’s, Honda CR-V’s, but I was just enthralled with those purple flames during my last car purchase (and I’m keeping it) !
We’ve had/have 3 Corollas and love them!
Look into a 3 year old Hyundai coming off lease at Carmax. (They will have many Elantras and Sonatas) You will pay lower processing fees than purchasing at the dealership. I purchased one a few months ago with only 20,000 miles on it that is still under warranty. Cheaper than Honda’s and Camry’s. Low maintenance and higher gas mileage.
My husband is driving a 2004 Toyota Corolla. He bought it new, but right when they were about to be releasing the newer models. It’s never given him any trouble.
I am driving a 2002 Toyota Siena. Its automatic side door is tempermental, and it’s beginning to have more issues. Brake sensors most recently. 125,000 miles on it.
Our son just bough (yesterday) a used Prius. It’s a 2013. It was pre-certified and has a pretty decent warranty. Our mechanic checked it out and thought it looked fine. Hopefully it will turn out to be a good buy.
If you buy a new car it loses thousands of dollars of value the second you drive it off the lot.