Best Bang for Buck Buy?

Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:

1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
maintenance is performed
2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs or
other untoward behavior).

Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership over,
let's say, a horizon of the next five years.

What vehicle would you recommend?

What you will get in reply is personal opinions of the brand the
responder personally owns or the one he once owned not facts.
I'm in the business for nearly fifty years. I can tell you in
reference to new vehicles corporate fleet buyers look at that
same type of information. They buy more Ford brand vehicles than
any other brand because years of record prove them to be the most
overall cost effect in terms of the cost of acquisition,
insurance, maintenance, parts, repair and replacement costs.
Having said that I would point out from what we see in our
business every manufacture is building good vehicle today, the
only real difference is style and price.

JD Powers bear that out as well. Their report titled "Problems
reported per 100 new vehicles" ranges from the best one at 1.1
problem per 100 vehicles to 1.5 for the worst vehicle. The
average for the industry is 1.2 problem per 100 new vehicles
sold.

I would suggest forget what other tell you and go drive and get a
total 'drive home' price for all of those that meet you needs and
buy the one that best suits your budget.


mike hunt



Greg Dunn wrote:
>
> Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:
>
> 1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
> maintenance is performed
> 2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
> 3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs or
> other untoward behavior).
>
> Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership over,
> let's say, a horizon of the next five years.
>
> What vehicle would you recommend?

"Greg Dunn" <discussion@gregdunn.com> wrote in message
news:pJ-dnd55l8jbEF3cRVn-jw@comcast.com...
> Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:
>
> 1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
> maintenance is performed
> 2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
> 3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs
> or other untoward behavior).
>
> Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership over,
> let's say, a horizon of the next five years.
>
> What vehicle would you recommend?
>
>
>
>

www.edmunds.com does a total cost of ownership calculation. I don't know
how accurate it is though.

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 1117 -0800, "Greg Dunn"
<discussion@gregdunn.com> wrote:

>Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:
>
>1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
>maintenance is performed
>2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
>3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs or
>other untoward behavior).
>
>Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership over,
>let's say, a horizon of the next five years.
>
>What vehicle would you recommend?
>
>
>

The less expensive cars to run/own are the smaller one's (use less gas
and cost less to insure), and among those, the toyota corolla & honda
civic are among the most reliable around.

As far as roll-overs, they are minimized by both these models by
simply being built low to the ground (having a low center of gravity
compared to SUV's or trucks).

Small cars don't do really well if smashed into bigger cars, so the
simple answer is to be sure you get a car with air bags, and, more
importantly, the driver have good driving habits, always.
* Wear the seat belt *, and NEVER drive impaired or distracted by cell
phone calls, reading maps, beautiful members of the opposite sex,
etc..

It's always far better to avoid the accident, than to plan on
something like airbags, seatbelts, crumple zones, etc., to save your
life.

Dave
Go Metric!

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 1117 -0800, "Greg Dunn"
<discussion@gregdunn.com> wrote:

>Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:
>
>1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
>maintenance is performed
>2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
>3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs or
>other untoward behavior).
>
>Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership over,
>let's say, a horizon of the next five years.
>
>What vehicle would you recommend?
>
>
>==================================

Honestly.... Most new vehicles are going to be virtually trouble
free IF you have the regular maintenance done ...
And if you drive normally roll over really should not be of any
concern...

One of the biggest Cost of ownership IMHO is depreciation...which can
be decreased in a few ways....(Buying used...is a sure fire way to
cut down on depreciation) another way is to keep the damn car a lot
longer then 5 years...

Gasoline, insurance, State Plate & registration fees & saftey or
emission inspection fees all have to be factored in... along with
replacement costs of tires which are going to be needed every so often
no matter what...

Sorry I can not offer any specific suggestions ...

Bob

Thanks, Mike.

I can the Edmund's Total Cost of Ownership suggested by James Reeves. The
Fords did come in lower than Toyotas and Hondas. I'm just reluctant to buy
anything other than a Honda or Toyota because of decades of bad experience
with everything else. Right now I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey and a 1998
Honda PC800 motorcycle, and neither of them ever do anything except run
perfectly. I know the American makes have gotten a lot better, but I'm
still gunshy.

Greg


<MajorDomo@mailcity.com> wrote in message
news:41C0B74C.EC323913@mailcity.com...
> What you will get in reply is personal opinions of the brand the
> responder personally owns or the one he once owned not facts.
> I'm in the business for nearly fifty years. I can tell you in
> reference to new vehicles corporate fleet buyers look at that
> same type of information. They buy more Ford brand vehicles than
> any other brand because years of record prove them to be the most
> overall cost effect in terms of the cost of acquisition,
> insurance, maintenance, parts, repair and replacement costs.
> Having said that I would point out from what we see in our
> business every manufacture is building good vehicle today, the
> only real difference is style and price.
>
> JD Powers bear that out as well. Their report titled "Problems
> reported per 100 new vehicles" ranges from the best one at 1.1
> problem per 100 vehicles to 1.5 for the worst vehicle. The
> average for the industry is 1.2 problem per 100 new vehicles
> sold.
>
> I would suggest forget what other tell you and go drive and get a
> total 'drive home' price for all of those that meet you needs and
> buy the one that best suits your budget.
>
>
> mike hunt
>
>
>
> Greg Dunn wrote:
>>
>> Suppose a person's criteria for selecting a car to buy were only these:
>>
>> 1. Must be reliable, requiring minimal repair so long as regular required
>> maintenance is performed
>> 2. Must be presentable (but need not impress)
>> 3. Must be reasonably safe (good crash-proofing, not given to roll-overs
>> or
>> other untoward behavior).
>>
>> Beyond those requirements, the goal is to minimize cost of ownership
>> over,
>> let's say, a horizon of the next five years.
>>
>> What vehicle would you recommend?

"Greg Dunn" <discussion@gregdunn.com> wrote in message
news:yeudnaj-w439u1_cRVn-3Q@comcast.com...
> Thanks, Mike.
>
> I can the Edmund's Total Cost of Ownership suggested by James Reeves. The
> Fords did come in lower than Toyotas and Hondas. I'm just reluctant to buy
> anything other than a Honda or Toyota because of decades of bad experience
> with everything else. Right now I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey and a 1998 Honda
> PC800 motorcycle, and neither of them ever do anything except run perfectly.
> I know the American makes have gotten a lot better, but I'm still gunshy.
>
> Greg

Well then it seems you already have your answer. :-)

You either go with TCO from a source that has the ability to adequately research
it or you go with your gut.