I’m in the market for a new car. The car I would like to get is the Volvo XC70:
In brown, if you please! Sadly, this vehicle sells for on the order of $40,000. I never would have looked at it in the first place if I’d realized Volvo was a luxury brand. (I haven’t been browsing Mercedes, Lexus, et.)
In reality, we are more likely to buy the Pacific Northwest’s most popular vehicle, the Subaru Outback. It’s actually so popular around here, it’s ridiculous. I’m a little underwhelmed, but I’m sure it’ll do the job. Still, I feel I should be more excited about something I’m shelling out $25,000 for, don’t you?
I took it for a test drive last weekend and was decidedly underwhelmed. This is actually in contrast to when we test-drove a Toyota Camry and were very impressed, but in our extremely hilly neighborhood, all-wheel drive will be very handy in the winter, and I’d like the additional storage space of a station wagon / small SUV. I’m also looking at all the other small SUVs below 30K with AWD and 35 sq. ft. of trunk space or so.
I have the Forester and love it.
What year is yours, Cari?
Can you buy a pre owned one?
Hey Karen – It’s not a very common vehicle, so I think it’s unlikely. I think I will find a more affordable car that I like perfectly well. 🙂
Virginia has really enjoyed her Forester. Ours is 10 years old and smaller than the current models, but the hatchback gives us space. The seating area is a little small, but I believe new models are larger. AWD is great in the snow.
Yes, I would really like AWD. I also actually like the look of the older Subarus – maybe from circa 5 years ago. Not sure about 10.
I am with Karen, I am a big fan of the used-car market if that car is what you like, you should go test drive it. Cars last forever these days and 1-3 years old is practically new and you can save a ton of money – most of them are turned in leases so you get them with a dealer pre-owned warranty (or even on a tail end of a manufacturers original warranty). I bought a very uncommon 2 year old pre-owned car twice (um, the same car because I totaled the first one, because…). We were just patient and specific and did a nearly nationwide search. Shipping a car only costs about $600.
People do love their Suburus though. I read that the hot-annoying vampires that live in the pacific northwest are fans of Volvos.
So Becca, were you planning to fly to wherever to test drive the car? What type of car, by the way?
When I do a search on Craigslist Seattle area for this vehicle, the only relatively new one that pops up is a 2015 with 12,000 miles on it, and that goes for $37,000. The next newest one is a 2004 without the mileage listed, which to me means it’s got A LOT of miles on it.
I should add that I’m definitely open to buying a car that’s a year or two old.
So we used autotrader.com and cars.com in addition to Craigs List. The first car Byron flew and looked at; the second car he didn’t. In both cases we bought from a dealer as certified pre-owned, and the car was still under manufacturers warranty at least for a few more months after purchase (we probably paid a $1000-3000 premium over a private party purchase for this, I kind of think certified pre-owned is a little bit of bunk — but there are not many relatively new cars are being sold by private parties for whatever the reason). Anyway, we figured if there was anything mechanically wrong with it, Byron could inspect it upon arrival and we could take it under warranty to get it fixed. With Carfax you know no insurance claims were filed against it, and we asked for very high resolution photos from front to back and the interior so we could make sure there was no unusual wear. I guess in the end, we decided it was worth the risk. Plus we were only wiling to take max 2.5 years old and 25,000 miles, and seriously, how bad can that be? In my case, the car was a red convertible (VW EOS, which they did not make many of, for whatever reason), in both cases we bought from a dealer in Florida, and I assume the cars were being used as vacation-home cars or something like that. I would be more hesitant in some ways in your position — if I was buying a car from a northern climate, you might want some photos of the undercarriage too to make sure there is no weird corrosion. We found there was a very steep drop off in prices for 2 year old cars — year 1 was almost the same as new, year 2 was a lot cheaper, year 3 was about the same as year 2 but there were a lot more of them on the market (probably turned in 3 year leases).
Sorry, just saw your question. Mine’s a 2013. I actually like the newer style (like mine) better than the older, so I’m happy with that, when sounds like you’d prefer the older. But it’s a great car so far.