Should I take advantage of the current auto industry lull?

[Spec A!]

What would you do? A little background first...

We currently have two cars:
Mine is a 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, 6spd, 45K miles, mechanically excellent, cosmetically has some nice dings and scratches, good shape overall. Been paid off for almost 4 years now.
Hers is 2007 Subaru Forester Sports XT, 5spd, 13K miles, perfect shape, we owe about 12K.

Both are fine cars, mine is starting to show it's age a little. My wife and I are both die hard VW people (GTI drivers). We love German cars in general, in fact we met through a VW fanclub of sorts back in the day. We're now in our 30's with a 4.5 yr old and an almost 2 yr old. Back when we got the Nissan, it replaced a beater VW that died on me, and we needed a car asap- it was the best deal around at the time and we paid it off in a year. It's been a great car and still has alot of life left. The Subaru replaced my wife's aging Passat Wagon right before our 2nd was born. Another good car, but starting having some issues and major maintenance coming up. We needed something more reliable and newer- would have gone with another Passat but they are ridiculous in price now, can't get a manual with the features we want, and we both can't stomach the idea of getting an automatic. The Forester was a great deal of safety/reliability/utility/fun. The Passat it replaced was paid for as well, so this was our first car note in 4 years or so.
Our dilemma is that we miss having a German car, and we're thinking we also need something with a little more room (potential 7 seater). The plan was to buy a smaller more "fun" car once the Subaru was paid off in 2011. We sell/trade the Nissan on something new, I'd get the Forester, and we'd maintain the one car payment as opposed to paying for two.

There's been times when family has visited that having more seating would have been AWESOME. Typically when someone visits us, I squeeze in between the car seats in the back- not comfy nor safe, and only allows for 1 extra person. We know that we may have the need for extra space/seating once the kids have their friends over and stuff, so having a 7 seater sounds nice and practical. Unfortunately there's not alot of options out there for us- there are virtually NO manuals which pretty much kills the idea of having it be somewhat fun/enjoyable (to us) to drive. We refuse a minivan, aren't crazy about most American SUVs either. And then if we do end up going this route, we'll have one not so fun big hauler, and the Forester which is still a bigger car, and not the small fun German car we love (think GTI).


If you've hung in this long, thanks for reading the ramble. I'm almost done!


SO, now is an AWESOME time to buy a car. My Nissan still has a fair amount of value in it- obviously it makes more sense to sell it now than 3 years from now. The Subaru has a fair amount of value too. If we sold both, we could possibly get 10-12K for them. So we're thinking- do we sell both now, buy a slightly used larger 7 seater of some sort and/or possibly take advantage of the what's going on with the big three, and then finance a new Audi A3 or VW GTI? This way we'd have the one new car payment, and maybe another payment for the older vehicle but it would be far less/smaller/faster to pay off. We could both have newer cars, the practical 7 seater/hauler, and the small fun german car we both miss.

So does it make sense? What would you do?

[janikphoto]

the forester is a great car. we have one, too - a 2006 XT. The best deals seem to be coming from Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge and Chevrolet dealerships that are getting cut/closed due to the bankruptcy and reorganization going on in the two companies. Especially the Chrysler dealers who have a limited time to dump their inventory, or they lose a ton of money. I read a pretty good story on their dilemma in the biz section of the paper this last week.

If we didn't already have two decent cars, I'd look into it myself...

[Brains]

I took advantage of the market -- bought a Pontiac G8 GT for a daily driver / 4 door family-type car (baby on the way, due in Oct/Nov). Picked up the car for dealer net, couldn't complain ;)

[Rson]

Dodge/Chrysler are having fire sales at the dealers that are closing.

[srwatters]

From a financial point of view, it is never a good time to purchase a new car. The depreciation incurred can almost never make up for repair costs of maintaining your current vehicle. Purchasing a pre-owned car with or without a warranty is more sound financially...

but...

it's America and our love affair with the car. If you want and new car and can afford it, by all means go for it. I simply don't try to justify it to myself, and help support the economy.

Enjoy!

PS. I also love German cars and have had great success with my three BMWs. Of course YMMV.

[carrbowl]

We also love the VW..On our second Passat. But I think I heard VW's are now the best selling cars of anything so I'm not sure their prices are going to be good. I'd check those out before I got excited about anything...I wonder how their new SUV's drive??? Have you heard?

[Spec A!]

My ear is always close to the ground with VW- the Tiguan is great, however for utility the Sportwagen has more space inside.

Thanks for the input so far- we actually went and test drove a Jeep Commander yesterday to see how gigantic it was/quality/etc. Not bad, we liked it. And the dealer is giving $10K off of the 08 models left on the lot! However they have no more 7 seaters, which of course is the whole reason we'd do this.

So we're still contemplating other cars. Unfortunately the only German 7 seaters are the Mercedes GL/RL or the Audi Q7 ($$$$$$$$$$$). We refuse to go minivan. We like the Commander's looks, and features like all three rows have their own sets of AC vents is incredibly appealing. With a deal like 10K off (brought it down to the low $20Ks) that's very do able. Now it's a question of what else is out there that seats 7 and has the features we want?

We're also thinking of paying off the note on the Subaru and keeping it, selling the Nissan. Finance the nice new 7 seater, and sell both current cars to buy a slightly used GTI (we actually already found one here in The Woodlands too), or just pay off the Subaru since we've had it from day one and it's quite a capable car, made even more fun with some suspension and stage 2 goodies. We'll see!

I wouldn't mind suggestions for a good 7 seater besides Chevy Tahoe/Suburban. What else is out there?

[carrbowl]

not much...we drive the suburban along with the passat. 4 kids,a dog and an 18 hour trip twice a year, and the suburban is a necessary evil. I really don't mind driving it. It is a little big when you make the first jump. But the prices of those right now have to be wonderful...We looked at other options...there are other 7 seaters but nothing with any luggage room.

[groovyone]

I have an 09 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI. So far so good. Fun to drive and it has easily been pulling 30+MPG local, which is a good trick since I am not gentle with it. Still not as much fun as my modified Mustang though. The wife has an 06 Explorer she bought when they did 0% for 5 years a few years back. Nice to know you can take your time and pay it off since youare paying nothing extra to do so.

The Explorer may go away in favor for a 2010 Taurus SHO though. We'll see. The rumored 5.0L Coyote engine for the 2010 Mustang makes things even more interesting.

The 4th four-wheeled vehicle I currently own is a 1998 Jeep Cherokee. They just don't make them like they used to. Jeep has no equivallent to the good old XJ right now. The Liberty was supposed to be its replacement, but it is not even close.

And yes, 2 are paid for, one is at 0%, and I am already ahead by quite a bit on the 09 Jetta.

As for the whole new car resale value thing, check incentives. In many cases it may be CHEAPER to buy new than used right now.

[Teddington]

If you're looking for seating and not a minivan, have you considered the Mazda CX-7 or CX-9? I think both of them seat 7 but I wouldn't swear to it. I've had a couple of Mazda's (driving a 2002 Millenia S that just turned 110K now) and both of them promised 200k-250k trouble free miles. I think if you check, both get great reader reviews and good expert reviews.

Here's a link to compare them from Edmunds.com:

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/nvc/edmu...eId1=101064493

If you want a manual, you may be out of luck with these as they seem to be available only with automatics.

[crazeazn]

Mazda cx9 is the best choice in that bracket. or a scooby wagon, which you already have.

[epoh]

I'd definitely look for a new big car (7-seater) and then find a used 'fun' car. You will probably have a lot more luck finding a used 'fun' car in the current economical situation than a used van that's in good shape. People are more likely to dump their impractical cars right now, I'd think.

Have you looked at the Subaru B9 Tribeca? The 3rd row isn't the most comfortable thing, but it'll fit a few kids easy enough. And it's a pretty fun ride. I just had to get rid of my 06 Tribeca and I am still a little bummed. It was such a smooth ride, and it had that sportronic shifter, or whatever it's called, which was fun. You may even be able to find last year's model or one that's only a year old, to save some money. The Subaru dealership was willing to knock a lot of money off (like $5k) to get me to buy a new Tribeca, but I needed to go cheap cheap (ended up with a little Honda Fit.)

[Spec A!]

Thanks for all the comments!

CX-9 and Tribecas were thought of but the 3rd row seat is almost a joke in them. We're looking at a Ford Flex tomorrow. The Jeep dealer does in fact have an 08 7 seater, but they arent budging on the price- 26K with regular financing, or 30K with 0 percent- either way you still end up paying the same amount of money! We want them to do 27K at 0 percect but no go.... so far....

We'll see! Thanks!

[toverman]

We "refused" to get a minivan and ended up with a Mazda 5. It's not German, but it's sporty and fun, seats six in three rows. We wouldn't trade the sliding doors for anything right now; they make life with kids a whole lot easier.

Minivan: I'm hot enough to have mated and procreated. Check me out!

SUVs: I wasn't smart enough to get a minivan.*

*YMMV.

[Spec A!]

HAhahahaha no.