My family is a Prius/Subaru family but a 2021 Prius or a Crosstrek might work.
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I was impressed by the Toyota certified used program we just bought through, and they tend to have excellent reliability ratings. Not sure if you’re looking new or used, but I didn’t realize how thoroughly they check out the cars for the certification.
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Can I recommend the Honda Fit/HRV if you decide you need the AWD and extra clearance?
I drive a fit but I’ve seen the HRVs and they seem to have the advantages of a Fit in terms of way more space than you’d expect (as in, buy a queen size bed and two night stands at IKEA and drive it all home with a passenger in a subcompact car without any doors or windows open space, as well as passengers over 6 ft always shocked at how nice it is) and good gas mileage but with different styling and the AWD stuff.
If we buy another gas car, I expect we’d get an HRV. I’m hoping our honda fit lasts long enough that there’s an electric HRV or electric fit available to buy. We’ve had our fit for 12 years and it was stolen once and then recovered and we love it.
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I loved our fit. We have a Prius Compact now and it’s the exact same size on the outside but somehow the fit felt much roomier.
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OMG I just went looking and apparently the fit is no more!? And apparently there once was a honda fit EV but it was awful compared to the regular fit? How sad! Hoping something amazing becomes available before we have to think about changing cars. If we drove much, I’d be looking for an EV right now, but since we hardly drive it seems hardly worth spending much on a car.
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Is it completely gone, or just in the US? (Not that it makes a difference for us.) They no longer make the 3-door Toyota Yaris either in the US as of, I think, a few years ago (they make a boring 4-door sedan which is as boring and normal as any other car, but they still make and sell the subcompact hatchback internationally). Apparently it didn’t sell well enough, and it is a fantastic car, I love it and will be sad when I have to replace it (hopefully not for a decade). Yaris and Fit subcompact hatchbacks are both TARDIS in disguise, I can haul a ton of stuff in mine.
The fact that Prius has a subcompact now is pretty cool though.
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Lovers of a 3 door hatchback, may I please draw your attention to the Hyundai Accent 3 door? This little thing is a beast. Comfortable back seat seating while still having adequate trunk space and if you fold down the back seats, I’ve fit an entire billy bookcase in it.
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My main problem is that live about an hour from anywhere that has anything foreign. My town has Chevy, Ford, Lincoln, Buick, Cadillac and Dodge I think. As much as I may like other brands, I would prefer to have something that can be easily repaired here in town so I don’t have to take a day off work for it which limits me.
Looking at an Encore today, hopefully I like it.
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Ahhh I didn’t even think of that. Out here, Toyota’s are probably the most common brand overall!
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Are brand new cars usually the same price if they have all the same features? I have not asked my salesman to go lower, because I ~think~ Maybe the manufacturer sets prices now? He gave me a rebate that’s happening now, as well as his friends and family discount.
It’s really hard to tell if they have the exact same sound system for instance, so I don’t want to show him another dealers car and have him tell me it’s different and he can’t lower the price. It would be hard enough to ask, and harder to be turned down, you know? I would rather not ask, but would like to pay less if possible.
I told him I would let him know today.
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First look at the trim levels, and then for the “packages” each have (if any) on top of the trim level.
Dealers are selling identical items so they do have to compete on price and/or service.
If they are identical, it’s easy enough to ask him to match the price.
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No, not usually. I’d definitely ask for a lower price. The worst he can say is no and it’s not like you loose the car then. You can still choose to get it at the higher price. There was a pretty wide range when I asked for online quotes from dealers for a base model of my car a few years ago. Many of them came with a “premium floor mats” package but that was only worth a few hundred bucks at most and I basically said, I didn’t ask for those so if you need to pull them out to match this lower price then I totally understand (I got the floor mats for the low price).
ETA: I’d recommend picking up a copy of “Ask For It” to get yourself more comfortable with the idea that asking for something is not rude, and being turned down when you ask for something is not a big deal either. It’s written towards women but my male spouse found it helpful too. The first part lays out why it’s harder for some people to ask for things and how that leads to disadvantages in society. The. There are exercises to practice asking for ridiculous things that you expect to hear a “no” and for important things that you hope to hear a “yes”. For example, the author asked for free gas at a gas station once, just to practice hearing “no” and it being ok.
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Pro-tip: Don’t do these kind of exercises if you’re enormous. People assume you’re robbing them and call the police.
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Apparently I have strong opinions on this but a couple scripts that I feel would be totally appropriate:
- I’m still really interested in the car, thanks for all your help so far! I was wondering if the manufacturer sets the price or if there’s any further wiggle room? (Then stop talking and see what he says)
- I was doing some research and found [other car] at [other dealer] with a lower price. Is there a reason that this car would be priced lower than the one we’ve been discussing?
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Ah, very good point. As a small white person who read this many years ago before I was as aware of racial and other social issues this didn’t occur to me then although it should have now! Obviously different people will get different responses which sucks.
But I hope the point still stands that there’s nothing wrong with (nicely) asking for things you want, even if the answer is no.
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One thing that was SUPER helpful in my negotiations class is “Don’t negotiate against your self.”
It is SO hard to be comfortable with silence. Do not raise your offer, take away your demand, before they say anything.
Even in a fake negotiation, I often had trouble with this, because I am so bad at silence.
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One thing that has worked well for us on price cuts is finding out all the payment options. Can we get money off for all cash? Can we get money off for using the credit union you have a relationship with vs ours? What is the manufacturers financing rates- do you get an incentive from them and can you pass that on to me if we go that direction?
We got $500 off this latest car for doing manufacturer financing instead of our CU, and it was a better rate anyway! Lol. But the dealer gets an incentive, so they still came out ahead too. Win wins can exist and are way easier for me to ask for personally lol.
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I’m so sad the Fit is being discontinued in the US! I’ve had mine for 11 years and LOVE it. It’s still going strong at around 12 years old and 130,000 miles. All the cars I like are either discontinued (Honda Fit, Mazda 5) or not in production yet (weird futuristic EVs with similar footprints and interior space like the Caboo, Alpha Jax) so I really hope ours makes it another ~3 years.
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I HAS A SCIENCE QUESTION.
Why is baking soda + vinegar sometimes WAY more effective at clearing a blocked drain than Draino-type substances? Whatever was up with our bathroom sink recently, baking soda + vinegar affected it in a way that Draino didn’t even get close to.
Is it the abrasion of the baking soda? The bubbles dislocating things? Something else?
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