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Wanna buy a slightly used SUV?
In this morning’s “Whirled Views,” our friend Sawgunner linked to this interesting article from today’s Wall Street Journal about problems people are having unloading their gas-guzzling, late-model SUVs. In his “Eyes on the Road” column, Joseph B. White reports:
A three-year-old large SUV today is worth about $2,000 to $3,000 less at trade-in than a three-year-old large SUV would have been in 2007, before gas prices began to soar, according to Marc Cannon of AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto retailer. A three-year-old Chevy Tahoe that might have fetched $19,700 in September 2007, he says. Today, a three-year-old Tahoe might be worth $16,400 at trade-in.
What should SUV owners do? According to White, used-car experts say that “the incremental expense of driving a large SUV for another year—as opposed to buying a Ford Focus—is almost certainly less than the financial hit a consumer will take trading in a big SUV right now.” Plus, since the demand for four-wheel-drive vehicles usually goes up during the winter months, it might be to your advantage to hold out at least until the temperature starts to drop.
back to top19 Comments to “Wanna buy a slightly used SUV?”
Anyone want to take bets on what the price of Gas does in the next two years?
My money is on a steady increase…
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I’m so glad that when we bought our Suburban a couple of years ago (we’re a family of nine so I have no problem with the fact that we even have an SUV) that we did it knowing we would drive it for many, many years and had no plans to try and sell it. That makes knowing we’d have a hard time selling right now a non-issue. We’ve talked about related options like getting a 10-year old Toyota Tercel for running around town (likely), or maybe even going totally “car-free” (not as likely, but I think it sounds fun!).
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We bought a small SUV in 2005, and like Endyblue have no desire to sell it. For my short commute (5 miles), the poor gas mileage is a concern but not a huge one. And the extra space for when we take trips makes a big difference – when we used to try to squeeze the four of us plus luggage and camping gear into a Ford Escort it made for very uncomfortable travel.
We haven’t made as much use of it for driving teenagers around as we had expected – we bought it when my husband was pastoring a church. But when my husband wants to drive a group of teenagers to a movie or bowling, that’s the vehicle he prefers to use, rather than the better-mileage car he uses for his half-hour commute.
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I think a large vehicle for big families is perfectly acceptable.
Folks like me with a wife and 2 kids really dont need that much vehicle.
The article pointed out that a big Hummer or SUV might be good for long distance vacation drives, but for commuting to work or school? Nope.
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In a related TVee make-news story the other day a Repo man (who repossesses cars for banks) was featured, primarily whining about the high price of gas and how it’s affecting his business—he was making money before, now he’s not. But he added an interesting side note that the bulk of his business now is from repossessing large gas-hog pickup trucks and SUVs. Since where I live, three of every four vehicles is a 4×4 of some sort—supposedly because they are needed in the snow though as a native I’ve never owned one—his story is not surprising.
It will certainly be nice to have these dangerous, testosterone boosting monster trucks off the roads with their raised chassis, headlights in my rear window and excessive splash-back from oversized tires without mudflaps—none of which is necessary 99.9% of the time. True, it will be a while until they all rot and are gone, but it’s a shameless fad I won’t miss at all.
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My SUV must be born again, because I think it will run forever. It’s a 10 year old Toyota 4Runner with 210,000 miles. Runs like new. 21 MPG. Not for sale.
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2001 Subaru Forrester AWD
121,000+ miles
21 MPG city
26 MPG pulling 500 lbs trailer on freeway @ 55MPH
27 MPG @ 75 MPH
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I almost posted this in response to Sawgunner’s previous comment.
The best automobile deal I’ve ever had was in 1972 when the previous catastrophic gas price increase occurred. Everybody wanted a Datsun B-210, so dealers were anxious to sell their gas guzzlers. I bought a new Pontiac Catalina, a $4500 car for $2900. Gas prices eventually settled on a reasonable price and I had a good car. I never got over 14mpg, but it was a great beltway car and I put 120,000 miles in it, back when high mileage was rare. I loved it. I think I’ll keep my Merc.
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“It will certainly be nice to have these dangerous, testosterone boosting monster trucks off the roads with their raised chassis, headlights in my rear window and excessive splash-back from oversized tires…….” wwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
I got a sneaky feeling you’d be singing a different tune if you in your plastic and fiberglass Prius and an 18-wheeler were going for the same piece of real estate out on the 4-lane. I’ll keep my monster truck with its heavy chassis and diesel powerplant under the hood. I’ll stand a better chance of surviving an accident.
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My wife and I are shopping for a mid-sized SUV this week, in fact. We’ll be going on a family vacation for two weeks later this month, and need something bigger than her Chevy Lumina for two adults, three teenagers plus luggage.
Gas mileage will probably ensure that we go with a V6 rather than a V8, but size really does matter in our case. It’s worth paying more in fuel expenses for more in comfort, to be sure.
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Laura,
My 92 Civic with less than 70k miles works just fine to get me the 2 miles I travel to work—non-freeway. It could be a bicycle if I lived in a warm year round clime. I don’t freeway dance with 18 wheelers and drive safely enough to avoid them if I do encounter one—at usually less than 30 mph. I gas it once a month with 8+ gallons of regular gas and taxes are less than $40/year. I don’t see nary a single tear falling here from wahhhhhh.
But, I do giggle a lot at the 5 ft. nothing ladies that have to wedge their husband’s ego prosthetic into a tiny parking place at the mall and at those in the gas station who were out pumping gas into a 38 gallon maw when I rolled in and are still there when I leave. And I absolutely roar at those who manage to have a flat before discovering their jack is entirely inadequate or those who get a tricked-out go-anywhere behemoth stuck in the snow.
Nope, not a tear —’cept for the laughs.
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Someone cue up the Paul Shanklin song “In a Yugo”!
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Chas, I had one of those Datsun 210s, an ‘82 wagon, from ‘88 – ‘92. it was a pretty good little car. One of my best college buddies had one, too. And I actually saw a 210 on the highway one morning last week – it passed me.
Our ‘98 VW Jetta TDI is still running pretty well, even with 264,000 miles, and gets about 42 mpg. Unfortunately, the only way we can fit all three kids in it is to put the not-quite-six-year-old in his booster seat in the front passenger seat, while either my husband or I squeezes into the tiny space left in the back beside the other two car seats. (The booster seat is too wide for the space.)
So when we have to take all three kids, we take the ‘96 Volvo wagon (195,000 miles), but that only gets about 23 mpg. Our old wagon, an ‘87 Volvo 240, got about 32 mpg, but the back seat floorboard was so full of holes the car wouldn’t pass inspection. Why is it that the older models got so much better mileage than the newer ones?
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Smog regulations.
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I’m amazed at people who drive cars past 200,000 miles. The highest mileage I ran up was 188,000 on a 1989 Corolla.
Nothing else I’ve had has lasted me past 125k.
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My VW Jetta will turn over 200K in less than 300 miles. I’ll be hanging on to it for at least another 50K, I’m sure.
As for Datsun B-210s, the one I was driving one afternoon during my senior year of high school in 1983 was hit broadside by a dump truck carrying 14 tons of gravel. I was trapped in the car for over two hours, in a coma for 13 days, and had to learn to walk, talk, etc. all over again.
Thanks be to God I was able to fully recover, but I don’t care too much for those little (energy-efficient) 2-doors anymore.
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I’m glad you made it, Outkast.
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Thanks Bob. So’s my wife.
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OutKast,
When I got my 2005 Trailblazer, the V6 and the V8 had essentially the same mileage. In fact, the Tahoe had essentially the same mileage and would have been more comfortable for adults (or large teans) in the back. I opted for the 6 anyway because it was a lot cheaper than a V8 and tons cheaper than the Tahoe.
Back in 92 I was looking for a ‘new’ vehicle and we were interested in a surburban. The ones we could afford were about 8 years old and all we looked at seemed to be kind of beat up and were running a little rough. A friend at a dealership had a 15 passenger van that was 3 years old and in a lot better shape (I think it came off the California coast and was driven on pavement the whole time). I think that he had expected to sell it to a church, but the church opted for something else.
We used it for many years, loading our four kids along with camping equipment giving them space to put stuff on the seat beside them to keep them busy on long drives. It was great for sightseeing since the seats were high in relation to the windows – even the little kids could see out.
Also our church borrowed it many times for taking people to camps. When it finally came time to replace it we donated it to a ministry.
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