The price of new cars

The link to that truck showed the price as $57K not $82K

@deb922 Great news that your Outback will be repaired!

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Yes I thought it would. That’s the base price. You can option it up to $82,000+. Any other color than white, extra. Towing package, extra. Technology package, extra. Lots of options you can add on that truck.

$57,000 for a base model albeit quite a large vehicle is pretty pricey to me.

I upgraded to diesel, and had a towing package added. Chrome wheels. A color other than white. Actually pretty basic options when you are buying a truck like that. Technology package, which included a back up camera for when you are towing (I think that was what it’s for lol)

Truly you get what you pay for in most cases. My parents value safety over EVERYTHING, so they’ve always been Mercedes/Audi people (even when they were first married and couldn’t afford a new one; a used Mercedes is still incredibly safe).

I’m a rarity (my family has been very blessed), and so my very first car was a used, 2017 Mercedes GLC. I kept it for a year before 3 boys were killed at my school in a car crash, and my parents put me in a bigger car; I’m now in a 2020 GLE 450, which can run about $80k.

Now, I’m not trying to brag by any means, I’m merely saying that even a smaller Mercedes is still safer than the average car, even though it costs more. They have thicker class, thicker sheet metal, better handling, better airbags, and are incredibly solid and HEAVY cars (weight is a huge safety feature).

Trucks, sometime the engine upgrade (for a diesel Cummins engine) can run about 11k extra.

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I will cry for 24 hours the day we will have to replace our Y2K Tundra. It still has about 55K on the odometer and was the best $ we ever spent on a vehicle, and it saved us multiple headaches, hassles, and expenses of renting a truck. We even used it to move to a new house without renting a truck or hiring movers. OTOH, if we invested those $ in S&P500… we probably would have had $$$ for a new, jazzed up 2021 Tundra! :joy:

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Cars are expensive. I don’t get enough enjoyment out of cars to spend crazy money on one. I just need it to be reliable. I buy new but have yet to spend even $30k on a new car. To each their own though.

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I could blush due to the vehicles we drive, but cars and driving are kind of a thing with us. You couldn’t pay me to drive an accord or Camry. No problem with those that drive such, they’re just not for me.
When I was commuting 1.5-2+ hours/day and often had the girls in the car with me, comfort and drivability were important, hence the Audi A6. When the commute wasn’t that bad and the girls were driving themselves, I went with smaller, sporty, fun, and comfortable in a slightly used S4. 5 years later I still love it.
We need a large full-size pickup to tow the 5th wheel and H replaced his 10 yo Infiniti with a used Porsche Panamera. He’s retired as well, so miles driven are minimal, but he loves driving that car.

I think we’ve bought new once in 20 years, so we miss that depreciation hit. We can well afford it, so meh.

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However, that is the extra heavy duty (“1-ton”) pickup. The regular duty (“1/2 ton”) full size pickups start at around $30k.

I hate hate hate the haggling over car prices. Last car we bought had a fixed price. And I love the car.

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The most expensive thing we’ll ever buy is a house. We know EXACTLY how much any house should cost based on location, comparables, etc.

Every time I have bought a car, no matter what I paid, I always feel like I got screwed over. All those phony prices: MSRP, invoice price, employee price, etc., none of them mean anything, all made-up numbers. What cars ACTUALLY cost the dealers, we’ll never know.

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When S got his new one, he sold his to Carmax. Super easy. No haggling. And I was blown away that they gave him more than it’s assessed value - about $1500 more than we were expecting. It had 4 bald tires and wasn’t in amazing shape. The dealer didn’t even want it. But now I wonder if that wasn’t a reflection of the car shortage. But it was so easy, I think we will go that route from now on. I hate the process of haggling.

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More weight is detrimental to handling and braking, which is essential for crash avoidance.

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Would you rather drive a Smart Car? :laughing:

Seriously, a safety-minded car manufacturer will make sure to increase tire, brake rotor and caliper size, and optimize the rest of the suspension, alignment settings, etc. to more than compensate for the additional weight of the car.

Not all car manufacturers, of course, but the good ones.

You can only do so much. Full size pickup trucks do not handle like sports cars. Perhaps they can be made to do so, but at a cost no one would be willing to pay for a full size pickup truck.

Trucks and SUV’s suffer from weight distribution, type of tires (M&S), aerodynamic and suspension height and travel issues. I’m talking about cars.

I have an 18 year old Toyota Tundra pickup, and my mechanic, who I actually trust a lot, noted that the rust on the bottom is bad enough that I might only get a few more years out of it and I am literally sick about the thought of having to replace it.

I don’t drive too much as it has less than 100K miles on it, and the price of used pickups right now (looking for a Tacoma…about the same size as a 2003 Tundra) are through the roof.

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Depending on the amount of rust, whether it’s localized (a spot or two) or the rust has spread to many places, rust can be torched out and replaced with new sheet metal and welded in place.

If interested in saving the truck, then I’d take it to a body shop, put it up on a lift and check it out. The rust may be terminal. But maybe not.

With Toyota’s being so popular, they may have factory patch panels available at the dealer.

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Listening with wide open ears… Y2K Tundra owner here (53k miles). It has not been garaged in the past 3 years, so it might be getting rusty, although we don’t salt roads here, and even if we did, Tundra ain’t going anywhere in those conditions. Thanks Sushi!! :+1:

I’m not a Tundra expert by any stretch, I’m a Land Cruiser fan myself. But I believe between the years of 2000-2010, the Tundra frames had enough rust problems for Toyota to recall them. You may check with the dealer about paying for any rust repair, assuming it’s still an active recall and not too late.

Obviously there are a lot of variables with rust, especially if the rust has done extensive damage to the frame, but Toyota trucks are much loved by many, so I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of saving it, if not terminal.

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Thanks! No, our truck was not a part of that specific recall. Just getting old…and ugly… but still hauls like a beast. Mr. dreams that any replacement will be electric, but no, Mr. was not enthused about Elon’s ugly heap of metal. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: