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I’ve had a 6 cylinder Outback for 3 1/2 years. I winter at a ski resort. With snow tires, it’s perfect for that. I have a receiver hitch on it and tow with it. I use the cargo capacity all the time. I’m 6’2” and fit in it. I can’t justify the depreciation and ownership costs of a luxury car. It’s a boring appliance but it does what I need it to do. If I totaled it, I’d buy another one.
5 years from now, enough disruptive things may happen with cars that I’m not sure what I’ll be doing.
It would be a toss up between my '04 Silverado 2500HD and my '06 Silverado 1500....both great trucks while they lasted.....traded the '04 at 28k, so really not sure how long it would of lasted, the '06 traded at 93k...trouble free till 90k, they it just fell apart real fast....dropped almost 4k into it the last 8 weeks of ownership. '13 Silverado gone at 26k, current '15 GMC Sierra I like....a lot so far...37k, Lifters replaced at 31k....will it last is yet to be seen. I will say, the '15 Sierra is absolutely terrible in the snow, but I just replaced the tires with something with a more aggressive pattern, if I can get it to handle snow better, it would be pefect.
The 3 most recent vehicle purchases I've made are:
2005 Mustang in 2005. I sold it in May of 2017, so 12 years and about 145,000 miles of use I'd say I got my money's worth from it.
2010 Sequoia in 2010. My wife still drives this a little over 8 years and about 141,000 miles later. My wife is tough on it and our kids have declared war on this vehicle. A lesser vehicle would have succumbed to the onslaught by now. We'll keep it for many more years.
2002 Sequoia in 2017. I bought this to replace the afore mentioned Mustang. This is where my answer is a little wishy washy. I paid about $8k for this vehicle and the single biggest reason I chose this one is it had just 81,000 miles on it when I bought it. The bottom line is I do not regret buying this vehicle, but there are moments when I do wish I had kept looking for similar vehicles at the time I found this one. I was actually looking for a 4Runner because I had one years back and regret selling it. On a whim I also searched for older Sequoias and found the one I eventually bought.
The good: it was cheap and had low miles. It was also in good condition. I was not worried about minor paint and interior flaws, I just wanted a reliable vehicle for low cost. I also really love the additional space and towing capacity this thing offers over the 4Runners of this era.
The bad: This vehicle was built when Toyota was having quality issues with their VSC feature and it'll go off randomly. It's a bit frustrating at times but most of the time the computer kills it pretty quickly. The other issue is the moon roof doesn't open. If it worked I'd use it, but it doesn't so no big deal. It does leak sometimes, but I did a pretty thorough cleaning that seems to have addressed the issue. Also I do wish it was a 4x4.
Final thoughts: while I do sometimes wish that, once I decided to look for older Sequoias I had taken the time to do a more thorough search for one that maybe cost a little more but was in better condition as well as 4x4. At the same time, cost and mileage made the one I bought a very appealing option and overall I am satisfied with it.
Earlier this year our job and living situation changed and I now put miles and miles on this one. I'm at about 112,000 now and in about 2 years when we expect our situation to change again I expect to be at about 155,000 based on projecting my weekly pattern out to that point. I'm glad I'm doing this to an older and inexpensive vehicle and not a late model more expensive purchase. Other than the gas mileage this thing is ideal for our situation.
Bottom line it's been a good find and serves us well.
We have a 2017 Jeep grand cherokee and my wife loves it. We looked at the Explorer and Murano and I think we made the right choice.
If I could go back in time I would add a trailer hitch that I totally forgot about. I have a truck to tow the boat but my bike rack fits in a 2" receiver. I could add one myself for about $200 but the factory installed hitch is through a cut out in the bumper and is a much cleaner look but it costs $500 to have the dealer do it. $500 is a lot of money to spend for having the option to hang my bike back there.
We bought a used dark blue Honda CRV in May. We like it, and it's great for around here, but now we're moving to Arizona and planning on getting an RV or travel trailer.
The dark color will be a problem there. And the CRV is too small to tow a trailer, and too big to be a good towed car.
There's always going to be better. I bought my car before they introduced the twin turbo and I regretted it a great deal, but I was in no position to trade up just a couple years later. I still won't because... there's always something better even after I spend another tens of thousands. I guess leasing would be the next best option, but I also refuse to rent a car.
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