It's going to be a long time before you'll see the benefits of your transaction. You took a hit on your resale and then another on just buying brand new and riding it off the lot. I am not sure if you'll have to pay longer on a loan now with the added interest, but that could be another expense. It's almost always better in the long run to wait it out... nothing in the market stays high forever. I think alot of it is pure speculation.

 

You are right but the depreciation hit is hard to quantify if the payment on the new vehicle is equal to or lower than the old one.

The pump shock each week usually makes the buyer feel better, like they are saving money, but typically they are only catching up to where they were financially before the purchase. It takes years to break even.

 

Typical mentality of a import buyer... not too bright and can't see the WHOLE picture.

 

I don't know if I'd go that far....there many people trading in their F-150s for the Ford Focus.

In some cases it makes sense....and in the long run they will save but it takes years and years of small savings to truly start seeing a return on their investment.

 

Not me. I just went and got the Ford Focus in addition the F-150, in February. Abd then I traded my 2WD for a 4WD, which is even MORE of a gas hog. Now, the truck sits for most of the week and I drive it only on weekend or on longer trips (it's more comfortable). The gas I save by not having the truck as a DD pays the car payment on the Focus. This way works the best for me, but it may not work for you. Who knows?

 

If the gas you are "saving" pays for the car payment you must have driven a lot.

If I remember correctly dont you work for a Ford Dealership? If so you saved a lot of money on the purchase. Plus you have to factor in the additional cost of tags and insurance.

I have no doubt you are saving money but in the end the difference between your gas costs (Truck costs - Cars costs = Gas savings) has to then be applied to the car payment, insurance, registration, upkeep, etc. You dont save that much unless you drive a ton

 

Sorry to see that you had to trade off your f150.


Props on getting something easier on gas. If a few more million people would do it, it would make gas cheaper again. It's all about supply and demand.


If gas gets too expensive (> 5.00 a gallon) I'll go buy a F250 with the 6.0 liter powerstroke. Convert it to run off of veggie oil (only about $1,800)and be laughing all the way to the bank....and to the fast food restaurants as I collect their free used oil.

 

As long as you made the best decision for your needs good for you.
Before i bought my wife her current 04 Explorer, she had an 01 Accord (lease), that car never saw the inside of a service center in the 3 years we owned it. The Explorer has been in twice. (Everything is good now though)
There has been days i wanted to get rid of my F-150 based on the following:
New front rotors, rebuilt diff. replaced tail light lens, replaced temp. sensor, grease on both windows when rolling up and down, and as of last week, new throttle body assy. All is (finally good) with the truck now. Im not a "car" dude though, I don't like sitting so low to the ground.

 

Yes, I do drive a lot. All over the damn place! And yes I work for a Ford dealer, so I got D-plan. Tags for the Focus are about $200/yr and insurance cost me an extra $13/mo. When gas is $3.49/gal for regular, trust me it adds up.

 

Your bias blinds you so much you don't see anything you don't want to. I'm sure you buy many things designed and built overseas. If your company would focus on building a quality vehicle then things would change. Do you think Honda somehow put this guy under a spell and told him to buy their cars. Hell no they sold him on a proven quality product.

Honda builds quality and Ford builds well it's not quality nor performance. The design of most newer (within 10 years) Honda/Toyota vehicles for sale in the US are designed and engineered here in the US. Sure profits are shared with other countries but they have earned their execellent reputation based on products.

Name as many Honda's that where introduced in the last 30 years that was a bigtime flop. None they all sell. In the DFW area you will be hard pressed to find a dealer that will haggle much price due to demand.

Now name all of the Ford flops in the past 30 years. The Mustang has flopped several times (not currently ... finally been waiting 20+ years). The Blackwood pickup was a complete flop just like the current Lincoln truck. The Focus was a huge flop and still is a car that doesn't get much attention. Hell why should it with all of the recalls for the first few years of production (serious/life threating problems). The Probe was a complete utter failure and its wonderful sales speak for itself. The redesinged Thunderbird was a flop that lasted only a few years. I'm bored of going over all of the failures ...

And to dispell your thoughs of why would I buy a Ford truck over the Ridgeline. Well the answer is simple. I needed a V8 to tow 6000 lbs on the weekends. The Honda dealer hooked up my trailer and I felt like the load was too much for the V6 to handle on a regular duty. The ride quality was better on the Ridgeline along with fit and finish.

You can spin this anyway you want also. 2006 was the first year any manufacutre received Car & Truck of the year awards.

I worked for a dealership selling parts and I can tell you that we really made some good $$$ on all of the parts we sold. We had Honda/Toyota/Nissan/GM sister dealers and those parts guys always wanted to come work for us because of the high profit sales margin.

I put 96,000 miles on my 03 Acura RSX before it was hit by some teenage bitch in a Tahoe. The only problem was the fuel pump regualator switch went bad within the first 2,000 miles.




To the OP congrats on buying a great vehicle. You will enjoy the car far longer than any F150.

 

I agree with Nicky! I was just thinking; if you shop a Walmart, then nearly everything you buy is either made in China or at least it's imported from one of the nations who would love to see America and Americans completely destroyed.
There's really no need to be so judgemental.

 

As for quality products and what people are buying, the Ford F150 is the best selling vehicle in America. Next is the Chevy Silverado. Third is the Dodge Ram. The top selling SUV's are the Ford Explorer and the Chevy Trailblazer. The top selling car is the Toyota Camry. Ford and Chevy are still the top selling brands in America. Honda is for girlie men. Go Ford!

 

Go Yankees!

 

I had a Civic for 1.5 years as a dd. I still had my truck and thank God I did, my freaking Honda went through 2 tranny's, 1 motor replacement and 4 cv's. Now, Honda normally makes a good product, I happened to get a lemon. Why, because no one company is infallible. For some reason people do think poorly of American made cars versus Asian. 20 years ago that was based on something, now it's a bias based on people not liking to be told to open their eyes to something they have written off. The quality is there in American cars, as is performance and comfort. So take YOUR bias and Holier Than Thou BS and go stick it up your Honda's tailpipe!

Edit to add: Also, the reason I razed the guy earlier is that even if gas prices went to $4.00 a gallon and assuming he took a hit around $6k (pretty easy to imagine), using 1 tank of gas a week on a 14 gallon tank it takes nearly 2 years to just erase the LOSS that he took. He said he did this for the gas prices not that he didn't like his F150. He called it his "beloved" for crying out loud. Sometimes people look short term, feel they are saving something and jump without looking at all the facets. I deal with this everyday for work. I believe others have pointed this out in this thread as well. It is "The more you spend the more you save" mindset.

 

Nicely put and so true...