This is a terrible time to buy a car.
We all know that inflation has jacked the prices of pretty well everything up lately. Food is more expensive, gas costs an arm and a leg and real estate is as unaffordable as ever for people in my generation.
To add insult to injury, the cost of cars, used or new, has gone up quite a bit. For someone in the market for a new car, it’s a hard pill to swallow.
As some eagle-eyed readers may know near the end of winter I started suspecting I had car issues. While initially I thought it was a problem with my transmission I’ve since found out my gas tank has a leak, my forward axels are breaking, my AC pump is on its last legs and that, in general, my car is very much nearing the end of its life.
The cost to fix everything is at least four grand assuming no other issues are discovered.
For context I drive a 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe I bought from my parents five years ago.
It’s been a good little car and has seen me through my journalism career. As much as I like it, however, friends and family have advised against investing so much money into fixing it.
So now I’m trying to find a new car for the first time in my life. Outside of following my parents around when they bought some cars back in the early 2010s, I largely have zero experience with dealerships. I do recall, however, that used cars were typically much cheaper than a brand-new car.
Nowadays a ‘cheap’ used car is between $12,000 to $17,000 with many others going for up to $24,000. Hell, I was even told that my car, with all its problems, could be sold for up to $5,000 in today’s market.
Like many things, this is a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The production of new cars largely stalled out for two years and as dealerships ran out of new stock the used stock shot up in value.
Demand for transportation remains high so the prices are not only high but fixed. That’s great for car dealerships, but not so great for me.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve looked at a few options but have yet to find the car that’s ‘just right’. As my dad points out I can’t wait forever so at some point I’ll likely have to take the hit of buying a seven-year-old car for 20 grand.
Is it ideal? No, it is not but it’s better than paying to fix my old car. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a new car to hunt down…
