Buying first car suggestions
I am a female looking to buy my first car. I am interested in luxury suv cars (BMW, Benz etc). I always fascinate to have one of those. But, wondering if it is a good idea to buy a suv that too an expensive one as the first car. I am not yet super comfortable with driving. planning to just drive to nearby places util I get comfortable and then drive to long distances. looking for your thoughts.
TC? And what's your budget?
My spouse is a new driver too and we are getting a model 3. But she rented a car for a month to get more practice before handling the tesla. Perhaps you could try that too?
^This is practical and good advice
Don’t buy a German car. You’re not gonna have fun in the long run. Go for Japanese and it’ll be worth your money.
Mainly do you wanna drive it around in X city traffic is the question
Don’t buy new for a luxury SUV because they depreciate in value like a cannon ball in a lake. Buy certified pre owned. BMW has a great program and you get a low miles lease return for tens of thousands cheaper than new. After acquisition costs you need to consider ownership costs. Porsche and Mercedes maintenance costs are super high, Audi and BMW a bit lower. Insurance is about the same for all of them. Luxury SUVs get 12 to 16 miles per gallon in the city. Maybe 20 on the freeway. Small 2 row SUVs and crossovers do better but not that much better. In all honesty as an inexperienced driver you won’t appreciate the actual driving difference between say a Ford Explorer and a Porsche Macan. You’ll evaluate them on nameplate and interior bits and exterior styling. You’d probably be much more impressed by the Ford if I just debadged it and told you it was a Lexus. Thus I strongly suggest you look high and low end. But you probably want the nameplate not the actual performance or luxury.
Try one of the long term rentals first, any dings or hits to the new car will hurt proportional to what you spend on the car. As someone who did buy a luxury car many years ago, My experience was that I should have waited. Option #2, get a BMW with about 30k miles on it, you will save money and be covered for maintenance till 50k
I got a 3yo 30k miles BMW for less than 40% of new car price. Been pretty good so far (bought 1 year ago). About CPO, that's not necessary just check carfax and then swing by a mechanic to do a check before buying. CPO adds 3-4k to used car price.
Buy a CPO.
A mechanic can do a check for 150 bucks.
Toyota-Lexus! Watch Scottie Kilmer on YouTube the guy has been a mechanic for 50+ years. My wife bought a Mercedes new. The dealer sees us 6 times per year. We have the extended warranty and thank God we had it 🙈 Straight garbage. BMW is worse in quality and Audi is a monkey in make up (breaks even faster) American cars are Junk except for the for the f150. Jeeps are also garbage nowadays thanks to fiat 🤮. Teslas fall apart and their buyers lie about the reliability just to comfort their own selves that they did not make a horrible financial move on a car that can barely take you between sf and LA without a charge. Maybe Honda Acura but the transmission will not be good past 150k miles
Scotty Kilmer is a hack, but he is right about German cars, absolute junk.
Ok boomer.
Buy Cybertruck
Do it once to get it out of your system, then you’ll likely not bother buying a luxury car again. You’ll be annoyed by the monthly payment in year 2 onwards when your car is no longer “fresh”