"Just in defense of AAA-I'm not a member but used to sell it, they have been political from way back in the 20's. "
“Just sayin’ towing on your insurance for a dollar and a motor club are apples and oranges.”
Perhaps I should rephrase my statement. I quit AAA when they started pushing things of a political nature that I did not agree with. I also let them know why I stopped supporting their agenda.
As far as comparing apples and oranges is concerned, I have no problem with that. Apples are generally red or green. Oranges are often green until they are sprayed with a dilute solution of ethylene glycol at which time they turn orange for display in your local grocery store.
I will stay with my insurance company’s roadside assistance for pennies a day. I’ve only had to use it maybe four times in the 32+ years I’ve had it. I think it’s a good investment. I could join AAA for about $90 a year for my wife and myself, or I can get what I need for $12 a year on the car that we are most likely to need towed, $24 if I want it on both personal cars.
It might also help that I know at least two tow truck drivers by name, and I carry a cell phone.
asemaster: This is the perfect situation to lease a car, it makes more sense than buying. She’s relocating to a new city and has never owned a car before. How does she know what kind of car she likes? How does she know if the car fits her new lifestyle? How will she know if she drives 20 miles a day or a hundred? What if the new job doesn’t pan out and a year later she’s moving back to SF?
This is the imperfect situation to lease a car. You better know your annual mileage will be <12K or you’ll get a big $$$$ hit. You better know you’ll be in LA for the length of the lease (3yr) or you’ll get a big $$$$ hit for lease termination.
So don’t lease for 3 years, lease for 1 year. Having the car is a priority before having housing, especially in LA. She’s never owned a car, she may not even know what kind of car she wants.
If you buy a car you’re taking on a $25,000-$30,000 liability in payments, or that much cash if you don’t finance. If you lease, you’re only taking on the liability of the lease payments for a year or two. Gives her more flexibility and time to figure things out.
Would you have her buy a house first thing too or should she rent a place and have some time to figure things out?
My son lives just outside of LA, about 10 miles east of Malibu Beach. Be sure to get something comfortable… he calls me on his drive home from work and is usually sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Your local bookstore will have the latest issue of Consumer Reports New Car Preview. I strongly recommend getting a copy. It’ll show you everything available and have lots of well presented comparative data. It’s an excellent guide. With it, you can select some that look interesting to you and spend some time test-driving them. Then choose the one you like best. Not the one I would like best, the one YOU like best.
I strongly, strongly, with emphasis, suggest not leasing. You’ll be limited in the mileage you can put on without paying a heavy penalty, you’ll have no choice but to get even a small ding professionally repaired (or pay a heavy price upon return), and when you’re done paying your monthly “fee” they’ll take the car and leave you with nothing; no money, no car, nothing, nada, zip. Leasing is a very bad deal for an individual… unless your budget is unlimited. Businesses write it off as an operating expense (rather than depreciating it as a capital equipment expense), but individuals don’t have those options.
Whatever you choose, keep it clean and well waxed. The sun and acidity in the environment is murder on the finish out there. When my son first moved there he brought his new car with him from Boston and the environment really did a job on his paint. He never waxed his cars. Still doesn’t, although I think he has in done by detailers now.
There’s this Bugatti that goes for about $1,800,000 but they can be leased. A new tire only costs $60,000. Camry is the car for a working person. Toyota lets them go for a nice price.
TSM, When my son first moved there he brought his new car with him from Boston and the environment really did a job on his paint.
??? I’ve seen cars from Boston and I’ve seen cars from LA. I grew up in LA. There’s no way I’d compare the two, LA is far milder on cars than Boston. Rust is unheard of there.
And there are car washes aplenty. I had forgotten about them. When I was there over the holidays I got my Explorer washed, hand-dried, vacuumed, windows inside and out for $15. There’s no excuse for a dirty car in LA. I remember one place that would offer a free re-wash for you if it rained within 3 days of you buying a wash.
Your son must have done well to live in that area, if I remember it correctly.
@asemaster; Yes, my neighborhood hand wash place would do an exterior wash for $8 on my large CUV and a 48 hr “rain check”. I still prefer to do it myself though, because my car is black and the water here is hard, so every drop that they leave behind shows as an ugly white spot. I try and wax or detail after each wash too
As far as the OP, just test drive a few cars, including the Prius. Also do the math on fueleconomy.gov; you can customize it to your commute type (for most fwy’s in LA, you should consider them like local driving, stop and go, or stop, stop and then maybe go!). See if the extra cost of the Prius is justifiable based on usage.
The only place I can thing that cars suffer in LA is within a couple of blocks of the beach, where the salt does a number on many things. I sort of doubt OP has the means to live right at the beach, though in San Francisco the neighborhoods out by the beach are fairly affordable. The fog out there is punishing. Anyhow, given where she has been living, LA won’t seem very expensive.
I concur that leasing is not a great idea unless your circumstances are unusual. Most people manage to buy cars without being absolutely certain that they are perfect. So you live with an imperfect car for a while. Most cars these days aren’t that horrible. Leasing presents bigger risks than getting a car you don’t love. Zipcar is actually a very good way to try out different cars. We used it for years before getting back into car ownership a couple of years ago. We got to drive quite a few different smallish cars, some even for hundreds of miles. I certainly got a very strong appreciation for the Prius as we drove them often and routinely saw 50mpg for a full tank, and once topped 55mpg. We likely would have bought one if we were going to drive more. At less than 5000 miles/yr. they don’t pay for themselves quickly.
Plus try getting a tow on a holiday without the motor club.
It’s actually easier…especially when you’re in the country…and there are 10 places with 20 miles that can tow…but the nearest AAA is 50 miles away.
One other reason I dropped AAA was because they are not allowed on the NY state Thruway. Only Thruway tow trucks are allowed (which is no longer free).
My towing rider on my insurance is less then $5/year. And it covers rental cars also if I need one.
I don’t think LA is any worse on clearcoat these days than any other place. I think clearcoats in general just sucked until about 10 years ago. I remember seeing lots of mid-90’s car with the coat peeling after 5 years, and I had already moved to the Seattle area. But these days it’s rare to see a car with flaking paint that’s less than 12 years old.
Washing them regularly sure helps. My cars go months at a time without a wash. I think by and large cars look much better in LA than they do in Seattle.
Thank you so much for all of your advice and for replying so quickly - I truly appreciate it. I think my next steps are taking some test drives and doing some cost comparison analysis. All of this info gives me some direction. Many thanks.
Regardless of which car you choose initially, if I had this little xperience in car ownership and could afford it, a case could be made to lease a car the first time around with the option to buy. I would not want to make a bad choi e and be stuck with a car I did not like. You may be able to change the car and redo a lease. I am not saying it’s a good idea for everyone, but I might be tempted of I were not sure of my car buying purchase. I guess I agree with @acemaster …at least consider it. Most here don’t like leasing because they are car guys who are generally sure of their purchase.
Ase, Boston is a lot harder in the chassis but isn’t as hard on the paint.
Thank you, ase. He’s done extremely well. He just recently traded his 2014 Audi A4 in for a 2015 Audi wagon (baby on the way) and just bought a gorgeous home there, which he’s in the process of redoing inside. The kid’s definitely got the cash.
TSM, you sure need the cash to live around there. I grew up a little south from there, Torrance. I remember my cousins all living at home until they were 30 because you couldn’t afford to buy a house of your own otherwise. Even today, I talk to friends still there and it seems that $300,000 will get you a house with no yard and bars on the windows. I grew up in a 1400 sq ft 3bd rambler with a very small yard in an average neighborhood. Mom and dad bought it in 1968 for $27,000. figure today it’s worth $500K or so.
And the cars got washed in the driveway every Saturday.
