I live in a rural area with a lot of Winter weather. For the last 20 years I have owned several new Jeep Grande Cherocees. I have been relatively happy with them. I am now wanting to buy a new luxury car. I’ve been thinking of buying a crossover. I am accustomed to the higher verhicles, and am not sure I want a sedan. However, I am also trying not to buy a large SUV due to the gas prices. Please tell me your opinion of the best bet for me?. I have been looking @ the Infiniti FX 35. Thank you!
Repair and maintenance costs for the FX35 are low. The Acura RDX has even lower maintenance costs; the Lincoln MKX has the lowest of both - about 70% of the FX35 estimate over the first 5 years. Why not test drive all three? BTW, the European small SUVs are fine trucks, but have high maintenance and repair costs. If that doesn’t bother you, look at them, too.
Acura, Infiniti and Lexus all make very nice luxury cross-over vehicles. MB, BMW and Audi do as well, but without the Japanese level of reliability. Go out and drive one of each and buy the one the fits you best. I’d recommend buying a one-owner, low mileage, 2 - 3 year-old one at 1/2 MSRP or less.
Twotone
I have absolutely no experience with luxury car ownership, but would highly recommend the lines in the “usual suspects” of top rated car lines…that would be Acura, Infinity, Lexus. CR test out the Caddies quite well but can’t recommend them because of their poor repair record. If that’s not deal with you, and owning a trouble prone Jeep was satisfactory for you, I’d urge you to consider one as well. Generally though, the most efficient line of luxury cars, tend to be the Acuras or hybrid versions from Lexus which would be another good try out.
Friend loves his BMW and I like driving it, until it comes time to pay for the service…otherwise a great car and would definitely be my top pick. It is too dealer/cost/service dependent for me to feel comfortable recommending.
Have fun in your search… Twotone’s reco. of buying slightly used is excellent.
The Acura is a fine choice if you are looking for a Luxury crossover. I believe the RDX is built from the Odyssey’s Chassis, so it has a MUCH better ride quality than that of a truck based SUV. You also get a legendary powertrain and low maintenance costs. However, since you like the feeling of the Jeep, you might like a truck based chassis. Its all up to personal preference, I’d test drive a bunch of cars to see what you like.
If gas prices are a huge concern now(as opposed to when it hit $4/gallon), be aware that you’ll most likely have to use high octane to fuel these vehicles.
Bit of it’s $4/gal for premium, regular will be $3.80 or so. The difference in cost doesn’t mean much to me.
Maybe not to you, but how many posts do we see asking if someone can run 87 octane in their brand new BMW/Lexus/Mercedes even though the manual calls for 91+
I don’t believe that most people evaluate the cost past the price per gallon. If they did, they would reconsider. A typical luxury car gets about 22 MPG on average these days. With my example, regular saves $90 for each 10,000 miles. For most people, the savings would be no more than $135 per year. Given that the car is over $35,000 to buy, that isn’t much at all. If it is a big deal, the person should buy a car that they can afford.
That’s where leasing comes in. They can “afford” a more expensive car for less money. It’s just sad that TV ads say nothing of price, except what you can lease the car for.
I like to phrase it differently. I like to say that leasing lets people drive a more expensive car than they can afford.
I agree about the TV ads. They not only no longer say anything about price, but they avoid talking about the actual cost of a lease. They state the monthly lease payment but hide the fact that it’s actually only a rental payment. One who leases is building zero asset value. Zip, nada, nothing. Money down a hole.
Leasing makes sense in some situations. For a business, leasing saves on taxes compared to ownership. Trading your car for a new one as soon as the warranty expires is equivalent to leasing. However, with a lease, the trade in value is guaranteed.
Leasing makes no sense at all for people who like to keep a car long past the end of the warranty. For them, it’s cheapest to by a an unpopular model with at least average reliability when it’s two or three years old. Keep it until the average monthly cost of repairs is as much as the lease or loan payment on a new one.