Originally Posted By: IndyIan
You might want to try a Cobalt XFE, its mileage is rated slightly better that the Yaris and Fit and might be a 1/3 less expensive. The motor is in another league but the interior might not be to your liking. We have a regular Cobalt as a work vehicle and its fine for the most part. Probably its what I would choose out of all of them but I'm not picky in terms of interior aesthetics. Maybe if the Fit handles alot better I might be swayed, but $4k is worth quite a bit to me...
Bah, unless my car has some catastrophic failure I'm not getting
Buying a car that costs $4000 less is not necessarily a way to save money. The cost of ownership does not depend on the original purchase price of a vehicle, but on the depreciation.
If GM survives, then because of the new CAFE standards it may be forced to dump lots of high-MPG cars on the market to raise its corporate average. Thus, the historically higher rate of depreciation for GM cars is likely to continue or even get worse. OTOH, Honda has no worries about CAFE and doesn't have to offer big rebates or cheap financing all the time. So their resale values tend to be higher.
Hypothetical example: a car that cost $20k when new and loses $7k in value after five years and 100k miles, is cheaper than one which cost $16k and dropped $9k in value in the same period.
You might want to try a Cobalt XFE, its mileage is rated slightly better that the Yaris and Fit and might be a 1/3 less expensive. The motor is in another league but the interior might not be to your liking. We have a regular Cobalt as a work vehicle and its fine for the most part. Probably its what I would choose out of all of them but I'm not picky in terms of interior aesthetics. Maybe if the Fit handles alot better I might be swayed, but $4k is worth quite a bit to me...
Bah, unless my car has some catastrophic failure I'm not getting
Buying a car that costs $4000 less is not necessarily a way to save money. The cost of ownership does not depend on the original purchase price of a vehicle, but on the depreciation.
If GM survives, then because of the new CAFE standards it may be forced to dump lots of high-MPG cars on the market to raise its corporate average. Thus, the historically higher rate of depreciation for GM cars is likely to continue or even get worse. OTOH, Honda has no worries about CAFE and doesn't have to offer big rebates or cheap financing all the time. So their resale values tend to be higher.
Hypothetical example: a car that cost $20k when new and loses $7k in value after five years and 100k miles, is cheaper than one which cost $16k and dropped $9k in value in the same period.
