[RossoRidgeline]

Very reasonable. We have a 2014 Subaru since new and have learned to dread the 30k maintenances. Those always hit the 1-2 k mark at the dealer. The one that really caught us off guard was the failure of the start stop battery in the hybrid system. All it is is a heavier duty car battery that cost $300 plus and a little hard to get to. I was up for attempting it but it is my wife’s car. You can guess how it got fixed. Dealer charged $1600. But they told us to write to Subaru and Subaru eventually sent us a check for $1k.

I gave up working on my own cars when I hit my 40s (beyond batteries and radios on my cars) and could work some overtime to have a mechanic fix them properly. There was also the locking myself in the trunk incident that the wife reminds me about every few years. I have a couple weekend cars (VW Eos convertible, Jeep Liberty) that I bought well used and spent about the price of the car getting them back up to my standards. All lights work, decent tires and shocks, new water pumps, new radiator, etc. So I have lots experience in the past few years with dealer and independent mechanics.

It is not the time to buy a car right now and not the time to get one fixed either. The rates are higher, appointments scheduled way out, and a lot of new mechanics making mistakes. My last repair I had one highly rated shop do most of the work, took it back when they forgot to reconnect the E brake, and then had a second mechanic double check their work.

 

[RossoRidgeline]

And buying new is not a guarantee of no headaches. Look at the reliability going in of the last few years. I am in a RL because it was my 2nd choice last year and I bought a brand new domestic full-size truck for 2022. Took it 6 months and a long road trip for some major things to go wrong. The truck worked perfectly as a commuter and had a hard time replicating the issues with the service department. So, I used my once in a lifetime trade in spike to get out of it only losing $800 in the process. Then went and picked up my second choice.

But yes, if you can find new for MSRP, I would definitely pick that over dealing with service departments on at least a yearly basis on a 100K plus rig. No matter how reliable it is rated.

 

[RossoRidgeline]

Yeah the smartest thing my Traffic Ed instructor (mediocre assistant HS football coach) ever said was "A new car is the worst investment you will ever make". But I certainly have not followed that advice or the jumbled-up lessons he gave in his US History class.