Automotive Considerations

 I got an itch lately after having a friend go through repeated car issues, thinking that my own vehicle is over fifteen years old. I haven't really had notable problems with it, and the mileage is low for that age, but it did make me consider if there is a major breakdown of some sort, whether it's worthwhile to repair becomes a question very quickly.

So I started looking around online a bit and thinking of criteria. If I get a replacement vehicle, I would want something:

1) Newer

2) Lower mileage

3) Conducive to my height (so very similar or better driver headroom/legroom)

4) Able to carry a medium household appliance (washer, stove, etc.). My current sedan lacks this and, while not common, I have missed that at times.

5) Having 4WD/AWD. While I've only owned 2WD vehicles and generally been fine, a little more ability to get going in winter weather has a strong appeal.

6) With a similar overall footprint. I don't really want or need a larger truck/SUV.

Looking all this over sort of pushes me into the light SUV space. So I poked around at local dealship listings and rapidly concluded a few things. #1 is actually easy. #2, however, is remarkably difficult in the used car market. There are vehicles with only a few thousand miles on them available, but if you rule out ones with over 50k-60k miles, the field narrows a lot. Also... used cars (at least locally) seem to be ridiculously expensive, considering. I was looking at numbers thinking "Wait, that's more than MSRP of a comparable new thing!"

So I steered my considerations toward new vehicles. That has an appeal and I feel like wanting a new vehicle once in my life should not be out of the question. New vehicles I've been looking at can be had for around $30,000 (minus a little or plus a fair bit more, depending). That's not a trivial amount of money, but I could probably make that work with some effort.

Looking at various specs and offerings, I initially favored the Ford Explorer. On the down side, though, my follow-up research says Ford has been having some issues recently in general and in Explorers specifically. I looked at several other makes and models, comparing various stats. Another that was on a list of "better for tall people" vehicles was the Hyundai Santa Fe. This, in turn, led me to looking at the Santa Cruz - a "trucky car" in that it has rear seating and a small bed. The more I look at the Santa Cruz, the more I actually like it. It's a little bit quirky, but still has a practical/useful feel about it. The lower trim models start below the $30k mark, and I actually kind of favor those over the higher trims that go for all-screen interiors and such. Features look good. Dimensions look good. I haven't been inside one, so that could technically be a deal-breaker, but I like it enough to look into it more.

The immediate downside, though, is a lack of a local Hyundai dealer. The company is known for offering a good warranty, but any warranty service would require driving over an hour to the nearest dealer. I'm not sure if that is or should be a deciding factor. Then there's an issue of finding the right model. That dealer reports (and some searching online backs up) that they can't do special orders. Given that, I'd likely have to cough up a few thousand dollars more for features I don't care about and a color I may not prefer or travel three or four times as far to another dealer that might have more precisely what I would be looking for.

So, it's been on my mind a lot lately, though I haven't even decided for sure that I AM getting a new vehicle in the first place. Maybe it's just occupying my headspace so much for being such a novel concept.