Being a car person comes with a distinct set of responsibilities, one of which is that everyone in your life will come to you for car buying advice. This would normally be fine, if the end result wasn’t that your advice gets routinely ignored. Now, if you’re just trying to convince your friends to buy heavily-depreciated German luxury cars, being ignored isn’t such a bad thing, but when you’re a small voice of reason who just wants people to not get screwed, it’s aggravating to see someone who should be driving a reliable Corolla driving something that very much isn’t a reliable Corolla.
For instance, I have three different family members who each paid money for a Nissan Versa Note with the infamous JATCO CVT. Now, I love these people, but a Versa Note with the CVT isn’t the greatest car in the world from a performance, longevity, NVH, build quality, reliability, or ease of maintenance perspective. It’s exceptionally cheap and astonishingly roomy, but so is an IKEA bag, and I’d rather not drive around in one of those.
Conversely, the last time someone in my life took my car buying advice, I was just convincing a car friend to do something stupid, so that doesn’t really count. However, I have a weird track record, in that I’ve been able to successfully recommend a Genesis G90 and a Lexus LC 500 to people. Needless to say, they absolutely love them.
So, when was the last time someone in your life actually took your car buying advice, and how did it go? On the flip side, when was the last time someone completely disregarded your car buying advice, and what happened?
(Photo credit: Lexus)
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Here’s what I say to every single person that wants to trade in their Full size truck for a Gladiator, because it’s a Jeep Truck, and they want a Jeep truck!
“The Gladiator is not a Truck for TRUCK people that like the idea of a JEEP.
The Gladiator is a Truck for JEEP people that like the idea of having a TRUCK.”
If you go from a Ram 1500 to a gladiator, you will hate it as soon as you hook up a trailer, or try to haul anything.
If you go from a Wrangler to a Gladiator, you will be the happiest person alive.
It’s rare anyone listens to this advice though lol
I’m not a truck/Jeep guy, but I always figured that was the real Gladiator market – people who want a slightly more practical Wrangler. Explains why Jeep doesn’t sell as many as it thought it might. Still think what most people actually wanted was the Comanche to return.
Gladiator owner here- this is spot on. I have a 2023 Sport with the Max Tow package and I tow with it several times a week. It’s not super happy towing (3500# concession trailer). It’s not super comfortable. But I’m a Jeep guy, and I needed a truck. I always joke that there are two types of people:
-Those that tell everyone how great their Jeep is, because they own one.
-Those that tell everyone how bad Jeeps are, because they/someone they know had one and it (fill in the blank).
That’s exactly it, I feel like people that “get” Jeeps want everyone to like them, because they are really at their heart a true “enthusiasts” vehicle. I’ve seen so many people that never ever had an interest in cars at all get a Jeep and turn into absolute gearheads, and I love it.
People that don’t get Jeeps (especially gladiators) are in two camps. There are people that bought a Ranger, Colorado, or Frontier, and they’ll just say they don’t like Jeeps. And then there are the Toyota guys, who believe Tacoma/4Runner/Fj cruiser/Land cruiser ownership is the pinnacle of intelligence, and anyone who doesn’t accept Toyota superiority is a smoothbrain, but ESPECIALLY Jeep people.
Wouldn’t this be true for any midsize truck?
It’s absolutely true, but the Gladiator takes all the plusses and minuses of a mid size truck and amplifies them, plus I sell them, so I’m picking on it.
My best friend needed a car to replace her 250k+ mile Prius with a dead batter last year. It was the first car she was able to pick out for herself, since her previous cars were given to her after family members were done with them. Her budget was around $10k. She was insistent on getting a Beetle, although normally that’s not a car I would recommend to someone in that price range. But I get it. She’s the one paying for it, and she’s wanted a Beetle forever. So I said she should avoid the New Beetles and go for a 2012+ model instead, and avoid the 2.0T engine with the dual clutch automatic, to minimize potential issues.
She did just that, and got a 2012 Beetle. 2.5 engine with the conventional 6 speed automatic. It needed some work shortly after purchase (she had no money left to fix it so my folks took care of it) but otherwise has been problem free. She absolutely loves it and unlike her other cars, puts the time and effort into keeping it clean. It may not have been the car I would normally advise a 30 year old on a limited budget to buy, but I think she got a good deal and like I said, she loves it.
That’s a good example of the fact that the recommending the “right” car for someone usually comes down to finding the mean between the objective specs and their subjective desires. Otherwise, everyone would be driving Camrys. Great job!
I have a real soft spot for those Beetles, loved the design refresh and enjoyed watching them race in that (briefly) televised rallycross series.
“250k on a Prius? It’s barely broken in! A 10k budget? Just replace the battery and pocket the rest!” — the evil voices in my head
It seems never, recently co-worker, I want a small SUV, I say RAV4- nope she gets a Santa Fe- four months later it runs out of oil, what does she get ?? a Rogue with a CVT that was a rental and then sat for a year- now it won’t get over 20km/hr and the dealer says ‘new transmission time’
Before I answer I wanted to say that we really need to calm down on the LC500 adoration. They’ve been a well kept secret for a long time and as of now early ones are still depreciating at a pretty normal rate. Let’s keep it that way, yeah? I can’t afford a six figure car but I could definitely make a 60k one work and I’m already working on coupepilling the wife. She’s already saying she’s open to me having a coupe once the kids can ride in the back normally. Do NOT ruin this for me, okay?!? I’m going to need a 60-70k LC500 to still exist in 5 years.
Anyway, this is a bit of a humble brag but lots of people listen to my advice. My dad custom ordered his X5 because of me and I talked him into the PHEV setup, which he now loves so much he may never go back. My mom wanted a Q5 and bought a lightly used SQ5 over a brand new Q5 at my recommendation.
Was that sound advice? Debatable, but that silky smooth turbo V6 absolutely goes brrrrrrr. My sister’s Tiguan was a maintenance nightmare, she asked me what she should do in the same price point that she’d never have to worry about, and she and her husband have been thrilled with their certified Lexus NX ever since.
Hell my internet buddy who I’ve never met IRL bought his Kona because he wanted something that could work similarly to his aging Scion XB and wanted all wheel drive with a little more engagement and I recommended it. I want to say he’s at like 30,000 miles now and he still talks about how much he loves it.
I just love hunting for cars. I literally spend hours every week looking at classifieds just to see what weird and wonderful stuff I can find, and I love it when family members hit me up and are like “hey can you find me (insert ridiculous requirements here)?” It’s like a game to me. I even want to say my aunt bought her Subaru Legacy because she wanted an all wheel drive certified used car for 20k or less and that’s what I threw back at her.
Honestly I’d love to do it as a side hustle and make a little money off of it in addition to having fun but I don’t really even know where I’d start/my day job keeps me busy enough and pays well enough that car hustling would basically be a pure passion project for me.
I’m lucky on this, I sell cars for a living and have a pretty big social circle, so it’s about every day someone takes my advice, and it feels great when they do! Automotive knowledge has been my passion since I was in grade school, so it’s wonderful to feel useful and trusted.
But it’s always entertaining when despite my advice, someone does the exact opposite.
There’s too many instances to list here, (Dont buy a first year Wagoneer, Don’t pay a market value adjustment on a Kia, PLEASE don’t finance a $60,000 truck at 9% when the lease rate is effectively 1.2%)
But for the sake of the question, the most common (and aggravating) one for me is when someone who has owned nothing but fullsize, crew cab trucks decides they want a Gladiator, a Tacoma, or a Colorado.
I always tell them, listen, you need to be SURE you don’t need a 1/2 ton payloads, or the room, or the towing capacity, and you better not be trying to justify that shiny new truck with fuel mileage savings.
Then they trade in their 1500, F150, Tundra, etc. in to get that shiny, trendy new midsize truck.
Inevitably, AT LEAST half of them end up in my office again within a year or two, because now they have a 3rd kid on the way and there’s no room for 2 kids and a car seat, or they tried to haul a load of cynderblocks and the bed looked like it wanted to snap off, or they towed a 6000 lb camper and it SUCKED, or to their amazement, a Colorado with a 3.6 V6 gets worse mileage than a 5.0l F-150 in real life, it goes on and on.
Don’t get me wrong! I love Midsize trucks and I’m glad they exist. But they’re just not quite for everyone.
Friend wanted to go camp somewhere remote for a few months in her car. My backcountry car is a 99 4Runner with the world’s jankiest off-grid setup (400w of compact solar panels, a couple 48v Honda LTO batteries, inverter, Starlink, etc.). Good enough I can go hit the backcountry for a week at a time without weighting the car down with the half-ton of extraneous junk the overlanders do.
My advice: “Just go get an older Land Cruiser or 4Runner or LX470”
Her: “They all have, like, 150,000 miles on them”
Me: “Yeah, but problems are pretty obvious, and you can just drop the couple thousand bucks to bring them up to standard.”
A few days later
Her: “I found this really great Jeep Liberty!”
Me: “There’s a reason they’re cheap.”
At present, the laundry list of complaints includes a non-functional heater, suspension sag in the rear, leaking door seals, some minor valve tick, and a parasitic battery drain somewhere that means she needs to carry a jump pack with her.
I don’t really get dogmatic on the Jeep vs. Toyota thing (Jeep made some neat things, like the 4L inline-6), but if you’re striking out on your own and the car absolutely has to work… the Liberty isn’t where I’d hang my hat.
I hate to say this because you’re suggestions were spot on, but knowing what I know about trying to find a decent LX or 4runner, she’s probably still money ahead to fix the liberty than pay the Toyota tax.
My dad needed something reliable and economical. It came down to a beat to pieces Prius or a manual Yaris from out of the rust belt. That Yaris has been racking up a ton of miles without complaint. We did install a basic Bluetooth stereo for hands-free phone use. Yaris, it’s a car!
I have used my credit union’s car buying service multiple times. They handle the trade-in, the financing, and will look for the exact car you want from multiple dealers. There is virtually no pressure, upselling, or mandatory TruCoat dealer-installed options and accessories. I did pay a little ADM when I bought my car in 2020 but the broker found the rare manual transmission turbo hatchback I wanted. I emailed the broker back and forth over a few days, then showed up at the credit union office in my old car and drove off in my new one about an hour later. I have used it to purchase a few cars now and recommend it to everyone. No one who has taken my advice and used it has been disappointed.
Just recently, actually; a co-worker was looking for a car, and she’s not a car person at all. I told her to get the newest Toyota that she could afford that she liked, and she bought a 2014 Corolla. Mission accomplished.
I hope the touchscreen works on hers. A close relative’s 2014 Corolla’s touchscreen is dead for the bottom 1/4 of the screen, which means they can’t connect their phone or use a lot of other settings that are effectively inaccessible.
I’m seriously contemplating installing an aftermarket Android Auto head unit, but with the iDataLink interface to retain the car features it’ll run near $1000…
Looks like that will be my birthday and Christmas presents to them for the next 3 years.
Honestly, my buddy’s girlfriend. They were looking at either an Avenger or Cruze. Both 4 cylinders, 6 speed autos. 62TE’s aren’t my favorite, and the Cruze is N/A, so I figured it was the better buy, on top of having less mile’s IIRC.
Otherwise, it’s either they try to (previously mentioned buddy & my sister), but they tend to go with whatever they want to. I tried to give more efficient advice when I was younger for my mom trying to replace her Rendezvous. She wanted the Northstar-powered Lucerne, I wanted her to get an AWD 300/Charger. She chose the Buick.
Her GM-bias taken from my stepdad resulted in her paying thousands of dollars for a camshaft replacement on her 43,000-mile Equinox while in PA. Boo-hoo.
My friend’s lease was up on a car he didn’t really want kind of got stuck with because he came back from overseas military duty at the height of pandemic car shortages. Since his wife already had an SUV, we agreed this was a good opportunity to get something relatively cool and fun. We ran through a short list: Integra, Civic Si, Giulia, Mazda3, Impreza, among others… he got an SUV. :facepalm:
I’ve got a pretty good track record as of late, parents bought the gently used Telluride I recommended over a new Sorento, and they adore it. One of my friends just needed to replace her wrecked Matrix and went with a 2010 Mazda 3.
My stepdad was driving a 2018 Ford Escape Titanium, and while it never broke down on him, he got tired of taking it in for multiple recalls. Earlier this year my mom mentioned to me in a phone call that he was looking for replacement suggestions. The only qualifications were that it be roughly Escape-sized, and not Subaru, because “the Subaru dealer in town is run by a bunch of assholes”. I suggested he look at Mazda.
About a week later, my mom sent me a text saying “Thanks for the suggestion”, accompanied by a picture of their new Soul Red CX-5.
(For what it’s worth, my mom has a 2019 Escape Hybrid, and it hasn’t given her any problems other than a dead 12-volt battery.)
Edit: I wrote this post before I read the remaining comments and found that Mazda is apparently a universal recommendation, lol.
Angry ex-wife: “Go get a minivan. No, I don’t want to look at it! Just go buy one!”
Later: “I hate this minivan! Why did you buy it?!?!”
A drummer friend was looking to replace his totalled Scion xA that he loved. He was looking at RAV4 and CRV. Found him a CX-5 that was cheaper(and better). He bought it, and is still happy 3 years later.
Recently got a friend who doesn’t like or care about cars except as needed transportation. Got him into an e-Golf shortly after I got mine. He’s in love with his first car ever and won’t stop talking about it now.
Great car, make sure you have your friend carry a jump pack. the 12v on mine would die almost every time I charge the main battery, the 12v keeps the car ‘on’, but only seems to get charged by driving the car.
VW replaced it after it left me stranded twice in two weeks, and within two weeks of that it was showing the same signs of not making it.
If I’d known better I’d have put a better 12v battery on the car and kept it. I miss the car it was awesome.
I am not sure they will ignore me the next time, but I was asked to assist my step son and his girlfriend in looking for a 5,000 dollar reliable, newish looking car. problem was a lot of that does not go hand in hand. lots of reliable enough older geezer cruisers, even a few decent but older GMT trucks, but she was focused on newer than 2010, Camry styled cars. none were available with the mileage she was looking for, but she kept going back to Focus’s and Nissans. I kept telling her it would be ok, only if it were manual and of course she is unable to drive a manual car. so when she showed up at a family function in a 2014 Nissan Sentra with CVT and 136k miles, I cringed, and held my tongue as she said she got it from her mom’s friend for a deal.
2 months later, it does not go forward or back under it’s own power and she is likely out all of the money that she really did not have in the first place.
If there were ever a case of “pick two” this is it. Unfortunately it sounds like she picked the wrong two.
It was not that many years ago that 5k for a used car got you quite a bit of reliable family sedan, albeit small usually.
I’m pretty sure you could still get a decent car for $5k, but it won’t be particularly new-looking.
Almost 10 years ago with a coworker who was looking to buy his first new car ever, and lightning struck again 2 years ago with the same coworker when a drunk driver totaled that first car while it was parked in his driveway. Coworker bought my next recommendation as well.
But for the most part I don’t even try. Too much “listen and disregard”.
I once sent an ad for a cheap 260Z 2+2 to a friend. This idiot went and bought the car sight unseen and it turned out to be a pile of rust. Does this count?
I saw an ad for a BMW 2800 Coupe and asked a friend what he thought about the car. Apparently he liked it a lot because he bought it out from under me. Bastard owes me a test drive.
I hope you burn them tires in the sickest burnout
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Never. By this point, I’m just used to giving advice and then having that person just ignore it completely and buy something completely different. Maybe I should start intentionally recommending bad cars so when they ignore it and buy something different, they end up in something good
I had a friend needing a new car pretty quickly during the terrible car market last year. They were looking at a Kia or Hyundai and I showed them all of the recalls and engines blowing up. Counter to what the media tells you their cars are terrible. Check the forums. He was comparing them to a Mazda, and I strongly encouraged the Mazda. He drives the Mazda and is pretty happy with it. Side notes a friend went against what I said and got a Hyundai and is having engine trouble and the dealer is terrible. Another friend had Kia tell them they needed a new engine, and I told him to get an independent shop to check it out and it just needed a sensor.
Nephew was considering buying a used, high-mileage Mazda RX-8 “because they are really cheap”
I talked him out of it, explaining that while the purchase price may be cheap the inevitable engine issues would not be.
He listened.
80 K apex seals…this checks out.
About 2 years ago when my wife bought an Impreza 5 spd.
I’ve had various friends take my advice on what NOT to buy, does that count?
Yes it still counts in my view. See my post where I did exactly this
Yes! Judging from all the comments here,most people do exactly this.You’re definitely winning
It feels like half my friends drive Mazda3s, of all ages, several of them on my suggestion.
My friends would never ask me for car advice. My garage is testament to my terrible judgement.