Scotty, hello from Maine. Please help save my friendship: after 40 years, I finally had a car accident. My insurance totaled my 2007 Toyota Highlander Limited (165k miles) for $10k. I want to replace it with a 2010 Toyota Venza Limited (145k miles) for $12k. I see it as a like for like trade. I’m spending $2k to get a younger car with newer, fancier features. (I will get the car checked by a mechanic before buying.) My friend thinks I’m crazy to spend $12k on a used car. She wants me to spend $22k on a brand new Hyundai thinking I’ll have less problems with a new car. I drive my cars for over 200,000 miles. Which car is the likeliest to give me the lower total cost of ownership and need less repairs in the next five years? To save our friendship, we’ve agreed to abide your recommendation. Thank you.
The Korean cars are garbage over time stick to Toyota
The first gen Venzas were great cars. But 145k is a lot of someone else’s miles to take on. From starting tomorrow, the Hyundai would probably give you more miles. But for almost twice the price would you get twice the miles? Probably not.
Get the Venza.
Id go for the Toyota. That Hyundai will wear faster in 30K miles than the Toyota has in its entire life.. and you'll probably be left with a Hyundai valued as much as the Toyota is now. Yeah, how well that Toyota was maintained could be a risk.. but in my eyes if you can get comfortable with the idea of doing a couple grand max in maintenance to the Toyota over the next year or two.. you should be able to overcome any realized risks from past lack of maintenance. My wife had a Hyundai out of college with one of those fancy [ripoff] extended warranties and it was always in the shop on warranty claims. I bit my tongue for a few more months until replacing it with a japanese brand.
Which Hyundai?
- Venza
