Dear Auntie Pinko,

My 1991 Ford Taurus needs nearly $2,000 worth of work to keep running, and it has over two hundred thousand miles on the odometer. I’m finally facing the reality that I’ll have to invest in a new car. I hate the thought of contributing to the whole mess that the oil industry and the auto industry have gotten us into but there isn’t any way I can commute by public transport (there isn’t any,) the distance is too great to bike, and I frequently need to drive during the day to meetings, etc., so I can’t really car pool.

My boyfriend thinks I should get one of the new hybrids, but that would mean taking on a big debt, a long wait, and a hefty monthly payment. My mom thinks I should lease because new cars lose their value so quickly, the payment would be smaller, and I might be changing jobs next year and could possibly take the bus if I moved to town. I want to “buy American,” too, but there doesn’t seem to be any decent American car that gets high gas mileage and is actually made in America.

If you needed a new car right now, what would you buy, Auntie?

Becky,
Bayport, MN


Dear Becky,

Auntie isn’t the best person to ask for advice about car purchasing! I’m afraid I don’t pay much attention to all the television programs, magazines, websites, etc., that review cars and provide information about them for consumers. That’s a huge industry in itself. But if I was in your position, that’s where I’d start.

I wish we all had the option of convenient, affordable public transportation, but the power of the auto industry and the oil industry in the 1940s and 1950s influenced public priorities to abandon any transport options other than the Interstate Highway system. Someday, historians might regard that as one of the greatest mistakes our nation ever made, but it seemed to make sense at the time.

The entire structure of our economy remains largely based around the assumption that individual personal transport is accessible to nearly everyone. Our cities are built that way and our businesses operate that way. People make their decisions about where they want to live in a nation composed of communities that were shaped by that assumption. An enormous weight of existing physical infrastructure, economic interdependence, and cultural tradition is standing in the path of change, and no matter how clear it may be that the old model doesn’t work anymore, the transformation to a new model will be neither quick nor painless. In the mean time, it leaves people like you with dilemmas like this. You want to do the right thing for the community and the future, but you also need to do the right thing for you.

I certainly don’t know enough about cars to make recommendations about make or model. But I referred your dilemma to a niece who is a very savvy financial planner, and I’ll try to pass on what I learned intelligibly:

First off, she says, a new car is not necessarily a good investment, depending on your situation. A good used car is often a better financial strategy if you can spare the time and effort to locate one that will meet your needs. First decide generally what you want. If Auntie were buying a car, for example, I would look for cars that scored high on safety, gas mileage, and low maintenance costs. My next priority would be cargo space (I’m a gardener and often need to haul bags of mulch, bales of straw, etc.) I don’t drive a lot, most of my trips are short, and I rarely have passengers, so I prioritize comfort much lower, and ‘performance’ (going fast, taking curves at speed, power on the hills, etc.) not at all.

With that in mind, I’d check the Internet for comparative reviews of car models three to five years old. Most new cars shed their “premium value” in those first three years, so if you look in that range the price no longer reflects that premium. Once I had a good idea of the models that best met my needs I’d start looking for the commonest ones on a couple of the Internet’s many used-car shopping sites. And I’d invest a few dollars in one of those services that runs a VIN (vehicle identification number) check on cars and gives you information about its history, so I could avoid cars from flood areas, cars that have been in major accidents, and other ‘red flags.’ I might also invest in one of the Consumers Union’s packages that help buyers understand prices, trade-in values, and other factors in car buying.

None of that would guarantee me against getting a lemon, of course, but they’d certainly reduce the risk and give me confidence in my decision-making process. That’s about as much as I could ask.

My niece also recommends very strongly that you arrange your financing before you go to the dealer. If you can’t pay cash all at once, you’re still better off with a loan from your own credit union or bank than with most dealer financing.

As long as you are thoughtful in your decision making process, Becky, you’ll be doing better than a lot of us who just do the easy thing without taking the time to think. Keeping your concern for the environment in mind as you make a car purchase is one way to make a positive step. Don’t underestimate the importance of such thoughtfulness, even if you can’t act on it in a dramatic way for this particular decision.

You can take your concern a step further by writing a short letter to the editor of your local paper expressing your concern about the lack of options in your area. You can schedule one or two days a week without meetings and try to arrange a carpool for those days. You can stay in touch with what your elected representatives are doing to move change along in the right direction, and give them your feedback from time to time. Do your best to balance what’s practical with your ideals, and keep striving to do just a little bit more. Best of luck with your car purchase, and thanks for asking Auntie Pinko!