Buying a new car (research)

That was my only complaint about the SantaFe as well. When we were searching for a car, we also test drove a Rav4 and CRV and the SantaFe just felt more "solid". It's still going strong, our daughter is driving it down in Denver.

I've had two former rental cars both bought from Enterprise. One was a 2005 Chevy Classic (that's what they called the Malibu for one year) and the other a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. We never had a bit of trouble with the Chevy other than it was a little small for all four of us so we sold that a few years ago. The Dodge is currently on transmission number four. Two were under warranty and the last one cost me more than the Blue Book value of the car. I don't think the fact that it was a former rental had anything to do with the bad transmissions. All those vans have crappy transmissions. I am currently trying to squeeze a few more years out of it. Not so much to save money but because I like a challenge. My original goal was to keep it until the warranty on that last transmission ends but then I realized that if I keep it until 2020 I will have had the same car from the time my son started preschool until he graduates. It's probably not likely that it will make it.

Chris, I'm curious, if the Toyota only has 30,000 miles on it, why are you getting rid of it? What model is it? And, how much do you want for it? It might be worth a drive down there.

Toyota Tacoma, 2003 I think. I have to check the mileage again, but it's super low for the year it is. The car was GIVEN to us by my parents. My dad has Parkinson's and still drives, but he's got a Lexus for getting around town. The truck was sitting in his driveway and it turned out we were borrowing it more than he ever drove it. He got tired of paying the insurance on it so he just gave it to us. It's pretty old school. Tape deck. You gotta crank the windows. Not a lot of guts. But it's sturdy, and it was free. My wife is currently driving about 1/2 hour each way to work, and if we can swing it we'd like to get something better for her.

I haven't even thought about what it might be worth, or what we would take for it. Once we get past the holidays I'll really start diving into this....