Wow, did not know that the “car vending machines” were that literal, lol. They don’t have any of those near me, I just bought the car online.
Both of these sound like absolute hell to me!
the only things that ever get easier in life are the ones I liked doing already 
The Prius C is too small and unreliable with a baby on the way. We are looking for a new car - mostly hybrids. Questions:
- Do people buy from dealerships?
- What does certified pre-owned get you?
- Why are used cars so expensive right now?
- Is it crazy to buy a new car? If so why is the “not crazy” option $30-35k? How is that not crazy?
- Where do people buy cars from? Carvana carmax etc. etc. how do you even compare them?
- What kind of cars do SBers drive? Why do you love/hate your vehicle? What do you call your vehicle?
?! I’ve never even heard of an unreliable Toyota. Fair enough about too small, but you don’t need as much car as they try to tell you. We have two large boys and between a (regular) Prius and one of them old boxy Scions we’ve never had any problems.
I don’t know where else cars are. The days of grabbing a $2k beater for cash off of craigslist are over sadly.
They’re like manufacturer refurbs. Halfway between regular used and new in price and “reliability.” Honestly I’ve never bothered. Have always just bought the cheapest thing I could find among the models I wanted from a reputable dealer, and never had a problem.
Same reason everything else is so expensive right now. That +20-30% just hurts more on a bigger base value.
Yes.
I just hopped on cars.com and all the hybrid Toyota sedans in my area are like 15-25k. Which is still getting into awful range but it ain’t 30-35k. Either the market near you is crazy for reasons beyond my understanding (and therefore it might be worth a long trip elsewhere to buy) or you’re looking at SUVs, which… don’t do that.
Aforementioned cars.com, which as far as I know mostly pulls from carfax, which you can also search directly through. I’ve never used one of those newfangled ones where you buy completely online and have it delivered or whatever, that seems like madness to me.
In order: Sienna, Prius, Camry, Camry, Prius. Newer cars have too many screens and beeping shit trying to tell you how to drive, I’d stick with something from the 20teens if you can, but that’s just me. The only modern functionality that I give a shit about is bluetooth, but an aux cable and speakerphone works just as well.
Non-SUV options continue to dwindle, sadly. I count “crossovers” among them despite them mostly being lifted hatchbacks
Myself I’m trying to find a low(ish) mileage 2014/2015 Mazda 5 so I can have a minivan that’s actually mini
I mean ok but there are still plenty of actual cars around. Even limiting to just Toyota + hybrid + sedan/hatch + <100kmi I got like 80 results within 25 miles. The cars are out there, begging to be driven