Having just gotten a new car I am doing that thing I do where I try and convince myself I made the right decision. I have been looking at other types of cars to see if they had all the features I want for the price I paid, and the simple answer is no. The big thing to remember is I traded a hybrid Camry in for a hybrid ES. I essentially stayed with the same manufacturer. The manufacturer that happened to invent this type of engine and has had multiple decades to perfect it.
I got this car two weeks ago at this point and still have half a tank of gas to go. It is getting close to 44 MPG and this fuel efficiency is something I value greatly. The thing is when you look at a hybrid in other car companies they are using their own technology and some of them haven’t quite figured it out. A hybrid Mercedes E-Class is close to double the price of a Lexus ES whereas the gas models are much closer in price.
The hybrid engine is one of the biggest factors in why I cannot find a comparable car from another manufacturer. They either haven’t figured out the technology or charge too much for it.
I realized yesterday that my brain had been completely rewired by Toyota. Back in 2019 I leased a Highlander and loved that car. I got everything out of it I wanted and when the lease came up I decided I wanted to move back into a sedan so I looked at the Camry. This was during the supply chain nightmare of 2022 and I had to wait on the Camry and pay an extra cost, but I had excellent equity in the Highlander even if it was a three year old car with close to 60,000 miles on it.
Here’s the kicker. I was reading complaints from car dealers on how many people they’ve had to deny a loan because of those covid supply chain fees dealerships were charging. The cars simply aren’t worth what they were sold for. However I purchased my Camry for $39K and had sizeable equity in the Highlander which made my total loan amount right around $31K. At this moment in time that car is being sold used for $31K, and my trade in value wasn’t much less than that (I’m honestly surprised they aren’t trying to get more out of it).
Lexus has an active online community. There are a lot of people looking for older models along with people that love their current rides. That creates an interesting market. Yesterday someone asked if buying an old GS for $9K from a junkyard was a good idea. That is crazy. My Chevy Malibu wasn’t even worth $500 when I went to trade it in and it was only four years old. There is a reason you don’t see many older model Chevy Malibus on the road but do Camrys and ES’s.
That’s how cars are supposed to work. You lose 50% of the value as soon as your drive off the lot. As of this moment in time I used version of the car I just bought is on sale at Carmax for more than the loan I just took out.
Cars are not investments. They are depreciating assets, but having owned Hondas and Toyotas and now Lexus my brain is completely rewired. It isn’t just about waiting until the end of the loan term, hoping the car makes it that long (none of my Chevys did), and then starting the process over again because you need to get places.
Combine the lower cost of ownership with the reliability that makes the older models sought after with the fuel efficiency and car ownership goes from a liability to an investment which is a crazy way to think about it, but after six years of exclusively driving cars manufactured by Toyota it is how I do.
David Huzzard Writes 