Backstory: Doing My Homework

When I bought my last car, I didn't even know what the internet was. When buying this car, 90% of the car research as well as the car pricing research was done online.

I think lots of research is supremely important on ‘big’ purchases. I spent a month researching a digital camera. I probably spent over 2 months researching my car purchase.

My sources:
1. I hit many websites with expert reviews like on Car & Driver, Edmunds, Car.com, About.com and many others. There is almost no reason to buy car magazines anymore. By reading multiple reviews from different sources, I was able see that there is a consensus that Hyundai can build a reliable high quality car. And they said Elantras have been fairly reliable since 2001, and have been steadily improving.

2. I read owner reviews from Edmunds and Yahoo!Autos. Though these reviews may lack the depth of the experts, they sometimes see things that experts miss. One owner complained it was hard to see out the rear window, something no expert reviewer mentioned. But I do believe some of the "overly positive" reviews are "plants" so you have to read with discernment to weed out the fakes.

3. I hit forums like Edmunds Towntalk. This is a great place to look for issues/problems that your car may have. This ’07 Elantra was a brand new design, so I was concerned with possible "first year" bugs and I was hoping since I was shopping 7 months into the year that some issues would have presented themselves. It was a chore to sift through hundreds of comments to find those pertinent to my purchase, but worth it. I found out about the Elantra speedometer issue on this forum (as well as complaints that the cloth seats are so light, that they show dirt easily. But I didn't find any deal breakers. I also found people divulging how much they paid for their car.

4. I visited dealerships because nothing replaces sitting in a car and actually driving it. But going in with all the internet research makes a big difference than going in "stupid." Try taking a car to rougher roads or hills. Any car these days perform great on flat smooth roads.

5. I got internet quotes from dealers in NorCal and SoCal, but sometimes they require you to act right away to get that price. I used the lowest prices I found as negotiation tools. Sometimes the dealers were kind of vague on the model/package they were quoting on.

6. I did pricing models on each trim on Edmunds and CarsDirect.com. Edmunds True Market Value tool gives you what the average price people are paying in your area for the car you want. CarsDirect.com give you a price quote, which they guarantee to be the lowest for a limited time. Both tools are valuable. The CarDirect price was also a tool I used for negotiation.

7. I did research on how dealers generally price their cars. This page on LeaseGuide.com is pretty interesting.

8. I did ask friends and relatives, but mainly about cars I already liked. Just to see if they can spot something negative that I might have missed.

9. Lastly after deciding on the car and the price I want to pay for it, it came down to figure out how to pay for it. How can I maximize savings? To get the $2000 rebate from Hyundai, I was required to finance $10k with Hyundai. Play it right and I still come out ahead. Play it wrong and I would piss away the rebate on interest. I might share how I am financing this car later.

One of the biggest strikes against the Elantra was the 5-Year Cost of Ownership factor. The COO Elantra was as high or higher than its competitors! Yahoo!Autos and Intellichoice have Cost of Ownership calculators. When I ran the Elantra against the Civic and even Toyota Prius, the figures were very close surprisingly. I thought I’d be saving money by buying the Elantra.

Three main factors for inflating the Elantra's COO were:
a.Insurance costs. For some reason, the Elantra is more expensive to insure than a $25k Prius. Something screwy there since the Elantra has 6 airbags.

b. Depreciation: The Elantra loses its value faster than Toyotas and Hondas. This is the biggest ‘cost’ in the calculation. But this is a non-issue if you plan to keep your car long term, which I hope to do. After ten years resale value gets really low on any make of compact car.

c. Repairs: Elantra parts may cost slightly more than more common Toyota and Honda parts.

So how did I justify still getting the Elantra. As I said depreciation is a non-issue for me and the Elantra has a longer warranty that may help offset some repair costs. BUT if you plan of selling your car in five years, the Elantra may not be that excellent a value as you thought. Also the pricing models these calculators use are based on MSRP's, not "street" pricing. One can bargain a much better price on an Elantra these days than on a Civic.