Car and Driver 2020 review

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Ernest72

We sat in the new one and it was almost an identical car and the sticker was 44k, maybe some new tech but nothing worthwhile, except a bigger screen. So 19k for a bigger screen, crazy.

I have to say though, when you look for off lease or used it really depends on the specific car. We looked at two others, one that had the heated steering wheel which my wife wanted, but the car was in much worse condition and was 1k more.

I have to say you need to be more careful with a sports car as the previous owner may have thrashed the car.

Clearly the previous owner of our IS300 was a neat an clean person. I mean the trunk looked like it was never used, no scratches and still smelled good. Looked brand new. They said that they did not have a chance to detail it, not sure I believe them, but the car was perfect. It was a highway car too because of some rock chips on the lower front.
If I knew who owned this car before me, I would look to purchase their next car.

Yeah gotta love POs like that! Ive gotten lucky over the years with my used car purchases. Bought a 1 yo STI where the PO had bought the car new and clearly took care of it. Had all service records and showed me all the cleaning products and fluids he used on the car. Also paid himself for a PPI and the compression came out perfect. I'd definitely buy another car from him! Same for an older 350z I bought. Wasn't perfect, but great for it's age and also well maintained.

It helps to buy cars directly from the POs as opposed to dealerships. You can get a sense of the maintenance and care that was given to the car. With the GTI that I just sold, I had full maintenance logs and records for the car (and was completely up to date on it). I just handed those records over to the new owner and I could tell it put him at ease about buying the car.

[pallen]

I was prepared to buy new. A new car warranty is a good reason to pay a few thousand more - plus you don't have to worry about what someone else has or hasn't done to the car. Android Auto/Carplay built in was a nice option. Yeah, I'll be adding it to my 2017, but I'd rather have it stock.

What I found was, due to covid, there weren't many available new. Production stopped and it sounds like they've switched to 2021 production now, so there may not be any more 2020s made - or not as many. All I could find was mostly silver autos. I wanted read and manual.

So, used it is and I found a clean one - now I have a little mod money...