About the beginning of the year, my wife and I started shopping for a replacement for her 2010 Mazda 5 which we had purchased new.
It has been wonderful but we were looking for something in the next bigger size. I had narrowed my choices to the possibility of Nissan Armada, Lincoln MKT (the other Ford Flex), or a Grand Caravan. Back in Jan I almost pulled the trigger on a CPO 2016 Lincoln MKT with all the options and 40k miles.
I wanted to be at a price of $22k. They held firm at $23.5k. I walked away.
I kept an eye on the Lincoln and watched as the dealership eventually lowered the advertised price to $22k, but... By that time Covid was becoming a thing and I got cold feet and put all changes on hold. It was actually at this same time that I had found a buyer for the Mazda5 but we talked and agreed that it was best to wait and see how this new Covid thing was going to shake out.
While staying at home, I continued to shop online. I started to watch the Hertz and Avis sites. On those sites, in the beginning, Armadas were about $28k, Pacificas were about $25k. The Flex were about $22k and Grand Caravan were about $20k. The Covid hit and Hertz announced bankruptcy, etc. Prices began to drop.
Today, I pulled the trigger on this exact 2019 Grand Caravan:
Here is the $35k original window sticker:
This car was built in Sept '18 as a 2019 model so this would be an early 2019. That means that the car is 20 months old or nearly two years. So, though 42k miles is high for a 2019 MY vehicle it is not obscene for 20 months or just over 2k miles per month. This would be like 25k per year. What was the deciding factor for me was that when shopping for any Grand Caravan (with all the options like this one) or a Town and Country with less than 50k miles, I could not find a 2014 or newer for less than $15k.
The Grand Caravan:
Its a Mopar van. There is nothing cutting edge about it. The look is familiar. You know what you are getting. As i mentioned, this one is loaded for a Caravan so that means leather, Nav, better stereo, heated seats and heated steering wheel, power opening all doors, etc. The downside (though somewhat welcomed) the van is generally low tech. No lane departure warning (annoyance), no adaptive cruise control, no self parking features that I might never use, etc. Being a rental, not spec'ed with video screens with headphones that get lost and no optional roof rack. I can see Hertz not wanting to tempt people to add 500lbs to a roof.
The Hertz buying experience:
One of the sales reps said they were on track to sell 150 cars this month in the Cleveland location. Further commented that most of that happened in 2 weeks since bankruptcy buzz. They are moving the cars off the lot faster than they are adding cars to the lot. We went twice to the lot. Thursday we drove and thought on it. Saturday morning we returned to buy. Noticeable between the two days there was an entire row of cars gone from the lot. My guess is they had sold 20 car in these two days.
Hertz seems to drop the price a couple hundred every week that the cars sit on the lot. Specifically, I had watched this car go from $15,590 when I first engaged to $15,440 when we went and test drove and then to $15,390 the day we went to buy. A additional thing I had learned on my own is that a AAA Membership is good for a $300 discount. Hertz holds to their no haggle policy but at a $15,090 I was fine with the price. Part of this no haggle came out in that the sales people were not polished but conversely they were not slimy and deceptive. They were generally 20s-30s year -ish and very nice and pleasant. They were somewhat order takers by writing down your name, address, soc number, etc. This then brought out a finance guy. He too was not slick or slimy but this 40 yr old understood the numbers and how to somewhat game those numbers. This is the guy who tried to present me number is "monthly payment". When I pushed he caved that the interest rates were 4-somethings. I then explained that I had a voucher with me for 3.24% from my bank.
This sent him back to his office to "make some calls and see what he could do." Quickly, he came back with 2.84% and I agreed to go with his offer. This then sent us off with another 40-something yr old F&I Guy to finish paperwork. This is where we were offered extended warranty, gap insurance, prepaid maint, etc. However this guy too was smart but not slimy. I passed on all the "products" and he did not play a hard game.
Start to finish we were on sight at Hertz for 1.5 hrs and I would attribute .5 of that to just waiting. They were busy on this Sat morning at 11:30. While we were there I watched 2 other sales finalize and 2 new people drive off in new cars.
The Hertz Cars:
The cars seem to come right out of rental service. They get some further detailing like that damn shiny, sort of sticky stuff that use on the interior plastic. The cars are clean but rental car never really get (or stay) that dirty. I would say that the paint has imperfections. These are scuffs in the areas like where luggage gets dragged into the trunk. The cargo are has a couple of gouges/scratches in the cargo area plastic from the movement of this same luggage, etc. At 42k miles, my tires and their build codes of 16th week of 2018 reveal that these tires have 42k miles on them. These Yokohamas are admittedly near the end of their life but at the price paid, I am willing to factor in the need to spend $600 on new rubber before winter. This also allows me to choose the tires rather than take some no-names that a typical used car lot might put on. The brakes look to have been replaced. They feel good and seem to have a lot of pad left.
In summary, the car has about 3 years worth of miles and is still priced lower than a 3 year old Caravan. It has taken my wife 9 years and 4 months to add 71k miles to her Mazda5. About 8k miles per year (or less lately.) She is a teacher at a school 3 miles from our house. In this case, we bought a Grand Caravan with "high miles" but in just of couple of years of owning it and her low mileage driving it will quickly average out to "average miles." My guess is that it will take her 7 years to hit 100k miles. If I compare that to current 8 yr old Grand Caravans from 2012, they are still asking $9k. Even if I sell it for $8k then I have a depreciation loss of $7k over 7 years or $1k per year (in very simplified math.) I like those numbers! I'm expecting I will be taking a $1,200 per year depreciation loss on her Mazda5 (which I'm happy with too.)
In other humors. That 42k miles in nearly 2 years is a lot of travel, so I played with the Nav and looked up recent addresses. Most recent were just a few in the Akron/Canton, Ohio areas (near where I bought the car) but the bulk of the addresses are in Florida up to and including Disney along with Miami but generally Orlando. The only outlier from that is about 4 addresses in Wisconsin.
Photo Dump:
