Edit: GONE - not looking back: Have you ever bought a new car and hated it...

[Engineer]

That's is going to be one expensive lesson by the time you pay TTL plus whatever you eat off the deal again. Maybe you can lesson the sting by buying a little less spendy car the 2nd time around?

Another happy MB owner here. You can probably pick up a w204 (2008-2014) for what you sell that xdrive for. Its changed body styles so the older ones are pretty cheap now.

Yep, I full well know that I'm in for a good economic lesson. The issue is whether to hang on and hope (which could make the economic lesson far worse) or simply dump it now and take the smaller loss. Nothing says that I have to buy now. Could test drive many cars (real test drives, not the short ones again) and then wait until a good sale or promotion occurs (or even buy pre-owned certified) to try to offset some of the losses. I know full well that I'm going to lose money on the deal but it's either that of live with something that I'm not happy with. Is life too short for that?

 

[Dr. Detroit]

WILL not ever buy a GM again. Four in a row and EVERY single one has had more issues (one being Lemon Law worthy) than all SIX of my Chrysler products combined.

As for the BMW, I have plenty of leg room and body room, what I don't have is places to place my legs when not straight out. My knees end up into door handles or the center console in a way that's not comfortable. The hump on the drivers side doesn't allow me to pull my legs back comfortably. The seats aren't nearly as comfortable as I would have thought. Was very happy to get back in my Intrepid (after I replaced the fuel pump) because the seats were so much more comfortable in it. Many other nags that shouldn't be an issue with a car of this stature/cost (throttle lag is another big one and a known issue with BMW and other German cars - just wish I knew it before hand).

Good luck on your next choice in cars. We had a Chrysler Concorde in our household for many years and that car was pretty solid. We miss it due to its cavernous trunk. Why I suggested the Impala as I knew you had a large sedan previously.

Commuting long miles in slow traffic has taught us that comfort, gas mileage, and nice creature comforts over HP & maintenance are key factors. Image is about last on the list. There does not seem to be a bad car out there anymore so while Honda had transmissions made of glass in the early 2000's we would not write them off just because of that.

Our friends swear by Hyundai, you would think they would be Euro snobs with their 3 homes but love the NA 4cyl Hyundai Limited models they have been driving for the past 10yrs.

 

[shortylickens]

That doesn't surprise me (based on the Cavalier). How long did you keep it?

About 4 days. Maybe 3 and a half.

 

[boomerang]

http://www.swapalease.com/

If I actually knew somebody who had used their services I would definitely consider it. But I will not trust Internet reviews.

 

[WackyDan]

I pretty much avoid these issues by shopping around, test driving, paying for the pricing reports, etc. A vehicle is something I run for at least ten years.

That said, we bought my wife's Malibu new in 2005. Perfect size car for her - True mid-size sedan. 5 star crash rating. Push rod v6. Great hwy mpg.

Of course, it is a mid-2000's GM product. Quality is shit on everything from the interior plastics, to the paint finish. Numerous repeat mechanical issues.

So yeah, within a few years I was regretting it... Still have it. Eleven years so far. Tesla reserved, so we'll probably own the Malibu another two or three years. Sometimes you just need to live with your mistakes....Because it is paid for.

 

[Engineer]

So yeah, within a few years I was regretting it... Still have it. Eleven years so far. Tesla reserved, so we'll probably own the Malibu another two or three years. Sometimes you just need to live with your mistakes....Because it is paid for.

Mine is not paid for. If I don't grow to love it, more money spent on payments and more depreciation. Looking at previous models blue book values, the depreciation is faster than my payments for some time (i.e. If I pay $5,000 over the next year for the car, it will be worth less than current value by well over the $5,000). Of course, after a certain point, depreciation will not be as fast as the payments because that would mean that the car would have a value of 0 faster than you could pay it off, lol!

 

[Subyman]

I've never impulse purchased my main cars. I have purchased random project cars, but they've always been something I've wanted for awhile and a good deal came along. I'm definitely not one to spend a ton of money on impulse.

I used to drive a 2001 BMW 330CI and liked it, but when I drove one of the newer 3 series I didn't care for them. They felt hollow and kind of cheap. The 5 series is a big upgrade IMO.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I've never impulse purchased my main cars. I have purchased random project cars, but they've always been something I've wanted for awhile and a good deal came along. I'm definitely not one to spend a ton of money on impulse.

I used to drive a 2001 BMW 330CI and liked it, but when I drove one of the newer 3 series I didn't care for them. They felt hollow and kind of cheap. The 5 series is a big upgrade IMO.

I haven't driven a 3 series in probably 10 years. I did drive a 2016 X5 recently though and found it very comfortable and it handled quite well.

I tend to research the hell out of a car before I buy, driving many different cars in the process.

 

[ControlD]

Not even in close to the same league because I would never pay new BMW / Lexus / etc. prices for a car ever, but I hated my Mazda 3 when I first got it. I ended up keeping that car for close to 11 years and by the end it was the best car I ever owned. It sounds like the car in your case has issues that might be impossible to get past, but you might grow into this one as well given time.

Otherwise, if you can afford to take the financial hit go for a private sale and move on. Life is too short to have 59 months of angst over a car.

 

[merlion]

I bought a 2008 Honda Accord EX-L V-6 new after having test driven an EX V-6 (no leather). I paid particular attention to the engine behavior on the test drive, since Honda had started using VCM on the Accord V-6's for the first time in 2008.

The VCM was advertised as being seamless, and the car I drove was. But then, I decided to get a car with leather, but did not drive the car before making the deal. I wrongly assumed they would all be the same. What a mistake. The VCM on my particular car was not seamless, and drove me insane.

I took a financial hit getting rid of the car after only 8 months, but I didn't feel like living with it for the length of time that I would need to to be able to break even. I traded it in for a 2009 Acura TL, and leased that instead of buying. I'd say I lost around $2500 in the whole deal, but never had any regret. The Acura turned out to be a great car.

 

[dtgoodwin]

Bought a new 2000 Nissan Maxima SE. I had always wanted one, and after purchasing a gray '97 Camry V6 with gray cloth interior, grey dash, grey everything, I wanted something with a little more interest. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and was feeling a little down in the dumps when I drove by the Nissan dealership and saw a Maxima had all the options I wanted my Camry didn't (picked up the Camry as one of two on the lot - loved the power, smoothness, and quietness of it). I test drove it, and wow, was it a different vehicle. Ride was not as comfortable, handled fairly well, but felt like a much bigger car, and the much lauded VQ (first year with timing chains), didn't have the torque of the Camry, and was much noisier. I convinced myself that the ride would settle a bit, and the engine would wake up as it broke in. Neither was true. I hated nearly every moment driving it. The Camry is the most boring car I've ever owned, but that smooth, ultra quiet and smooth V6 was potent, and it's ride was very comfortable. I honestly missed the Camry.

I owned it for almost 6 months before finally giving it up.

 

[Yuriman]

Never had any car regrets. There are things I'd change about the cars I've bought, such as the seats, so I've changed them.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Bought a new 2000 Nissan Maxima SE. I had always wanted one, and after purchasing a gray '97 Camry V6 with gray cloth interior, grey dash, grey everything, I wanted something with a little more interest. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and was feeling a little down in the dumps when I drove by the Nissan dealership and saw a Maxima had all the options I wanted my Camry didn't (picked up the Camry as one of two on the lot - loved the power, smoothness, and quietness of it). I test drove it, and wow, was it a different vehicle. Ride was not as comfortable, handled fairly well, but felt like a much bigger car, and the much lauded VQ (first year with timing chains), didn't have the torque of the Camry, and was much noisier. I convinced myself that the ride would settle a bit, and the engine would wake up as it broke in. Neither was true. I hated nearly every moment driving it. The Camry is the most boring car I've ever owned, but that smooth, ultra quiet and smooth V6 was potent, and it's ride was very comfortable. I honestly missed the Camry.

I owned it for almost 6 months before finally giving it up.

I had a 2003 Maxima SE for 10 years. I thought it was fairly comfortable but it wasn't very quiet or luxurious. That 3.5l VQ engine was plenty powerful though. I think your 2000 model may have had the 3.0l motor.

 

[Engineer]

After talking with the wife, I guess I'm going to give it a go and keep it for awhile, even though my heart isn't in it. She thinks I need to take it out more and drive it and that may be true. I understand her point of view completely and I'm sure she really is thinking about the lost depreciation of the purchase. The only downside to that is if I still feel that way six months from now, a year from now, etc., the value will be even lower while still pumping money into it as well as insurance, taxes, etc.

I might propose to her getting rid of it and getting nothing for a year+ so save the payments, extra insurance and taxes to help offset the 'feeling' of losing the money. At the same time, could look for the more rare deals on cars that I would most likely replace it with (if they even come along).

Tough position to be in...one created entirely by screwed up, on the spot emotion.

 

[ControlD]

Does your wife like the car??

Maybe you can make it her daily driver and you can get something else. Assuming she doesn't have larger family vehicle needs that is.

 

[gorcorps]

I wanted out of my 2014 Grand Cherokee about a year after I got it after tremendous electrical issues, and piss poor customer service from Jeep and the dealer. It was involved in an accident so most places wouldn't give the value I wanted, but I finally found a Toyota dealership willing to pay a good price for it.

I would say keep shopping it around. It doesn't hurt to ask the Lexus dealerships what you could get out of it.

 

[Engineer]

Does your wife like the car??

Maybe you can make it her daily driver and you can get something else. Assuming she doesn't have larger family vehicle needs that is.

We bought my wife a 2011 Chrysler 200 Convertible in 2011 for our 20th anniversary. She LOVES that car. No way that she would give up that car for the BMW. Not a chance and I wouldn't ask her to anyway.

 

[BurnItDwn]

After 5 or 6 years of ownership I started hating my Chrysler 300M that I had bought in 2003. Too expensive to keep fixing all the things as they broke even though car barely had like 100K miles.

Thus far i've been pretty content with my 08 forester, though Transmission makes me a bit nervous since the transmission cooler light turns when I floor the accelerator during the second half of a turn...

 

[sontakke]

I was really wondering about earlier post when your wife was fine with you on getting rid of the new car. I guess she was "Fine!" Being married long, you obviously know the difference!

 

[Engineer]

I was really wondering about earlier post when your wife was fine with you on getting rid of the new car. I guess she was "Fine!" Being married long, you obviously know the difference!

I'm not sure what to make of what you're saying. Please clarify....


Back to the car. I decided to take a long drive out of the way this evening. I took back roads, both winding and one lane, for a large part of the trip. First, didn't realize some of the beautiful surroundings around Lexington. That was unexpected and very nice.

Now, the car. Driving it more than a few miles, I rediscovered some of the good things about the car....but I have finally nailed down what is causing me to dislike things and nitpick things that I would otherwise not care about......it's the damn seats. 10-15 minute trip to work, no problem. Go on a little 'trip' and I'm hurting so bad in my back before I get done that it takes an hour to recover. Not only the back, after a short while of back pain, it starts shooting up and down my left left, especially the upper back portion of the leg. This is a repeat performance of a 3 hour trip that I had about four weeks ago. At that time, wasn't sure what was causing it but I was agitated (and in pain) by the time I made the trip (twice).

I slid from side to side in the seat trying to get comfortable, stretched and arched my back, adjusted the lower, middle and upper lumbar support many times trying to get past the mounting discomfort. By the time I was home, I wanted to hate the entire car again but realized that I don't hate most of it, I hate the pain from the seats. A quick Google search confirmed that the seats of the F30 platform basically suck (one report of someone getting herniated discs from sitting in them for a long trip).

I'm sure I'm going to be ask why didn't I catch that on a test drive. Again, the short 10-15 minute trips seem to have little to no issue. The short work trip is exactly like the test drive. Maybe I'm moving around or thinking about work stuff and basically ignore the mounting discomfort because it's such a short trip.

So, what are my options other than getting rid of the car.

1. New seats - outrageously expensive and no guarantee to correct the discomfort.

2. Seat cushions - either on bottom seating surface, back seating surface or both. I'm not against placing a nice looking, comfortable seat cushion in the car (must look reasonably nice though).

3. Other options? Lose weight and see if that helps? I need that anyway but I'm not banking long term comfort on that.....so....next.

4. ????????

Surely, I can get a decent looking and cost solution to avoid giving this car up over seat discomfort.

It's the freaking damn seats............*sigh*

Of course, this all leads back to my 'comfort' statement several times throughout the thread.

By the way, wife must be getting tired of hearing about it. I told her about my back pain and that the seats were causing the issue and she just 'puffed up' and told me get rid of the damn thing because I'm never going to enjoy it. Said if we take a 10k hit, so be it. I was actually trying to find a solution to make me happy with it at that point, not trying to convince her that I wanted it gone, lol.

No win situation......

 

[Kaido]

Have you ever had a Volvo? I had an '01 S80 for a year and the seats were a-ma-zing. It was like sitting in a lazyboy

 

[Engineer]

Have you ever had a Volvo? I had an '01 S80 for a year and the seats were a-ma-zing. It was like sitting in a lazyboy

No, but I have sat in cars that have far too much padding. This is the first car that I've had with leather seating and I'm so disappointed with the level of non-comfort that they have. It's so sad that I can get into my old Intrepid with dusty cloth seats and feel great, even on a long drive.

I've been reading about the BMW seats and I'm amazed at the issues that people have with them, especially lower back pain. Interestingly enough, seems the added lumbar support actually makes the seats harder and worse for many, even if lumbar is deflated down to flat (I can attest that the back of the seat seems hard as a brick).

I've been home for several hours now and my back is not as sore as it was but my left leg feels like I've torn a nerve in it. My legs have always been sensitive to my back pain and from driving this several times, seems my left leg is the sore spot. Going to try some simple home cushions in it over the next few days and see how that goes. If it goes well, I'll look for some nice ones and order to try.

 

[SearchMaster]

Yeah that would definitely suck. I have a Focus ST - the lower trim level has the higher end seats from the Focus Titanium but the higher trim levels have Recaro-branded seats (which I have). They are VERY supportive (read: tight around the shoulders and hips) and cause an extreme love/hate reaction. The interesting thing is that some people will say "I'm 6', 190# and they squeeze the hell out of me" and others say "well I'm 5'9, 230# and they are PERFECT", but the ST forums are littered with people wanting to both trade their seats both up and down.

I will say that I got a little worried when I took my first long road trip and the seats bothered me. I got onto the Recaro website and followed their directions about how to set the perfect seating position and I've never had a problem since. So give that a shot and see if it works.

People who are used to cushy American semi-luxury cars seem to hate my seats and it sounds like that may be the boat you're in. You mentioned that new seats would be a horribly expensive option but a couple grand might still be less than the depreciation hit and frankly I'd feel better putting money into a tangible thing like seats than an ethereal concept like depreciation.

 

[Engineer]

My back and left hip/leg was hurting when I arrived home after the drive yesterday. I then proceeded to walk with my wife for about 45 minutes. Not sure if this irritated anything but I woke up at 3:00am with extreme pain in my left hip and leg. I finally had to get up, take 3 ibuprofin and use a heating pad on my back and hip. After about 40 minutes, it eased off enough to fall back to sleep (for about an hour as I get up at 4:50).

I drove 14 hours to Orlando about a month ago in a Jeep Patriot and other than gas stops and a few rest breaks, I spent most of the time in the car. While I was a little sore from sitting, nothing like this. Not even close and the soreness wore off while carrying the luggage into the hotel.

If I can't find a cushion or something to fix this, I'm just going to have to get a basic cushy cloth seat car. Afraid of leather after this.

I've not been this disheartened in a long time.

 

[gorcorps]

My back and left hip/leg was hurting when I arrived home after the drive yesterday. I then proceeded to walk with my wife for about 45 minutes. Not sure if this irritated anything but I woke up at 3:00am with extreme pain in my left hip and leg. I finally had to get up, take 3 ibuprofin and use a heating pad on my back and hip. After about 40 minutes, it eased off enough to fall back to sleep (for about an hour as I get up at 4:50).

I drove 14 hours to Orlando about a month ago in a Jeep Patriot and other than gas stops and a few rest breaks, I spent most of the time in the car. While I was a little sore from sitting, nothing like this. Not even close and the soreness wore off while carrying the luggage into the hotel.

If I can't find a cushion or something to fix this, I'm just going to have to get a basic cushy cloth seat car. Afraid of leather after this.

I've not been this disheartened in a long time.

Not sure why you're blaming the upholstery material for the support it gives. The only difference will be heat retention (leather for a lot of people is hotter than cloth which will breathe). The support comes from foam density, and the designed shape. If you tore the leather off of your current seats and put cloth over it, nothing would change.