Should I dump my Pontiac G5 GT?

[Scouzer]

I typed this whole post up and hit cancel instead of post. Great. Genius. Here I type again:

I bought a 2006 Pontiac Pursuit GT back in '06 for $22k (Canada). It's been a piece of shit. I've been trying to sell it for a year (not trying that hard) and finally got an offer of $10,000 for it. It's worth $9k trade in or about $14k dealer retail so that seems about right.

So I can't decide if I should dump it. I owe $8500. It's been to the dealer 20 times in the first 45,000km of it's life for stupid shit like sun visors falling off and doors getting stuck on body panels, but never anything mechanically major. However, in the last 25,000km it's given me nary a problem. I still don't trust it though, and now it's comprehensive warranty is done.

I also just spent $700 on new tires. blah

Thoughts?

Now if I did, I think it'd be between the Impreza or Civic:

Impreza 36 mo lease @ $346/mo

Pros:
AWD - Good for Canada
Stability Control/Traction Control
Hatchback utility
Great Reliability
Cheaper Insurance than even my old G5
4 Door

Cons:
Dealer is far... 30km
Crap fuel economy, I drive 30,000km a year
Uglier than the Civic
Crappier/less comfortable interior than the Civic
Feels a bit gutless

Civic DX-G 36 mo lease @ $328/mo

Pros:
Fuel economy
Comfortable
Like the style
Dealer in town
Slightly cheaper

Cons:
No Stability Control/Traction Control
Honda dealers are arrogant, whereas the Subie dealer kissed my ass all over
2 Door (4 door Civics are ugly)
horrid wheels

I am leaning to the Impreza on the whole, if I do actually end up dumping my piece of crap.

 

[Fenixgoon]

any reason you're going for a lease? generally those end up costing your more, i thought

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
any reason you're going for a lease? generally those end up costing your more, i thought

After the piece of shit this car has been, I've decided if I ever buy new again it'll be a lease. This way if I'm happy with it, it costs nothing extra, because I'll just buy it out at the end. If it ends up being a piece of shit, I can happily dump it on the dealer and incur the $500-1000 excess wear and tear charges. I'd just be glad to dump it on someone.

Fmr12b - Yeah. I know you're probably right. I've only got about 18 payments left and I'm clear... I'm just worried this thing will dump its engine or something. I hate having a car I really feel I can't trust, historically something retarded broke almost every week. It's been behaving a lot better lately, but that doesn't overcome it's shortfalls:

Not comfortable (this is the biggest thing that bothers me. it's simply not comfortable on the highway)
Premium fuel
Questionable reliability
Resale will continue to tank, even at a slower pace like you said
Heavy steering makes highway driving really annoying
Weak HVAC system (defrosting takes forever. forever. forever. forever.)
Crappy safety
No stability control

 

[LOUISSSSS]

can't go wrong with either. i might get the impreza because it has AWD.

sorry that that piece of shit car gave u so much trouble for 3 years, my accord has been trouble free since day 1.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

NO, GM did NOT master reliability for engine & trans.
find me some 500k+ mile GMs =)

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS

Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

NO, GM did NOT master reliability for engine & trans.
find me some 500k+ mile GMs =)

Well I think people usually dump their GM's because the rest of it falls apart before the engine/tranny

I know my mom's boyfriend kept his 1989 Caprice Classic 450,000km before he got rid of it. It was perfect mechanically but fell apart cosmetically.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

<---- Laughs because I had a 2005 Cobalt which was the biggest POS in the entire world. I swear the thing was bolted together by a monkey, or a person with no arms, hell if I know. Incidentally I sold it for 10k USD when the warranty was up (and 2k miles after purchasing new tires) and leased a 2008 VW GTI because I swore i didnt want to own any car after the warranty ended ever again.

I understand what the OP is going through, I'd get the impreza out of the two.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS

Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

NO, GM did NOT master reliability for engine & trans.
find me some 500k+ mile GMs =)

how about i double that...

http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ar...iles_and_counting.html

1M miles enough?
you have not mastered the car industry, go back to badge humping... troll

 

[Vette73]

Whats to say the next car will not have any problems? If you have fixed all the issues with this one and it has been good for over 10k then I say take care of it and keep driving.

 

[mparr1708]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Impreza 36 mo lease @ $346/mo

I drive 30,000km a year


Civic DX-G 36 mo lease @ $328/mo

These things do not mix. That's a lot of extra miles (quick conversion says you drive over 18k miles a year) and 15k leases are the most miles I've seen. You can buy extra miles but that can cost you more then if you would have just purchased the vehicle outright. If you turn it in with overage you will face a penalty which usually runs .25 per mile.

Canada may be different but in my eyes you don't seem like the perfect candidate for a lease.

For what its worth I lease my vehicles and I really like leases but leases do get a bad rap at times and generally its because people sign up without fully understanding the terms.

If this is your first lease make sure you do some research and understand how money factors, residuals, etc all work together. The positive thing is if you take the time to do the research you can generally come out with a better deal in the end because you can call BS on the dealer when they are trying to slip you unfavorable lease terms.

 

[BassBomb]

If you are buying, don't buy a DX-G or lease it

 

[angry hampster]

Why the hell would you spend $700 on tires for a Cobalt?

 

[lurk3r]

30K a year, good god do not lease you will get monkey raped when you try to turn it in.

I'd definitely take the Impreza too.

Run the numbers both ways, look at the total payout it will cost you a) to stop driving the car at the milage limit for the lease and pay out the remainder of the payments, or b) to pay the $0.25 per km over, vs the 3 year depreation. The lease will almost always be worse, the only real advantage is that you do not have to sell the car yourself.

 

[mc866]

Impreza, but rather than leasing possibly look at an 05-06 WRX

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: lurk3r
30K a year, good god do not lease you will get monkey raped when you try to turn it in.

I'd definitely take the Impreza too.

Run the numbers both ways, look at the total payout it will cost you a) to stop driving the car at the milage limit for the lease and pay out the remainder of the payments, or b) to pay the $0.25 per km over, vs the 3 year depreation. The lease will almost always be worse, the only real advantage is that you do not have to sell the car yourself.

I'd probably be able to modify my driving habits a bit and reduce my annual mileage to something more like 26,000km a year. Should have put that in the OP, my bad.

Canadian leases are 24,000km/yr.

Why did I spend $700 on tires? It's CANADA. CANADA. Tires are one of those things that have always cost approximately double any tires in the US. So effectively I paid $350 US for my tires...

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: lurk3r
30K a year, good god do not lease you will get monkey raped when you try to turn it in.

I'd definitely take the Impreza too.

Run the numbers both ways, look at the total payout it will cost you a) to stop driving the car at the milage limit for the lease and pay out the remainder of the payments, or b) to pay the $0.25 per km over, vs the 3 year depreation. The lease will almost always be worse, the only real advantage is that you do not have to sell the car yourself.

I'd probably be able to modify my driving habits a bit and reduce my annual mileage to something more like 26,000km a year. Should have put that in the OP, my bad.

Canadian leases are 24,000km/yr.

Why did I spend $700 on tires? It's CANADA. CANADA. Tires are one of those things that have always cost approximately double any tires in the US. So effectively I paid $350 US for my tires...

Keep G5 and save money and risk of over driving.


Also discount tires (tires.com) ships to Canada. So do many other sites.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS

Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

NO, GM did NOT master reliability for engine & trans.
find me some 500k+ mile GMs =)

Hell find any cavalier/sunfire/cobalt with over 100K for sale anywhere

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: lurk3r
30K a year, good god do not lease you will get monkey raped when you try to turn it in.

I'd definitely take the Impreza too.

Run the numbers both ways, look at the total payout it will cost you a) to stop driving the car at the milage limit for the lease and pay out the remainder of the payments, or b) to pay the $0.25 per km over, vs the 3 year depreation. The lease will almost always be worse, the only real advantage is that you do not have to sell the car yourself.

I'd probably be able to modify my driving habits a bit and reduce my annual mileage to something more like 26,000km a year. Should have put that in the OP, my bad.

Canadian leases are 24,000km/yr.

Why did I spend $700 on tires? It's CANADA. CANADA. Tires are one of those things that have always cost approximately double any tires in the US. So effectively I paid $350 US for my tires...

Keep G5 and save money and risk of over driving.


Also discount tires (tires.com) ships to Canada. So do many other sites.

after duties they're more expensive than locally... for example $400 tires usually incurs $250 in duties, plus 0.8 exchange rate = not a deal anymore

 

[radioouman]

Go to US, put tires on car, go back to Canada.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: radioouman
Go to US, put tires on car, go back to Canada.

You still pay tax... and the cost of 1000km each way to the US

 

[AdamK47]

It's amazing the car made it this long. I've heard from a reliable source that they assemble them out of paper mache and silly string. I'm suprised it didn't fall apart the first time it got wet.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS

Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Keep the G5 - cosmetic issues do plague many of GM's cars but they have mastered reliability for engine & trans.

You have also been through the worst when it comes to depreciation and it will slow considerably now that you have reached the 3yr mark.

NO, GM did NOT master reliability for engine & trans.
find me some 500k+ mile GMs =)

Hell find any cavalier/sunfire/cobalt with over 100K for sale anywhere

i still can't believe that the cavalier/sunfire was based on the j-body from the 70's

 

[dirtboy]

If you drive 30,000km/yr you probably shouldn't lease.

 

[SickBeast]

If you can get $10K for that car, and effectively profit $2000 over what you owe on it, I would do it. If you put that much down on the Civic, it should only cost you around $200/mo to lease it.

Don't discount purchasing the car in the US; it can be much cheaper.

Also, where in Canada will you be driving? If it's just mostly in Toronto, the Civic will be fine. If it's up in Barrie or the Kawarthas or something, I think I would go with the Subaru.

I have a Civic and drive Toronto to Peterborough twice a week and it's fine even in the worst conditions with good snow tiers. AWD would be nice in the snow. The Civic is quite good for a FWD car though, and will save you tons on gas. I easily get 700kms on a tank.