They're gonna get them in no matter what at this rate lol

You were right again. IT'S NOW THE LAW.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bidens-infrastructure-bill-now-signed-law-mandates-vehicle-kill-switches-2026

Yeah, it's a pretty terrible market right now. The lease for one of our vehicles is finally coming to an end in November, so we've been looking. And there's just not a lot out there that's worth the asking price.

Edmunds.com has an email list for car purchase and lease discounts, but everything I have seen so far is junk.

I've been browsing Craigslist for vans and using edmunds for reviews, but nothing that really sticks out. I've found a few sedans though. So I've been thinking about buying a decent beater for work/Mass and leaving the Pilot home.

It's tough getting a new car as well.  Most new cars coming to dealers are already spoken for before they get there.

Right, I was just browsing some newer cars and most of them make you custom-order directly from the manufacturers.

I don't know about anyone else, but, I'd really like to be able to test drive the car and see it in-person. Which is why I avoid "Carvana" listings like the plague.

Well, if you have a lease, don't you have a payoff clause where you could purchase it for a reasonable amount (as perhaps the prices were more reasonable when you initiated the lease)?

Yes, we can finance it for 28k and some change. That's about 8k more than I want to spend, especially finance, for our next vehicle. And I'd rather get something that may be older, but we can buy outright, especially since my wife doesn't really drive a lot anymore. So, I have been thinking about that. But, since we close on selling our house next week, and we can pay off virtually all of our debt including my Pilot (praise God!); our credit wouldn't yet be where it needs to be for us to get a good rate by November.

And when we assume the mortgage for her parent's home (they have about $100k left on it at 3-3.5% interest, much better than the 5.5-6.5% right now), that'll be an increase of about $500/month. So I don't really want to be paying another $400-500 for this Jeep on top of that. When I still had by Silverado lease the monthly payment to finance was almost $500/month, which was more than the lease payment I originally had.

It would be hard to do better than our 2015 VW Passat TDI that was totaled. I bought it with very low mileage and kept it pristine. I was planning on getting 300k miles out of it, but "man proposes…."  I looked for a similar car, but almost all of them have over 100k on them already and have been through multiple owners—something that concerns me more than the mileage itself. We were getting 40mpg on the diesel. Never a hiccup.

The irony? We needed a fourth car because the family goes in 4 different directions on irregular schedules, so it isn't practical to share a car. We had just bought another VW— a Jetta TDI and drove it off the lot when the kid plowed into my rear-end— We had four vehicles for about 10 minutes :-( Now back to three vehicles, but our oldest is lending us his truck indefinitely, so there is no pressure on buying. I can shop for the car I want at the right price.

I'm pretty skeptical of Passat's. My mother had an '06 Passat when I was a teenager and it had nothing but problems. But that also was not a diesel. They look sharp though, like most VW's.

As the VW dealers tell it, the Passats were not selling, hence are out of the product line this model year. Now there is no sedan between the Jetta and the Arteon. Supposedly heated/ventilated/massage front seats are available, but the dealers say they aren't seeing any so equipped—"supply chain" is the excuse. I no longer have a long commute so am in no need of a massage seat anyway.

The Toyota dealers have been real price gougers. The JMFs must be circuмcising the Latinx car salescreatures. I had one tell me that I could order a Tacoma TRD PRO "at $15,000 over MSRP." I used polite language, but was quite clear that I would not patronize his ѕуηαgσgυє… ever.

Years ago I hoped for the promised Indian Mahindra diesel compact trucks—that—never—materialized. Mahindra made lots of enticing design and performance claims, but failed miserably. Their promised 35mpg tested at about 18mpg and they broke lots of promises to their incipient dealer network. Indian JMFs! > http://judaism.is/perpetrators.html#india