Crosstreks have become a true inexpensive cult-vehicle....the appeal is enormous. Although I have not taken a specific count because they are often gone for the day or evening, in my large housing development there are (probably) more of them in our condo-parking spaces than anything else except RAV-4s.

 

Maverick facelift was just announced. Hybrid will be available with AWD and a larger 13.2 inch screen replaces the old 8 inch one.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/07...hybrid-option/

 

I would buy the Mazda. Hyundai and Kia can’t get their quality right. Too many recalls that one has to live with long term. Easily stolen too

 

Hyundai/Kia with a proximity key (not an actual physical key) are not susceptible to the security flaw where the cars can easily be stolen.

 

Thanks for the heads up, maybe they will have more competitive deals wine I get back in town week.

Since I am leasing I’m not sure how much I care about quality since I own a Tesla, can’t be any worse than that plus I have 3 dealers within 15 minutes of my house.

Also, as mentioned above, the vehicles being stolen are the ones with keyed ignitions but I do notice most of the cars stolen in my area are the Kia/Hyundai’s followed by SRT Mopars.

 

Tomorrow will be the first weekend back in town in a few weeks so I'm heading back out to the dealers and will be ready to make a deal hopefully. I think we will be looking at the Maverick and Sportage again but will add in the Nissan Frontier since those can be had in our budget.

Speaking of budget, holy crap, I spoke to my insurance guy yesterday (who I learned has a 1000hp 911 turbo which I thought was pretty cool) and when my son gets his license, his insurance on one of these cars is going to be about $3,600 a year. I knew it was going to be high but I didn't think it was going to be that high. And that isn't even adding him on to my policy which would have been over $4,000, we are going to have to insure the new car for all of us with another carrier since it is cheaper that way.

 

Wow $300 a month for car insurance! My car insurance was dirt cheap when I got my first car. It was 1999 though.

 

that would buy a lot of uber rides instead.

 

You can designate drivers for a given car, no one is allowed to drive my W12 other than me for example and the policy reflects that. It's actually my cheapest car to insure somehow....

 

He tried it many different ways with several companies and putting my son on our current policy with the car is higher. The cheapest solution was take the new car that would be on our current policy and when he gets his license, take only the new car off our insurance policy and put it on a different policy with me, my wife and my son on it. So bizarre but that's what he said to do.

Oh, and he won't be driving my other cars, LOL.

 

I'm surprised the insurance company allows that, they usually want everybody in the same household insured under the same policy

 

Not may area of expertise at all so I have no idea but I trust your guy Ian knows what he is doing and he seemed to be working hard trying to find the best path forward from a cost perspective. I guess that's why Erie's rates are so good since they are not a high risk insurance company but then if you are a high risk person like a new driver they charge more for it.

 

Those prices seem very inline with what we experienced, as is the approach to pull a different policy for this car and new driver. We ended up on one policy, but changed companies and added the driving monitor app to save 10%. We were going to get something similar from Life 360, so we just got that free of charge!

Erie must really dislike teen drivers. When I shopped, I inquired with State Farm which has an office within walking distance of our house, Liberty Mutual which has an affiliation agreement with our employer, and Erie which I've heard great things on here. Erie's online calculator came up with a price of 18,000 per year to insure our 3 drivers and cars! I think the teen driver broke their website algorithm!

Good luck on the car hunting. I would recommend the CUV body style over a truck due to sheer length, but I really do like the Maverick a great deal too. Hopefully you find something that everyone loves! A first car should be super exciting.

 

Usually it's cheaper to be with the parents. Some states also require all living in same resident be on the policy. I think you can still exclude driver being on same policy. But if your guy says cheaper to be on his own, why not? He's the expert. The good thing about this path is if he hits somebody assuming the car is in his name, they won't go after you. I'm not sure but do you (CPA?) know if you still can claim him as a dependent?

 

He wouldn’t be on his own policy, the new car would be on its own policy and me, my wife and my son would be on the policy. The car would be separate from our other cars.