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Smart Buyer's Guide to Buying or Leasing A Car

Previous:
Should You Buy or Lease a Car?

Next:
Choose Features for Your Car

Which Type of Car Suits You Best?

The fun of having a car comes in deciding what kind of car you want. But before you take a close look at particular makes and models of cars, consider a few general questions regarding the overall type of car that suits your needs and preferences. You can choose among:

Car, truck, or SUV
Gas or hybrid
Domestic or foreign

Car, Truck, or SUV?

The three most popular types of vehicles among U.S. drivers are cars, trucks, and SUVs.

Cars: The smallest and most affordable vehicles on the road, cars are split up into various classes based on their size. The four main classes (from smallest to largest) are subcompacts, compacts, mid-size, and full-size (or large). The smaller the class, the less expensive the car. Other class-ifications include luxury and sports, which are usually used to further subdivide the four main classes. For instance, the Chrysler 300® is a full-size luxury car. A Chevrolet Impala® is a mid-size car.
Trucks: In the context of car-buying, the term “truck” means pickup truck, a type of vehicle with a cabin that seats 2–4 passengers and a flat open-top bed suitable for hauling heavy cargo. The three classes of pickups, based on size, weight, and engine type, are compact, mid-size, and full-size.
Sport utility vehicles (SUVs): The SUV mixes the cargo space, rugged performance, and high towing capacity of a truck with the luxuries and passenger room of a car. Helped by cheap gas and a booming economy, SUVs became very popular among everyday drivers in the late 1990s despite their poor fuel economy and generally high cost. Though they’ve become less popular due to rising gas prices and safety concerns, SUVs remain an alluring compromise between cars and trucks for U.S. drivers.

Pros and Cons of Cars, Trucks, and SUVs

	Pros	Cons
Cars	Best mileage Generally safer than trucks and SUVs Lowest emissions Often perform better in snow than SUVs	Least amount of storage space Rarely feature 4×4 transmission Poor off-road performance Lowest towing capacity
Trucks	4×4 transmission Highest towing capacity Excellent performance in snow and off-road More powerful than cars or SUVs	Highest emissions Lowest mileage Least interior room Limited luxury features available Cargo must be secured or covered Not as safe as cars
SUVs	4×4 transmission usually available More room and power than cars Have luxury features not available in most trucks	Low mileage Higher emissions Generally less safe than cars Off-road capability rarely used by most SUV drivers

Because trucks and SUVs tend to have low mileage and give off high emissions, it’s smart and responsible to buy one of these vehicles only if you absolutely need extra space, towing capacity, or 4×4 off-road performance.

Gas-Powered or Hybrid?

Hybrid vehicles (called hybrids for short) run on multiple sources of power. Today’s most common hybrids combine a gasoline engine with an electric motor. The addition of the electric motor reduces gasoline consumption and curbs harmful emissions while providing all the power of a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. Hybrid cars, trucks, and SUVs are now widely available, with more makes and models jumping on the bandwagon each year. To help decide whether to buy a hybrid vehicle, consider the pros and cons of hybrids versus conventional vehicles:

Pros of Hybrids		Cons of Hybrids
Better mileage saves money on gas Better for environment Buying one may get you tax credits		More expensive Higher insurance premiums Higher dealership service rates

Domestic or Foreign?

The world’s top automakers are based in Japan, Germany, and the United States. No hard and fast rule applies to whether you should buy domestic or foreign. Should you think you’re not being patriotic unless you buy a domestic car, consider these factors:

Quality: In recent years, the quality and customer satisfaction ratings of cars made overseas—especially Japanese makes such as Honda and Toyota—have far outshined their domestic counterparts.
Domestic presence of overseas automakers: Many Americans buy domestic cars because they want to help the U.S. economy. But several overseas automakers actually build their cars in the United States. In 2003, Toyota spent $13.4 billion dollars on its U.S. operations (including manufacturing plants in five states), generating more than $14 billion in wages for U.S. workers.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer