When I bought my Civic Hybrid, I always said that I was going to keep it until the wheels fell off it. After all, I never saw the point in sinking a significant portion of monthly income in to vehicles. My husband agreed – he already had all his "fun" cars in his life. We just needed something practical.Fast forward about four years and nearly 117,000 miles. We just sank $250 in a relay for the hybrid system and about $1,200 in to a "Motor Rotor Sensor" and have faced the reality that eventually we will have to put a new battery in our car to the tune of $3,000. Considering the number of miles our precious hybrid has – we needed something else.
Or so we thought.
Saturday morning we went to the Honda dealership. We thought we might want a new Civic to replace the hybrid. We realized something: Prices have went up considerably. In December 2005 when we purchased our hybrid she cost about $22,650. An identical 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid cost about $26,600 or so. In less than four years, the price of a Honda Civic Hybrid has went up about $4,000. We don't want another Civic, but to buy an adequately equipped vehicle we would have to drop around $25,000 on a car. That's a lot for a small Japanese sedan!
We left disheartened. We decided against trading our car in. We figured with the economy in shambles, we would get a great deal on a car. Well, if we want a Honda that won't be the case.
Fast forward to Sunday. While catching up with the news, I came across a news story on Yahoo!. This news story showed me that while deals may not be found at Honda dealerships, it's quite possible to get a car below cost if you want a Chrysler.
The article indicates that it is possible that you very well could be able to purchase a car for less than the dealer's cost because dealers who have been cut from Chrysler's network need to get rid of their inventory. They'd rather sell
