WEBlue

We heard this over & over, & since we get a fair amount of snow here we bought a used Suburu Outback & have been happy with the choice.

OP, upper New York state can get a LOT of snow!!

tom169

A friend of mine in NE made the switch to Subaru for this reason and from the sound of it is really happy with her SUV.

Pulaski

Google "lake effect snow"

A few weeks after we moved to NY, Buffalo had 7ft of snow in 3-4 days! Thankfully we were near the farthest corner of the state from Buffalo.

Rete

It's those damn Canucks. They won't keep their weather on their side of the border.

becks_r

Lake effect snow is just the most amazing thing, and also produces 'white-outs' like you would never believe. I had only ever read about white-outs in books about the North Pole! I moved from London to Rochester and had never seen anything like it before. Not just the depth of snow it produces, but the fact you can see the snow coming your way from a distance, in the sky, even though it's clear blue above your head. But it is pretty, from the living room window, watching the relentless snow fall for days and days.....

malch

New versus used is a very personal choice. A very good friend of mine always buys used. But he has a lot of skills and experience. He understands how to inspect a car thoroughly.

I have somewhat less experience and I'm more comfortable buying new. However, I recently set out to buy a first car for my daughter who just graduated from college. But I ultimately bought new because the price was lower than the same used car with ~20k miles. I'm very happy with the deal we got.

As mentioned by another poster, Truecar.com and KBB.com are fantastic resources. In my view, Truecar is more useful for new, KBB for used. Either way, you'll have the information you really need to handle the negotiation.

tom169

With car negotiation always be prepared to use the nuclear option - walk away.

MidAtlantic

+1

becks_r

I also second that

Bob

Easy to get finance even on a old car. The rate does tend to drop off at the 4 year mark to not being very good unless it's a posh car, where it tends to drop off at the 6 year mark.

Thing about buying second hand in snowy areas, if they've been brought in from dry areas like Arizona, they're pretty good. If they're brought in from places like Florida or NJ, where inspections aren't really a thing, watch out for flood damage.

The snow/salt really does mess up cars a lot down my way, can't image upstate NY being any different. If it's a beater, steel rims might be better than alloys, especially if you get winter studs, but I don't know what the laws are for studs in NY. They're shit and next to pointless bothering with in MA, but a must up in much of Maine.

Bob

Interested to see when you got it and how the mileage is working?

FIL, who usually buys his trucks, but had a works truck for years, sold his truck and got a lease towards the end of the summer. Not a bad deal.

Work truck died, wasn't replaced.

He's now beached the truck as he's already blown the annual mileage, but he leaves for work and gets back before MIL needs her SUV, so he's been using that and they didn't lease that.

Pulaski

That's what I meant, sorry I wasn't more explicit. IIRC banks won't finance a vehicle older than six years and it must be paid off before it is ten years old. You can get other (non-bank) finance on older vehicles, but rates are usually much higher.