Saying goodbye to my 22 year old car // 2023 Honda CRV Hybrid Sport
- There's a lot of little details that are added to the base model, Hybrid Sport, which is really cool and interesting, especially for me someone who's coming from a car again that could drink and go to war. (upbeat music) Hey everyone, it's me Hallease, endeavoring to persevere as always. If you're new here, I make videos about my chaotic good life.
Subscribe, follow social media, all of the things. Y'all, your girl brought a brand new 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid Sport. (upbeat music) So I recently moved from San Antonio to Atlanta, and I had brought my 22 year old car with me, a 2001 Honda CR-V by the name of Hovic. And in so few words he made it here. Yes, Hovic is a boy, he made it here, and then he promptly died.
For those of y'all who are car savvy, the engine started knocking. And so I had to lay him out to pasture if you will. I think for many people, whether you're a small business owner or not actually, the car is your livelihood. You spend so much time in it, it gets you from point A to B to C to D to back to A again safely, hopefully.
And you just realize how much you began to rely on this machine. And so for me it was really hard saying bye to Hovic. If you follow me on Instagram, then you saw I put up a little short when I first got Jefe, which is what I'm calling this new Honda CR-V. It's a 2023 CR-V Hybrid Sport.
And in this video I'm just gonna talk through everything I did to purchase this brand new vehicle, why I purchased brand new versus used, certified pre-owned, used, why I went hybrid, we're gonna get into all of that, answer all the questions in this video. So yeah, we'll see how much of the video I actually film in the car. So there may be a switch at some point in this video, just be prepared. I wanted to film this whole video in the car but it's raining. So, welcome to Atlanta.
So one of the big questions I got was, "Why an SUV versus some sort of sedan?" And the short answer is: I'm a filmmaker and I need the space. A lot of times I will drive to set and I will have gear with me et cetera. And so I've always just really enjoyed having an SUV so that way I can easily put my gear in and get gone and do what I need to do. So a next big question that I got from a lot of folks was, "Why hybrid?", 'cause yeah, I got the Honda CR-V Hybrid Sport.
And for me, honestly, I just wanted to start to minimize my reliance on fossil fuels, and it's also this balance for me of wanting an SUV and needing an SUV for my line of work, but also wanting the fuel efficiency of a sedan a lighter car. And so going hybrid with the SUV just felt like the right thing to do to kind of get that balance. Here's the thing though, if I didn't rent, if I was actually a homeowner and had a garage where I could plug my car in as soon as I park, I would've gone full electric for this vehicle if I could have.
But I would've gone full electric for a few reasons. One, from a business perspective really great tax incentives actually, if you go full electric. So between now and 2032, the Inflation Reduction Act is in place. And what that is is essentially giving you a tax incentive for purchasing an electric vehicle.
And I wanna say the tax incentive is up to $7,500. Overall though it tends to be a lot more carbon neutral if not carbon positive. Is that the way to say that? (laughs) I think so.
Carbon neutral if not carbon positive, a lot faster than buying a motorized vehicle. So, say you buy an electric vehicle and depending on where you plug that car in, within 6 to 18 months, it's already negated the fact that it was manufactured and produced and did whatever potential damage to the environment. The fact that it is not gas (laughs) is a big deal. So if you're debating hybrid versus fully electric, I have linked a few extra resources in the description box that just go a little bit more into the Inflation Reduction Act and also more into the tax incentives that you can potentially get if you go fully electric. Again it's like up to $7,500 off, and this is from now until 2032 that the Inflation Reduction Act it will be in place. So you've got some time.
Just trying to make the best long-term decision for yourself is is great. Take your time, think about it. And then of course it is also contingent upon the amount of money you make and also the amount of money you decide to spend on set electric vehicle if you do go that route, there's different rates based on if you're head of household, if you are a married filing jointly household, what that income level is, and then also if you're a single filing separately what that income level is as well. All right, the next question I got a lot: Why new instead of certified pre-owned, used, some variation of "it used to belong to someone else" car. And the short answer is because they were just as expensive, so you might as well be the first one to buy the car.
My husband and I ended up looking at a lot of the different hybrid SUVs out there and so obviously we looked at the Toyota RAV4, we looked at the Kia Niro and the Kia Sportage, and then I knew that Honda had the CR-V Hybrid. And so with the Sportage, the Kia Sportage, those things are, at least here in Atlanta, going like hotcakes. I went to go look at a Toyota RAV4, and it was a used Toyota RAV4, was two years old, had 50,000 miles on it, right? That's a lot of wear and tear, not only on the battery, but the engine as well because again this is a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. So you're also thinking about the overall battery life and battery maintenance. Eventually, I test drove it and it was okay or whatever. I come back into the dealership, and yeah, one of the managers came over and was like, "Thanks for checking this one out, really appreciate it, hope you like it."
But just so you know he had quickly run the numbers on a new RAV4 and the price difference between the new RAV4 (laughs) and the used, certified pre-owned used RAV4 was like $3,000. It was such a minimal price difference between 50,000 miles of wear and tear on a vehicle already there versus just paying a little bit more and getting it brand new. That I was just like, "Oh okay, we're going brand new, that's just what this is." To be fair, Toyotas do hold their value like a lot, Toyota RAV4 specifically as well. And keeping that in mind that actually brings me to the next point, which is probably the tee that y'all really wanna get to is "How much did I pay for my Honda CR-V?" Because here's the thing, my brand new Honda CR-V costs less money than that used Toyota RAV4 Hybrid that I went to go look at that was two years old. So the MSRP for my car is $32,400.
That is the manufacturer's suggested retail price and the sticker price that was on Jefe was 33,695. So that was what they were charging at that dealership for the MSRP price for the car, okay? It already felt good that what they were initially asking for the vehicle is not a lightning crazy amount above what the manufacturer feels like the car was worth. So, that's the first thing. We ended up negotiating the price down, okay, and this is just the base price of the car, this is not anything else, okay, this is just the base price. We ended up negotiating the price down to $31,870.50. Here's where it gets fun.
One of the negotiation tactics I used, and it's not even a tactic, because is it a tactic if that's what you want? No, it's just saying what you want, it's communicating effectively. One of the things I told them was... When Mr. Hallease was like,
"Oh, take $4,000 off of the price of the car and we'll take it," and they were like "We can't do that, but what do you wanna pay per month?" One of the things I told them was "I want a car note under $500 a month" and they were also like "That's really hard too, but not impossible, do you have good credit?" Then they started asking a lot of those questions about credit about: How long of the loan do you want? How much you plan on putting down? That's something to really consider when buying a car, not more so than the end price, but like in strong conjunction with the end price. Like what can you afford to pay per month for a car for the next five years, and then let that dictate to you what the value of that car should actually be that you're looking for. You wanna come into the dealership knowing what your must-haves are and what your that's just a bell and whistle, I don't need that, and kind of having that stuff splayed out so that way when they're trying to potentially push you in a different direction or things like that, does it actually align with the list that you have. Have someone there who can just, not only just be another head in the room if you will, but also just help you stay on track and not get sidetracked.
Just have someone else that's there in your corner, I think is a big thing. Once they throw in all of the dealership fees essentially, if you will, which you can go through and start to negotiate those things too if you want, but I mean it's a bit of a hassle. And honestly a lot of the stuff that they had on there I was like "Yeah, I don't mind that being there."
So, that ended up being the bringing the price back up to 33,235. Now, we get into my trade-in, okay, Hovic and they offered me $1,000 on Hovic sight unseen, like not even gonna run him, we'll just give you a smooth 1K for this car. And I was like, "You know what? God is good, I'll take that."
So then that dropped it down to, 'cause I did a trade-in, so that drops it down to 32,235. Great, I then put $5,000 down of my own money to bring the overall price of the car down as well. But then you also forget taxes, you still have to pay the taxes on the car up front as well and everybody won't stay peace, the state of Georgia won't stay peace. So even with all of that, the ending amount for what it cost to buy the car, total price of the car plus taxes, $37,974. Now total price of the car plus taxes plus my down payment: 32,974.
And so keeping all that mind, remember the MSRP was $32,400. I ended up paying, and we'll get to why I'm doing this, $32,974 for the car, the car itself, the base price of the car, the dealership fees that they threw in, and taxes, that's how much I paid for the car, all right, and counting my down payment. I'm gonna go on record and say this, I am not a car buying specialist, but if you were gonna buy a brand new car, I'm just gonna go on record and recommend these two things: One, six year or $100,000 warranty.
I got that for Jefe. And gap insurance. And hat gap insurance is, is if for some reason you drive this car off the lot, you're driving around, total it, get in a terrible accident, total it, right, gap insurance is what you get so that way you don't still have to pay off a car that does not exist anymore, that's in a junkyard. So that's what gap insurance is.
I got gap insurance for Jefe for sure which brings me now to the loan. (laughs) So I didn't really have time to go search around hardcore. I would definitely recommend doing that if buying a car isn't something that needs to happen for you relatively quickly like it did for me. First things first, my husband and I didn't buy the car together. So, I am the only one that's on the loan, they only ran my credit. I think that is worth mentioning because yeah, if it's you and a partner, both, maybe it's your car but your partner's just also being a second signer on your loan, that can probably help a little bit with your interest rate if they have good credit and so do you.
I have good credit, okay, my credit's not bad, and the best rate I got was 5.9%. Take the time, check out credit unions and things like that. Check out local credit unions in your area 'cause they tend to have the better interest rates.
But in general with inflation, what it is in this economy right now, 5.9 was pretty good. In the, end I ended up getting my loan through Honda directly for a rate of 5.9%, and I ended up figuring out that I was gonna do a 72 month loan. If I actually take the full 72 months to pay off the car, which I plan to not do that, but if for some reason life happens and it does take me the full 72 months, I will have ended up paying $40,000.
This is where to get you, okay? So this is why it's good to try to pay things off faster if you can. With everything in included, gap insurance, the 100,000 mile warranty, the base price I told you that everything will cost for the car, taxes, title, all that, hoopla, my monthly payment for the car is $565. I hate it here, I hate it here. All in all, that's the tea. That's how much I spent on my car.
So you know what I'm saying, I'm dreading this first car note, but it is what it is, gotta do what you gotta do. (laughs) Like, share, subscribe, join the Patreon. Ooh, try out Hallease's Closet, my clothing rental site. There you can get two, three, four, I think even six pieces at a time, unlimited rentals.
The shirt I'm wearing actually is from my closet. It's one of my rentals that I just got, and y'all, I'm getting high off my own supply just so y'all know. I already kept my first two pieces from my clothing rental site. There were these cute strip pants. I had rented them because I didn't think that I would be cool enough to handle the wide leg pants 'cause I'm quite short, I'm 5'1".
I was like "I don't know if I can do, I don't know if I can do, you know what I'm saying, a wide leg pant." And so that was why I wanted to rent. I wanted to try it out and rent it so I rented it from my own site, halleasecloset.com, and then I was like, "Oh no, I love these pants, oh no." But thankfully, since they were a rental, I could just buy 'em out.
I'll put it in the atmosphere, show it for you. We handle everything, shipping, returns, everything, even dry cleaning services. So if you wear the pieces and you don't feel like washing 'em, don't even worry about it. Put 'em in your return bag, we will handle that for you. Don't be afraid to try it out because the first month is always on me.
All right, back to this car. (upbeat music) There are some things that I like and some things that, not that I dislike about Jefe, but are kind of like, "Huh, that's interesting, kind of quirky, okay," and so I'm just gonna kind of briefly touch on those things. If you are someone who's actually interested in this specific car, the CR-V Hybrid is better than other base models of other hybrid SUV cars. And I say that because you just feel like you're getting a little bit more luxury for your money. Something I will say that I really love about my Honda, Jefe, is the seats are incredibly comfortable.
The base model of Jefe comes with electric seats for the driver's side. It also comes with lumbar support in the seat as well. The seats themselves are just very comfortable for everyone.
Another thing that's actually really fascinating about Jefe is good pickup. Most hybrid cars now generally have more horsepower (laughs) than their combustible cousins. So yeah, I just tap my little toe on Jefe, and whoop, we are off to the races.
Okay, with Jefe, I can remote start him if I want to, and half the time, I don't even know if he's actually on because he's so quiet. It's so quiet, which is a pro and a con. I'm noticing for those of you who are maybe full electric vehicle people or hybrid people, you'll probably notice when you're in parking lots driving, people really don't hear you (engine whining) and will walk right in front of the car, and whatnot because they're just not used to... Even though hybrid cars have been out for a while and electric cars too, people just still kind of aren't used to listening for that oooh sound of electric. Every time you stop at a light, if the brake hold is on, once you have completely stopped, you don't have to have your foot on the brake anymore, you can just leave your foot off and it just stays.
A downside though, base model Honda CR-V Hybrid, the sound system is trash. The speakers I can already tell like "Ooh, the speakers are gonna be the first thing to go." I can tell the sound quality just isn't there.
If you go the next model up from the base model of the hybrid CR-V, there are Bose speakers in that one, so I'm sure it's awesome. But yeah, the base sort of like Honda proprietary speakers in the CR-V, they're just not good. The base isn't giving what it needs to give, you know what I'm saying? Y'all know, y'all know what I'm talking about. That being said, another thing that the base model Honda CR-V does not have the higher trim, I think you have to go to the highest trim to get this is Bluetooth CarPlay.
The base model, the one I have, has CarPlay, but you have to plug it in for CarPlay to activate. A few other things the base model doesn't have: Blind spot assist where you see the little things that are on people's mirrors, it doesn't have that. But it does have a great backup camera, which I use, and the backup camera has like four different angles. But it's great, I love using it, awesome, very helpful. It also will break for pedestrians, I believe. If the pedestrian for some reason comes, it will just stop.
And it does like send alerts, like break, break, break, things like that. There's a lot of little details that are added to the base model Hybrid Sport which is really cool and interesting, especially for me, someone who's coming from a car, again, that could drink and go to war. (laughs) So, at the end of the day, I'm happy with my purchase, you know what I'm saying? I'm out here in the mom car. Final thing about that too as well, every time you turn off the car, it's like "Check the rear seats," and that's how you know it really is mom car status because it's like "Don't forget your offspring." It was an interesting experience you have to buy a car in this economy. But if there's something I did not answer well, please ask in the comments below and I will try to get back to you.
If enough people ask the question, I'll make a follow up as well. Because it's hard out here, you know what I'm saying? But I am happy with my purchase. Big shout out to my Patreon producers PATREON.COM/HALLEASE. There you get early access to these videos, private content, exclusive content, merch, and so much more, It's a good time.
Again, I'm Hallease, endeavoring to persevere as always. An honest channel, I document my chaotic good life. Subscribe, follow social media, all of the things. I'll see you when I see you.
2023-07-31 15:22
