Car stolen, what brand should we look at?

[Gringo80]

Our car was stolen this week. It was 8 years old and we're not sorry to see it go. Just happy that we're all safe and unharmed.
So we're starting to visit dealers to pick a new car, most likely a medium sized SUV.
I see a lot of Fords, Peugeots, Chevrolets on the streets.
Anybody have a strong recommendation to buy a brand or warning not to buy a brand?

 

[Quilombo]

Our car was stolen this week. It was 8 years old and we're not sorry to see it go. Just happy that we're all safe and unharmed.
So we're starting to visit dealers to pick a new car, most likely a medium sized SUV.
I see a lot of Fords, Peugeots, Chevrolets on the streets.
Anybody have a strong recommendation to buy a brand or warning not to buy a brand?

Sorry to hear about the theft; after 20+ years the vehicle we inherited from my father in law following his passing is on it's way out and we decided to buy a 0KM Peugeot since this one lasted so long, it's made here (parts are less difficult to get) and I fit inside as I'm a very tall guy.

Buying a car here is an odyssey, but I'm guessing you already know that. If not, I recommend buying a used one as most 0KMs are not in stock and can take months for delivery, even if you're willing to pay cash. We went with new because neither of us have ever had a new car and we're willing to wait for the delivery.

If you do buy a used car there's even more paperwork to be done though as to ensure it's not registered incorrectly in another province, has unpaid fines, etc. before you can do the title transfer, etc. My FIL for example had it registered up north for lower taxes which was a fun surprise we inherited, and it's not uncommon I'm told.

 

[Gringo80]

Sorry to hear about the theft; after 20+ years the vehicle we inherited from my father in law following his passing is on it's way out and we decided to buy a 0KM Peugeot since this one lasted so long, it's made here (parts are less difficult to get) and I fit inside as I'm a very tall guy.

Buying a car here is an odyssey, but I'm guessing you already know that. If not, I recommend buying a used one as most 0KMs are not in stock and can take months for delivery, even if you're willing to pay cash. We went with new because neither of us have ever had a new car and we're willing to wait for the delivery.

If you do buy a used car there's even more paperwork to be done though as to ensure it's not registered incorrectly in another province, has unpaid fines, etc. before you can do the title transfer, etc. My FIL for example had it registered up north for lower taxes which was a fun surprise we inherited, and it's not uncommon I'm told.

Thanks for the info. The car that was just stolen was our second Peugeot and, like you, our experience with them has been very good. Since we keep them for a long time we're probably going to buy a new car and with the dogs and grand kids it'll probably be a SUV. The only reason we're looking at other brands is because the Peugeot 2008 that I saw yesterday seemed a little small. The Peugeot 3008 was beautiful and nicely equiped but it was 18million pesos.

 

[Rich One]

I recommend VW locally made and very reliable. For lower prices, Chinese SUV are selected by many.

 

[Gringo80]

I recommend VW locally made and very reliable. For lower prices, Chinese SUV are selected by many.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Yes I see many on the streets but unfortunatley I can never buy a German car let alone a Volkswagen. I'd be riding with too many ghosts.
The Chery cars seem to be popular too but I've heard some negative things about them. I'd like to hear from an owner.

 

[on the brink]

A friend advised me to ask my mechanic which car was the most trouble free, reliable one. So I bought a Chevy Zafira, and in eight years never had any trouble.

Another good source of information are ACA's tow truck mechanic/drivers. They know a lot about cars, and remember how many emergency calls they get for each model.

 

[Quilombo]

Thanks for the info. The car that was just stolen was our second Peugeot and, like you, our experience with them has been very good. Since we keep them for a long time we're probably going to buy a new car and with the dogs and grand kids it'll probably be a SUV. The only reason we're looking at other brands is because the Peugeot 2008 that I saw yesterday seemed a little small. The Peugeot 3008 was beautiful and nicely equiped but it was 18million pesos.

The 2008 is a beautiful vehicle, both my husband and I liked it, but I couldn't even get inside (I'm about 6'6") so we had to strike it off the list. The 3008 was out of our price range similarly, so we went with a Partner. We wanted the Parter Patagonica, but the delays on delivery are 6 months or more, and you can get the second row of seats and windows installed after market.

One of my husband's friends has a Jeep Renegade and it's ~5.5-6 Million IIRC. That was my preferred compromise (I want something big given my height) but my in laws live in a not so nice neighborhood so something a little more low profile made more sense. If you like the 2008 but want something with more room I'd look at the Renegade as it's made here too, not as wide as the best selling American models, but you'll be more comfortable than in a 2008.

If you do decide to finance, remember to check the ACA's historical MSRP to see what your payments will likely be (most financing arms of the manufacturers offer 80/20 or 70/30 terms where you pay 20% or 30% of the MSRP and then finance the rest of the payments over 84 months; the payments are fixed in the sense that they are always 1/84th of whatever the current MSRP of the current year's model is, but for many Argentines this can be an increase that exceeds their affordability due to inflation). That being said, one of the reasons we financed was because we're saving to build a home, but also because the inflation on the MSRP of the Partner has only been 30% YOY in the past decade, making it cheaper to finance than buying cash as long as you either earn in dollars or your salary in pesos has increased at least 30% or more each year (which is the case for us thankfully).

 

[FrankPintor]

I bought my Volvo XC60 in 2020, my method was to trawl MercadoLibre once a week with the following criteria:

• I set my budget: $12k max: I wanted a used car, where someone else had already found the problems. Also, no financing, just buy the car and no more hassle
• Medium size SUV: I wanted something that would be comfortable over long distances, but not unmanageable in city driving or parking
• Large engine: petrol is cheap in Argentina, and I think a large engine won't have been mistreated so much over its lifetime as a small engine. Small engine, large car is a very bad pairing, requiring lots of high revving to get moving at an acceptable speed..
• Reliable, so nothing French, Italian, or from the US (except Ford, and I also added Jeeps since friends had good experiences). Sorry, Peugeot-lovers,
• Anything Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, some European brands like Mercedes, VW, Volvo, Opel, and Ford and Jeeps from the US were fine by me
• Preferably a petrol engine, petrol is cheap here, and I've heard diesel can be difficult to get as a normal car driver in places

and I created an Excel with all the features important to me, like mileage, engine size, fuel type, dealership (in case the dealers had their own pages with more adverts).

I found Toyotas (SW4 mostly) were very much higher priced than other brands. I know they're the absolute best in reliability, but I didn't see they had anything to justify the price difference. There were some locally assembled Honda CRVs that looked nice. A Honda Pilot as well, Some Grand Cherokees, even one with a 4l Mercedes engine. And quite a few Volvos XC60 and XC90, which surprised me, so I looked closer.

For my price range I saw models from 2010 - 2014 and with 120-150k km. The XC60 I chose had 150k km on the clock, it's had a few issues like the radiator and the catalyst, which have been fixed. The engine (3.0l V6 turbo) is absolutely amazing, and loses neither oil nor water. We've taken it on some long trips, like to Mar del Plata or Paraguay with no problems. For some reason, it seems to be worth more than when I bought it, I have no idea how that happened.

A dealer will take care of the ownership transfer so you get your "cedula verde", and they should also give you the "informe dominio" so you can check on pending fines, double registration, and so on.

 

[sts7049]

would recommend checking safety ratings for anything on your list

LATIN NCAP - Results

www.latinncap.com

 

[Gringo80]

would recommend checking safety ratings for anything on your list

LATIN NCAP - Results

www.latinncap.com

Excellent thought. Thanks for the link.