Car suggestions.. bought car after lease ended

[Bean]

To your point SB, I just traded a car in at a dealer and under our sales tax rate 6.625% (NJ), I saved about $2,200.  I had quotes from a couple of the on-line sources which I used to negotiate my trade-in.  Of course, I didn't exactly make a killing on the new car purchase...
It's somewhat ironic that that this particular dealer is actually across the river, in Delaware, one of the states that does not impose sales tax on cars (unless from out of state ie NJ).

[eastbound]

tax break a big handout to dealers -- rarely is a private sale worth it, given the tax savings, and hassle/risk of private sale, when tradein offsets new car bot at a dealer.

ive heard that, if you will order and wait a few months, you can pay sticker or the usual under sticker price.

My biz partner just got delivered a 2022 jeep gladiator -- he was quoted 2k over sticker for immediate delivery in jan -- paid 40K under sticker for a 3 month out delivery

Pricey car imho-- sticker was like 70K -- love my subaru foresters -- at 23k each i feel no pain as brooklyn and my family of 6 drivers trashes them -- and they drive perfectly adequately/reliably/safely for me.

Check this concept. But for the need to care reasonably for one's hideously expensive vehicle battery (80/20 charge, drive regularly, etc) these things make sense. And seems the company could take good care of batteries within their system:

https://electrek.co/2022/03/31/worlds-leading-swappable-electric-vehicle-battery-company-gogoro-to-be-listed-on-nasdaq-next-week/

[PonoBill]

My new Model Y delivery date has moved to May. I elected the insanely expensive full self-driving option from the beginning (yes, I'm a total geek, it was never a question) which moved me and everyone else who did so to the front of the line when Tesla realized they could get $13K more for every FSD car they delivered with no change in the cost basis. It's fundamentally a software lock, though theoretically, the hardware is different, I doubt that it really is. Or that it's 13K worth of difference in silicon.