Rear-Seat Entertainment Systems
The pictures in the brochures are awesome. There are happy kids in the back seat of an SUV or minivan with their wireless headphones on, entranced by the built-in entertainment system. But that period of parental bliss comes at a high price.
In the 2016 Ford Explorer Limited, a dual-headrest rear-seat entertainment system with a DVD player costs $1,995. For half that price, you could buy a pair of 64-gigabyte Apple iPad Air 2 tablets ($499 each). The iPads have bigger screens and can do more than just play videos, with thousands of apps available from the Apple app store. Plus, you can move the iPads from car to car and they can keep the kids entertained on airplanes.
The downside of the portable tablets is that they offer an enticing theft target if they’re left out in the open when the car is parked.
Roof Racks
There’s nothing wrong with the roof rack systems sold by carmakers, but you can buy systems at your local sporting goods store for less money, and the aftermarket components can be moved from car to car. They’re typically available in a broader variety of styles to fit your specific gear.
For example, Subaru shows one type of Kayak carrier available for the 2016 Crosstrek. Outdoor supplier REI shows more than two dozen. Plus, with the aftermarket systems from brands such as Yakima and Thule, there’s a healthy used market to buy and sell the equipment.
Even if your new car has built-in crossbars, like the Subaru Outback, aftermarket suppliers have adapters than allow their components to securely attach to the factory rack.
You’ll want to take all of that hardware off the roof when you’re not using it. Studies have shown that a rooftop box can reduce your mileage by as much as 35 percent. Even aerodynamically designed components cause some degree of mileage-robbing turbulence.
Built-in Navigation Systems
The days of the $2,000 built-in navigation system are gone. You can pick up a portable system from Garmin or Magellan for just a couple hundred bucks, and the rapid adoption of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto by carmakers allows vehicle infotainment systems to act like a dedicated nav systems.
A great benefit of using a portable system or your cell phone for navigation is the ability to take it with you when you’re traveling. You can also program your destinations into the system while you’re relaxing in your house, and then just activate the routing when you place the portable unit in your car.
Many of the dedicated navigation systems pre-installed in cars require costly annual map updates. Smartphone-based navigation systems like Google Maps and Apple Maps are constantly updated for free.
Dealer-Installed Floor Mats
This one might sound minor, but dealers make a lot of money selling floor mats and other accessories as part of a “protection package.” You can generally do better by buying your floor mats from an aftermarket supplier rather than buying at the dealer.
Of course, you can work the floor mats into your pricing negotiation, and try to get the dealer to throw them in for nothing.
You can find many genuine manufacturer accessories available online, and they’re often significantly less expensive than buying them at your local dealer or as part of a car purchase. Buying items online that don’t take mechanical expertise to install, such as floor mats, can save you significant money.
WeatherTech, an aftermarket supplier, sells a “DigitalFit Floorliner” product that protects the vehicle’s carpet from edge to edge, making it a good choice for lease customers. When you lease, you need to be very careful about damaging any part of the vehicle so that you can avoid excess wear and damage fees at the end of the contract.
Matte Paint
Matte paint jobs are all the rage right now, and they can look great on the right car. There’s a better alternative, however, and it can be far cheaper and easier to maintain in the long run. Instead of buying the matte paint, have your car wrapped instead.
Opt for matte paint on a Hyundai Veloster Turbo, and it will cost you $1,000. Go for the Designo Magno Dakota Brown matte paint on a 2016 Mercedes GLC300, and it will run a cool $3,950. Full vinyl wraps start at about $500, though they can go into the thousands of dollars.
The true savings comes over the life of the product. Matte paint jobs require more care than a traditional glossy finish, and the repainting that you will eventually need will cost substantially more than just having your car rewrapped.
When the wrap wears out, you can choose a different color or finish much more easily than changing the color of a painted car. With permission from the lessor, you can wrap a leased car and simply remove the vinyl material when it comes time to return the car.
Factory-Installed Fog Lights
Before you decide to spend hundreds of dollars on factory- or dealer-installed fog lights, make sure that they actually illuminate the road where you need it to be lit. Many of the fog lights installed in new vehicles act more like accent lighting than true fog lights.
If you really need fog lights or high-power driving lights, you can find solutions from companies such as Hella or PIAA that can be custom fitted to your car by aftermarket installers. Modern LED technology allows powerful lighting systems to be installed in smaller spaces with less power consumption than older aftermarket lighting solutions.
Heated and Cooled Seats, Steering Wheels, and Cup Holders
In some areas of the country, heated seats and steering wheels might be seen as have-to-have features, but for most of us, they’re more like nice-to-have features. Same goes for cooled seats. In the Sunbelt, they can be pretty awesome, but above the Mason-Dixon Line, they’re not so important.
For those few days a year when you really need the warmth? A sweater and some driving gloves are cheaper alternatives to making payments for five to eight years on your seat heaters.
Heated and cooled cupholders? If they worked, they would be great, but most don’t do much heating or cooling. The inclusion of these features, however, can be tough to avoid, as they’re often included in larger option packages or higher trim levels.
If you buy or lease an electric car, there’s an exception to the “don’t buy if you really don’t need them” rule. You’ll want to include heated seats, as heating only the seats that are occupied has a much lower impact on battery range than heating the air throughout the vehicle.
Massive Wheels and Performance Tires
Slapping large alloy wheels and low-profile tires on your new ride can look great, but you’ll pay for the bling once up front, and again through the life of the car. So while you can get 17-inch gloss-black alloy wheels on a 2016 Corolla, should you?
Not only do the larger wheel and tire packages cost more to buy, but they often reduce fuel economy and create a harsher ride. The larger, fancier wheels are easier to damage if you’re parallel parking, and lower-profile, performance-oriented tires have a shorter life and are more expensive to replace when they’re worn out.
Large wheel and tire packages on SUVs and crossovers can reduce the vehicle’s ability to travel on unpaved roads and are easily damaged when you do so.
Of course, if you’re buying a performance car that you are going to take to the limits on the racetrack, buy the more aggressive tire/wheel package. But for an economy car or SUV, skip the bling and save a ton of money in the long run.
Larger tire and wheel packages can have a detrimental effect when it comes time to sell the vehicle. As they’re much easier to damage, they will show more wear and tear than smaller wheels. Price-sensitive used car buyers may also look at the higher cost of replacing low profile tires and seek a less-expensive alternative.
Wireless Data Connections and Wi-Fi Hot Spots
If your car is your office and you need a speedy, solid data connection, dedicated 4G LTE makes a lot of sense. For most people, however, there are less-expensive alternatives to the subscription plans offered by automakers.
Many GM vehicles come equipped with 4G LTE capability, and the ability to use the vehicle as a Wi-Fi hot spot. Buyers typically get a multi-month trial period before they have to start paying for the subscription and data plan. The data plans are add-ons to OnStar subscriptions that already cost between $19.99 and $34.99 per month. Available data plans can add from another $15 to $50 per month to your bill.
A stripped-down OnStar plan is complementary for five years but does not include emergency response, navigation assistance, or security functions.
A better choice for occasional use is to use your smartphone as a Wi-Fi hot spot or add a low-cost Wi-Fi hot spot appliance from your cellular provider. Products like the ZTE Mobley plug in to your car’s OBD II port and provide wireless access for as many as five Wi-Fi devices. Your Wi-Fi appliance isn’t tied to any one car, so you can take it on vacation and plug it into a rental car. Depending on your cellular provider, a Wi-Fi appliance can be linked to your monthly family plan data pool.
Self-Parking Systems
Count how many friends you have and add one. That’s how many times most buyers will use the parallel or perpendicular parking systems found on many cars today. You’ll make sure it works once yourself, show it off to each of your friends, and then never use it again.
While the self-parking systems do an admirable job of identifying and then automatically guiding your car into a parking slot, most drivers can do it just as well, and a whole lot faster.
If you don’t park in the city often, and want to protect the fancy wheels that you probably shouldn’t have purchased anyway, you might make good use of a self-parking system. For the rest of us, it’s just a high-tech toy that won’t get used.
Appearance Packages
While special editions and appearance packages make your new car look distinctive, they probably won’t add any value over the life of the vehicle – unless they’re extra-exclusive like a Holland & Holland Range Rover, or include equipment that’s not available elsewhere.
At worst, they can prematurely cause your vehicle to look outdated. Remember the 1990s-era Jeep Grand Cherokees with gold mesh wheels and pinstriping? They were cool, for about a minute.
If there’s a cost savings from buying the special edition or appearance package over buying a series of options that you would have purchased otherwise, then go for it. But if it’s just an add-on that doesn’t have much value, then skip the package.
App-Based Infotainment Systems (Other Than CarPlay or Android Auto)
While many manufacturers are adopting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility into their infotainment systems, others are offering their own app-based systems. While the Apple and Android-based systems are likely to be updated well into the future, what happens when an automaker stops updating their proprietary system?
Systems like Toyota’s Entune require you to use their app to access services including Pandora and Stitcher. But if Toyota moves to new technology and stops updating Entune, how functional will the app be in five years? Will it add any value to the car? Probably not.
If you’re ready to jump into the market and buy a new car, be sure to check out the latest lease and finance deals. Then head on over to our Best Price Program page, where buyers save an average of $3,279 off sticker price.
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Which Options to Skip at the Dealer, and Where You Can Find Cheaper Alternatives
The price of new cars continues to climb, and smart shoppers need to know what features are need-to-have, what are nice-to-have, and what options and accessories are a waste of your hard-earned money. The average new vehicle transaction price has increased 3.5 percent in just a year, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Many new car buyers pile on the equipment without a second thought, whether as free-standing options, part of costly option packages, or as dealer-added accessories. The added costs get rolled into financing plans, creating higher monthly payments or horrifyingly long loan terms. Few options add significant value when it comes time to sell or trade-in the vehicle. While that built-in navigation system might seem great when you buy the car new, used car buyers aren’t inclined to pay extra for a feature that they already have in their smartphone, according to KBB.
Protect your pocketbook by reading on to see some of the features that aren’t worth the cost or that you can find elsewhere for less money. When you’re ready to buy, use our Best Price Program to find out what you should be paying for your perfect ride, including options and accessories.