need ideas on a slightly used or new car

A lightly used one will probably cost more than a new one after incentives, even moreso if financing. I recommend doing a new vehicle search, even if its a few hours away.

buysell2008 wrote: ↑ my preference is a suv preferably hybrid/plugin hybrid.

What's your budget? A 16 year old car ain't going to get you much on a write off, especially you are looking at $40K+ PHEVs.

And if you don't have another car to use for the time being, you don't really have many choices anyway if you are fighting for whatever is on the lot.

Slightly used seems to be a really bad idea right now, with the market the way it is. Anything less than 3yrs old will probably cost you close to what a new one costs, if not more if you need to consider things like financing rates which tend to be worse on used cars. You will probably need to go at least 5 years old on a used buy. You'll still be overpaying compared to what it would "normally" be selling for but will also still be cheaper than new for sure.

Some cars automatically shut off the fuel pump in a crash and it needs to be reset as a safety feature. Expect a call from your insurance company once the adjuster has looked at it. My 2012 focus got hit bad and was a write off this spring. Took about a two weeks before they started talking numbers.

Quentin5 wrote: ↑ It may not be worth much in insurance value but you can negotiate for more so you can buy a used car of similar age/price if they attempt to lowball you.

Yup, insurance should pay the cost of an equal replacement in todays market. You can dispute the value if you see it is wrong.

Quentin5 wrote: ↑ It may not be worth much in insurance value but you can negotiate for more so you can buy a used car of similar age/price if they attempt to lowball you.

If they attempt to lowball you, you mean When they attempt to lowball you.