2009 Yukon Hybrid

This week we traded in the 2010 Acadia for a 2009 Yukon Hybrid. You may wonder why we decided to trade-in for an older vehicle...Here's why:

On the interior, the Acadia is great. It has everything; loaded. Even a usb plug for the iPhone and an auto trunk button. But the engine sucks. It is a heavy car with a V-6; not enough power. And I believe because it is a six banger, it also gets bad milage. In fact, the sticker said 16 city and 24 highway, but even going downhill on the highway it gets about 21. On average, we get about 16 with mixed driving.

We started looking at the Yukon hybrid because it gets 20 city/20 hwy and it is a bigger vehicle with a larger engine and more power. When I figured out the KBB of the Acadia, I was shocked - it was much higher than I expected. With the high residual value of the Acadia, it seems like we could make a deal work.

I found a couple Yukons with low milage but they were sold before I had the chance to make an offer. We ended up going with a 2009 model with 55k miles. More than I would have preferred, but still less than we had on the former (60k). The trade in value was just over 23k, and the price for the Yukon was 30k. Plus, as a self employed individual, my CPA figured I would save 6,500 in taxes by buying the 6,000 lb vehicle. That made it just about a wash, save for sales tax on the new purchase. So for taxes of $1,800, we traded up to a better vehicle in my opinion, and will get better mileage, and will keep wifey happy for another 3 years until she gets sick of it.

Financially, this should be a good deal. If she drives this for another 3 years, it only adds 1,800 to my cost of the acadia 3 years ago. Therefore it would be like driving the acadia for 6 years, adding on just a little more purchase price. Not a bad deal. The tax deduction is what makes the deal work.

I think the hybrid is very cool. When you are parked the gas engine turns off. That goes for a red light too. When you are starting out and driving slow like in a parking lot, the gas engine remains off and you are running totally on the battery. When you start out accelerating, the batter will take you up to about 10 mph until the gas kicks in. Unless you floor it right out of the gate, then the gas kicks in right away. These above features allow for 20 in the city when a normal yukon gets 13 in the city. That is a significant difference. On the highway, both get the full gas and the hybrid get 20. The hybrid does nothing for high speeds.

The yukon does not have the auto trunk button, or the USB for the iphone. It also has several scratches on the body, but no big deal. They are minor. The Acadia had the same.