Buying a used car

  • Started
  • Last post
  • 63 Responses
  • akrokdesign0

    you need a ford transit, you can back the dogs and kids in the back. now get the sport one so you can leave the wife at home also. lol.
    don't forget to bring the euro house cd. cause it goes bose speakers.

  • formed0

    Forget the gas mileage, I cant' stand SUV's for blocking visibility. Nothing worse than pulling alongside one and trying to see if oncoming traffic is there.

    The smaller ones see ok, but they are still too much. Why not get a nice wagon? Safer, better performance all around, as good or better in the winters.

    It does seem like it is an american thing "gotta get a truck to haul..."

  • iCanHasQBN0

    Exactly, formed. I abhor SUV's because they are an obstruction just as much as I do for them being inefficient. You can't see through their windows to make turns (you making a right turn, and them making a left onto a collector street - basically, if one pulls up alongside you, you have to wait until they make their left turn before you can make your right turn). And if you're behind one, it's like driving behind a brick wall, making it impossible to see what's ahead on the road. A hazard, for sure.

    I don't even understand the point of crash testing and putting safety standards on the smaller cars (like a Yaris for example), while at the same time we make it perfectly legal for someone to lift their Ford Excursion and put Big Foot tires on them. What's the point of trying to make small cars safe if we allow Enormous SUVs to roam around that would demolish any compact car that it comes across? It's completely irresponsible and self-serving to drive these things - all the sake for their ego.

    You see this kind of garbage everywhere where I live.

    Primitive meatheads.

    • lol @ego comment, with 2 paragraphs, you obviously have some issuesidiots
    • does it hurt your brain to read 2 paragraphs?iCanHasQBN
    • well... crash avoidance is more important than crash results... I've never had anything worse than a paint scratchvaxorcist
    • ... are you saying you drive an SUV or a small car??iCanHasQBN
    • regardless, your personal experience of never having been in a major wreck is irrelevant.iCanHasQBN
    • if you fail to see my simple point... well, i don't even know what to tell you...iCanHasQBN
  • idiots0

    • the only dirt that thing has seen was a whore who got all akimbo in the backseat.mg33
  • idiots0

  • idiots0

  • idiots0

    • it's lowered, what's your problem now?idiots
    • nothing. it's not an obstruction anymore. just tacky as hell.iCanHasQBN
    • what did they do with the drug dealer car. lol.akrokdesign
  • vaxorcist0

    Find a broke idiot who bought an Escalade and can't make the payments... send him all sorts of fake bill collection notices you designed, then put an envelope on his Escalade saying you'll pay $3000 cash tomorrow morning for it if he has the title...

    • Lol. That'd be fun.noneck
    • How the FUCK do you find a broke idiot who bought an Escalade and can't make the payments?monospaced
    • go to a rap concert.iCanHasQBN
    • those are called leasesidiots
    • ummm... go just about anywhere in miami or los angeles. tons of "welfare-laden" escalade driversismith
    • My original plan was to buy something from the southern states and drive it back.noneck
    • But I'd get hit with a $4000 surcharge at the border for driving a gas guzzler. Plus all the other fees.noneck
    • haha really? that sucks, but maybe you should consider... getting... a wagon... from one of those southern states...ismith
    • but really there's a charge for that kind of thing?ismith
  • 23kon0

    find a truck you fancy in car trader mags or online - one thats not the original owner.
    look for a similar photo of a smashed one on google images.
    photoshop the advertised car's reg onto smashed photo.
    show the guy/girl the photo when you go to see it and tell them theres no way that you are paying full wack for something thats been a writeoff in the past and that they'd been ripped off when they bought it from previous owner.
    also, pretend you can see where the smash has been fixed up - imprefections in the paint where the sun is shining on it funny.
    lolol

  • ETM0
    • Might be able to bargain down.ETM
    • Yeah, actually. That's kind of what I'm looking at.noneck
    • 225k for $12.5k? How long do they typically run?ismith
    • That's km don't forget. About 140k miles.ETM
  • vaxorcist0

    But seriously..... if you don't mind the abuse, getting a big, unhip, overdone SUV may be cheap, as people are trying to get rid of them....

    And... drive your hummer alot less, ride a bike some more.... and you're more green than a pious prius driver who commutes hundreds of miles a day....

    in 1980, my dad bought a really cheap big old 1971 plymouth fury, after calculating that he'd have to get over 100 miles per gallon to make up the difference in the cost of the car versus a newer datsun.... as he didn't drive much at all.... so he, the rational physicist, decided he didn't mind the people calling him names, he also calculated that in environmental terms, building a new car takes a huge amount of energy, thus negating some of the gas mileage advantage....

  • noneck0

    @iCanHasQBN

    I don't disagree with anything you've argued, really. That lifted Excursion is obscene. I live in a city populated by 25 year old assholes that make $120K/year working on the oil rigs, and they have nothing better to spend their money on than jacked up 1 ton pickup trucks that they use to drive to the movies.

    Clotaire Rapaille talks about SUVs and egos, in his brilliant book, The Culture Code. You should watch the PBS Frontline segment where talks about his work (it's the fourth clip, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr…). He sums up the how/why of SUV design really nicely.

    That being said, I do require a large SUV for some of the reasons I've stated earlier. A minivan won't work, neither will a wagon. So I'm going to be a used one, not a new one. And it's going to be a second vehicle; 90% of the time I'll drive my small Japanese sedan that gets 30MPG.

  • ETM0

    Why apologize? You asked some advice on the process of purchasing/haggling a used vehicle and iCanHasQbn had to attack you and SUVs everywhere. Don't believe he even including one useful bit of info towards your OP.

    But the story about his mom and the '88 Camry was touching.
    *wipes away tear

    • why should i assist in the purchasing of an SUV when I'm against the entire notion?iCanHasQBN
  • iCanHasQBN0

    noneck, you can buy whatever you want to. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I dont know your personal situation of why you need one. If you tell me you do need one, then I can only believe you. I hate to feel like I'm policing someone or making them feel guilty. But 90% of people with SUVs do not need one. How do you think people survived in the 80's when there weren't any SUVs around? To Kona > do you not think that people had baby seats, and strollers, and groceries before the boom of the SUV in the 90's?

    I must state that I not only dislike SUV's, but I dislike all cars in general. I'm targeting SUV's here since they are the worst option. The real issue is urban planning. This is the root problem. sprawl, suburbia, how irresponsible governments and planners have set up our lives so that everyone must get into a vehicle to go ANYWHERE. I understand that eliminating SUVs will not solve much, but an overall less dependency on cars and a decrease in amount of cars in our lives WILL - and it starts with a mentality of cleaner driving, and more importantly, smart urban planning that makes it possible for people to move about using other forms of transportation.

    Do this, go into Google Maps and drop the little StreetView guy into any part of the city of Copenhagen. Look around. Their lives are not dominated by cars and abandoned parking lots. They are free to walk and bike about their neighborhoods. The scale of the city is CORRECT. It is HUMAN scaled - not VEHICLE scaled.

    • FFS The OP was not about urban planning etc.ETM
  • ETM0

    This is where you just keep your mouth shut if you have no info to share directly related to the topic. People who love to take threads off to their own tangents just dilute useful info, regardless of topic.
    This could have been a 1 page useful thread to the OP if people could just resist the urge to spout every opinion in their head, useful or not.

    • I think full-size SUVs are excessive, but why not help the guy out regardless.ETM
  • ismith0

    Title coulda been Buying a used SUV.

  • iCanHasQBN0

    ETM, god forbid a topic gets slightly diverted into a more in-depth discussion. Because that never happens here on QBN, right? So tell me, how exactly do you survive on a daily basis with people that might have a differing opinion than you? I imagine you with your index fingers placed snug in your ears going "lalalalalalalaaaa".

    If you don't want to read my shit, nobody is forcing you to. All you need to do is look at the username next to the post. I was on my way out anyway, I've said my piece. Have a good day.

    • You're talking about differing opinions with your single-minded responses? Ha! Laughable!ETM
    • You have cemented yourself in my mind as both hypocritical and a clown.ETM
    • But I am not the one who is telling the other to "keep your mouth shut".iCanHasQBN
    • you can have your opinion, but i don't respect it. however, i respect your RIGHT to have that opinion.iCanHasQBN
    • I am saying stay on topic for once and actually contribute relevant info the the OP.ETM
    • LIGHTEN UP EVERYONEismith
    • Just the general issue with QBN, lots of opinions, little useful contribution.ETM
    • If you really want to talk about contribution, start with giving less advice on how to buy an SUV.iCanHasQBN
    • LALALALALALALALAismith
    • ok im out. i promise, ismith. gotta run to a wedding. bye kids.iCanHasQBN
    • Its actually advice that applies to buying most any car. Could be a Yaris. But you'd have to look past your narrow-mindedness to see that.ETM
    • mindedness to even recognize that.ETM
    • no no I like the banter, I just don't like arguing about it. it's like literary incestismith
    • just not really literary. whatevsismith
  • ETM0

    noneck,

    Have you looked into auctions? Banked owned etc. Might be able to find something newer for cheap. But its a crap shoot, of course, on what's offered.

  • noneck0

    Gonna stay away from the auctions because you don't have any idea what you're buying. Not that you're really sure of anything when buying a used car.

    Thanks to you and the few others that had some good tips on buying used cars, it's appreciated.

    • Just curious, have you looked at any Diesel vehicles?ismith
    • not sure why I capitalized dieselismith
    • Generally you'll only find the diesel engines in VW (which are nice) or in 3/4 ton or bigger trucks.noneck
    • around here on the farms we've got diesel fords and chevys, trucks and suvs.ismith
    • I do like the diesel VW vans though. I just mean if you found a comparable diesel, would you prefer it?ismith
    • Around here diesel is $1 more per gallon, but a little further south and it's $0.50 cheaper on average.ismith
  • noneck0

    @iCanHasQBN

    Again, I agree completely with what you're saying. Urban planning is terrible. SUV purchases a particularly ego-driven and unpractical. I haven't read anything that made me say, "whoa, wait a minute."

    But the reality of my situation is that I don't live in a european city. I live in the northernmost city in North America, a city with one of the lowest population densities of its size, and terrible urban sprawl. My existing and future lifestyle requires certain "features" of this vehicle that I've considered carefully, and have identified the best solution for my situation.

    As you and others have said, it's my choice, and only I know what my life really demands. I'm not apologizing for my choice, but I have tried to explain a bit of why I'm purchasing a vehicle I don't normally agree with. This, I don't mind.

    I started the thread looking to see if anyone had good suggestions, tips, ideas, or methods for getting the best possible price for a used car when I'm under no pressure to be anything soon. I'm not looking for suggestions on what to buy. I am looking for suggestions on HOW to buy.