Buying A Used Car
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- pinkfloyd0
I plan on using the car only on weekends to go on mini trips. I live in NYC, so I don't want to get a car that's too nice. I'll pay everything in cash.
- waterhouse0
Me, I'd try to buy from an owner. That way, you can glean a lot of honest knowledge on the car's maintenance and ownership history.
Makes like Mercedes, Honda...if they're cared for with regular maintenance, you'll make a wise purchase.
- pinkfloyd0
How much mileage is considered too high where the car will be less reliable? I don't want to be stranded on a highway if I take a 2-4 hour trip. I know it varies between car makes, but I just wanted to get a rough idea.
- Depends...But, generally I'd sleep well at night with a car under 100K miles.waterhouse
- Great, so 60-80k will be fine for me.pinkfloyd
- it's the maintenence intervals, with some cars, every 30k you have to do $1000 in service...vaxorcist
- waterhouse0
Do you have an approximate budget in mind?
- It's open, but i'd like to spend the least as possible.pinkfloyd
- That doesn't tell me anything.waterhouse
- $10K?
$30K?waterhouse - I don't want to spend that much for a car. It's for occassional driving, so 5k I think.pinkfloyd
- formed0
Get an Acura, like a Legend. There are tons, reliability is amazing and they are pretty nice cars all around (nice leather, features, etc.).
You can find one at any price. My sister got my folks old one, been in the family for about 20 years now.
In NY you might want to look at a smaller one, Legends can be big.
- waterhouse0
Every time I see a man driving an Acura Legend, I feel jealous.
- sine0
this is how i've always gone about buying a used car...
once you've decided on a budget look around at what's available in that range. do some research on the make/models. narrow it down to a shortlist and go and look at and test drive the cars. once you've decided on one, ask to take it to an independent testing facility or mechanic. over here the AA has it's own roadworthy testing facilities and they can tell you everything you need to know... like if the car has been in a serious crash, if there's structural/chassis damage, if all the parts/engine is original and any work that might need to be done (now, or soon).
- omg0
They need a self-defense device that you can put on your windshield that will attack people trying to put fliers, junk, parking tickets. Like some kinda weapon that will slice their hands off or something, or shock them if they try to touch my car.
- vaxorcist0
MSN.com can be useful for reliability ratings of which years of a car suck and which are okay....
- you can write down the VIN number (ask to see it) and check for accidents on http://www.carfax.co…vaxorcist
- noob123450
Mid nineties Toyota Camry's and Honda Civics. Get one with the lowest miles you can find. Even if/when you have to repair them it's pretty cheap and every mechanic know how to fix them because they're so common.
- vaxorcist0
I'm mister 250,000 miles, so for me, I may be different from most other people..... If you're willing to spend time, and listen very carefully to your car, check fluid levels once a week, and know at least 2 trusted mechanics, you can make a car last a damn long time as long as the previous owners were not idiots....
My current ride has 167,000 miles.. and I've driven it on trips from Chicago Tennessee, Chicago to Minneapolis, Chicago to Detroit,etc without any problems this year. It currently should have a new CV joint/axle in the next few months.... $250 repair I'm planning for....
The previous owner was very careful and kept a book of all maintenence records. I also know the dealer looked at the van 1 year ago and said it needed a new transmission and over $2000 of other stuff or it would supposedly "be a death trap on wheels" according to the dealer tech.
I took it to 3 different used-car mechanics locally and got 3 different estimates of everything that was wrong with it, and got the words of a smart mechanic who said "just add some transmission fluid every 2 - 3 weeks and you'll be fine for a couple of years, once it starts to give you the transmission clunk, you can replace the Transmission solenoid for $400 or so"
I just throw $100 a month into the "anticipated repair cost" account... and I change the oil every 3k miles, get a complete check each time, etc.... and I whenever you get a mechanic to look at things, ask carefully how urgent each thing is to fix, most used cars need $500-$1500 in repairs to "be perfect" but are "mostly ok" with half of that or so....
- vaxorcist0
When looking at a used front-wheel-drive car, open the window and driver very slowly in a parking lot, from a slow roll, turn all the way to the right and left while listening very carefully and driving less than 5-10 miles per hour... you should NOT hear any weird clunk/click/roll-clicking sounds, if you do, the car may need new CV axles, joints, etc....
These are common repairs and cost $250-$700 or so...
If the car is otherwise fine, make a note of this to the seller, ask him to lower the price $250-$400 and then get that fixed yourself....
- UKV0
I've owned over 40 different cars. Its really hard to not get screwed when you are buying a car, new or used. The more strategy you use, the better. There is a good book, "What car dealers dont want you to know", talks step by step on how the dealers run the game.