how do you purchase a good vehicle?

[markio26]

my sister just purchased a salvaged titled jeep, 2 yrs old for five thousand dollars, plus the necessary repairs... is this wise to do?? how are you locating your good vehicle deals... my brothernlaw is a car dealer.. my last 3 purchases have been thru him... spouse has gm discount too.. do tell about your deals... thanks in advance for your response...

[Broken Arrow]

I have very little experience with car-buying. In fact, I even picked up a discounted Idiot's Guide, just to help me out. All-in-all, when the time comes, I'm tempted to just go to a CarMax, trade in my old car and buy a new (used) one there. I realize there are better ways, but I don't know if it's worth the hassle?

[markio26]

i just spent over $800 at the fomoco dealer for repairs to my 1999 taurus se... it was 2 sensors, transmission power flush, coolant power flush, and replace fuel filter...also, my other sensors were tested on the machine and were out of range... this has been my only huge cost on this car, besides a heater hose last year, tires, battery, mtce, oil change...i have 70,000 miles on it and it looks new. the color is black...

[MrsChambers]

2 things that dictate our car buying..

Price


Insurance Inst. Crash test ratings...


Just bought ourselves the New Kia Spectra... It used to be a death trap on wheels... they went back and redesigned the thing from the ground up.... I have to respect a company that see's their product is crap, and they actually DO SOMETHING about it... unlike the Crystler Corp... those PT crusiers (for example and certainly not the only one's!) are Death-Traps... they know it... but have calculated the cost of re-calling thier product as opposed to what it would cost in loss of life lawsuites... and just chose to keep thier death traps on the road and pay out living family members.

[Roupey03]

I have bought two cars from the REPO Auction. My first car was a 97' Mecury Sable with 60k miles. I bought for 3,800. It was fully loaded. I drove it for a year. Had to make a 1,000 of repairs to the engine (transmission). Then it was totaled in a car accident. The insurance gave me 6700 for it. This is after driving it for 2 years.

I then bought a 95' Nissan Altima GXE with 80k miles for 2,000 I have made no repairs what so ever and have drove it for going on 4 years I believe. It now has 127K and is running strong.

I have had great luck with auctions. You can get the car at a fraction of its worth but there is no gaurentee.

[markio26]

is the kia spectra the car or the van??? i thought about kia or hyuandi.....

[autoxer]

I bought a '94 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ 78k miles for $1750 off of craigslist. After a year, I have only spent about $200 on maintenance. With a sunroof, a CD Player and a 5-speed, that car is fun to drive.

It looked pretty neglected, when I bought it, but I spent a lot of time cleaning and polishing it.

[markio26]

autoxer, nice pix... that was a good deal... i will check out craigslist... i never thought of that... i have a friend who bought off of ebay and likes her car too....

[nate]

Salvage's aren't necessarily bad (you can get a good deal) but a couple things about them I am careful about:
1) A lot of the time people have them rebuilt with cheaper parts than were in the car in the first place.
2) Resell value goes way down. Doesn't matter how bad the wreck was or how good it was repaired. Having the title marked as salvage will severely decrease resell value.
3) Seems like people have a harder time selling them. Can't say for sure though, never tried myself.

[markio26]

thanks for the comments Nate... that is what i was thinking... i would think that it would be better to part the car out and sell it on ebay or to a car club forum... i personally, would not buy salvaged, unless it would be for resell. just another thought on making money using the net...

[Ima saver]

I always buy new, the only used vehicle we ever bought went bad in less than a year.

[boefixepa]

I HATE buying cars. There are few things that stress me out more. I do it as little as possible and I feel like both times I took in the rear.

[getforfree]

Salvages are great because they cost much less.

As long as the car is less than 5yr old and it is repaired and the damage was side or back, it is good as clean title.

I always had salvage cars, in fact., I have 4 right now. We are in process of changing our cars and need to sell one immediatelly.

[tgavin71]

We always buy our cars from fleet dealers. There is a company in Australia called Orix. Companies lease cars from them. At the end of the lease period the company employee can either purchase the car for private motoring or relinquish it back to orix. these cars are then sold to the public. All cars have full maintenace history,low kms, two years warranty and free roadside assitance for 6-24 months.

[abowers]

I've had mixed luck with past used cars. We moved to a new area last year and bought a new car in October, as we didn't know reliable places to have a car fixed (being a young female I don't want to be ripped off by some garage I don't know, back where I used to live my mechanic was my dad's best friend - so he explained things to me and gave me a discount), so we are getting what has so far been a new, reliable car, with a nice warranty:

[Roupey03]

I think that is the first time I have seen the Focus in that color. I like it.

[Crystallas]

Ive only bought 4 cars in my life that were running at the time of purchase. 4 out of 30ish. Salvagable arent bad nor good, it depends on a whole lot of things. Just like buying a used car, its more than just reputation and reviews. Diffrent people have diffrent driving habits. Diffrent vehicles are engineered to respond to diffrent people aswell. Diffrent TLC/Maintenance habits will have diffrent results. If you buy a used vehicle with a 10 star reputation, but the previous owner didnt conform the to vehicle inside and out. You could have a lot of trouble. It doesnt matter what brand it is.

The best cars that I have ever had from the cost standpoint, Ford Escort that passed 350,000 miles before I sold it(in perfect shape.) 87 Plymouth Gran Fury 318, that wont die for anything and is in the family somewhere still to this day, and a 1984 Mercades 300SD Turbo Diesel that has lost most of its luxary features, but for the most part, runs no matter what and is also floating in my family.
The worst was a tie between a 95 Eagle Talon TSi a 1997 Honda Prelude SH, and a Ford Probe GT. They just sucked money out of me, even though they were sharp lookers.

[markio26]

one of my frugal neigbors on the mainland bought a focus... pat seems to like it alot... i will look at it.. fomoco in amherst is having an employee discount sale this week..

[markio26]

I Think I Will Get A Better Deal Less A Trade In Right Now.. Still Shopping... Has Anyone Recently Purchased A New Van????????????????????????

[markio26]

Update:
I Purchased A 2006 Dodge Caravan Ext From My Local Dodge Dealer.. I Got Employee Pricing... I Paid Cash For It... I Sold My 1999 Taurus Se For $5000 Effortlessly To My Friends Daughter From Fla....... Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!