I must buy a new (to me) Car.

[red92s]

Alright I'll ask . . . what finance company is going to approve you on a $10k loan when you have no down payment and your primary income source is unemployment checks?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Love those are expensive car choices. He'd be better off looking at used american compact cars that don't hold value well. if all he was looking at was gas mileasge

[lovcom]

Alright I'll ask . . . what finance company is going to approve you on a $10k loan when you have no down payment and your primary income source is unemployment checks?

The OP is considering a $13,000 car, according to his initial post!

[lovcom]

Love those are expensive car choices. He'd be better off looking at used american compact cars that don't hold value well. if all he was looking at was gas mileasge

But the OP wrote he is considering a $10k to $13k car...according to his initial post....

[segmond]

buy a honda or toyota for cheap.

[amarowsky]

well I appreciate all your posts. There is not as saturated of a foreign car market around here. Not that I am one of those who blindly love american cars, it's just in Detroit we really have mainly the big 3 for sale and are much more plentiful in the year and price range I'm looking for.

I recently found the best deal I have so far. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep the mileage low on my purchase, but It makes me sick wanting to spend a lot of money on a car. I recently found this car however,
Vehicle Detail Page
at only about 16k miles for 6500, it seems like exactly what I need. Full sized car that is good for a person of my size (6'4 240 pounds), dealer boasts it gets 27 mpg highway, which is only 5 less than I was getting w/ my toyota and about 2 better than I was getting with my truck, and it has lower miles than any car I have ever purchased. Granted it costs more than every car I have owned PUT TOGETHER but I feel because this car has so little use and it's fairly good reputation as a sturdy reliable car, maybe I can get lucky and have the car for 10 years.

[amarowsky]

well I appreciate all your posts. There is not as saturated of a foreign car market around here. Not that I am one of those who blindly love american cars, it's just in Detroit we really have mainly the big 3 for sale and are much more plentiful in the year and price range I'm looking for.

I recently found the best deal I have so far. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep the mileage low on my purchase, but It makes me sick wanting to spend a lot of money on a car. I recently found this car however,
Vehicle Detail Page
at only about 16k miles for 6500, it seems like exactly what I need. Full sized car that is good for a person of my size (6'4 240 pounds), dealer boasts it gets 27 mpg highway, which is only 5 less than I was getting w/ my toyota and about 2 better than I was getting with my truck, and it has lower miles than any car I have ever purchased. Granted it costs more than every car I have owned PUT TOGETHER but I feel because this car has so little use and it's fairly good reputation as a sturdy reliable car, maybe I can get lucky and have the car for 10 years.

[Scanner]

I totally understand the Toyota/Honda cult thing. . .after all, my stb-x owns a Toyota and I may buy it off of her.

But sometimes the premium it commands to own these cars isn't worth it and you are better off with a reliable American car that's been produced for 5 years or more.

My Ford Taurus has been the best car I have ever owned, hands down. . .and that's including my Nissan Sentra and my Honda Civic. Maybe a Chevy Malibu or some other car with an established track record and design you should include in your looking because they won't have the "Cult Premium" associated with it.

[amarowsky]

malibu was close on my list. I had two friends who both had 99' and I think 98' or 00' , regardless. Both of their cars cost them under $4000 to buy initially and one of them still drives it and he's 23 now. So he has probably had it for about 6 or 7 years. the other guy who had the slightly older one just died on him, but it lasted him a good 4 years almost.


I really hope this crown vic works out for me.

[amarowsky]

Well they were asking 6500! I put in my offer for 6000 and they accepted it!!! So as long as it passes the inspection i'm taking it in for on thursday, I will be the proud owner of a 2001 crown victoria police interceptor. I just can't believe i got it for only 6000 with 16,000 miles! I'm excited.

[nmboone]

Congrats! I know it'll last you at least 10 years with minimal issues. Completely amazing about the mileage! For 6000 I think you really got an awesome deal in this case.

[amarowsky]

Thanks NMboone, i just hope this inspection goes well. I drove it the other day and I was amazed at how spotless it was and how well it worked. The paint still has that original gloss like it was painted yesterday. And even in the motor i looked at the coolant and it was a perfect translucent green, the motor cover was spotless, no rust even on the manifolds or any of the exhaust, all the pumps/pipes/and alternator were totally clear of any corrosion. I'm really excited at the hope that I really got a great deal.

[lovcom]

The Crown Vic sucks gas big time, and the cost of ownership is a lot higher then a used Toyota or Honda. I don't think you could've picked a worse car, frankly. You keep going the wrong way ;-) V8, big huge car...I realize you're a bigy guy but you should at least sit in a Corolla or Yaris, Civic, or Fit, and you might be surprised at the amount of space....these days 27 MPG Hwy is really bad....you do want to save money, right? Just becaues the purchase prices is very low does not mean its a good deal if you're going to buy tons more gas. You need to factor in cost of ownership too.

[amarowsky]

keep in mind I bought the price at a premium. In michigan foreign cars are not as easily obtained for cheap. This is the best deal I found for a car comprable to the one I have found.

I was going to post the link but it is too long. But it is a Honda Civic EX 2002 with 31k miles for 10,000 asking (9995). That is 40% more than I paid for mine. According to the MPG of the Civic, it gets on average 35 mpg on the high way. I computed the average of the CrownVic at 24 highway.

Using the gas prices now average of 2.50. I will be spending the following
-Crown Vic - weekly of 200 miles $20.83 on gas and yearly (200x52) of $1083.33

-Honda Civic same weekly of $14.29 yearly gas of $742.86.

With the civic I would be saving $6.54 a week and $340.08 a year. Now that is a lot of money. But with the 4k difference in the car, your also looking at assuming that gas costs, it would take 11.76 years for the cars to meet the same price if you consider original cost + cost of gas driving. Also consider that the VIC has 19k less miles. Which means I have nearly two years reserve before I have to start for a lot of the preventative maintenance that is required around 50-80k mile car life.

I know that the upkeep on a larger car is more expensive by way of bigger brakes, more volume of fluids needed to be replaced, more expensive to register. But those costs could maybe be at most 10-20% more than on the civic, because the components are not that much smaller. So offset that 11.76 by the 20% and your still looking at 9.4 years to make the same amount.

If I were to factor in Gasmileage as a significant enough selling point with this car, I would have to be to the extent of a Chevy Volt that boasts something like 120-200 mpg I believe. But that car is not even in regular production yet.

If I were faced with the option of buying a new car and was willing to shell out the expensive cost (15-25K) Then gasmileage would be a very important factor. But in the case of buying a used car w/ less than half the mileage of another used car that is 1 year older and nearly double the price, I really can't see it being a sound financial decision.

When it comes down to it, this is just a superb deal I luckily found, any other crown Vic with the same mileage would probably cost right around 10k inwhich I would be saving a lot more money buying the Civic/corolla. But because of this discount, it is not wise to overlook the deal.