Need to buy a used car

[Orrex]

My car all but gave up the ghost yesterday. If I put $30 in the tank, it might be worth $35 Bluebook, so I'm not expecting much of a tradein (and no local place has a $3000 minimum trade-in allowance thing at the moment).

My budget will allow me about $9000 worth of car. I have to commute about 425 miles each week, so reliability, low maintenance, and good mileage are important. I'd prefer a four-door.

I'll buy foreign or domestic--the pressures of reality require me to go with what I can afford.

Suggestions?

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Honda or Toyota. You can't go wrong.

If there is a Carmax near you, check out the ValueMax. Great deals on cars.

Good luck!

[AngryAmish]

18. Seconded

Research the car you want then go to cars.com. Put in the make and model. If you have the time buy from a private party, fly out and get the car and drive home. You can save thousands of dollars over CarMax or a dealer.

If you spend $9,000 on an Accord you may have that car for five years (they easily can go 200,000 miles with proper maintenance. Also, go to Carmax and they will buy your car.

good luck

[Floogeldy]

2. Do not go to a dealership or a used car lot.

Check the papers, go to estate sales, and definitely pay cash to an individual seller.

:)

[mad-mommy]

3. I'm not sure...

I'm not sure I can help with the kind of car, but if you find one, look it up on edmunds.com to get it's true value. Also, look up, your car, for a trade, even if it's only a little bit, it may pay for tags?

[DemoTex]

4. $9K will buy a damn good Toyota, Honda, or Subaru.

My 1999 Subaru Outback wagon with 85,000 miles has a BB of $7500. You should be able to find a newer, lower-mileage Subaru for $9K. If you need a station wagon and/or all-wheel drive, look at the Sube. It is a great, long-running car. However, the AWD cuts the gas mileage down to about 24/28, or so. Good luck!

[AirmensMom]

5. Check Consumer Reports.

They have a website where you can check their lists of reliable used cars and used cars to avoid. It's well worth the $20 or so for a subscription. One of our daughters bought two cars from the cars to avoid list and has nothing but trouble with both of them. The things that went wrong were exactly the things that CR said would go wrong.

Without looking, though, I'd get a Toyota or Honda.

[derby378]

6. Either a Camry or a Corolla, depending on your needs

A Prius might still be a little out of your range, otherwise I'd go for the Prius.

And yes, check out Carmax if you possibly can.

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. definitely go foreign...

you can never go wrong with a Honda Civic or something like that, they get great gas mileage and they last forever with proper care.

[Tyo]

8. Honda or Toyota

Stay away from VW and Audi. They drive great. When they're not in the shop. Subaru is also good, especially if you live where AWD could come in handy

[izzybeans]

9. I got a 99 Volvo for 10,000 after a 1500 trade in.

prior to ford buying out volvo the engineering is great. Old volvos when cared for should run a very long time. 70,000 miles when I bought it. The only problem is making sure you find a place to change the oil. The local Grease Monkey will likely strip out the oil filter in time if they don't have the right wrench and apparently most don't.

I had a corolla prior to this and my insurance actually stayed the same. I only had liability on the corolla and full coverage for the volvo. It didn't budge. That was the only negative to the corolla. Higher insurance. Apparently some actuary somewhere decided that they were a risk for theft.

[Idylle Moon Dancer]

10. my 02 Echo was $9K

I get about 40 mpg. It's been said that they can't climb hills and are dangerous in the wind. Hmph! Not if you're a good driver. You can get a brand new Yaris for $13K, but you might have to wait 3+ months for it to be built and delivered.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. My 2002 Echo was shit.

I live in a very hilly wooded area with narrow windy roads. The echo was fine on hills under normal conditions. However, it was dangerous as hell in the snow. It was all over the road and it flat out COULD NOT GET UP most of the hills by me with snow on them. If the car physically can not get up the hill in the snow, then that is not the driver. It also sucked in the wind on the highway.

The Echo was the only car I've driven that has given me issues in the snow. I've driven a Dodge Caravan, Echo, Saab (incredible in the snow), Mercury Sable (drove fine in the snow, but was a total lemon), and now a Grand Cherokee (only because it was free).

I would not recommend an Echo to anyone who encounters snowy windy hills, unless I was trying to secretly kill them.

[Haole Girl]

11. Toyota

They were my most reliable cars. And, I've had many!

[radwriter0555]

12. http://www.edmunds.com is your best source for instant revierws on used

cars.

Start going through your local private party ads and when you see the ones in your price range, check them out on edmunds.

[Broken_Hero]

13. My wife and I

had good luck with program cars...

program cars=cars from rental agencies, and when they hit a certain mileage, usually around 20-30 thousand miles, and if its still in good condition, they trade them in to major car dealers, aka ford/chevy/dodge/etc....

My wife and I got a program dodge intrepid with 37k miles for 8,900 dollars...it was well worth it for us. BTW, dont' ever, get a ford mini van, we had one, it was a nightmare...

[Broken_Hero]

14. okay, some info on the dodge intrepid

four door sedan, 16 gallon tank...with new oil change, and air filter, we have gone over 400 miles on a full tank of gas...My wife travels 80 miles a day back and forth to work, and so far, its been doing great.

Her last car was also a dodge intrepid, which she had from 40,000 miles, until 165,000 miles, when it got hit by a red ford truck in february of 2005...the car showed no sign of dying, no noises...and the only thing major we replaced was a transmission sensor for 89 dollars...

It rides smooth, and I do admit the tires are sorta spendy, about 70 bucks a pop, but other than the high prices of the tires, there is nothing wrong with the intrepid in my book. We got her purple dodge last september, and it has been crusing good...I replace the air filter every other month, and give it a n oil change every other month...and I use castrol synthetic oil, and the fram st-16 oil filter...

I love this car...its great...its a v-6, and i believe its a 225 horsepower vehicle...and I fit a rick of wood in the back seat and trunk, so there is a LOT of room...I'm a big man, and I even fit with room to spare in the back seats....:)

[yellowdogintexas]

16. If Intrepid is larger than you want, get its baby sisters: Stratus OR

Chrysler Sebring. I can drive all the way from Fort Worth To Little Rock on 1 tank of gas, and it does have a smaller tank. Comfortable, leg room, and a program car will have at least a stereo w/cd player, and power stuff on the driver's seat, doors and locks.

I love my Sebring...before I had it, I had a Stratus, identical. My daughter totalled it and WALKED AWAY from a crash which should have killed her. I replaced the Stratus with the Sebring, its twin.(dealer didnot have any Stratus models that week, only Sebrings) After I saw what she walked away from, I knew I could be confident with this car.

OTOH< I had a Datsun which I drove into the ground; 175000 miles when it gave up the ghost, so I like Nissans too.

[Road Scholar]

15. Be carefull not to get a New Orleans flooded cosmetic job. nt

[Orrex]

17. Thanks, everyone!

Honda and Toyota seem to be the most popular picks, which reassures me because that's how I was leaning anyway. In fact, I'm currently favoring a Toyota because "a Toyota" is a palindrome, and if there's any better reason to pick a car, I can't think of it.

Zero-hour is, I hope, some time tomorrow morning or afternoon. I'll post with the results when I have them, and in the meantime all input is much appreciated!

:hi:
:yourock:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

21. I just don't recommend the Echo.

I see you live in PA, so if you have windy hilly roads, those cars become death traps in the snow (when they can even make it up a snow-covered hill). I'm in NW NJ and it was a terrible car for here. However, Corollas and other toyotas don't seem to have that problem at all.

[Orrex]

22. Ah--a great tip!

In the winter, I-79 is slick like oiled glass, so I'd want something that holds the road a little better.

Thanks!

[MissMillie]

19. I join the chorus of "Toyota"

you will get a SOLID toyota for $9K. As long as you take care of it (regular oil changes, etc) it will last you far longer than you need it to.


I have a Corolla. The Camry is a bit bigger (and I believe the highest seller in it's class--for good reason).

[MrCoffee]

23. Don't sell the old car...donate it!

If you can wait a few months until tax time to get the money out of the old car, donation is the way to go. I bought a van to move across the country in, and it was a total piece of crap. I paid $950 for it, and when I donated it, the guy gave me a receipt for $3500!!! I got it all back at tax time. Totally worth it.