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Smart Shopper Good, Cheap Beater Cars & Inexpensive Commuter Cars - how to find one?
345 messages, Last post on Nov 25, 2009 at 9:00 AM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
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1990 BMW 735i. Runs and drives great, 225k miles, ice cold AC, nice paint and interior, no major problems. $800 cash off of craigslist. I used it as a loaner until some nitwit rear-ended it. Oh yes.. the guy's insurance co gave me a check for $4500. |
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Replying to: im_brentwood (Sep 10, 2007 10:45 pm) |
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Replying to: im_brentwood (Sep 10, 2007 10:45 pm) 
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Replying to: british_rover (Sep 11, 2007 5:56 am) 
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Replying to: im_brentwood (Sep 10, 2007 10:45 pm) Hey, will you give me the name of the guy who sold you a $4500 car for $800? I'd like to buy one too. |
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Replying to: kirstie_h (Sep 10, 2007 7:26 am) Well, I do mostly internet searching, but you can probably find a lot of Philly cars for about $300 or $400 to under $1,000. Check ebay.com, autoshoppermagazine.com, autotrader.com, cars.com, and keep researching and comparing one car to another and its condition. Also, if you are PHYSICALLY going to check cars and not INTERNET SEARCH, here's a few tips: 1. Check for cheap cars for sale in "rich people" territories, based on your geography. Some guy who unloads $87,000 in his NEW Mercedes S550 isn't going to care about losing $500 on selling his 1982 Mercedes 300 Diesel so you can get a luxury car for about $1,300 2. Check junk yards for cars in good condition and ask the scrap dealer if he has the title and if it is a Clear Title. Cars with "Salvage" or "Junk" on the title is as good as parts only. 3. Keep in mind what junk yards have what. Philly junkyards may have cars or parts for cars that are normally used: Ford Explorer, GMC, Chevy Lumina. Other junkyards, based on speciality- Large Semi Trucks, trailers, foreign cars, luxury cars might help you out if you're looking for a discount specialty car or parts for a specialty car you bought. 4. Check police impounds for cars being sold to the public. There's more $300 cars available, or you can get them for maybe $50.00 And that's a BIG MAYBE. Don't confuse police impound auctions for auto auctions because some might look to make a profit. What'll help get a better selection of cheapos is this motto: "THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM!" Need I say more? 5. Check the top 4 before you check a dealer's lot because keep in mind, he is looking to make money off the deal. So, he could jack up the price an extra $300 to $600 more because A- a car sitting on the lot is costing money because it's not being sold and a car that could get sold should be sitting there; B- Dealers need to make some profit off of selling ANY cars so what isn't getting sold might absorb higher prices to recoup discounts on sold cars; C- the dealer might've had to spend money fixing it before selling it. BUT, JUST LIKE ANY USED CAR DEALER, "WHEELER DEALER," OR ANYBODY LOOKING TO FIND A GOOD SCORE, ALWAYS SEARCH, SEARCH, SEARCH, SEARCH!!! AND WHEN YOU'RE DONE, SEARCH SOME MORE!!! Also, when you arrive at the location, it's best for you to thoroughly check it out without the dealer hovering around you. With cheap cars, chances are he isn't going to look because NOBODY ever really buys them. When you think you've found a solid buy, see if you can knock a little off the price, but if the car's $300, unless it is really crap that you can swap parts out with another car, you might not get much discount. As for the 1987 BMW 528e I bought (it had an original sticker of $1,500 but I got it for $950 as a clearance sale), it was involved in a minor front end accident and it used to have a car phone until some dipstick ripped the console apart, but I lucked out and found EXACTLY what I needed for the car and it was simple repairs I can do at home, so that saves alot of money. And, I think they wanted to sell the car for $1,500, but couldn't find the parts it needed, which I think helped its overall value since its in great condition. |
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It' a shame that this went down but I did free ads for a couple of weeks and got no interest. I had two calls from people that were interested but neither called back when they said they would. LeSabre I really hoped that I'd find a working guy that could really use it because it served me pretty well for two years. Instead it went to the junkyard for 200
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Replying to: gsemike (Sep 22, 2007 9:38 am) I would have haggled over the type of beer and made that offer.
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Replying to: british_rover (Sep 22, 2007 9:48 am) |
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Replying to: british_rover (Sep 22, 2007 9:48 am) |
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