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Smart Shopper Selecting and Buying My First Car
764 messages, Last post on Aug 17, 2009 at 12:29 PM
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Thank you all very much for your input. It's very helpful to me to know I'm getting some impartial advice from those more knowledgable than myself. jlawrence, that's a good point about trying the cars themselves. That's the next step for me I think. I'm going to try to go this afternoon with my wife to see and drive the Prizm and the Protege. As you can probably tell from the links, it looks like the Prizm is being sold by a dealer and the Protege by a private party. Do you have any advice for this stage of evaluation? Should I try to have the cars inspected? After I choose one, perhaps? Should I try to bargain for a better price from one or both? I also signed up for CARFAX at this point, and ran the Prizm through (I emailed the owner of the Protege for the VIN but haven't gotten it yet). It turns out the Prizm is a former rental vehicle. Is this good, bad, neutral? Is there a reason they wouldn't list this in the ad? Here's a link to the report for the Prizm. I really appreciate your input.
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I just found another interesting one. It seems like a good deal (too good?). The ad says "Nissan GXE" which I think means Sentra. $6200 - 2002 Nissan Sentra 38k miles automatic link Would you choose this one over the Prizm and Protege?
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Replying to: latham (Feb 17, 2005 9:47 am) -Mathias |
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Replying to: latham (Feb 17, 2005 9:36 am) YOU are paying for the inspection ($75 or so). How many do YOU want to have inspected? Generally, the car has to pass by me first. If I don't like the looks or the drive, the mechanic will not see it. |
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I just got this reply from the owner of the Protege: Hi, it has a salvage title, But the car has no accident I bought it from auction it was missing the seats, wheels, stereo ,and the driver side wendow was broocking so I got the seats the wheels with new tires the stereo and new window. you can come over and check it your self and you are more then welcome to take it to any mechanic to check it for you to see if the car ever had any accident or not so this is like a clean title car and you are getting it for very less price cuase the blue book for this car is $7300. And I'm selling it cuase I bought one more car together with this car from auction and the other one is a 1999 toyota corolla CE and it dosen't matter wich one I sell cuase they both good cars if you want the corolla this one had a very miner damge from the driver side fender so I got it fixed and painted It has 107000 miles and i'm asking $4650 this car is also nice and very clean so please think about it Like I said take it a mechanic then you'll know if I'm writh or not. Is a salvage car just not worth considering? In any case, I guess I'll pursue the Prizm now. What about it being a rental?
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Replying to: latham (Feb 17, 2005 12:33 pm) I'm no big fan of ex-rentals either, but it's a $5-6 car, not a $15 car... so check it over really good, take a flashlight and peek in the cyl head through the oil filler & past the baffle.. if it's clean there, it's been maintained. There isn't much else to look for in terms of long-term concerns. Short-term, if someone broke something, it's broke now, so have it looked at closely by a mechanic you have reason to believe is competent. Check for all the VIN stickers to make sure it hasn't been severely crunched and rebuilt... a little q-panel repaint ain't a big deal, though... Good luck, -Mathias
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Replying to: steine13 (Feb 17, 2005 12:41 pm) Thanks so much for your help. |
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Seller seems honest, but if you go for it just consider it a beater and drive it to the ground. Don't plan on selling, as you see from the sample here few people want a salvaged car. -juice
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Replying to: ateixeira (Feb 17, 2005 1:38 pm) Just say no to a salvage car.. especially since you want to buy a car to last for ten years.. |
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As I mentioned earlier, avoid salvage cars. Actually, I think used rental cars could be a good buy. Just don't look for high resale when you want to trade it in. eBay has Taurii on the cheap, and most are former rentals. For a used rental car, try to find one with more equipment and lower miles. Most rentals were probably base models. (unless you search really hard)
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