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Smart Shopper What's the best vehicle for my needs?
1145 messages, Last post on Sep 17, 2009 at 12:59 PM
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My daughter, one year out of college and working as a part-time computer tech, needs a car. The one we bought her when she graduated from high school finally died. She has $1,000 - 1,500 for a down payment but doesn't make enough to qualify for a loan. She found the perfect car at a local dealership and they were sure that they could get financing for her but, even with a 713 credit score, she failed unless she was willing to pay 20%+ interest on an 18 month loan that made her payments more than double what she could afford. I'm beginning to think that a repo is about the only thing she will be able to buy but, after hours of searching the internet, I can't seem to find anywhere to go to buy one. Can anyone point this very frustrated, unemployed mother in the right direction??? 
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Replying to: plekto (Jul 03, 2009 6:31 pm) I never knew this, good thing my kids are all grown now, so I only have retrospective guilt for having regularly risked their lives by having at least one of them in that back row of our Windstar (we actually did consider a Suburban before buying the minivan, but it was just too huge, not to mention much more expensive). |
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Replying to: fritzi2 (Jul 03, 2009 11:20 pm) A repo may not necessarily be that cheap, as they tend to be newer cars. A lot of cheap used cars, especially those being sold by private parties, are on craigslist. In my area some dealers that fix up and sell salvaged cars advertise on craigslist.org as well as autotrader.com and cars.com...those tend to be cheap, by dealer standards anyway. In my area there are companies that rent older cars for as little as, I think, $10 per day. Perhaps something like that could be a temporary solution while she looks? |
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Replying to: fritzi2 (Jul 03, 2009 11:20 pm) Here's what to do - get a used car for her for about $4K. Let her pay you back. Yes, it might be a decade old, but there are plenty of decent older vehicles out there. What are her criteria for a vehicle? **** About the rear seat/3rd row.... http://video.aol.com/video-detail/fifth-gear-season-15-episode-1-airdate-0105200- - 9/2589390523 Let it load for 4-5 minutes and then scroll forward to 38:00 Quite sobering. (or go back 5 minutes and see some Ferrari car porn all about the California model...) 
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Replying to: fritzi2 (Jul 03, 2009 11:20 pm) A used car will carry a higher interest rate to finance anywhere. The biggest lesson of this economy is not to over-extend on credit. Save and pay cash. Learn how to negotiate. Here is a personal example: In March 2005, I bought a 2002 Chev. Prizm LSI with 25K miles on it for $5750 after 3 days of negotiating (it was originally priced 10295) at a new car dealer. They were happy to sell a car and I was happy to get a reliable car at my price for cash. I drove it exactly 4 years and another 70K miles without a problem and gave it this spring to my daughter who now enjoys a reliable car. There are plenty of such cars. You need to do your research into her needs and preferences, then research negotiation techniques or go with a pro (former car salesman, for example) and learn how to do it. She will have a lifetime of buying cars & needs to learn how its done. Some negotiations fail & those are learning experiences. Don't fall in love with a used piece of equipment on a lot - emotion has no place in this deal. Once she has that car, she needs to learn to care for it to prevent her current situation from repeating itself. She can take an evening auto maintenance class at a high school or community college. These used to be called "auto maintenance & repairs for women" until they realized that everybody needs to learn to care for their own vehicles. My son is going into his final year of college and drives a well-maintained 15 year old car (Subaru Legacy) with 153K miles on it. Its so reliable that he thinks nothing of driving it on 500-600 mile trips, in fact he leaves in the morning for a trip to NYC. To start your research, use the April auto issue of Consumer Reports & look at "used vehicles to avoid" (believe them!) and recommended used cars. Every library has Consumer Reports. Go back several years. Research here on Edmunds too - its a great place.
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Replying to: morin2 (Jul 04, 2009 6:50 am)
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Replying to: demigawd (Jul 02, 2009 9:20 am) Well, for one, the G35. I've read about many others, but haven't driven them. The zf 6-speed auto found in cars such as the 335i, corvette, and camaro, to name a few, is supposed to be very very good. As for trying out the other volvos, as the other poster said, just get yerself to a dealer and try them on for size. 
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Replying to: carstryke (Jul 02, 2009 3:34 pm) |
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Replying to: plekto (Jul 04, 2009 6:02 am) |
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