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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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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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Replying to: morin2 (Jul 04, 2009 7:44 am) 81 Buick Regal - slow but impossible to kill. 84 Buick Regal - same exact car, different dash. Died in accident. 75 Volvo 164E - bulletproof and simple. No smog. 81 Dodge Colt/Mitsubishi Mirage. Indestructible but slow as a slug. 87 Buick LeSabre - transmission finally gave out so tossed it. 90 Volvo 240. Loved this car. Sold eventually as I wanted something better. 67 Mercedes 230S. This was it. Lovely car. Would still have it if the *entire* engine didn't need replacing at $4-6K. 87 4Runner. 380K on the odometer. Can't kill it - repels yuppies. (plus a bunch of smaller stuff and motorcycles) I've never bought anything new. Either classic or 5-8 years old at the time. Sure stuff breaks, but nothing bad. The average person spends half a million dollars in their lifetime if they do nothing but buy new cars all the time. I won't likely spend 1/5th that.  What are thr criteria? Also, will she drive manual(anyone can learn - that's not an issue, really). I've spent less maintaining my 5 vehicles with manuals so far than even ONE of my Buicks' automatics. This is the easiest way to keep a car running for cheap. And it's a good skill to learn.(plus a turn-on to guys she might date later on - heh) *** As for the crash test - you'll notice that the 2nd row was fine since it was past the crumple zone. If the seats have headrests, it's very rare to have major injuries in a rear collision in a sedan.(if RWD, the rear axle is about as good as an engine block in stopping further crumpling) At worst, they get pushed forward into the front seats which are padded. Maybe break their legs at worst. But 6 inches from the back like a lot of 3rd rows are... yeah... way too close. Get a full size van or SUV if you really need to carry 6 or more people.
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Replying to: demigawd (Jun 24, 2009 11:33 am) Yes, the '03-'05 9-3s had some rather troubling reliability problems, but the ancient 9-5 has been pretty solidly reliable after about 2003, and in your price range, you might be able to get into an '06 9-3 if you really wanted to. Sure, they're not AWD/4WD, but they are FWD and known as decent snow cars. Avoid the V6 on the 9-5 (2004 and up models were 4 cylinder only) and you should be good to go... Generally, all Saabs depreciate like crazy because on the new end they are discounted like crazy since they are (in my opinion) overpriced on the new end. You might also consider a Saab 9-2X, which was basically just a rebadged Subaru Impreza. Given that you're looking in Chicagoland (if I recall correctly) you should be able to find plenty of Saabs, although the 9-2X can be rather difficult to find since it was never really popular to begin with. |
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Jul 04, 2009 4:26 am) 
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Replying to: fritzi2 (Jul 05, 2009 10:42 pm) Another possibility...I see chase and citi offering 0% for 12 months on some credit cards. I'm sure there are other deals like that out there. Also with my existing credit cards I often get "checks" that have promotional rates of 0% or close to it. These deals are never worth it to me, as they have transaction fees of 3-5%, but something like that might work for her, if she gets such offers and has a high enough limit on the card, and is careful to be sure she can pay it off in the allotted time. |
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Replying to: fritzi2 (Jul 05, 2009 10:42 pm) |
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