Looking to buy a used car but.......

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Enigma
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Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Enigma »

I really biased towards Asian car makers such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc... But I would by American if they're reliable and have a decent fuel mileage. I'm not interested in Chrysler at all, nor any of its subsidiaries such as Dodge, Plymouth, etc... I've heard more bad than good about them. Of the GM and Ford vehicles, which models are considered to be reliable and have decent gas mileage? The model years that I'm looking at are around 2000 to 2010.

Any suggestions?
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by biostem »

Frankly, you may be better off searching for what is available in your price range and area, then research those to see which is the best choice. Of course, you'll also want to check out the mileage, model year, and general condition from those that you've narrowed it down to.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Baffalo »

Something to consider if you go the GM/Chevy route:

Check the alternator. If there's a crack, expect to replace it.
The starters on some chevy's last about 10 years, before they just up and die.

Otherwise, they tend to be reliable vehicles based on the few I've had so far.

Fords tend to develop an annoying 'squeak' after a while.
A guy I was friends with in high school had an issue where it wouldn't crank in the rain, but that may have been a bad distributor cap.

When you buy a used vehicle, ALWAYS buy a new battery within the first month unless the battery is less than a year old. I've never had a vehicle I bought used have a decent battery, which is ironically one of the main reasons they started selling the thing without realizing it.

Also, never spend less than $2,000 on a vehicle. It's just not worth the time or upkeep. And if your state has it where someone can sign the title over once before they sign it over to you, DO NOT BUY UNTIL THEY GET A NEW TITLE. We had this problem when we bought a car from Louisiana and the guy held the title hostage for an extra grand on a car that we bought for about that much. It was a junker and I spent many a weekend keeping it running.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by TheFeniX »

Ford makes good reliable and fuel efficient cars. Dodge.... ha! (And this is coming from a guy who's been driving one since 2000). GM is hit or miss. Depends totally on the model and year. Same with some Japanesse companies, but Toyota is has pretty high marks all around except some of their bigger trucks which are now getting creamed by Ford in the mileage department.

I finally traded in my POS Dakota R/T for a 4x4 Toyota Tacoma and have not regretted anything but having a new car note. I would have bought a F-150 but I wanted a damned Taco and I still don't have it in me to drive a full-size all the time.

What do you need? Sedan? Coupe? What are you hauling (cargo and people need apply). Toyota coupes and sedans are pretty good, but seem lower than most of what Ford offers. This sucks if you've got a bad back like I do. I love the wife's Ford Escape. It has the storage and mileage, but also doesn't sit 1mm off the road like here Corolla did. Rides nice.

If you're dieing for an American car: I can only recommend Ford. The problem is a lot of these cars that are good for what you need also hold their value quite well.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

Okay, I think the most important question is what sort of price range we're talking here. A range of years isn't going to help narrow things as much as how much you can realistically budget. Also, what sort of fuel efficiency you want.

If price is a big factor, immediately ignore any used Honda you see. They have excessive resale value. Toyota is good to look at. GM is... risky during the time period you're looking at. The 3800 series V6s have a penchant for upper intake manifold problems, so if you find a car with one get a mechanic to look things over. They had some good ones and some... not so good ones. Mazda seems to have some pretty solid cars. If you look at a Nissan, make sure and avoid anything with a CVT. Early on they were unreliable, and even now the upkeep on them puts any other transmission to shame. I don't have a high opinion of Ford, so I'll not say much on them. About the only Ford I'd seriously consider is a Crown Vic since they're indestructible. Ask Raw Shark. Cabbies love the damn things. As do cops. Not so hot on gas, though. So far as I can tell, Subaru are decent. Depending on where you live, the AWD could be nice. Downside of the AWD system Subaru uses is that all the tires have to be close to the same amount of wear, otherwise it stresses components you don't want stressed. Avoiding Chrysler is likely the best decision you'll ever make. This applies even if you've ever decided to not slap an angry rottweiler with your dick.

Avoid any cheap German cars. There is nothing more expensive than a cheap German car. Audi, BMW, and Mercedes tend to not keep resale for a reason.

My other piece of advice is to be willing to go 100 miles for a car, if it'll save you good money. Last piece of advice is to have a mechanic inspect it before you so much as talk price.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Raw Shark »

Napoleon the Clown wrote:I don't have a high opinion of Ford, so I'll not say much on them.
You are dead to me. ;)

But seriously: Fords leak oil, always, the transmission may be a little iffy depending on how it's been treated, and the computer system will die at some point, but they are otherwise pretty solid in general, from my experience growing up in a Ford family and operating one professionally.
Napoleon the Clown wrote:About the only Ford I'd seriously consider is a Crown Vic since they're indestructible. Ask Raw Shark. Cabbies love the damn things. As do cops. Not so hot on gas, though.
The Crown Vic is a very fun car to drive, and is very cheap to maintain yourself due to the ready availability of after-market parts, but the gas mileage does suck as much as a truck. It handles well for a two-ton guided rocket (except in winter conditions - RWD sucks at that without major ballast in the trunk), but can take some very solid hits, and has enough cargo space to cart around a smaller car. You can also get them used very cheaply at police auctions, including with the highway patrol interceptor package like I've got, if you're not in a hurry and wait until nobody is bidding.
Napoleon the Clown wrote:So far as I can tell, Subaru are decent.
Avoid older Subarus. They had major engine problems in the 90s which I hear have been corrected now.
Napoleon the Clown wrote:My other piece of advice is to be willing to go 100 miles for a car, if it'll save you good money. Last piece of advice is to have a mechanic inspect it before you so much as talk price.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Joun_Lord »

To echo what Baffalo said, make sure to get a new title. Also, and this should seem obvious to most anyone, get a bill of sale preferably signed by a witness. Also make sure it runs. Some people buy cars wanting to fix them up as a hobby or because they know the arcane mechanics art and can bring the fallen beast back from the realm of the dead but neither sound like what you are wishing to do.

I had a friend who bought a van relatively recently where he well full dummy and handed over the money without verifying the title or getting a new one and without drawing up a bill of sale. He is out a thousand bucks and with a van on his hands he can't do shit with. All because he "trusted" the sellers.

And he isn't some fresh faced teenager but a 27 year old man child who has bought vehicles before. But for some dumbass reason he bought this van without it starting, without a bill of sale, and without a current title.

I mean all that shit seems pretty obvious, especially the last two. I've known a few people who've bought non working vehicles for cheap but did so because they knew how to repair them. But even then they made sure to get all the paperwork. My friend isn't an idiot, usually, but I guess those details slipped his mind either by the sellers pulling a fast one or him having a Alzheimers moment and forgetting or just not remembering where he has not bought a vehicle in awhile and was out of practice in buying and thats no way to get to Carnegie Hall.

Something to keep in mind when buying a car, don't get suckered by fancy talk or the people saying "you can trust us" or anything like that. Make sure to have a plan before going so very important details like the paperwork don't slip your mind.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by TheFeniX »

If the seller isn't there with a signed title and his own bill of sale for you to sign, I'd walk. There's too many dealers from legitimate used car lots to deal with that kind of BS. If they won't let you test drive it when you have a valid Driver's License and Insurance card: you run. BS happens on both sides though, like when you agree to sell your car for $10,000 and the guy shows up with $9,500 cashiers check and $500 cash. Ugh.

Mechanics aren't always a requirement if you have an idea on what to look and listen for. I know dick about cars, but I bought my 92 Ford Ranger in 2000 under the following assumptions (I may be forgetting some). Heard no exhaust leaks. No corroded out bolts or welds. The transmission gears sounded good, no grinding, even though the clutch and throw-out bearings were about toast. Brake pads were worn, but there was no grinding, a consistent braking pattern (so the rotors weren't warped), and the master cylinder was at least good enough for a 15 minute drive and the foot pedal didn't work it's way down to the floorboard. The A/C and stock radio worked perfectly which is usually a good sign of maintenance and care. The speakers were a bit rotted (they do that) but the cones weren't blown off the magnets which means they weren't pushed to insane levels. The steering wheel was off-center but it wasn't loose and had no "dead spots" which means it just needed an alignment. The engine passed visual inspection and had no knocking. It idled well and had no problems dealing with higher RPMs.

The oil leak, as Raw Shark said, is just kind of what Fords do. I was preparing to have the gaskets looked at, but I instead dumped a bottle of STP Stop Engine leak in it and the engine ran fine for 8 years because you can't kill a Ford Ranger.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Enigma »

Sorry for the delay. $5000 I am willing to spend\finance for a used car and I am avoiding private sellers like the plague. Strictly dealerships. I'm putting aside asian cars for now because I already know that they are generally known for reliability and decent fuel mileage.

I'm looking at cars that are smaller than my 1999 Cadillac DeVille. Preferably 4 doors, must have automatic transmission. Don't care if it is a sedan or a hatchback.

I am also (because of constant nagging from my wife) looking at inexpensive new cars. I am only comfortable getting one financed for around $10K +\- $1000. With that, I've only found one that matches my criteria, a 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage.

I thought that American cars would offer cars of the same price range but nope.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

Cheapest new car out there right now is the Nissan Versa, for around $13-14$k if you go pretty barebones. They're tiny, have about as much power as your lawn mower, and have those horrid CVTs I warned you against. But they're dirt cheap.

For around five grand, I'd say look at American cars, primarily. Japanese cars that you can find for that price will either be at the extreme end of your desired age range or they will have as many miles as there are between the Earth and the moon. Unfortunately, used cars are pricier than they used to be and Japanese brands in general are regarded as being way more reliable than domestic so they end up having much higher resale. Which is bad news for you. Unless prices are unusually low in your area, anything you can find will be pretty close to the end of its life, unless it's a Toyota Camry/Corolla. Those last forever, if they're taken care of.

You could find a mid to late oughts Volvo in that price range, but parts can be hellishly expensive on those. So far, my dad's 2008 S60 has been reliable as far as being able to continue to operate. There's some stuff to watch out for on those. Front end suspension components, for example. They are nice to drive, though.

So my short answer is, look for a well-maintained Camry if you can get enough of a loan to make up the difference. Probably from the old end of what you're willing to look at. Have a mechanic come with you to inspect it. Get everything the salesman says in writing. If they try and stop you from having the mechanic inspect the car, walk away and avoid that dealership entirely. A Camry may not be the most fun in the world, but they really are reliable cars.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Elheru Aran »

I'll throw my hat in.

We are currently looking to trade in both our cars, a 06 Chevy Cobalt and a 98 Taurus station wagon, for one more solid, reliable vehicle.

I would personally like this vehicle to be a van of some type. We talked to a mechanic yesterday when we were getting the Taurus checked out, and in his opinion all vans are a bum deal, though you'd think he was sponsored by Kia as he was talking them up quite a bit. Honda Odyssey's apparently have shite transmissions. Toyotas, eh. American vans, forget it, except older GMC's apparently.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by TheFeniX »

The problem with vans is most of them are built off a car chassis and the engines are generally underpowered for what they are used for. Loading up tons of kids and cargo and driving around for hours on end is Hell to them. No one, generally, buys a van for showing off: so they fit a very specific niche that tends to beat the shit out of them. Contrast to economy vans and suburban types which are almost always built off a truck chassis and have V8s in them with a large amount of torque. Everything is built to withstand all the weight and driving with said weight.

Suburbans usually end up getting better mileage anyway because you aren't taxing a 350 V8 with a family. The few vans my boss had to have over the years for work (I have no idea why he didn't get full-sized vans except being cheap) strained incredibly with 2-3 people and a back full of sampling supplies. The mileage would plummet into the low/mid teens.

Good news, you can usually get them cheap. Bad news is the engine, transmission, shocks, and everything else are usually shot to shit. They might make a nice alternative to a Suburban or Expedition that you lease for 2-3 years. But for the long-haul, you really do need a truck for what people use them for.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Elheru Aran »

Yeah, the mechanic we talked to said you basically couldn't kill a GMC Safari, he mentioned one customer who ran one that had over 400K miles on it. We're not quite looking for anything that heavy-duty, though.

That's a good point about the capabilities of vans, but honestly we aren't looking to use it as a heavy cargo carrier all that much-- it's purely a matter of elbow room. My parents always had large vans as their primary vehicle when I was living with them, so I'm used to having large interiors to spread out in. The compacts and sedans we've been driving for the past few years just haven't really cut it as far as that goes. An SUV is possibly an option, depending on if you can recommend any with decent mileage/durability. Trucks are mostly out as a.) their mileage isn't super awesome and b.) we're working on expanding our family, already have 1 kid, and aren't really looking for the space issues that you have in a truck-- neither of us want a large truck with an extended cab, and a small truck like a Ranger or a S-10 simply wouldn't work.

Frankly the most use our vehicle (whatever we get) would take is just daily commuting-- 5 minutes to my wife's work, 30 for mine. Our work schedules happen to fit each other well enough that we only really need the one vehicle most days, barring emergencies or running errands. It's not like we're going to load it up with 2000 lbs of lumber and tools on a regular basis. The longest trip we would take is a trip from Georgia to the west side of Arkansas (almost Oklahoma) about every other year, and the occasional jaunt to see extended family in Mississippi or south Georgia.

Oh, price-wise? Between $2-4K if at all possible...
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by aerius »

Napoleon the Clown wrote:GM is... risky during the time period you're looking at. The 3800 series V6s have a penchant for upper intake manifold problems, so if you find a car with one get a mechanic to look things over. They had some good ones and some... not so good ones.
The 3800 V6 was solid, no issues at all with that engine. The 3100 and 3400 were the ones that were guaranteed to blow intake manifold gaskets at around 50,000km, I should know, my 2000 Malibu had one of those engines. Blew the gasket right on schedule and dumped coolant right into the cylinder heads and engine oil, if I wasn't literally a block from home when it happened the engine would be a complete write-off.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by TheFeniX »

Elheru Aran wrote:That's a good point about the capabilities of vans, but honestly we aren't looking to use it as a heavy cargo carrier all that much-- it's purely a matter of elbow room.
You, personally, could probably buy a van new and drive it for 300k miles without much issue based on your comment. The problem with used is you're taking on all the bullshit the previous owner put on the van. And in your price range, most of the vans you find are going to have over 100k miles, which is when they go for a lot less because you can't finance them.
An SUV is possibly an option, depending on if you can recommend any with decent mileage/durability.
The Ford Edge is a bigger model of the Escape. I like the wife's Escape, but the Edge has much more room to strech. My friend has one. It's nice, but they aren't all that cheap, even used from what I've seen. Ford Exploders.... Explorers are another option. And you can find Toyota 4Runners for good prices as well, but they are bigger. Both are reliable SUVs with decent gas mileage, considering.
Trucks are mostly out as a.) their mileage isn't super awesome and b.) we're working on expanding our family, already have 1 kid, and aren't really looking for the space issues that you have in a truck-- neither of us want a large truck with an extended cab, and a small truck like a Ranger or a S-10 simply wouldn't work.
The Toyota Tacoma could work. They're mid-sized, not compact. Tacos cost though. Toyota knows they've got a solid truck and they don't budge.

I'd be much more inclined to buy a used truck with 100k miles on it than a van. 4-cyclider cars also apply as they tend to last forever.

The Dakota is in the same vein, but their reliability is a lot lot lot lot lower. However, they can also go for cheap and I have to say even though I hated my R/T, the only "real" problem was the dashboard constantly dieing. You can get 2WDs 4-doors for a modest price used. Still.... I really wouldn't recommend one, even though they have a little more legroom than the equivalent Tacoma.
Oh, price-wise? Between $2-4K if at all possible...
Taco is out. My buddy traded his 2000 in a few months ago. 300K+ miles. 250K of those with a super-charger and large bore injectors. He's hydrolocked it at least once. It looked like Hell, but it still ran like a champ. He got 6K. You buy one though, you can basically drive it until the wheels fall off. The newer 4-doors have some decent leg-room on the back, but it's definitely a smaller truck. Then again, there's an unwritten Texas mark-up on most pickups here, so your numbers may differ.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Enigma »

Napoleon the Clown wrote:Cheapest new car out there right now is the Nissan Versa, for around $13-14$k if you go pretty barebones. They're tiny, have about as much power as your lawn mower, and have those horrid CVTs I warned you against. But they're dirt cheap.

For around five grand, I'd say look at American cars, primarily. Japanese cars that you can find for that price will either be at the extreme end of your desired age range or they will have as many miles as there are between the Earth and the moon. Unfortunately, used cars are pricier than they used to be and Japanese brands in general are regarded as being way more reliable than domestic so they end up having much higher resale. Which is bad news for you. Unless prices are unusually low in your area, anything you can find will be pretty close to the end of its life, unless it's a Toyota Camry/Corolla. Those last forever, if they're taken care of.

You could find a mid to late oughts Volvo in that price range, but parts can be hellishly expensive on those. So far, my dad's 2008 S60 has been reliable as far as being able to continue to operate. There's some stuff to watch out for on those. Front end suspension components, for example. They are nice to drive, though.

So my short answer is, look for a well-maintained Camry if you can get enough of a loan to make up the difference. Probably from the old end of what you're willing to look at. Have a mechanic come with you to inspect it. Get everything the salesman says in writing. If they try and stop you from having the mechanic inspect the car, walk away and avoid that dealership entirely. A Camry may not be the most fun in the world, but they really are reliable cars.
The Mitsubishi Mirage is going around $8.5K(standard transmission) to $10.5K (automatic transmission) new.

Are Chevy Impalas any good, used wise?
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

aerius wrote:
Napoleon the Clown wrote:GM is... risky during the time period you're looking at. The 3800 series V6s have a penchant for upper intake manifold problems, so if you find a car with one get a mechanic to look things over. They had some good ones and some... not so good ones.
The 3800 V6 was solid, no issues at all with that engine. The 3100 and 3400 were the ones that were guaranteed to blow intake manifold gaskets at around 50,000km, I should know, my 2000 Malibu had one of those engines. Blew the gasket right on schedule and dumped coolant right into the cylinder heads and engine oil, if I wasn't literally a block from home when it happened the engine would be a complete write-off.
Personal experience tells me the gasket will let go on you at around the 90k mile mark. My dad had a Buick LeSabre with the 3800 series II that did it, I have a Grand Prix that considered doing it by I knew to watch out so it's replaced.

Regarding a used Imapala, Enigma, it's essentially the same thing as I have right now. The transmission can be sketchy for model years prior to 2003/2004, but they're common enough you can always replace the thing if it starts getting bad. It would be cheaper than buying a knew something or other, anyway.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Enigma »

Locally there's a 2004 Impala with ~82K miles going for $4900 and a 2007 Impala with ~85K miles going for $4999. I'm more interested in the '07 as the '04 has issues that the dealership opted not to fix, according to their listing.

That is my backup plan if I can't get the Mirage. Looks to be a nice little car but never drove a 3 cylinder car, nor one with a CVT (Mirage uses it too).
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

'07 Impala should be pretty solid, as long as it's still in good shape. Find a mechanic that can go with you to inspect it and make sure everything is in good order. Go over body lines with a fine tooth comb to check for traces of body work. If the dealership offers a CarFax, check that but remember they don't catch everything.

Thing to keep in mind about CVTs is that they need serviced more often than traditional automatics or manuals. The CVT fluid is more expensive than other transmission fluids, and if you get even a little bit of the wrong thing in there it can fuck up the CVT hardcore.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Enigma »

Here's the listing for that 2007 Chevy Impala. This is the CarFax report.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Broomstick »

IF you can find a used Toyota Echo you might consider it - I've had mine since 2002, the gas milage is phenomenal, and it's been reliable for 14 years and 140,000 miles and still going strong. You can fit full-size adults in them, and they hold a lot of stuff, huge trunk. One problem is that most current owners know the value of what they have and are reluctant to part with them - but IF you can find one in your price range in good shape either take it yourself or let me know, because I know some people who could use a good used car. If I recall the Duchess of Zeon managed to snap one up for herself and was happy with it.

My Ford Ranger will be 18 next month - again, we've had good luck with it, although it is a pickup and gets half the mileage of the Echo. We've had to replace the tires, shocks, and brakes but it is old enough to vote in this year's election, so really that was just wear and tear. It's survived a lot, including a lightning strike (yes, really - that was the bolt that vaporized the lightning rod, the truck was sort of side-swiped) and construction work. I know you said that the Ranger wouldn't work for you, but it's an example of a Ford that's been running well a long time.

My only other prior car was the Ford Festiva, which we had for 15 years and ticked over 180,000 miles on it. Unlikely you'd find one these days, they haven't made them in years and getting parts was difficult towards the end, but honestly, we've done alright with the Fords. The Festiva was also surprisingly good in a crash - the person we sold ours to collided with a deer at 50 mph. Didn't do the deer any good, and crumpled the car, but nobody inside the vehicle at the time had so much as a scratch. Point of interest: the Festiva was actually built for Ford by a Korean company that eventually became KIA. KIAs are very similar to Festivas. Inside the car you tend to get road noise, and we had to replace the damn wheel bearings several times (small wheels on the Festiva, so more revolutions per mile which meant more wear and thus worn bearings). We were looking seriously at KIAs but got the Ford pickup because it was a LOT cheaper (it was towards the end of the year and the dealer really wanted it off the lot).

Of course, part of the longevity of my vehicles might be the regular maintenance we've put into them. I tend to keep vehicles a long time, I've been driving 35+ years now and I've only ever owned the three I mentioned. YMMV, of course, but I've done well with Fords and with the Toyota.
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Napoleon the Clown
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

Enigma wrote:Here's the listing for that 2007 Chevy Impala. This is the CarFax report.
The steering shaft getting replaced makes me wary, because I can't think of anything good that would require it be replaced. It's possible that it just happened to be a faulty one, but it's also possible the car got damaged. It's worth having a mechanic give it a good going-over to see what kind of shape it's in. During the test drive, get it up to freeway speeds and be on the look out for the steering vibrating at all. If the car feels solid at speed, that's a good sign. Find a nice, open parking lot that you can let go of the steering wheel in and undergo full braking to make sure that the wheel doesn't try and turn on its own while braking. Those two things will help make sure the alignment is good. Look at tire wear. If it seems like there's uneven wear, that could be a sign of alignment issues as well.

Ultimately, though, have a mechanic go over it. Someone not associated with the dealership. The car may have been wrecked at some point, but the wreck was never reported. It happens. Salvage/rebuilt titles can have the listing cleared, if the right steps are taken. And it's legal. So don't trust all is well just because the CarFax says it has never been wrecked. Mechanic, aggressive braking, and freeway speeds to see if there's any unwanted shaking going on.

If you're planning to keep the DeVille then the extra space the Impala would afford over a Mirage doesn't overly matter. If you're getting rid of the DeVille, however, it's worth considering the extra space. Glancing at things, the Impala offers a bit more space than my Grand Prix, and I can cram an impressive amount of stuff in there if I don't need to have anybody in the back seat. The Mirage would likely last you a lot longer, seeing as it would be new, and offer better gas mileage. No car payment can definitely be nice, but so can having a warranty.
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Borgholio
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by Borgholio »

Are you willing to make payments? I would advise getting an inexpensive new car as it would save you from a great deal of worry about whether or not it's in good shape. There are plenty of deals where you can get entry-level cars from Nissan or Toyota in the $12 - $13k range. You can lease one of them for a hundred bucks a month if you get one on special, or put your 5k into a down payment that will give you roughly similar monthly payments on a purchase. I suggest this because 5 grand is not much in the used-car world. You're almost guaranteed to get something that has a shitload of miles or something about to go wrong with it. Quality used cars from major dealerships typically run into the $10k range for a reason.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by U.P. Cinnabar »

Your best bet in a used car would be nearly anything Pontiac. They just...take a licking and keep on ticking, especially with regular maintenance. My mom's '94 Bonneville is still going strong after over twenty years, and it runs like new, while my '97 Sunfire has been driven to hell and back, and is still going; I only had to replace the battery, the shifter cable, radiator hoses, and the oil pressure sensor in four years(had to replace more major stuff than that in half the time in the '86 Taurus I had before the tranny finally gave up the ghost).

It's been Fords which have been hit or miss, IMO, especially anything made in the 80s or early 90s. Any Ford made in the 70s is pretty decent.
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Re: Looking to buy a used car but.......

Post by U.P. Cinnabar »

Elheru Aran wrote:I'll throw my hat in.

We are currently looking to trade in both our cars, a 06 Chevy Cobalt and a 98 Taurus station wagon, for one more solid, reliable vehicle.

I would personally like this vehicle to be a van of some type. We talked to a mechanic yesterday when we were getting the Taurus checked out, and in his opinion all vans are a bum deal, though you'd think he was sponsored by Kia as he was talking them up quite a bit. Honda Odyssey's apparently have shite transmissions. Toyotas, eh. American vans, forget it, except older GMC's apparently.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!
My main complaints where vans are concerned is they are as aerodynamic as bricks, encounter massive wind resistance, get batted around the road on windy days(or even slightly windy days) like a ball of yarn by a cat, and have relatively low gas mileage. They're good vehicles for people with families otherwise, though, like any other vehicle type, avoid (most)everything Chrysler; they're just not very well put together, especially the engines, and their controls tend to be counter-intuitive(seriously, who fucking puts the control for the emergency blinkers with the A/C controls, instead of on the steering column like everyone else?!)
"Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone amongst God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of Death.."
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"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense.”
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