Recommendations for a Cheap Reliable Pre-Owned Car?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jhinton @ Oct 6 2007, 05:22 PM) [snapback]522229[/snapback]</div>

Look, I hear you. I am looking for a cheap and reliable car for her. But I also wouldn't want a car I considered ugly. It's hard to convince someone to buy a car that they can't stand the looks of when they their sights set on something else. We have ruled out the 11 year old Audi. I haven't looked at autotrader -- was looking at cars.com and edmonds. Will look.

Saw a 2000 A4 Audi Quattro. It had leather interior, power everything, drove nicely, engine looked very clean, tires were good. AC needed fixing -- which they said they'd do. There was a cracked rear light cover and rear bumper damage. It was over 100K too. They were asking $8K, but I'm sure they'd come down. We've been reading owner reviews on the Audi A4 and overall it receives about a 4.8 out of 5. So owners seem to love it. You do have a point about needing the time and money for maintaining it. Also, does it need premium fuel?

The only Camry we were shown yesterday was a 2000 or 2001, had some minor body dents, wasn't clean, didn't even have power windows or locks, and they were asking $9K! Also saw a Suburu Impreza. It was a 2000 or something and under a 100K but didn't look well kept at all. Also it had one of those ridiculously huge spoilers on it. They were asking $7K for that one.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 6 2007, 05:37 PM) [snapback]522238[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't seen one, but hadn't really been looking for Mazda. Will look.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jhinton @ Oct 7 2007, 06:14 PM) [snapback]522519[/snapback]</div>

Thank you very much for your advice and the link.
Do you know anything about the Mazda 626? I found one for sale by a private seller -- it sounds like it has been well taken care of. I haven't seen it yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 7 2007, 11:29 PM) [snapback]522598[/snapback]</div>

I suspect you're right. Do I know about last winter's snow! I was trying to get out here for her graduation. Went to two different airports 3 times -- Couldn't get here. Luggage made it out here without me. She was here and didn't even go to her own graduation because of the snow.

It is the land of huge SUVs out here. I've seen quite a few Prii though. Not as many as in DC of course.

Do I miss my little Prius though. I am renting a PT cruiser, which isn't bad. But for the first two days, although I would remember I'd need the key to unlock the door, I would forget I needed it to start the engine and throw it back in my purse! Then the stupid thing locks all the doors, sometimes. When I get out and try to retrieve my bag from the back seat, the door is locked and I have to unlock the door. Although I thought it had reasonable pickup driving it up to Boulder from Denver Airport, it's pretty labored going up mountains -- and it doesn't show me 99.9 MPG coming down all the way! In fact, my average is only 22-25mpg, and I've been doing mainly highway driving.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 8 2007, 02:23 AM) [snapback]522635[/snapback]</div>

I think I thought I knew what you meant!

 

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

I am now back in DC and she picked up her car yesterday. Thank goodness we (actually, I) found one she liked (i.e., upscale) which wasn't an Audi or Saab and over 100K miles. We found it the day I was leaving. It's a '99 Acura 3.0CL Coupe with about 73K miles on it and new (May 07) tires. It cost $7750, which was $750 over my original budget (but $900 less than the asking price), plus a lot -- 4.1% -- in taxes. The whole deal was very last minute and stressful because I had intended to pay with a credit card but he was a one-man operation and didn't take credit cards. I had the money in the bank, but didn't have a branch out there so had to arrange for a wire transfer after I got back. Then there were a number of other little setback and hurdles, which are too numerous to mention. I left the dealer on Tuesday about 2pm, had to drop my daughter back at her apartment in Broomfield (near Boulder), and make a 4:30 flight from Denver. I arrived at the gate as my flight was boarding.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 12 2007, 01:24 PM) [snapback]524702[/snapback]</div>

Thanks -- I THINK it's a good deal. I haven't found anything comparable in that price range. How would one know if one's transmission is about to go out? I did see a couple of complaints about transmission failures in customer reviews for that model car, but overall it received pretty high ratings (4.8 out of 5). But then so did the Audi!

Wow - 13%! Mind you, I'm not sure what the total taxes and registration fees are going to be. The 4.1% was for state sales tax plus something else. She has a 60-day registration, but will then have to pay for a permanent one. Apparently the amount depends on the county. I looked on the Colorado DMV website but it does not tell you how much it's going to be!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SW03ES @ Oct 12 2007, 11:20 PM) [snapback]524980[/snapback]</div>

I didn't think of that either at first. My daughter, as most of you who've been following this thread have probably realized, has champagne tastes on a tapwater budget. And she also had her heart set on an Audi, or something like that, because she's been driving her friend's and is used to the tight handling and general look and feel. I arrived last Friday in Denver/Boulder and started looking that afternoon. We found out then that car dealerships aren't allowed to operate on Sunday in Colorado!! So we looked Friday afternoon, all day Saturday, took the day off on Sunday to go to the mountains, and resumed the search on Monday. By Monday night I was pretty discouraged about finding anything. At around 5:30 that evening, after having driven quite a way to see a Sentra only to find out it had been sold, we decided to go and see an Acura which she had expressed an interest in -- but when we called to find out where it was, we found out it was about an hour from Denver, so we weren't able to make it there before closing.

That night I decided to raise the maximum price from $8K to $9K, hoping that it would give us a better chance of getting something closer to what we were looking for. The Acura came up and it was not too far from where I was staying. She called the dealer and at first he said that he wouldn't be able to show it this morning because he wasn't at his dealership and it wasn't ready. But she told him that we were under a time constraint. After 10 minutes he called back and told her it was actually at his house -- his wife had been driving it -- so we could go there and look at it. We did that -- and it really wasn't ready to be shown -- quite dirty both inside and out -- but we test drove it anyway. She decided she liked it. It's really a very long convoluted story after that about how I made a deal with him, how he was able to get it cleaned up in time, and how we were able to arrange payment since he didn't take credit cards.

Something then happened that had me freaked out for a while. Although I had told him I needed to see the CARFAX report, he didn't have it printed out, and then we forgot to ask to look when we were at his office making the deal. We only remembered after we had made the deal and left. My daughter called him and asked him to email it to her but he said that he was having computer problems and couldn't do that, but offered to bring it by in the evening, which she declined, since she didn't want him coming over to her place at night. He read it to her over the phone and apparently it was okay.

I had returned late Tuesday night to DC (having just made it to the airport on time). I had given him a $300 cash deposit and had said I'd wire the rest the next morning. However, I was feeling uncomfortable about not having seen the CARFAX report. So the next morning I paid the $25 and brought up the CARFAX to see for myself. It looked okay, except that nothing had been reported after 2003. THEN, I saw it! The "last reported mileage" was in 2003 from an emissions inspection station, and it said it was over 79K!! (Remember, this car was advertised at 71K). I freaked out and called the dealer. Well, to make a long story short, during which time we both nearly broke the deal, he managed to convince me that that it was most likely a mistake when reported to CARFAX. He emailed the title to me, which said 71K, and read me the mileage from the May 2007 tire receipt (69K) and also found a 2005 emissions test receipt that showed 53K.

Well, after still further delays, trials, and tribulations with my bank (as a result of this experience I'm switching banks), it's all done and paid for and my daughter has her car. I'm still wondering though, how likely is the scenario that someone turned back the odometer between 2003 and 2005? :huh: