I'm buying my first car....what should I do!!!!?

Question

I'm going to buy my first car within the next year... considering I'm driving and need to get my own car. My dad has this '98 Chevy Lumina thats in decent shape... Its definitely not great though. The air conditioner doesnt work, its 2wd, and well its not my pic of an ideal car to have but it would get me from where i am to where i want to go with decent mpg... he'll sell it to me for about $1000 (KBB is about 2,400) so I'm thinking this is an alright deal.

I have $1500 in the bank and my dad will pay for half of any car/truck of my choice.... what should I do?

-take the lumina

-or buy a dif car?

thanks

Answer 1

DON'T TAKE LUMINA those things are so unreliable they will break down right in front of you.

These are both great cars and can be found for around $5000 to $6000

#1) 1998 Nissan Maxima:

21 mpg (fueleconomy.gov)

4 star all around crash test except for rear (safercar.gov)

5 out of 5 reliability (MSN Autos)

#2) 2002 Hyundai Sonata v6 (2.7L or higher)

20 mpg (fueleconomy.gov)

4 star all around crash test (safercar.gov)

5 out of 5 reliability (MSN Autos)

Car Buying Is Confusing And These Websites Make it Less Confusing:

1) Safety Ratings: http://www.safercar.gov/

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

(remember 3 stars or less is bad) (buying used with crash test depending on side airbags is bad because there is no way to even know if they still work)

2) Reliability: http://autos.msn.com/home/reliability_ra...

3) Fuel Economy: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/f*g/sbs.htm

4) Prices: http://www.kbb.com/

5) Places to shop for cars: http://www.autotrader.com/

http://www.cars.com/go/index.jsp

http://www.carsdirect.com/home

http://www.carmax.com/

Answer 2

where do u live?

if it's in the South you need an AC.

but you won't find a better deal on a used car than that.

Answer 3

For 1000-1500, you can't do much better than your dad's Lumina.  Most first cars aren't ideal, and given the choice betewwn the piece of junk you could get for $1500 and the Lumina, which isn't in great shape, but at least you know its history, I'd go with the Lumina - and put the extra $500 towards college, a nice stereo, or getting the AC repaired!!