Shopping for a used car??

Question

Im a 20 year old college girl and i have been trying to find a decent car for a couple weeks now just to come up empty handed. I cannot seem to find any decent reliable cars that still look good and are not extremely expensive!! Im only going to need one for the summers and breaks for next two years. i have tried different sources like caiglist and autotrader and cars to try to find something but everything i look at is extremely overpriced. Especially dealers. Even though im willing to pay cash it dosnt seem like im getting anywhere with my car buying and i feel like everywhere i look people assume they can rip me off due to my gender(im sure not all but the ones ive encountered) anyway.. Im just trying to find a used car up to 5k top cash thats remotely not old and still looks good (and is not rebuit or crashed etc with miles that are not over 150k).. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I prefer to buy cars out of peoples front yards.  This way you get to meet the previous owner and get an idea of how the car has been maintained.  Also you can stumble on to some pretty good deals this way.  A few hours of driving down the right road and your likely to find something that meets your requirements.

Answer 2

i would say that craigslist is your best bet, but i see you've already tried that. ....just keep looking.  You may get lucky.  Their are new positings everyday.

Answer 3

I'd look for a 2000-2004 Chevy Malibu.  They're just a great all around car that's reliable and fuel efficient, plus newer ones are very reasonably priced.  You can easily find a low mileage example within a $4000-$5000 price range.  They have a 3.1 liter V6 engine that makes a very decent amount of power but still gets great gas mileage.  I think they're pretty nice looking little cars too, and have plenty of space to put stuff in.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

email me!! im sure my answer will help!! :)

Answer 5

for $4,000

look for

98 Acura CL, 98 Ford Mustang V6, 98 Honda Accord or Civic, 98 Nissan Frontier or Pathfinder, 98 Subaru Impreza or Legacy, 98 -00 Toyota Corolla or Echo 00

these are all reliable and will last longer than other cars in this price range.

for around $6k an Acura Integra 98-99 is a great car.

Answer 6

For $5K you have to be willing to make a compromise somewhere.  You can't have a car that

(1) looks nice

(2) not too much milege

(3) in good mechanical condition.

If I had a car like that, that I need to sell, I can easily sell it to the dealer and still get more than $5K.  

So what you have to decide is what is the most imporant.  IMHO the most imporant is GOOD MECHANICAL condition.

Low mileage is suppose to be an indicator of good mechanical condition.  But in reality it is not always.

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Let me give you an example:

My 94 Civic has 187K miles and the engine + tranny + suspension runs like NEW.  It gets 41 MPG on the hwy. It is rock solid dependable (I drove it last year from NYC to Chicago and back - 1600 miles in 2 days).  It is a grandma with couple of dings. It ain't no beauty queen.  But I trust it over my 2000 Audi A4 with just 62K miles.

If I had to sell it, I would not get more than few grands.  NOW that is the kind of cars you should be looking for -

OLD, UGLY duckling in rock solid condition.

Sadly many people buy car based on how shiny the car paint is.  I know because I answer tons of question here and I get to read a lot about their mistakes.

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Also - there was a MSNBC story about the best places to buy used car.  The used car dealer was the WORST place to buy a used car.  They are pros at covering up lemons.  They are masters of negotiation (and we are just rank amateurs).  And if the ever get a great deal, they NEVER pass it on to the next buyer.  

The private seller may not be completely forth coming with all the problems but at least they don't know how to mask (hide) them either.

Good Luck...

Answer 7

You could try ebay. I bought my last car off ebay and I am very, very pleased with it. You can also view the car and even test drive it before placing a bid, which is what I did.

Answer 8

You MAY need to go a bit higher on money, maybe 7K but I would also look for mileage in the 60-75K range. 150K is too much mileage to be deemed reliable.

Try Carmax or another national volume retailer online.

Two week for the search of a used car is NOT that long of a time. Keep your standards up and your eyes peeled.

Also, don't forget the larger car what with the fuel economy issue and all. You can get  some really good discounted cars that are in topflight condition. The discounted price is the reflection of the increased fuel cost which MAY or may not be an issue with you.