Buying a used car

  On 8/10/2012 at 8:30 PM, tontonz said:

to joshuatx: the dealership offers extended warranty on top of the manufacturers warranty if applicable. but I would need to get it through a third party which will have additional costs. any idea what kind of prices i'll be running into?

Mine is a third party warranty, they're called First Guard and based in Texas, no idea if they're nationwide. I didn't use them for almost 3 years but when I dug up my account info they were actually quite prompt and professional. I forget the coverage cost exactly: it was added to the total I paid the dealership. So basically it just bumped up my monthly car payments a little bit. It was a least 1k, maybe $1500. This was also back in 2009. It hasn't paid itself off yet but it came in handy with the A/C repair.

  On 8/10/2012 at 8:30 PM, tontonz said:

Told the acura lady that if she threw in naked pics with the car, i would be more interested in buying it. See how she responds.

Sounds like a Zapp Brannigan-esque negotiation technique

  On 8/13/2012 at 12:52 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

  On 8/11/2012 at 9:23 AM, abusivegeorge said:

My suggesttion would be to look for a Ford Focus, relatively cheap second hand, incredibly relaible, fastest front wheel drive cars for their class, economical and safe. I know of 3 owners with 98 Focus' on over a million miles.

 

You gotta be fucking kidding me....a million miles? I really wish I knew jack shit about cars.

One of them is a taxi driver in the states, he has a European import 98 1.8 75hp diesel, they will run forever with the necessary engine maintenance

There is a Volvo P-1800 owned by Irvin Gordon with 2.7 million miles on it

A famous dude recently sold his Cadillac with 1.6 million miles on it, but I can't remember his name.

It's really easy to rack up those miles, a 14 year old car, with the driver who does 70k a year, keeps it maintained and buys the right car, piece of piss really.

So, got this for half the blue book value listed from a friend of my dad's, who owns a used car dealership. Used to be his daughter's but she moved away to Ole Miss.

Its a 2000 Lexus RX300 V6 AWD with 165k miles on it, 1 owner, properly maintained with no accidents. Got real lucky this one, and glad to say it drives like a steel pterodactyl

Unfortunately its not very gas savvy, but it sports a nice powerdrive and overdrive feature.

  On 8/12/2012 at 10:55 AM, abusivegeorge said:

My suggestions, of non V8 conformity: Honda Civic/Accord, Mazda RX8 or 3/6 series, BMW 3/5 series, Ford Focus/Mondeo,

 

Any of the above will be reliable, cheapish (possibly barring the RX8) to maintain, easily affordable, capable of much mileage, fun to drive, safe and comfortable.

As a former owner of a used BMW 3 series, I'd rather shoot myself in the face then buy another BMW outside of warranty. You'd have to be a serious fucking masochist with money to burn. I'm not sure if $2k every 3 months for out of warranty repairs is easily affordable or a mark of reliability.

Also, if you buy a pre-owned BMW, you run at least a 98 percent chance of the former owner being a complete douchebag who drove the thing like it was an extension of his cock until some minor fault in the cooling system occurred and the alumin(i)um engine started to warp in subtle ways that will be revealed in your third month of ownership through really interesting cascading failures at 75 mph.

Oh my fucking christ do not buy a BMW unless you are a mechanic with access to BMW parts at wholesale prices.

It did get surprisingly good highway mileage, though.

Edit: re: million mile cars: there are a ton of old early 80s W123 Mercedes Diesels out there with over a million miles. Mine had about 390,000 miles when I retired it. My dad had one with about 600,000. Fucking great cars. I still miss my slow as fuck 240 D. You could fix that engine just by looking at it sternly.

To find the best deal in your area, I'd find a trend for a popular type of car for that area. If you're in MO Volvo's may not be a popular brand and may go for more used in your area then they would in some where like New England or the west coast. A car model that seems to be around a lot in your area will probably be cheaper because there are a lot of them in the local used market. If you just want a solid reliable car get a honda and toyota sedan. There's a million of them in the midwest and maintenance is cheap and easy.

Also on the Ford Focus recommendation. I'd mostly say fuck no to that. Look up the year, many of the years are just god awful. A million recalls tons of defective parts. Only some of the recent ones are worth it, which you wont find used for cheap.

  On 9/13/2012 at 10:08 PM, Glass Plate said:

To find the best deal in your area, I'd find a trend for a popular type of car for that area. If you're in MO Volvo's may not be a popular brand and may go for more used in your area then they would in some where like New England or the west coast. A car model that seems to be around a lot in your area will probably be cheaper because there are a lot of them in the local used market. If you just want a solid reliable car get a honda and toyota sedan. There's a million of them in the midwest and maintenance is cheap and easy.

Beware of Honda 1.8L engines. They're notorious for having head gaskets go out around 120,000 miles.

  On 9/12/2012 at 11:12 PM, baph said:

  On 8/12/2012 at 10:55 AM, abusivegeorge said:

My suggestions, of non V8 conformity: Honda Civic/Accord, Mazda RX8 or 3/6 series, BMW 3/5 series, Ford Focus/Mondeo,

 

Any of the above will be reliable, cheapish (possibly barring the RX8) to maintain, easily affordable, capable of much mileage, fun to drive, safe and comfortable.

 

As a former owner of a used BMW 3 series, I'd rather shoot myself in the face then buy another BMW outside of warranty. You'd have to be a serious fucking masochist with money to burn. I'm not sure if $2k every 3 months for out of warranty repairs is easily affordable or a mark of reliability.

 

Also, if you buy a pre-owned BMW, you run at least a 98 percent chance of the former owner being a complete douchebag who drove the thing like it was an extension of his cock until some minor fault in the cooling system occurred and the alumin(i)um engine started to warp in subtle ways that will be revealed in your third month of ownership through really interesting cascading failures at 75 mph.

 

Oh my fucking christ do not buy a BMW unless you are a mechanic with access to BMW parts at wholesale prices.

 

It did get surprisingly good highway mileage, though.

 

 

Edit: re: million mile cars: there are a ton of old early 80s W123 Mercedes Diesels out there with over a million miles. Mine had about 390,000 miles when I retired it. My dad had one with about 600,000. Fucking great cars. I still miss my slow as fuck 240 D. You could fix that engine just by looking at it sternly.

I am not sure of the build quality of BMW in the states, I'm aware that a lot of models from many manufacturers differ greatly from country to country. For example, when I went to Spain, the Focus we rented had a totally different 1.6 litre engine model in it compared to the ones we get here in the UK, the power was only 60hp for a start which is half as much as the 1.6's here. BMW's in Europe are incredibly reliable, and I do know that the parts used and manufactured here are far stronger and reliable than the ones sent/made in Japan, and cost about twice as much. Second hand BWM's are the second highest purchased car, in the used car market here, I have been a part of the motor industry here now for ten years, and the biggest problems they have are electrical difficulties, and even then it's not major repairs. So by the sounds of it it's most likely a difference in parts from the states. Which could also explain the difference in mpg too, they are about average here, if not slightly under their competitors. Europe does tend to go for power and handling over economy though.