I have to buy a car but I can only afford the used very cheap kind
what is my strategy here
Honk Honk
- nosimpleway
- Posts: 4729
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:31 pm
Re: Honk Honk
We were in the market for a new car pretty recently. So when I saw that Enterprise was retiring a brobdingnagian chunk of its rental fleet I offered my wife that we should go look at them. They're ex-rentals so they're taken care of even if they're high usage, and since they're liquidating for clearance they'd be cheap.
So I went and looked, but she wanted to go look at this other lot that was right by our bank and financed through them, so we were sure to get a good loan rate. So we went and looked and she fell in love with an SUV and wanted to buy it right away. I was pretty sure the retired fleet had at least one for less money, but she wouldn't budge.
Turns out that lot didn't finance through our bank.
So we bought a regular used car, at full price, at normal financing, and then she died three months later so now I'm driving a car I don't even particularly like.
tl;dr: i dunno my dude
So I went and looked, but she wanted to go look at this other lot that was right by our bank and financed through them, so we were sure to get a good loan rate. So we went and looked and she fell in love with an SUV and wanted to buy it right away. I was pretty sure the retired fleet had at least one for less money, but she wouldn't budge.
Turns out that lot didn't finance through our bank.
So we bought a regular used car, at full price, at normal financing, and then she died three months later so now I'm driving a car I don't even particularly like.
tl;dr: i dunno my dude
Re: Honk Honk
I wanted a car that was very low maintenance, so I got a Prius, but the hybrid premium doesn't pay for itself unless you drive a lot. Two of my siblings got Mazdas and seemed to be happy with them.
Re: Honk Honk
Yeah, I used do a lot of driving (16-18 hours over two days about once a month or so, 3ish hours a couple times a week) so I went for a Prius to save on gas. What I didn't expect is that it's incredibly low maintenance compared to all my previous cars. I'm at ~160k miles and I've only had to have my brakes and calipers worked on, other than the standard oil changes and what have you. It's taken a serious amount of use and held up strong.
Re: Honk Honk
Also you live in the UK so quite frankly a lot of the cars we have over here are going to be taxed through the roof because of emissions and gas mileage.
- Silversong
- Posts: 724
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- Location: Michigan
Re: Honk Honk
I helped buy a pickup truck for an ex-bf once that was only like $400, I think that was a fluke of a nice older man basically giving a drivable vehicle away to some young'uns. Never gotten a car for myself for under $8k. I get anxious about dealing with person to person sales so my last car just came from a used dealership. But yeah the two things I know about are "actual ads in physical newspapers" and "used car lots."
- Mongrel
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- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Honk Honk
Joxam wrote:Also you live in the UK so quite frankly a lot of the cars we have over here are going to be taxed through the roof because of emissions and gas mileage.
Yeah, absolutely.
From experience, I'm not even sure most of the models we might suggest would even be widely available over there, or if they are that they would function the same - for example 3- and 5-cylinder cars are common over there.
We'd also be excluding a non-zero number of cars available to Zara but not us. Like, okay, Vauxhalls are just rebadged Fords most of the time (IIRC), but we don't get Citroens over here in any significant number.
Better to suggest generalized principles for checking over used cars to try and help Zara avoid lemons or rebuilt-wrecks than actual cars. In that vein, make sure you get the full vehicle history of anything you buy before you buy it - which I'm going to hope IS something available to you in the UK? It should be something the seller pays for too, as well as any safety certifications required prior to a transfer of ownership.
- zaratustra
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm
Re: Honk Honk
I've had a Uber driver suggest I look at Priuses that were used as Uber cars as those tend to go for cheap. I was worried about they being run down, but if you say maintenance for a Prius is low...
Re: Honk Honk
Just gotta worry about replacing the traction battery if it's really worn out. When I had to do that on my first Prius it would have been $3600 at the dealership but I found a guy on yelp who came to my house and did it for $1800.
The reason I had to buy a second Prius is that I totaled the first one in a crash, not that it died on its own.
The reason I had to buy a second Prius is that I totaled the first one in a crash, not that it died on its own.
Re: Honk Honk
Will verify that Prius' seem to hold up very well. My current Prius has ~190,000 miles on it, and still runs better than my Honda Civic did at 100,000.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Re: Honk Honk
My brobdingnagiest tip for buying a car is to google what size tires, what type of oil and what size oil filter it takes before you buy it and price how much periodic maintenance is going to run you.
I don't know if its the case as heavily in the UK but in order to help with gas mileage over here a lot of full size cars and even smaller SUVs come with 18-20 inch rims and tires in that range can start to get expensive. For example my car has 18 inch wheels and because they're slightly lower profile I usually pay about $600 plus installing and balancing fees for a set of four.
I don't know if its the case as heavily in the UK but in order to help with gas mileage over here a lot of full size cars and even smaller SUVs come with 18-20 inch rims and tires in that range can start to get expensive. For example my car has 18 inch wheels and because they're slightly lower profile I usually pay about $600 plus installing and balancing fees for a set of four.
Re: Honk Honk
zaratustra wrote:I've had a Uber driver suggest I look at Priuses that were used as Uber cars as those tend to go for cheap. I was worried about they being run down, but if you say maintenance for a Prius is low...
This is a variation on what has been my strategy for years: used rental fleets. A year or two old is really the sweet spot in my experience and rentals tend to not have that many miles on them. I personally wouldn't go with a used Uber car unless the deal was really great as I can't imagine those don't have way more wear on them than even a normal privately-owned commuter car, but hey, if you can get a deal!
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