Help Buying a Car

Aumni

Ok guys, need some help here. As always thanks for any suggestions/comments.

I"m looking to buy a used car since my current one recently broke beyond repair [Well, $4000 dollars worth of repair] and I found a nice 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE. Now when I checked Kelly Bluebook it was listed at 8385, the dealer wanted 9000. Car was in excellent condition with 65,000 miles. Not bad considering the car also had a good warranty and was inspected, all the recalls were fixed and the carfax was clean. Anywho after talking to a few people who felt the price was a little high I ended up decieding on it.

Turns out the loan I had only covered about 20% higher than the NADA value, which was pegged at $7100. Needless to say I couldn't get it.

So now I'm asking you fine folks, what would you recommened? I"m checking some sites, like carmax, autotrader, and the like.


[I have a loan that will cover up to 10,000 on the NADA value of a used car.]


Thanks guys.

Zeon

If youre set on a nissan, you can probably get a pretty good deal on a Nissan Spec R, which apparently are the nicest sentras you can buy. Check other dealerships, as ive found some of the best buys can be had at dealerships not affiliated with the maker of the car. For example, 2 years back i saw a 2002 nissan spec R with only 60k miles selling for 6.5k dollars at a Mazda dealership. Clean history, everything was in nice shape.

Otherwise, id recommend going with a honda. Theres lots of hondas to be had for that price range, especially Civics and Accords. Check craigslist for your area, i garuntee youll find something you like. Search by price range, and click on anything that interests you. Ignore the ads that say "No test pilots" or "No test drives", as that means theres either something definately wrong with the car or the guys got an over inflated sense of what his cars worth.

Aumni

I'll definitely keep that in mind! Thanks for the advice


I did happen to do some more research and found a few other nissan sentras with the same miles, same year, same everything but $2000 cheaper. Tomorrow I'll have to call around and stuff. I'll also check with some dealerships that carry other cars, although I primarily am looking for either a civic, camry, or a nissan.

Dhalphir

So, your buddet is about $10k?

Its a shame you don't live in Australia.

In Australia, $10k could get you a pretty decent Holden Commodore, maybe a VT Commdore, which is the 1996-1998 model. Mine cost me $5000AUD, and has 164,000kms on it, and it still runs perfectly. For twice that, you could probably even get the V8 SS model.

Gafoto

What do you actually need/want? There are alot of cars that you could get for 10k, some of them more appropriate to your lifestyle/budget than others.