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Buying a Car (yeah, yeah, it's another one of these threads)
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I think he was referring to the stanza.
Also, that Astra actually looks pretty cool. And they come with 5-speed standard. Doesn't look like they're out in the states yet though. Not sure anyway.
When I saw the Saturn Sky, I almost fell in love. Then I read they were utter garbage under the absurdly aggressive body, which made me hate Saturn for making such a crazy looking car with totally mediocre guts. But I digress...
Anyway, regarding Carmax, I've never dealt with them, just heard stuff. You're right to be leery regarding Craigslist. I was lucky finding and buying my car through it, but there are many scammers out there. Autotrader generally lists a lot of dealerships, as well as individuals, so it can be a great tool to price whatever cars you're looking at in order to get a feel for value. Same goes, of course, for Kelly Bluebook.
...I'm looking at the Scions now, and going to keep them in mind. Than's got me thinking about the Subarus too. Great, just when I was looking to narrow the field, it got larger.
Some general things. I'm looking to buy used and I want to know if anyone knows the "sweetspot" of mileage to price/value ratio. 12k? 20k? 30k?
They've been out since February. You have a 5 speed standard and 4 speed automatic both using the same 140 hp ecotec 4cynlinder. Saturn is just doing a terrible, terrible job marketing them when they could be saying "hey, we have a fun little compact car that gets good gas mileage right here! Don't look at that shitty Daewoo, I mean Chevy Aveo made for our sister company!"
That's going to be hard, as you could have a 12k '99 Honda civic up against a 12k 2003 Chevy Malibu, etc.
To ballpark, most below $10k are usually over 100k miles, $10-20k are usually in the 50-90k miles, and $20-30k are sub 50k miles.
I generally shop under 25k. To me that is a nice line between avoiding the depreciation hit and driving someone else's car. The true savings starts to come on above 35k in my experience. Still think you should buy the Milan, you have a problem with two-tone leather?
Also, I hear if you buy a Mercury, Jill Wagner (the Mercury Girl) will sleep with you*.
*
I'll give it a shot:
-CD3 platform, used on the Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, and others. A good solid platform. Ford basically let Mazda make the platform and just made it more appealing for America.
-Good American engine
-One of the most reliable cars in build quality and tolerances out there today
-nice comfortable interior, quiet too
-it's only got 14k miles on it, very nice find
the only cons are a) it's built in Mexico and b) it's an older person's car, especially the color Wifflebat found. But you get past those things, and you'll enjoy it.
civic is 36 highway. 36 highway is nothing to sneeze at but definately not 40 highway. also staying in that range isn't going to be easy. most car in this segment get around 30mpg on highway.
you can't go wrong with a civic, but because of the high resale value you won't be getting much of a deal when buying used.
look for korean or domestic cars. not too exciting but cheap and reliable.
if you want to have a bit of fun with your car, get Mazda3, imo it's one of the best compacts on the road.
PSN: super_emu
Xbox360 Gamertag: Emuchop
The ones made from say, 2005 on are. They pretty much copy Toyota and the other Japanese manufacturers (just like dem dere Koreans did with dem Semiconducters, I reckon).
A new Hyundai Sonata should be looked at in the same vein as a Nissan Altima, Honda Accord, or Toyota Camry. The problem is there is still generations who remember how much of a joke Hyundai's were in the early 90's and they have to overcome that hurdle.
But before 2005? Yeah, they're pretty bad. The only reason people bought them in the late '90s was because they were cheap and had that 100k mile warranty on them.
What? Just to ream customers?
You have a source on that because it doesn't make a lot of sense. Consumers aren't retarded, they'd suddenly see if a car they were looking at the year before was suddenly 10 grand more for no good reason. Hyundai would basically be shooting themselves in the foot if they did something like that, and kissing goodbye most sales of the car.
I couldn't afford it, sadly, but I fell in love with it, and will get one someday (hopefully by then there will be hybrid/electric Fits)
I'd recommend a used Prius, but the things have ungodly resale value.
That comparison only applies in Europe, where you can actually buy decent diesel cars. :P (and doesn't take into account the fact that diesel is currently $1.50 over gas, at least here). He wanted 40+ highway MPG. You get that with a tiny car, a Prius, or one of those "Why did they stop doing that?" older cars.
Moot either way, since its out of his price range. (I saw a used old-style model with 100k and a dead main battery and they STILL wanted 10k for the damn thing
To the OP: Lot of car choices have been given out, but the simple fact is you need something reliable and on the cheap. That means Japanese. Nobody can tell you which car is gonna be the best for you, I suggest you go out there and test drive all of the suggestions. Go to the dealers that have certified-used programs, they'll let you test drive their vehicles and it doesn't cost you a penny.
Pricey for a 2 door? Could you recommend a cheaper alternative?
It may be different for used models, but looking at the prices for new:
Scion tC 2D starts at (Manual/Automatic) - $17,620 / $18,420
Honda Civic 2D starts at (Manual/Automatic) - $14,810 / $15,610
Honda Civic 4D starts at (Manual/Automatic) - $15,010 / $15,810
I dunno how important 2 vs 4 door is to you, but there you have it. Almost a $3,000 dollar difference.
Also the Civic don't look too shabby either:
Yes, I have a Civic. Yes, I love it.
Air conditioning
Moonroof
Disc brakes on all 4 tires (Civic only has them on the front)
Stereo and CD player (The base Civic has nothing)
MP3 Aux jack
Power outside windows
Interior lights
More I'm forgetting
Bottom line is that the DX is the very definition of stripped down. To come close to matching the features of the tC you'd have to go to the LX model that goes for 16,760/17,560. Now we're at a more trivial $1,000 difference for the Scion and it still has the moonroof, a better sound system, a 2.4 liter engine (Civic is 1.8) with ~20 more horsepower, and rear disc brakes.
So it's not as clear cut as comparing the baseline Civic to the tC and saying it's just $3,000 more.
Also, yes I drive a tC. Yes, I love it.
I was definitely considering the tC. I think what ultimately killed it for me was that I could get a 4 door Civic for around the same price or less, and that was important to me.
If you don't need 4 doors and you want all of those features it is a great car.