The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Buying a Used Car
Janson
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My husband and I have been driving his parents' second car, a 2001 Toyota Camry, and today we've been asked nicely to return it and buy our own. We have no problem with that, other than not knowing where the hell to start.
We're not sure where to look, or what our budget should be, or even the best car to be looking out for. His dad suggested a price range of $5,000-$8,000 and that sounds about right to me, preferably the lower end, but is there generally a good system for working out a car budget based on one's income?
Any good car recommendations? I think so far we've agreed that we want something that isn't American-made, that is at least as efficient as the Camry and probably around the same size, too. Oh, and the cheaper to insure the better; I haven't learned to drive, yet, so that's going to be a big issue when I do.
We're not sure where to look, or what our budget should be, or even the best car to be looking out for. His dad suggested a price range of $5,000-$8,000 and that sounds about right to me, preferably the lower end, but is there generally a good system for working out a car budget based on one's income?
Any good car recommendations? I think so far we've agreed that we want something that isn't American-made, that is at least as efficient as the Camry and probably around the same size, too. Oh, and the cheaper to insure the better; I haven't learned to drive, yet, so that's going to be a big issue when I do.
Janson on
0
Posts
If you wanted a little more room, a prior generation Ford Taurus is competent, especially a late model one like a 2006.
I know nothing about San Jose, but I put in the city hall zip code and found some that are what you should look at as far as price/miles as well as reliability. I'm not saying buy from these people because they could be shysters for all I know, but these are what you can reasonably get for a 5-8k price range:
2006 Taurus
06 Nissan Sentra
06 Taurus (different one)
Realize for that price that you are one the verge of cars that are either settled in and were well maintained that will last until you hit 100k without any major problems, or you have the cars that have already peaked and will go downhill from there, where you keep throwing money after them. Just be sure to have a trusted mechanic check the car out and make sure all the fluid levels are ok. Simple maintenance will get a car these days to 100k miles no problem unless there was a flaw in the design of the car somewhere.
Car dealers!! Harharhar
seriously, www.edmunds.com will give you a good idea of what you should be paying for a car vs. what's commonly asked for it etc. Do research there
Don't think in terms of monthly payment. Obviously it must be manageable but I wouldn't suggest financing something out over 60 months because at the end of the period you've paid thousands more than you would've. It's easy to be short-sighted because of the low payment.
Basically you've got the car's price, which presumably you're going to have to take out a loan for (if you can deal without a car for a while, make imaginary car payments to yourself until you can buy it outright, that's always the best, especially for a car under 10k)
The loan has an interest rate. Say you take out a 10000 dollar loan with an APY of 7 %. Every year you don't pay off the loan, you have to pay another 7 percent (so the first year another 700 dollars, then 7% of 10700 the second year, etc.). So you want short loan terms and you want to pay off as much of the loan upfront (your down payment) as possible and comfortable, so interest doesn't accrue on it.
edmunds has an auto loan payment calculator, and google in general will find you some
edit: here's a decent one, http://www.cars.com/go/advice/financing/calc/loanCalc.jsp?mode=full
You can look up your city's sales tax, again, the interest rate is gonna depend on credit and the such, and I wouldn't recommend pushing the term out past 36 months, personally. Remember if you have a down payment to subtract that from the price of the car
Also keep in mind when figuring out what you can afford for a payment that if the vehicle is very old a bank will most likely not finance more than 36 months.
The Nissan is definitely one to consider.
edmunds, from the five minutes I've just spent on it, is a pretty awesome site and exactly the kind of thing I need, thanks!
I have a friend who just bought a 2008 Ford Focus for less than 10k, but she got hooked up by a friend of her dad's or somesuch. I think Ford's pretty much out of their Found on Road Dead stage.
But still, you know Honda and Toyotas are like the highlanders of the car world
Also, Consumer Reports publishes a guide to used cars, and it includes a simple calculation to figure out what percentage of your income to allocate to a car purchase. Most libraries will have it stock, or you can just buy it in any major bookstore, and many super markets.
Also, I'll echo the nod towards Honda and Toyota, and add the idea for a nice Mazda or very recent Hyundai/Kia.
That reason could be as simple and innocent as, "We bought a new car and don't need this one anymore"
OR
That reason could be as terrible as, "There's been a knock in the engine every so often, but it goes away for a few weeks sometimes. Right now, it's not happening. Let's sell it!"
Having a mechanic look at the car is great, but no mechanic can take a car for a 10 minute test drive and tell you with absolute certainty that there is nothing wrong with it.
A good rule of thumb when shopping around is that if the car looks too good to be true, it absolutely is.
If you've been driving it for a few months, you probably know, for the most part, what's wrong with it. And you know the previous owners pretty well, so you have a reasonable idea of what it's been doing for 8 years.
Likewise, his dad has offered to co-sign a loan, but although we could get a bigger loan that way I'd rather we finance the car by ourselves. My only concern is that a lack of credit history could present a problem (my husband's credit history is okay, but he's unemployed, and I'm employed, but I have zero credit history/rating as I've only been in the country six months).
A Bear - how recent a Kia? We've seen a decent-looking 2006 Kia on sale within our price range.
Again, thanks, guys. Edmunds and Consumer Reports are proving really useful and we've got a good range of cars to choose from.
Also, I guess we're not entirely ruling out American cars, but in our area we're seeing a lot more Japanese/Korean cars anyway, plus we have more experience with them.
The newer the better--I'll admit I know more about Hyundai than Kia, but they share the same fundamental underpinnings. In the earlier years of their production, both product lines were sort of spotty, but recently their build quality has really improved, and having that 100k/10yr warranty stuff seems to help. It seems that any 2006 Kia should be at least a 2nd generation car, so you should be ok.
If the Kia is a Rio, its still not too super of a car. Both the Rio and its Hyundai Accent twin are the most basic, $10k-new sort of automobiles that have never wowed me, but I'm sure will provide decent (if not very basic) transportation.
If the Kia is a Spectra, its a twin of the Hyundai Elantra, a great little sedan and a Consumer's Report award winner to boot. My fiance owns a 2007 Elantra and has been very pleased with it.
If its any other Kia offering (Optima, a little SUV, etc.) as far as I can tell, 2006 should be beyond any first generation vehicles where the automaker was still sort of working out the bugs over here, so if the price is right it should be a good deal. Used prices on Kia/Hyundais are normally considerably less than their Japanese competitors, so getting something like a 2006 might be a really good bargain.
I don't know how or if the warranty will transfer from the old owner to you, but check if it does because its a great thing to have and for my fiance it was really what drew us into the dealership in the first place. So the whole "come for the ridiculous warranty, stay for the cars" bit actually worked on us.