Used cars are not good deals any more!

[Coronita]

[quote=squat250]i have been having strong feelings of mortality in my car, as never before. I spend more time on a risky two lane road.

Have you all read the iihs mortality figures by model car? Honda Acccord does extremely well.

Course it may just be the broing ass safe dudes self select and all buy honda accords. Still, the numbers are the numbers.

Is it too late to put that drain plug in if I’ve already had someone strip the threads and an oversized plug is in?[/quote]

RE: drain plug..You probably need to get a larger drain plug than the one that was originally designed for your car…

Honestly though, after spending $3000+ in maintenance in 18 months on a car that couldn’t be sold for that much, it just ends up becoming a money pit… It doesn’t matter how reliable your civic is…It no longer makes sense to keep it… Just wait until you need to get your timing belts done on that car…Hondas will run you a good amount for that because what they have to do to get to it. So rather than actually do the repair work, just wait until the belt snaps and you have a catastrophic engine failure. Unless you’re good at doing your own repairs, getting stuff done like re-uphostery etc is just throwing money away.

I saw an add recently for a brand new Toyota Corolla lease and it was like $99/month, with a initial drive off of like $1200. I’m not suggesting you go that route, but seriously, you’re $3k in repairs of your civic could have paid for almost 2.5 years worth of lease on a new corolla. Sure, any car you can keep for XXX,XXX miles…If you throw enough dollars at it…

The Kia also did well in the IIHS tests…

[scaredyclassic]

well, to be fair, the $3,000 in “repair” includes a new timing belt at 240,000 miles 8,000 miles ago, a tire, and some other maintenance type items. so probably it’s far less than 3,000$ in actual repairs.

I think what happens is you just want to be done with something all of a sudden and see a stack of receipts….

[scaredyclassic]

i did geta free muffler this year from midas with a warranty from 1993.

and it always passes smog.

I had every single receipt the car ever had, including the original sales brochure from 1988, but i threw most of it away when i moved, except for the last 7 years of receipts and some warranty stuff.

but…the radiator sprang a leak. the heater core expired. some suspension problems. starter problem…other stuff…i was rear ended in 93 on the freeway, and it’s a little crumpled, but the frame is straight. but still. the car was close to totalled 20 years ago…

[Coronita]

[quote=squat250]i did geta free muffler this year from midas with a warranty from 1993.

and it always passes smog.

I had every single receipt the car ever had, including the original sales brochure from 1988, but i threw most of it away when i moved, except for the last 7 years of receipts and some warranty stuff.

but…the radiator sprang a leak. the heater core expired. some suspension problems. starter problem…other stuff…i was rear ended in 93 on the freeway, and it’s a little crumpled, but the frame is straight. but still. the car was close to totalled 20 years ago…[/quote]

Sounds like my audi
.

You will never be done with something until you reach a point that you no longer care.

[svelte]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=ocrenter]Agree, toyota and Lexus barely depreciate, not worth it to buy used. Euro luxury brands depreciate like mad the first 3-4 years[/quote]

Toyota and Lexus DO depreciate after the Certified Used period is over or they no longer qualify for it. Toyota Motor Co has extended this period up to the last eight model years, depending on mileage and condition of vehicle.

ocrenter, you might be SHOCKED at the good Toyota/Lexus deals for model years 2004 and older, ESP if paying cash or purchasing from a private party.[/quote]

My son bought a 89 Lexus LS400 for $4K last year. 160K miles, faded paint, cracked dash pad, a few rock chips but otherwise in good shape.

I’d say that is quite a bit of depreciation on a car that sold new for $35-40K.

The general rule is that car value will bottom out at 25% after 10 years. That LS400 was down to about 10% of its original purchase price.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=svelte]My son bought a 89 Lexus LS400 for $4K last year. 160K miles, faded paint, cracked dash pad, a few rock chips but otherwise in good shape.

I’d say that is quite a bit of depreciation on a car that sold new for $35-40K.

The general rule is that car value will bottom out at 25% after 10 years. That LS400 was down to about 10% of its original purchase price.[/quote]

svelte, would you agree that your son couldn’t have found a better-running car for $4K?

Has he taken it out on the open road, yet?

[spdrun]

Plenty of old German cars down to 10% of value as well. Yeah, they get a bad rap, but if you buy the right one, it can be very trouble-free.

i.e. the default state of old VW and Merc diesels is “running”, no electrical system needed 🙂 Combined with a manual transmission, the drivetrains are very close to impossible to kill.

[svelte]

[quote=bearishgurl]

svelte, would you agree that your son couldn’t have found a better-running car for $4K?

Has he taken it out on the open road, yet?[/quote]

Someone pulled out in front of him and totaled it.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=svelte][quote=bearishgurl]

svelte, would you agree that your son couldn’t have found a better-running car for $4K?

Has he taken it out on the open road, yet?[/quote]

Someone pulled out in front of him and totaled it.[/quote]

That’s a shame. He likely only got $2500 from the ins co (assuming the other party was insured or he had UIM coverage). Hopefully, he had a bill of sale to present to the ins co.

The bodies on these cars have many layers and are VERY expensive to fix.

[spdrun]

Book value on an LS in good condition seems to be about $3000-$3300, which comes closer to $4k. Especially if you can part out the totaled car after buying it back.

When my car was totaled, I got book value, which was a few grand greater than the purchase price, less $250 for scrap value of the car. Plus a 10-day rental voucher. So this works both ways.

Insurance companies tend to go by book rather than purchase price, since making an aggrieved party whole means giving them the actual value of a destroyed item. Whether book value = actual value is another open question 🙂

[scaredyclassic]

i went out and test drove an accord this morning with my wife. i got a free $25.00 visa card for doing it. the salesman looked kinda young which means im old. and i was driving a car that my wife said looked like only an old person would buy. we looked at the available colors and she said, “old people colors”.

She said i looked old walking around peering in the windows.

So how do i get the best deal on these things?

[spdrun]

Find an ugly color or a demo with a REAL transmission (read, not a 2-pedal sissymatic) and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Find an ugly color or a demo with a REAL transmission (read, not a 2-pedal sissymatic) and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.[/quote]

I’m sure there are ugly colors and maybe even a 2011 still left but they are unfortunately all probably “sissymatics,” spdrun. Very, very few newer models these days which are sold in the US have std transmissions anymore. With that said, I learned to drive on a “3 on a tree.” ;=D

squat250 (aka walterwhite and scaredycat) has been used to “negotiating” every day for his clients for years. He HAS TO or the “system” would be clogged unmercifully and CA would end up having to build and staff more Big Houses for them to reside in ;=}

see: http://piggington.com/user/publicdefender

CA taxpayers simply cannot afford this anymore.

squat will find a way to make a deal on a Honda. This is small potatoes to him.

[Coronita]

[quote=squat250]i went out and test drove an accord this morning with my wife. i got a free $25.00 visa card for doing it. the salesman looked kinda young which means im old. and i was driving a car that my wife said looked like only an old person would buy. we looked at the available colors and she said, “old people colors”.

She said i looked old walking around peering in the windows.

So how do i get the best deal on these things?[/quote]

Step 1 and go to L.A. (or yet, call up LA dealers and start asking for pricing.)

Or Step 2

Try to use truecar.com

Don’t buy a demo…People like I know who get them as service vehicles end up thrashing them big time… Especially if we’re pissed at the dealer who was servicing their car…There were times my buddies were pissed at equally crappy honda dealer.. He drove with the parking brake on throughout the entire time he had the car.. Put the shittiest gas he could find, put the car in reverse when it was going forward at about 30mph (the car came to stop really really fast)…. Redlined the sucker in neutral…In other words, the dude. Did doughnuts in a parking lot, turned off traction/esp and slammed on the brakes many many times, to try to bald out the tires..The list went on and on… I felt bad for whoever was gonna buy that demo after he was done with it.

Lastly, in my experience. The salesmen from most slimmy to least would be

1. Toyota sales
2. Honda sales
3. Audi sales
4. BMW sales (except Beverly Hills BMW…Assholes)
5. Mercedes sales

BTW: I really hope you’re not planning to spend $30k on a Accord…..

[spdrun]

Actually, quite a lot of US-market cars still offer transmissions that aren’t designed for the lame and stupid.

Off the top of my head:
Quite a few Nissan cars (Versa?), smaller Toyotas, some BMWs, 4-cyl Subarus, Honda Civic/Accord, Chevy Cruze, Ford Fusion (4-cyl) and Fiesta, Dodge Dart, almost all Mazdas, bunch of small Hyundais and Kias, almost all Porsches (of course), VW Jetta and Golf, Buick Regal, even an SLK Mercedes.

Problem is that you practically have to grab a dealer by the b@lls and start twisting to get them to special order one.

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