Thinking about buying a car. Am I nuts? lol

[Wingz]

How is that thing bad on gas? Is it a 4 banger or a V6? Cause I had a '97 Sonoma and it got great mileage, because it was a 4 cylinder. I'm sorry if you already stated why, I just didn't feel like reading everything.

Its all good dude, I know the feeling

Its a 4.3 V6. 18-19mpg is about the BEST i have been able to pull from that. (with the random 20mpg runs here and there) I drive about 200 miles a week alone just for work. Plus other stuff on the weekend. So round it up to an even 300 miles per week (for the sake of argument) that runs me about 60 bucks per week. Whereas the Focus/Cruize I'm looking at gets 30 mpg, and 60 bucks can take me two weeks or more depending on what I do. You add that up and there is an extra 200 bucks (roughly) in my pocket every month.

@steve I plan on selling the truck myself. According to kbb I can expect roughly 5200 or so as a fair asking price. Plus, I just put a brand new rear end in that truck back in April. So I would round up to 6 grand. Working Heat/Air/4x4. Just a few minor things wrong with it.

[Brandon Lutz]

That is a pretty good trade in value for a truck that age.

I just replaced the clutch in mine back in December.

It was painfully obvious that GM put the drive train into the chassis and then lowered the cab onto the truck. Stinking heat shields made it a pain to pull the tranny out and put back in. Literally took seconds to change the slave cylinder and put the clutch in, took several hours to get the transmission back up

[GoMatt17]

My wife and I just bought a 2012 Mazda 3 a couple weeks ago. My plan was to save a few thousand and buy a used car in the 2009-2010 range and get more car (bigger, more features) at that, but my wife wanted to look at new. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

What I did when we car shopped is when to my bank and got pre-approved for used and new and then took that and looked inside the price range to see which interested me more.

We did not follow Brandon's advice on buying a car, but it'll be paid off by next summer. But those are good rules. I'd have wanted to follow similar if we weren't in a position to aggressively pay down the loan.

[rookiechamp]

Its all good dude, I know the feeling

Its a 4.3 V6. 18-19mpg is about the BEST i have been able to pull from that. (with the random 20mpg runs here and there) I drive about 200 miles a week alone just for work. Plus other stuff on the weekend. So round it up to an even 300 miles per week (for the sake of argument) that runs me about 60 bucks per week. Whereas the Focus/Cruize I'm looking at gets 30 mpg, and 60 bucks can take me two weeks or more depending on what I do. You add that up and there is an extra 200 bucks (roughly) in my pocket every month.

@steve I plan on selling the truck myself. According to kbb I can expect roughly 5200 or so as a fair asking price. Plus, I just put a brand new rear end in that truck back in April. So I would round up to 6 grand. Working Heat/Air/4x4. Just a few minor things wrong with it.

Ahh I gotcha. Yeah now that I think about it I didn't have to drive mine 24/7. Smart thinking though, it's always good to have extra cash in your pocket, or enough to at least pay the monthy payment. If we hadn't already found a good deal on a new s-10 for me(which happened today I might add), I might have considered yours. Mine got crashed last Friday .

[Wingz]

That is a pretty good trade in value for a truck that age.

4x4 is KING in Northern Michigan Pretty certain without it, my truck would only be worth half of it.

Working AC helps too, if you have both I'm pretty certain it could be a rust bucket and still be worth 2 grand

[Wingz]

Little update to this story. Talked to the bank the other day and they really advised me against splurging 18-20k on a car since I'm currently rebuilding my credit right now. They said go ahead if you want to, but we wont do that much

So, scratch all the research done, back to the drawing board. Looking for something still great on gas mileage, maybe a 10-12k cap.

Problem being, as I pointed out in this thread earlier, and Steve confirmed, the used car market up here SUCKS! So, going to have to shake a lot of trees and look under rocks to find something I want.

[Richard Hammond]

Mid-2000s TDI would be good for ya then. I'll check the sites in your area and see what I can find for you as an example.

[Brandon Lutz]

My idea about getting the last Diet Dew may still work

[atruebudfan]

If your going used I would suggest a KIA or Hyundai. If I'm buying somthing for 10k plus I would want a good warranty. In the industry right now they have the best one at 5 years/60,000 miles bumper to bumper along with the 10/100,000 powertrian. Mistu has the same I just don't view them as one I would buy right now. Everyone else only goes to 4/36,000 bumper to bumper with a 5/100,000 powertrian. ( Lincoln, Caddy, and Buick have a 5/50,000 one). Just a thought for you.

[Wingz]

If your going used I would suggest a KIA or Hyundai. If I'm buying somthing for 10k plus I would want a good warranty. In the industry right now they have the best one at 5 years/60,000 miles bumper to bumper along with the 10/100,000 powertrian. Mistu has the same I just don't view them as one I would buy right now. Everyone else only goes to 4/36,000 bumper to bumper with a 5/100,000 powertrian. ( Lincoln, Caddy, and Buick have a 5/50,000 one). Just a thought for you.

Honestly, I hear nothing but horror stories about KIA once they hit a certain mileage (usually, just after that power train warranty ends)

Chess: I thought about it, but that woman knows whats better for my money than I do Very very very smart lady when it comes to matters of money. I'd be foolish to not listen.

Been looking around and found a few 2010 Focuses and things of that like, I'm going to wear my big boy pants to the negotiating table though easily going to have to get their numbers back in a normal ballpark.

[Wingz]

My idea about getting the last Diet Dew may still work

Maybe, i'd just have to luck into Dale Jr being around Northern Michigan. Then again, the lotto might have better odds by now too.

Richard: I have thought about the TDI's but around here people just want too much money. Given, I know they will hold onto it and the diesels will run forever, but i'm not plopping down 13 grand for a 10 year old VW with 143,000 miles (seriously, saw that ad on craigslist last week)

[atruebudfan]

Older KIAs where crap boxes on wheels. They have made huge strides in the last handful of years. I work for a rent a car place and we keep cars till almost 50k and we never have them in with a problem, just oil changes and a tire here and there. Put my mother in a 10' Optima and she loves it and have had zero issues with it. It was around 14k and had just over 20k on it.

[Wingz]

Older KIAs where crap boxes on wheels. They have made huge strides in the last handful of years. I work for a rent a car place and we keep cars till almost 50k and we never have them in with a problem, just oil changes and a tire here and there. Put my mother in a 10' Optima and she loves it and have had zero issues with it. It was around 14k and had just over 20k on it.

Interesting, The problems i have heard kinda run the full spectrum, some are older, some are newer but the average I would have to say would be from 05-08. Usually once they hit 100k miles I was told by someone "your best bet is to get rid of it as fast as humanly possible"

[atruebudfan]

Yea I would not buy one older than a 09' that's about when they turned things around. I love the 12' Optimas, one of the best cars on the road today.

Really comes down to what you want and what you like no matter what anyone tells you haha.

[Wingz]

Yea I would not buy one older than a 09' that's about when they turned things around. I love the 12' Optimas, one of the best cars on the road today.

Really comes down to what you want and what you like no matter what anyone tells you haha.

True point lol. I test drove a 2010 Focus today and really enjoyed the ride. I can see where Ford started laying the groundwork for what they are putting out now. Rode REALLY nice and drove nice. Had that 4 banger motor sound but not really a huge deal with me.

Going back tomorrow for further negotiations. Wish me luck!

P.S. Anyone with access to Carfax feel like doing me a favor? Pm please.

[Richard Hammond]

I bought my TDI for 2500 bucks with 260,000km on it and a transmission issue.....I lucked out though

The avg price around here at least is 5000 for a 2004 TDI with all of the goodies and 250 to 300 thousand km. The 2005.5 and higher models are much more luxurious and are overall nicer so they go for easily 7000 more.

I'd say find one with a minor issue and get a friend mechanic to fix it for ya....keep an eye out though.

[Wingz]

I bought my TDI for 2500 bucks with 260,000km on it and a transmission issue.....I lucked out though

The avg price around here at least is 5000 for a 2004 TDI with all of the goodies and 250 to 300 thousand km. The 2005.5 and higher models are much more luxurious and are overall nicer so they go for easily 7000 more.

I'd say find one with a minor issue and get a friend mechanic to fix it for ya....keep an eye out though.

Thats the thing around here. people know about the reliability so they jack up the prices