My daughter’s car was totalled (thank god she wasn’t in it) and I have to go buy her another one today. I hate, hate, hate buying cars. Just hate it.
Any suggestions? I’m looking for a late model, low mileage Honda or Toyota for under $15k or so, with a warranty.
Auto club has a car buying service, but they just forwarded me to the used Enterprise lot. I’ve always heard it is bad to buy a used car that used to be a rental car. Any thoughts?
Ive heard good things about Carmax though Ive never purchased a car there. Are you set on a Toyota or Honda? I have Kia and have been quite pleased with them. You can darn near purchase a new Kia for 15k
I know 2 people who just bought used cars (check to see if they are in your area) from beepi and from carvana. Both are on-line services, with 7-10 day no questions asked return policies. Both people I know are VERY happy with their purchases.
I bought from Enterprise. They only sell the top 10 percent of their fleet. It was like a new car. What they have in stock varies a huge amount from month to month. When I bought, I traded in a 1996 minivan with 199k miles and a slipping transmission, basically worth zero. They had a deal that they added $1k to the price of the trade-in which made my purchase a very good deal.
Assume you mean the new car still has the warranty. When I first read your post, I though you meant the old minivan!!
The person I know (ok, its my DS) who bought from beepi bought a 2014 Honda with 8K mi on it. Comes with a 185 pt inspection, the carfax and I believe it still has the original Honda warranty. ANd,m it comes delivered to your door on a truck and already registered with the DMV. No standing in line dealing with registrations and plates. The person who bought from carvana was someone here in my hometown (works for our accountant) and she was very happy.
We got a Camry for DD from Carrite. They are not everywhere,but there is one here in CT. The car we got her was a personal leased vehicle, three years old. 39,000 miles on it…out the door was under $15,000.
This included new tires, and brakes, the full gazzilion point inspection. It has what is left on the power train warranty but not the regular warranty. It came with a 90 day warranty.
My car came with the plates from Enterprise but I believe all or at least most dealers do that in NY. There’s a 7-day, no-questions-asked return period. You get every penny back except for the state registration fee.
You may have already bought your car today, but we have 3 Hyundais–2 Sonatas and an Elantra. They are extremely reliable and comparable to Toyotas and Hondas. You can certainly find a nearly new one (with great warranty) for under 15K.
Thanks everyone! Enterprise has a deal right now on 2014 Corollas – $13999 with 12 month warranty. Miles in the 30k range. 2.9% interest. Seems like a pretty good deal. No haggle pricing.
Enterprise is closed today so I’m sitting at the Toyota place seeing if they will match the Enterprise price. Looking into the other options you’ve all mentioned online while waiting for the guy to “check with manager.”
I hate that “check with the manager” crap! Good luck. We found the Toyota dealers to be less than easy to deal,with in terms of price matching. Any chance you can wait until Monday?
How was the car totalled? Is there rental reimbursement (or is she too young to rent? Though some companies will waive that). Don’t let them pressure you. You can also ask to take it home and bring it back (and in the meantime check with alternatives)
Check with manager usually means the sales person cannot handle my husband…he is such a mild mannered, easy going guy , but not when it comes to car purchases. He is a beast ( and I am embarrassed to be with him when he is negotiating ) He is a huge Toyota fan, mostly because his father was a Toyota dealer. In the last year, he got me a new Toyota and also himself a Nissan NV cargo van. The verdict is still out on the Nissan since it already has an issue . He went shopping with his friend the other night for a Kia and was really impressed with their service warranty and also the bells and whistles on the vehicle .
They are hungry for sales , apparently nationwide and they had some model available for finance for a payment of $79 a month
Try Carsdirect.com - we’ve bought several new cars through them and they also sell used - the price is the price and it is usually one of the lowest if not the lowest - no haggling. We bought our son a fully loaded 2007 Vovlo S60 with low mileage very nice car and extremely safe and excellent reviews from Edmunds for about $7k. Even though its a 2007, it still looks brand new and the low mileage should keep it around a long time.
I should clarify we did not buy the used car through Carsdirect.com, we bought it from a broker but would consider a used car from Carsdirect.com had we not found this one first.
Most larger car dealers sell their better trade-ins on site and wholesale the dogs. A large, reputable car dealer does not want to sell you a bad used car since it hurts their reputation to do so therefore I would not rule out buying a used car this way. As for the car itself, I love the Corollas.
I bought from Enterprise too. We are generally pleased with the outcome.
We did find that Enterprise put a firestone brake on the car (and it later gave us some noises.) They have contract with Firestone to maintain their cars.
A mechanic at a Nissan dealer found the cause of the noise and we then replaced it with the genuine Nissan brake (and the noise during braking goes away.) We also bought a set of 4 new tires from Cosco.
It was a Nissan Altima. I think we paid about $15K (or a little bit less.)
DS actually has that car now. We do not expect that car to come back to us and we are not sure how long he will keep that car.