Every time we have checked Carmax the prices have been high. When we bought one of our kids a used car when he was in high school we knew what car we wanted. I checked the used inventory online for dealers in our area and within a 2 hr radius. The dealer 2 hours north of us had the car and beat both Carmax and our local dealer by almost 3000. They also gave us quite a bit more for my old minivan. When our youngest needed a car we found a used car through our independent mechanic. When my oldest was OOS looking for a car she went to a friend of a friend who worked at a dealership that had a section of the lot devoted to cars under $10,000.we also have bought used from a friend of my FIL who cycles through cars every two to three years.
We have sold used cars on both Craigslist and Autotrader. It’s a big hassle.
@oldfort - I know many people who lease. I think they fall into a few different categories. They lease high end cars and can get a nicer car for the same monthly payment. Their business pays for the vehicle. Or I know quite a few who like to drive high end cars and don’t want to deal with maintenance issues and they turn it in and get a new car before the old ones begins to cost them money in repairs.
We never use the dealer for repairs unless the vehicle is under warranty. They are always high and we have found they aren’t as trustworthy as our independent. For example a young man we know took his truck to the Ford dealer and they quoted him $2200 for a repair. A neighbor recommended a independent mechanic and he had the same repair done today for $980. we have found that for most repairs our local guy is great. On occasion I used to take my BMW to a shop that specialized in German cars. My S has also used independent mechanics who only work on Volvo.
When we had Hondas the dealer drove us crazy with the constant nagging to fill out the surveys and give the good ratings. At the time we bought the cars we lived very close to the dealer so it was really pretty convenient to go there but I got so sick of the survey nonsense I quit going there.
I’m lucky to have a very trustworthy Toyota service department to work with at a nearby dealer. I’ve brought my Scion to them since I bought it (from another dealer out of state). They are honest and never pressure me for unnecessary maintenance, and have worked with me to get work done under warranty (or even slightly out of warranty). Toyota just did a recall on my car, which now has 130k on it, and the dealer get me set up to bring the car in for the recall work. It basically gave me a rebuilt engine at no cost (to replace the pistons and rings). Can’t be happier.
On car forums, when the topic of these surveys comes up, it is usually mentioned there that there are really only two grades: the top score = A+, and all of the other scores = F. I.e. there is no way to say “good [or ok], but could be better”. The survey results are used for incentive pay for various dealer employees who are surveyed about.
The people at the dealerships basically said that–we want you to rate us and it’s really bad if we don’t get all 5’s (or whatever). It just annoyed me to no end.
Buy used keep forever. Cars lose such a significant portion of their value in the first year. We usually finance them since the interest rates are so low. Why pay cash if you have 0% financing? We’ve got a 2002 and a 2004 currently.
I’ve had to change flat tires twice. Both times a gentleman came and helped me before I got very far. (Usually staring at the jack wondering how the heck it works!) We have road service through our insurance company, but they can take forever.
DH still drives a Corolla!
One of our cars was a certified pre-owned bought at the dealership, and we extended the warranty on it. Be careful with CPO’s and extended warranties not from the manufacturer-those tend to be not so good. Our CPO and warranty from the manufacturer has been problem free-any time an issue crops up on the car (and mercedes are finicky), we drop it off, they give us a loaner, and the problem is fixed.
The girls’ car is too old to be CPO or to put an additional warranty on it, but I did my research and I picked the car statistically least likely to kill them in a crash, with a very reliable diesel engine, and so far all we’ve had to do is do oil changes and tires/brakes, and it’s got 105k miles on it. The interior and exterior look brand new because it was a local 1 owner car with all the maintenance records. We bought it through a local used car place that has a good reputation and has been around for decades. They have a ‘bring it back if you’re not happy’ deal that’s good for 30 days, and we’ve been really happy with it (knock wood).
Regarding extended warranties-the one we bought for my Ford (Flex) we did not buy through the dealer-we bought it online through ANOTHER dealer for less than half of what our dealer was willing to do. We negotiated everything separately-got the USAA/truecar price at a time (2012) when dealerships were really struggling to sell cars, and if I remember correctly got about 10k off the MSRP, then bought the extended warranty later. We used Ziegler Ford (google them) to do the extended Ford warranty, that’s their jam-they sell a lot of extended warranties at a good price (for Ford cars).
DH wanted to give his 2003 Corolla (with only 50k miles on it!) to the girls, but I wasn’t ok with it because I wanted them in a big car and I didn’t want them to learn how to drive on a manual transmission. Older D is not very coordinated, and I had a feeling (correct) that driving was going to be complicated enough for her to master. Good cars-we drove that thing for 10 years and it never gave us a bit of trouble.
My first car was a Ford Econoline van with manual transmission and a camping set up in the back. A friend and I drove it across the country. I’d learned to drive a few months before. (This was at 22 not 16 btw.) I don’t know why my parents didn’t have conniptions, not that there was too much they could do as the government was paying for our adventure!
@njsue:
If you are worried about pickup, a honda accord would do fine, the accord V6 is basically the same engine in the Odyssey as someone else mentioned, but dragging a lot less weight (plus the Accord I believe uses different gearing as well), it is likely that the Accord would give you as good or better pickup than a lower end luxury brand would. Personally I would go for the Accord, while parts are expensive, one a car is considered a ‘luxury’ brand the prices are more expensive IME (I can certify this in at least one case, the low end Infinity model and the Maxima are basically the same car in many ways, and the same part for the Camry and the Infinity can be 25% more for the infinity).
@NoVADad99 and others
Oh, yeah, the car manufacturers don’t make them with routine maintainence in mind, that is for sure. On my Honda Odyssey, the spark plugs are recessed in a very, very deep well, and the back ones are extremely difficult to get to (and if you get them done at the dealer, the plugs alone are 25 bucks a piece…). Fortunately they only are replaced every 100k, but wow. I don’t know what they are like now, but the Mazda Miata practically required taking half the engine apart to replace the oil filter. The hood latch on my honda odyssey is in dicey shape, I got the latch and the cable for a good price, but when I looked under the hood, to replace the cable would require taking a lot of parts out of the way to run it, so I have deferred doing it.
This is nothing new, GM was famous for that, several of their car models back in the day require you to do things like remove the half the intake manifold and/or jack the engine off the motor mounts to change the read sparkplugs (Chevy Monza was famous for that). You would figure things like bulbs, filters and the like would be easy to access, but they make cars to be put together, not to maintain them.
“To those of you who buy used, how did you do it? Through a dealer? Privately? Did you have the car inspected by a mechanic before you made the purchase? If you did it through a dealer, did you get any kind of an additional warranty?”
- We buy at the dealer, usually with low mileage, preferably under 10k or around that . My used car had only 2k miles on it. All had warranty on them, I do not think that we got additional warranty. But you can buy an additional warranty even for the brand new car.
You might like this video about changing the headlamp bulb in a Renault Megane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCZ2v-nIF4
Learning so much on this thread!
In recent years we’ve bought used cars through a dealer and they’ve come with some sort of warranty. Bu we’ve also bought from ads and had the cars checked out by independent mechanics. The dealer way saves less money, but it’s faster and neither dh nor I enjoy buying cars.
We bought a one year old prius from Hertz. IIRC it had 17,000 miles on it. We got a very reasonable deal and the car has been problem-free. Love that car. Not sure if it was built specifically to be a rental but the only downside we’ve found is that there aren’t any vents in the back seat which can make it hard in the summer when getting into a hot car.
DH and I buy new for ourselves and then keep cars for 7+ years until costs to repair become high. We’ve bought used for the kids, both times a prius. The 2005 we purchased in 2007 from a Honda dealership for D1 is now with D3 on the other coast. Has 135,000 miles and has yet to need a repair.
Several of my relatives buy their used cars exclusively from car rental places. They’ve been pretty satisfied with this way of getting their vehicles. I have not bought a car via a car rental place and have friends who swear that’s the worst idea. I guess you have to look it over carefully and have a mechanic go over it.
We also pay cash and keep cars for a very long time (ex. we have an 18 year old car that my H still uses for the train station and other local trips). We maintain the cars well and have found this to be a cost-efficient way to go. None of us are into gadgets or need the newest technology. I will say that the last time we bought a car (6 or so years ago) the salesman didn’t know how to deal with a cash sale which we found kind of funny.
@happy1:
lol…same thing, when we bought our last car (it is a 2007), we paid cash, same thing, the guy there was confused, I am not kidding, it meant he had to take off certain fees they charge (like a finance origination feed), it was pretty funny. I was actually thinking I might buy another car, my van that is my bus station/local errand car is now at 207k miles, but the cracked windshield only cost like 275 bucks, and it keeps on chugging along, I restored the clouded headlights, replaced the bulb, and it should be good to go through inspection this month. All it needs now is a new cam belt (I am kind of pushing that), and maybe I’ll do the plugs, and it otherwise is ready to keep going.
If you really need a Bluetooth for your older car, get a new car stereo when free installation is part of the sale. I got one for $150 and it made dealing with phone calls while driving so much easier.