I don’t have much to spend, I’m figuring $5,000 as that is about what I could get for my current car which I am contemplating giving to D. ( although I wasn’t thinking of getting rid of it for a while, however, it is AWD, has brand new snow tires, new brakes, it’s a Jeep, so it sits higher than a sedan)
She needs a car ASAP, and what we were originally going to do to help her, fell through, so she asked me to find her something.
She lives in a mountainous rural area, & commutes at least several times a week to a town about 50 miles round trip. My husband prefers Fords, but I just want her to have something that is reliable.
I know that some people have agents that help, but I imagine they aren’t much interested in sales under $10,000.
D suggested Craigslist, but I know there are alternatives, so what steps do I need to take to find a good used car?
I need help, I have only purchased mostly new cars from dealers.
Go to your library and read the copy of Consumers Reports most recent auto buying issue. They usually have a pretty comprehensive section on reliable used cars in various price ranges.
I’m not as fond of trucks if she’s in snow country. The back ends, even on the 4WD versions slide around. Cement blocks in the bed help but I’m nervous driving my H’s 4WD truck. But I agree about Consumers Report and on-line research to find out the value of the used car and the reliability. I like the (older) Volvos and Audi A4s and Suburus…but none of these are “cheap” to fix. I like AutoTraders dot com for pricing older used cars and then negotiate down from there and I always run the VIN numbers to make sure they were not in an accident or a flood vehicle. I have also bought used cars through the years and for $200 my garage will run all the diagnostics and look the care over very carefully, give me a list of immediately needed repairs (and repairs I need to do within a year and within two years) and I’ve used that to negotiate down the price.
In my area we have an awesome used car lot. I have bought three cars from him and been happy with all. Price ranged from $5000 to $35000. Two Jeep Grand Cherokees and a BMW X3. If you have a place like that – you are lucky and I would shop there!
My suggestion is to look only for AWD cars, specifically used Volvos and Subarus.
Just bought D a Craigslist car in that price range. Don;t be too bound to a certain model, though longevity of the model is important. Toyotas, Hondas, Subarus, Hyundai, are all worth looking at. Despite this, we found a deal on a VW Jetta with amazingly low miles. A foreign student was graduating and returning to Asia. Reviews are mixed, but it had the station wagon, is safe, with decent gas mileage and they can last a long time. Being in too much a rush is not helpful. Agree on Consumer Reports. If you haunt CL for sufficient weeks, and test drive a few vehicles, looking up Kelley BB values, you get a feeling for the market and will know when a bargain comes along.
AWD will help you go in the snow and ice. Winter tires with good tread will help you turn and stop in the snow and ice. But put back the non-winter tires after the snow and ice season is over.
I live in Colorado where it used to be practically required to drive a Subaru – yet my mechanic says they’re not nearly as well made as people believe… and showed me plenty of them in his lot, awaiting work. DH did some research and says the same thing.
FWIW, we live in the city, but we ski, so we drive up to the high country frequently on weekends. We drive regular (non AWD) sedans with snow tires.
H works with someone that fixes up Ford Rangers & sells them, and Ds BF already has a Subaru wagon, and they would trade off.
Too bad Volkswagen bugs ( the original) aren’t being made anymore, they were amazing in the snow.
I notice that a lot of people have full size trucks over there, and I’m leaning toward a truck or small suv, just because you can see farther down the road. Lots of deer waiting to jump out in front of your car.
Our original plan was to give them their grandfathers full size truck, which he has been bugging us to take off his hands, so he can free up his garage, but now, I’ve heard it doesn’t run! Don’t know what it would take to get it going again.
Oh gosh, EK, VW Bugs good in snow? That was what I was driving when a strong gust of wind sent me spinning across 4 lanes of traffic in a blizzard! And they do not heat up well at ALL. Cute, but not snow cars. I grew up in NH and by far the best snow vehicle I had was a 4WD Subaru. We even pulled out a huge sedan with it when it got stuck in the snow. The older Jeeps are higher off the ground but not known for their stability on ice or snow. My family drove many modern VW’s with success using either winter tires or all-season radials. My brother works in remote areas and drives one of those enormous SUV’s with proper tires and has never been stranded. Sedans aren’t the best, but are still the most common cars you see around.
if you buy from craigslist meet seller at police station. whatever car you get, get it snow tires. good luck!
I’ve been long time fan of Subarus but beware of some known issues…
2011-2015 models with the FB engines are known for excessive oil consumption
Pre-2011 models with the EJ engines are known for head gasket problems
Make sure to have those things checked if you buy used.
Luckily, there are a lot more AWD options available these days, aside from just Subaru.
I had a 1970 VW Bug. It was horrible in the snow…and I put snow tires on it.
We live where it snows a lot. We have front wheel drive cars. When I needed to drive in the snow, MY car had snow tires that were put on in November and taken off in April. The car handled very well in the snow.
Having said that, we also had a Subaru Legacy Sedan that was great in the snow. It was 14 years old when we sold it to a friend who used it for two additional years, and sold it again. Sorry, but I think Subarus have excellent reliability records despite what a poster upstream said.
I will say, $5000 won’t buy you a late model Subaru with lower mileage, however.
Best snow vehicle ever is our ancient LandCruiser…that thing is a beast.
Used Subaru is the obvious choice, and there are plenty of them here. Sure won’t be a later model, though. We have s 2004, it rarely breaks, and when there is snow on the ground and everyone else can’t move, we just keep on driving!
I grew up in part of Kirkland where they didn’t plow the roads and we always had snow, and we always had Volkswagens, both bugs and a micro bus.
The microbus was a death trap, we took it to San Diego the summer of '67, but the bugs did well.
It’s true that the heaters were either on or off, so you cooked the backs of your legs, but you were warm.
They also had seals that were so tight you had to roll down a window in order to shut the door.( it even would float for several minutes!)
I don’t think we had separate rims for snow tires, I just remember my dad using chains.
But I learned how to drive a stick in one of the bugs, and aside from a crappy clutch, it was pretty easy to drive.
http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-c6922_ds499417
Of course not a lot of space, I remember having to sit in the luggage compartment in friends Bugs.
But it was better than sitting on a lap.
One of the scariest things I ever saw was a VW bug spinning out of control and bouncing off the concrete walls like a ping pong ball on one of the Chicago downtown expressways in the winter. That poor car went across 4 lanes at least three times. Luckily, the rest of the traffic was going slower and could dodge.
OK, So I need to admit that my Subaru info earlier in the thread was way dated. In fact, Subaru Forester rated as the most predictably reliable car by Consumer Reports last year. Apologies to Subaru. I will now go away so as not to besmirch any other car maker 
Subaru.
Onward, lucky for me, the other cars were moving slowly too. You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes? Well, it CAN. There really is no reason I shouldn’t have been hit by at least one of those cars. To this day I don’t know how they stopped.