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Buying a new used car - OT

Posted By: mamabear
Date: Friday, 13 August 2010, at 11:40 p.m.

In Response To: Buying a new used car - OT (Stick)

Are you 100% sure you come out ahead buying even an inexpensive used car? One one hand, add up what a bus pass and taxi rides around town, plus occasional rentals for long trips, are going to cost you over a year. Compare to the cost of buying a car, insuring it, maintaining it, garaging it while you're overseas for a month or two, and maybe the occasional ransom from the zombie cave where they tow them off the streets every so often. I won't be a bit surprised if the answer for you is "Buy a bicycle and forget about the car."

But if you really have to have a car, +1 to Seth's idea of taking along a mechanic. I also recommend looking in the back lot at the used car dealer's, where they put the older unwanted trades they take in. Most of them won't sell for much at the auto auctions, and so will likely have to be wholesaled. Back when I last bought an older car, that meant they'd have to take as little as $400 for them. Even if you estimate that number at $1000 now, you can still see how you might get a decent deal in the original price range you wanted. Ask to use their computer to get the car's history, they will let you do that.

If you don't mind taking a bit more risk, another place to look for cars is private sales listed in the classified ads in papers further out in the country. I got that 3/4 ton van with the built-in backgammon board that I used to drive to Cleveland and Pittsburgh from a private seller in Mt. Sterling. I got the '76 Catalina from a private seller in Pickerington. Both were cheap but of course un-warranteed. As Seth said, bring a mechanic!

A risk I won't take, and don't recommend: if it has a "salvage" title, meaning it was fished out of flood waters or found abandoned in some field or forest months after being reported stolen, it's probably got too many unknown unknowns. Let a master mechanic buy it and mess with it.

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