Well for the past 6 months ive been driving my aunts malibu because shes
been living in canada the past 4 and a half months, but now shes coming
back. I am in the market to purchase a reliable used vehicle that will
last me through college and even beyond. All these so called car
salesmen have recommened that i purchase a brand new car to get a
reliable one, but is that really necessary? Do i really want to spend
the net 5 years of my life making car payments? That's a long time. Now
right now i have about 4500 to put down on a vehicle. My question is, do
i really need to get a brand new car to get a reliable one?

On the other hand i have seen some really really clean 4-5 year old
vehicles with low miles. For eample i saw this really clean honda civic
2002 with only 39,000 miles going for about 8,500, but sadly i missed
out on that. Even if i did get a 4-5 year old vehicle with low miles
will it still last me a long while if i take care of it even though it's
4-5 years old? I was worried just how long a 5 year old vehicle will
last me compared to 1-3 year old vehicles. Like i said before i dont
want to end up like my gf. Even though she has a nice car shes now
10,000 dollars in debt and has 2 repos on her record. Her car is already
8 years old and has 100,000 miles and what's going to happen when her
car breaks down? She will have to start all over again. But like i said
previously, i dont want to spend the net 60 months of my life making car
payments. What i was thinking is if i find a nice vehicle with decent
miles for about 8500 i can put the 4 grand down and finance the rest for
at least a year or year and a half. But just how long will a 8500 dollar
vehicle last me?

What was your first vehicle, how old was it when you got it, how much
did you pay for it and how long did it last you? Any help will be
appreciated. Thank you

Bela Lugosis Dead,Undead,Undead,Undead-Bauhaus.

Just When You Think You Have The Answers,I Change The Questions-Rowdy
Roddy Piper.

Wrists Are For Girls,Im Slitting My Throat-Ginger 'Ginger Snaps'.

"VISIONARY COMPLEX" <PIERCED_VISONARY_COMPLEX (AT) webtv (DOT) net> wrote

This is not really a good question. Obviously, you could get somebody (your
uncle, let's say) to give you a car free that would last you the rest of
your life. You'd probably need a lot of skills to pull that off, but you
apparently don't have them. So let's get to basics.

First, you want a car that has depreciated a lot, and fast, but not because
there's anything wrong with it. For other reasons. Look at the variety out
there. Rental cars go out for a year in to the fleet, come back one year
old with 10,000 miles on them, and they're half price. On the other hand,
expensive trucks are for sale in your local paper, 3 or 4 years old, and
people still want $40,000 for them. What's the difference? The Ford Taurus
is a great example. That was Ford's biggest seller last year, and you know
what? They didn't even sell them to the public. Taurus's aren't sexy, they
aren't SUV's, and they aren't minivans. What they are is cheap
transportation. Rich people drive SUV's. Some men like trucks. These
things hold their value. Cheap transportation is a car, every time. I am
not taking real data, but I think the fastest depreciators are Chryslers,
oldsmobiles, the Taurus already mentioned, some other domestic products.
The lower trim levels that were used for rentals will be dirt cheap. Go to
cars.com and you can look at newspaper classifieds from all over the
country, in a table, with prices. Look at what's out there.

Second, you need to believe that maintenance cost is going to be a useful
measurement of what practical reliability is. Reliability is just a cost.
A new honda might be reliable, but when the warranty runs out, the parts for
it are going to sky high. An Audi isn't reliable at all, and the parts are
even more expensive. More than worth their weight in gold. At the opposite
extreme, an entire 1989 Buick, running, might cost $500. Parts would be dirt
cheap, but you won't need any. If it needs ANY repair, you wouldn't fix it
anyway. So what you want is something in between, something that is
domestic and sold well.

Third, it is hard as heck to sell a car. Try it sometime. A lot of times,
if the book value of a car is $5000, the street value will be $2000. Buy
from an individual. If they think their car is worth a lot, and they're
really proud of it, leave. Car Dealers will wring every last nickel out of
you. They make their living by selling cars for more money than they paid.
Do you think that would be easy? That is their ONLY source of income, and
they only keep a percentage of your money. Don't mess with them. Are you
listening to this?

Extra bonus: it's better to have a car that mechanics don't monkey with.
That's just my opinion. I would not buy any car that's advertised with "new
starter, new water pump, new gas tank, blah blah blah." Give me a car that
didn't need all that to start with. A good car will give years of service
at a time without anything actually breaking. That's what you want, a good
one.

This isn't my first car, but my best - My best was a 1981 Oldsmobile. I was
driving a 79 so when I parked that it provided a complete and free source of
any parts. The 81 had 115000 miles on it. I paid $900 and drove it 50,000
miles, then donated it to the salvation army. Book value at the time was
about $2000, so I got a tax deduction worth about $560. So you can see it
cost me a penny a mile in depreciation, $440 for 50,000 miles.

If I were you, and I wanted to spend $4500 on a car, I'd shoot for a
domestic with 60,000 miles on it. If you want a small car, that'll be easy
as pie. Price all the Dodge Neons nationwide at cars.com. If you want a
luxury car, it's harder, but they're out there. If you push, you will find
a Chrysler LHS, and a Mercury Grand Marquis, and an Oldsmobile Aurora each
with 50,000 miles on it for $4500. You can go older, and find them too, but
newer ones will perform better.

If you can fix cars, then you don't want anything with under 100,000 miles
on it. Values drop sharply at that point, but the cars don't know that.
They'll run for years after.

"VISIONARY COMPLEX" <PIERCED_VISONARY_COMPLEX (AT) webtv (DOT) net> wrote

your car insurance company most likely will sell you one once you get it
inspected.

look for a car that is inexpensive to begin with and used so it is going to
be really cheap. Ford Focus, Dodge Neons and the like will be good cars for
a few years while you go to school. Even 6 cyl Mustangs are cheap when they
are 3 or 4 years old.