Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

fintail

I don't think it is pretty either. I repeatedly texted her "you have shopped around, right?". But, she seemed to like this thing - flashy color, decent mileage, good ratings, ok price. It also has bluetooth, which is a must for her, as she's a young woman so the mouth never stops making noise :shades: Focus would have been out of her budget with the same features (she's at least smart enough to shop price rather than payment), and Fiesta to her was "a peanut". She also wanted under 20K OTD - and tax here is ~9%. She might not have made a horribly bad deal. Not the way I would go though, too many nice used cars out there.

stickguy

Got the brakes done and oil changed yesterday, and spent today detailing and cleaning out the old girl. of course it rained, but that gave me an excuse not to wax it! It cleaned up real nice, and made me realize I should have cleaned the carpets and mats years ago. Look much better.

I think it shows nice. Hopefully some buyers show up, and think the same way!

here is the ad. Critique if you feel so inclined. Not sure if I got too ambitious on price, but it is (from my research) the nicest one around considering condition/miles/history. But that could just be me!

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3245918156.html

fezo

If rb is dumping the 02 I'd sure like to know what he wants for it...

fezo

Nice. If you cleaned it up that nice two weeks ago you might not have the RDX.....

You should get close to what you want. It's nicely priced for what it is. I'll give you $6K for it......

roadburner

Is that the speed3? I ask because as a buyer I look at high miles on a high performance car as a deal killer. Might be tough to get good money if the MS3 is all miled up. That's just me though.

It's a 2007 that already has 108,000 miles on it- so I think that the "Low mile creampuff" ship sailed some time ago.

andres3

I'm more concerned about how the maintenance was handled on a high performance car than I am its mileage.

50,000 miles with 3 oil changes in that span might not be preferable to a car with 75,000 miles with 15 oil changes on its belt.

akangl

Picked the Yaris up this afternoon. Final OTD price was $12,429. Daughter is overjoyed, I was shocked that the kid was even willing to give up her allowance in order to get the car which was part of the deal.

She drove part of the way home and absolutely loves the car. I told her she better love it since its hers for a long time and she better get used to eating that type of vanilla ice cream every night!

roadburner

My MS3 has a complete dealer service history with oil changes/scheduled maintenance performed every 5,000-7,500 miles. It has been fed a steady diet of Mobil 1 5W-30 and I have had an oil analysis performed at every oil change since the 10,000 mile mark.

roadburner

Congrats, I hope she remains excited and grateful.

andres3

I've heard some bad things about the Mazda 3's clutches not being robust enough.

How has your MS3's clutch faired?

Granted, the MS3 probably has a better clutch than the regular 3.

roadburner

No problems, but then I don't tend to hammer it hard from a stop. I'm not that hard on clutches.

laurasdada

My '05 TL gave me 6.5 years and 85k miles of trouble free driving pleasure! Especially after getting dedicates snow tires...! I hope you get that and more, if you can avoid the dreaded CCB disease, of course.

Happy Labor Day weekend, all. The Jag has spent the weekend in the garage as I've used the wife's and daughter's car to run errands. Each is nice in their own right, but my heart stayed in the garage...

stickguy

thanks. We plan to keep this a long time for my wife. Though I have been driving it all weekend, and have become quite attached to it...

CCB itch will be scratched with buying cars for me. When we recover from buying this one!

we do have a TL in the family too. A 2000 MY with about 165K on it at this point. That is my son's car away at college.

breld

My wife would like to go ahead and pull the trigger on this Beetle, possibly tomorrow:

'07 Beetle

Obviously more money than the '01 we almost purchased, but we feel better about the newer model with the N/A 2.5L engine versus the 1.8T at these miles. And, using kbb trade as a "normalizer" as I like to do, this is a better deal, with less mark-up than that '01 at the Lexus dealer.

We did a quick look and drive of this yesterday and will probably go back tomorrow - I need to check the carfax and tire wear, as well as a good look over the exterior and interior. This place doesn't put a lot of work into cleaning the car up. If everything checks out, we may go ahead and purchase it - we already negotiated a price that we feel pretty good about.

stickguy

well, it would be real hard to lose it in a parking lot!

benjaminh

Well, that's $12,500 for a 6+ year old car with c. 60k miles.

For c.20k you can get a brand new 2012 Beetle. And you can still get it in red. 0% financing is offered by VW, or you could lease it for c.$260 a month. You'll have a full warranty with new, plus VW even pays for scheduled maintenance for 3 years.

I think you said you only keep your cars a few years. My guess is that in that case you'll be better off leasing or buying a new one, which in 3-5 years will have good resale. This 2007 won't be worth very much by 2015-17, and it could give you a lot of headaches in those few years.

Check out the VW site and think about it. VWs have improved significantly in reliability in just the last few years. It may be something to think about before you pull the trigger...

http://www.vw.com/en.html

kyfdx

That's a nice ad.... and a nice van.. I'd price it a little higher, as well.

At that price range, you might have to do autotrader or cars.com to get the response you need...

stickguy

Thanks. I always try to do a nice ad. I am amazed by some of the horrid ads some people put out there.

I have some time to sell, so I will see what happens (I did have a couple of responses last night). If nothing happens by the end of the week, I might break down and pay for an ad! Hopefully I won't have to. Though it is only $15 for cars.com, so maybe I should just fire that up too!

gouldn

Sorry for jumping in late here but congrats! You got a great price too. I was wondering if you used dealer financing on the deal? I'm thinking of replacing my Forester with a RDX at the end of the year and am trying to figure out whether to get a bank loan or use dealer rates

stickguy

with how it all played out, we ended up going through the dealer. Not sure if there was a better rate to be found, but certainly makes sense if you have a local bank to give them a shot.

though by the end of the year there may be some promotional financing available from Acura which would make the decision easier!

isellhondas

By the time you read my reply it'll probably be sold.

It's the right color, model and you've priced it to move quickly.

I'm glad you mentioned the fact it hasn't been towing anything. Hitches scare people and for good reason!

stickguy

I have one lady that has sent about 3 emails with all kinds of questions. Not sure why they don't just want to come out and see it in person and discuss it live, but I guess they might not be all that close since I have no clue where they are.

And that is why I put the disclaimer about the hitch. I have the same fear!

the middle of labor day weekend was probably not the best time to advertise, and it has been raining for the last 2 days on top of that. Just my luck!

akangl

I'm considing an extended warranty for the Yaris. I know they are a crap shoot, we've had 2 engines replaced under one and our Civic probably could have gone without. I have one on my Sierra because it's a diesel and they are not cheap to fix, to be safe I would have had to bank $10k for repairs and the ESC was very cheap compared to that. After the Civic's ESC being a bust (although it still has 13k left) I'm not sure on the Toyota.

We've only owned one other Toyota and it was a pain in the butt, always needing expensive repairs, but that could have been just that car. I've had one Ford be junk and the next be wonderful, same with GM, same with Subaru or another brand except dodge, yeah won't go there again.

So I guess in the end with our harsh climate and ESCs being a crap shoot, would you spend the money or bank it?

stickguy

not on a Yaris. That is the simplest thing made, and should be fine.

whatever happened to moving to the lower 48? That would take care of the climate issue!

I understand on something overly complicated or troublesome, but not in this case.

jayrider

excellent advice on the new beetle vs the 07. used vw's are always a risk and the beetle has a bad reputation but the heart wants what the heart wants. auto beetles with similar are listed everywhere for 8 to 10k. hope the price is right.

corvette

Penfed has 1.49% 60-month loans now (anyone can join, not just military). It was pretty painless when I financed through them. With a rate that low, it may be better to take a cash rebate instead of 0% financing, especially if you'll pay it off early.

breld

Thanks guys for the feedback on used vs. new. I did go back and forth with my wife on whether we should just buy a new one, but we did want to keep the initial purchase price low for this car (being a second car for my wife and one we'll hand to our daughter). Still think the depreciation on the used one is going to be much better than a new one.

So we did pull the trigger on that red one. Clean 1-owner carfax, new tires, average miles, and real clean inside and out. Got them down to $10,900, which I felt good about, based on a kbb.com trade of $9,150 (I was trying to stay within $1-2k of that number). Based on our shopping and negotiating experiences elsewhere, this was the best deal we came across.

And we've actually had good luck with the several VWs we (and other family members) have owned - knowing the potential reliability concerns was one reason we went for the '07 versus an older, turbo model. We'll find a good VW mechanic just like we have for the older BMW.

In any case, the wife is really excited about it as her second fun car. I know it's really nothing special or exciting, but here are some pictures anyway.







Back to five cars, which is going the wrong way if I wanted all cars in the garage, but we've been keeping a car or two at our work garage and will probably continue with that plan.

Thanks - happy Labor Day all (or what's left of it)!

breld

Sorry for the large picture sizes - tried for the last half hour to reduce the size with no success. :confuse:

jayrider

good luck with the beetle I do like them drove one back in 03 and would have bought but could'nt get a fair trade in.

qbrozen

Couple of what sound like minor accidents. But the price is right.

stickguy

the price is right, but there are enough things in that ad to scare the pants off of me, I dont know where I would start!

A Frankenmini!

Oh, this mean you are already tired of driving a putt putt Volvo?

akangl

whatever happened to moving to the lower 48?

Still waiting on a job transfer to come through. Unfortunately with civil service it takes time and a little luck to get a spot at the same pay grade. No worries, we can hang out here for a bit longer, something will come up.

Thanks for the input on the ESC, I agree after some thought. Next problem is all 3 of us like the car and are all fighting over it! I never expected hubby to like it but he said its quieter and more comfortable than the civic. I still prefer my truck, just like the gas mileage of the yaris. Really neat car.

qbrozen

Nope. Just haven't cancelled the automated ebay emails.

stickguy

Right. That is like Chipper Jones just stopping into Hooters to use the bathroom.

robbieg

My wife is in the mood for a new car. Her current car is a 2009 RX 350 and she has only had it for 5 months. So, she would fit in with everyone in this group. We bought the Lexus and our payment isn't too bad 425/month. My wife's plan is to trade in my minivan (paid for) and her Lexus (some equity) and get a new minivan. She would then lease some sort of Luxury SUV and run it through her business. The question is what are the decent lease deals out there for Luxury SUV's right now. Ideally, the payment wouldn't be that much more than what we are paying for the RX. Also, 10,000 miles per year is probably not enough. My concern is that we are paying 425 per month to buy a car and why should we pay more to lease a car? After driving the RX there is no way she would ever drive a Pilot of CRV. Any suggestions?

qbrozen

My concern is that we are paying 425 per month to buy a car and why should we pay more to lease a car?

Well, if it can be a business write-off for her, that's your answer.

What does she not like about the RX? That could help narrow down the list of replacements.

jayrider

Any luxury suv will cost you way more than 450 per month with zero down. As a matter of fact, your are already driving one in the Lexus.

stickguy

I know that Acura is pushing the heck out of the 2012 MDXs. With some negotiation, you might get that into your payment range. And MD seems to push trying to get rid of an oversupply of the smaller one (GL?)

I guess it just depends on how big you need (there is a huge difference between a CRV and Pilot size wise), and your definition of "luxury".

The RDX I just bought could have been leased instead for 3/26, only DMV fees down, for $432 instead of buying it. That might work.

robbieg

Gotta be a Lexus, Acura, BMW, Audi, Volvo Mercedes or Infiniti.

I saw your lease quote O down and OTD including (NJ) tax 420/ month for 3/36. In Pittsburgh, our dealer lists their deal on their website as 0 down, 460 a month plus tax, so about 490/month. Big difference.

I guess the question is how we feel about the Tax savings?

stickguy

well, the RDX advertised lease is not subsidized, so I suspect it is figured at MSRP. Negotiate a significant discount, and your payment drops!

Kirstie_H

A reporter is looking for a consumer who replaced their old car in August with a new vehicle that has much better fuel economy. If you fit this description and would like to share your story, please send your daytime contact information to pr@edmunds.com no later than 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, September 04, 2012.

ateixeira

Big congrats on the purchase!

Now start shopping for your next purchase! LOL

ateixeira

Tell her congrats. Kids are all connected these days so she probably views the Yaris as a way to get from home to the internet cafe and back to school.

ateixeira

Wow, what a weekend, 3 new purchases?

Congrats. That color looks good on that car, the cream leather looks nice too. She should love it.

ateixeira

Hmm, looks like his track car that he wrecked a couple of times (at least). Clutch and tires abused and replaced, this is what's left.

All sort of red flags.

stickguy

Now you have gone and done it.

Q is probably mapquesting Queens right now, desperate to get there before someone skates this beauty out from under him.

qbrozen

I think the accidents were another owner. At least that's what the history looks to be. One of the accidents was with an animal, and the other was when it was rear-ended and the damage was "minor to moderate." So I don't think either of those happened at a track.

I wouldn't personally consider near 100k miles on a clutch "abused," and definitely wouldn't consider that the case for tires.

I think the only thing that would concern me is the moonroof. I can't remember the details, but I believe shifty had a moonroof problem and it was a major PITA.

The price is definitely fair, all considered. The LOWEST number at auction was $4200, with $5k being more the norm for "below average" cars. If his ad is accurate, it could be bought and put right for fairly low money. I'd be a bit more comfortable at $5500 if I were wheeler-dealering it.

ateixeira

DON'T DO IT Q!!!

qbrozen

not a chance.

I tried the MINI on twice and just couldn't do it. I need a usable back seat. The 135 barely qualifies as it is.

xwesx

If I recall correctly, Shifty's moonroof exploded. I suppose that could be a fair PITA (in a literal sense, given the glass chunks all over the interior!). :P