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Buying a Used Car

Buying a Used Car

Old Jun 28th 2015, 5:12 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

My sons VW Jetta was an ex Avis rental car.
When I got it there were a couple of years and 30K on the clock.
Now at 95K and still doing great
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Old Jun 28th 2015, 6:44 pm
  #17  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by excpomea
My sons VW Jetta was an ex Avis rental car.
When I got it there were a couple of years and 30K on the clock.
Now at 95K and still doing great
Thanks for the reply. I only spent about five minutes on the Hertz site yesterday and looked at four Toyotas and it looked like a promising place to look further later. I first heard about buying this way from a uncle of mine in Nashvile. He bought new cars for years until he discovered Hertz and from then on always bought from them with never a problem. They buy them by the thousands at wholesale and can afford to sell them far below retail book after their two or three years of rental.
I see you are from Tallahassee. I really like that area and at one time had a lot at Lake Tallavanna and intended to move there. My wife is from Jacksonville. It was going to be so much trouble to transfer my Dental and Pharmacist license to Florida we decided to stay in Tennessee.
Thanks
JM
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Old Jun 28th 2015, 7:26 pm
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Excpomea
I looked at your profile and now understand your internet name. I am a retired Navy guy myself, 33 years total but only eight active duty the rest active reserve. Which Navy were you in?

JM
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Old Jun 28th 2015, 8:43 pm
  #19  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by ddsrph
Excpomea
I looked at your profile and now understand your internet name. I am a retired Navy guy myself, 33 years total but only eight active duty the rest active reserve. Which Navy were you in?

JM
Which Navy? The only Navy, the Queens Navy.

Mind you nowadays it a shadow of it's former self.
Probably smaller than the US Coastguard.

Served 20 years myself, saw a few wars, traveled the world. Met my wife, picked up a green card
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Old Jun 28th 2015, 9:26 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by excpomea
Which Navy? The only Navy, the Queens Navy.

Mind you nowadays it a shadow of it's former self.
Probably smaller than the US Coastguard.

Served 20 years myself, saw a few wars, traveled the world. Met my wife, picked up a green card
I did my time in U.S. Navy. As you probably know we adopted practically every British Naval tradition. I actually started out in Air Force and did four years enlisted then after college on GI bill lucked out and got a full scholarship from Navy to attend Dental school. Served my four years payback and stayed active reserve. I loved the reserves and got to travel more than if I had stayed active duty. There was always a dentist shortage somewhere and I was the go to guy to fill it. I went to Bahrain about 12 times and many, many other mainly short overseas assignments.
During my time in promotion was almost automatic but things have gotten a lot more difficult the past few years. When I made Captain they had authority to promote 45 and only had 43 warm bodies who were eligible. My local Dentist and Pharmacist friends thought I was crazy for passing up the big bucks but I retired in 2004 at 56 and they are all still working.
JM

To the original poster, sorry to high jack the thread but wanted to mention something I saw when I briefly looked at the Hertz site. I believe they mentioned something about a lease option for their used cars. If you are only needing a car for 12 to 18 months a lease on a used car could work for you.
Thanks
JM
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 6:33 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

No one has yet mentioned carfax: you'll need to check the history of the car you intend to buy by checking the carfax (look it up online).

Here it will tell you about how many previous owners a car has had, whether it was sold at an auction, accident, maintenance history and, importantly, whether it has been marked as 'salvage' ('write off' I think is what we'd call it in UK i.e. it has been deemed un-insurable by the insurance company). Avoid cars with lots of owers, short ownerships and accidents. I'd never buy a salvage or auction car but many people do and have no problems.

We've got two old cars (2002, 2001), Mitsubishi and a Toyota, both with over 100,000 and both run like clockwork. When buying the Mitsubishi (Spyder Eclipse), I also test drove a much 'younger' Mustang and a Chrysler Sebring and couldn't believe what a piece of crap they were compared to the Mitsubishi. So stick to the Japanese brands and you should be ok.

Neither of us had owned a car before. We printed out a check list of what to look for in a used car and it was very helpful.

Good luck!
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 11:18 am
  #22  
 
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by sherbert
No one has yet mentioned carfax: you'll need to check the history of the car you intend to buy by checking the carfax (look it up online).

Here it will tell you about how many previous owners a car has had, whether it was sold at an auction, accident, maintenance history and, importantly, whether it has been marked as 'salvage' ('write off' I think is what we'd call it in UK i.e. it has been deemed un-insurable by the insurance company). .....
"Salvaged" or "written off" has nothing to do with being "uninsurable". It is that the car was damaged to the degree that it would cost more to repair than it would be worth if fully repaired.
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 2:35 pm
  #23  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

We're currently attempting to buy a Toyota 4runner. I had a look at the rental car sales mentioned and not one of the 4runners they had was worth bothering with. They had only base 2014 models with mileage that was at least half way through the warranty and were at most $2k cheaper than the price of buying brand new with all the dealer trimmings.

Maybe they're better for the saloon cars.
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 2:41 pm
  #24  
 
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by petitefrancaise
We're currently attempting to buy a Toyota 4runner. I had a look at the rental car sales mentioned and not one of the 4runners they had was worth bothering with. They had only base 2014 models with mileage that was at least half way through the warranty and were at most $2k cheaper than the price of buying brand new with all the dealer trimmings.

Maybe they're better for the saloon cars.
You bring up a good point: rental cars are usually only sparsely equipped base models, and may even be "below base", with the rental company negotiating a low price for cars without bells and whistles (lower cost, less to go wrong, less to fix).
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 3:55 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

This is, however, true of many Japanese cars. They hold their value so well that it's not much of a saving to buy a late-model used version.

In 2004, I bought a top of the line Accord for just a couple thousand more than I could get a two or three year old one for that very reason. The financing was better, so was the warranty. Plus insurance is slightly cheaper if you're the first owner (not to mention the new car replacement many insurance companies are now offering!).
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 4:43 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Lemon laws on second hand, does depend on the state. Most aren't great, but MA does have pretty decent lemon laws up to about the 65K miles mark and then it gets a bit weedy till it dies off around the 80K mark.

Insurance isn't much cheaper on a second hand car though, if at all.

Something else to consider, if you're not getting new, would be the local market. Some areas will have more garages used to certain markets, so would get better maintenance rates, such as a Saab up in Maine costs a hell of a lot less to maintain than it does in MA, but BMW and other German imports are much cheaper to maintain here than up in Maine, down to local markets.
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Old Jun 29th 2015, 5:09 pm
  #27  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by Pulaski
"Salvaged" or "written off" has nothing to do with being "uninsurable". It is that the car was damaged to the degree that it would cost more to repair than it would be worth if fully repaired.
Thanks for the clarification!
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Old Jul 2nd 2015, 4:36 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by Carsy10
So we finally arrived in Indiana on Monday, I have a car with my job but I need to buy one for my wife pretty quickly. Because we are only here for 12-18 months, leasing, finance and long term rental are all extortionate so we are looking to buy something in the region of $10-$12k. I've seen a previous post about used prices being high and this is also true for this area from what I've seen so far. I have a few questions -
Are there any of the US makes/models that I should avoid ?
Is it normal practice to haggle over the price as in the UK ?
How does the registration process work, ie is there a UK log book type thing ?
Is there anything like our MOT's/road tax ?
Do I have any buyer rights if I buy from a dealer if things go wrong ?

Sorry for all the questions ! Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Hi Carsy

I work for a car dealership in Indiana so maybe I can help you a little. Sales tax is 7% and dealer doc fees are generally between $150 and $600 (we charge $150). There's then $54 of titling fees that we collect on behalf of the State of Indiana. You then pay for the tags (like a tax disc) when you go to the BMV to perfect title. If you own the car outright you get a title which is like the UK V5. If you finance the bank holds onto that.

There is no sale of goods act and the rights you have will depend on the warranty that you get with the car. A lot of places selling used cars in your price range will sell "as is" which means that if you drive away and it breaks in 2, congratulations - you own both halves. We sell most of our used cars with a 12 month or 12k mile warranty which covers a lot of stuff. You can buy a better or longer warranty when you buy the car. Beware "power train" warranties which basically cover stuff that doesn't usually break...

There is no MOT in Indiana.

Most dealers will haggle on used cars up to a point. Personally on your budget I would look at Japanese or Korean cars as they will give you best bang for your buck. (Kia and Hyundai are also both in the top 4 on the latest JD Power quality rankings). If you would rather blow it on an old Camaro or Corvette then good luck to you! I have no axe to grind as I sell Jags and Land Rovers.

Feel free to message me if you need any help.
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Old Jul 2nd 2015, 5:25 pm
  #29  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Originally Posted by Pulaski
You bring up a good point: rental cars are usually only sparsely equipped base models, and may even be "below base", with the rental company negotiating a low price for cars without bells and whistles (lower cost, less to go wrong, less to fix).
Is that really true any more?

We've rented several times in the last few years, from several different companies - Budget, Hertz, Enterprise. Almost all of them had mid- or top-level trim. The most recent was an Explorer XLT.
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Old Jul 2nd 2015, 6:45 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: Buying a Used Car

Owen, Pulaski is correct on the lower end range cars, they will often feature: mechanical windows, fix-a-flat instead of spare tire, no aux socket on the sound system, steel wheels not alloys, no parcel shelf if its a hatchback, smallest possible engine size, etc. what do you expect for $9 a day?
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