cheradenine

I've been using my wife's car to get about since I got my CA drivers licence but now it's time to get my own.


I've been looking on all the car websites, craigslist even and my first thought is the second hand market seems really distorted!


5 grand for a 15 year old car with 200k on the clock!!?
I saw an ad just recently for a 2000 ford fiesta and even though the head gasket has blown they wanted something like 1500.


madness!


Anyhow, i'm not after anything special I just need a run-around to get me to work until I have saved up a bit of cash and/or my credit is a bit better so I can get something on finance.


Are there any car brands that have a bad rep here? like the equivalent of Rover?


is it worth getting a manual?
perhaps it's just me but manuals seem to be driven by people here that are a bit more into their cars, and young lads which make me wonder if there is a danger a manual is more likely to have been in the hands of a boy racer.


I'm just reading up on all this 'pink slip' stuff I have read about and how buying and selling privately works here. I wasn't quite awake this morning when I was searching and it took me a few moments to understand what one seller meant when he had had the 'tranny replaced'


Tried asking the wife for info but she has no clue about cars.
Take the other day, she tried filling up her tyres with air at a petrol station. I asked what was taking so long and I saw she was crouched down pumping the trigger on the air hose like you would a blood pressure cuff.
God help her if she ever needs to change a flat tyre and i'm not around.


Budget is 3 grand but can go higher by 1000 or so. yeah I suspect I won't be driving off in a Ferrari......


also, and this is more of a cultural question, is commuting for an hour and 45 mins abnormal or not unheard of here?
It's definitely not desirable but it may be what I face until I move closer to where I work.

Noorah101

I see you're in California, so I'd say that long of a commute is more on the "normal" side than some other states.

Rene

sir_eccles

3k might be a nice down payment, you'll probably be looking at a loan for the rest if you want something to commute regularly. Somewhere like carmax doesn't really sell anything below 10k.

civilservant

I bought a 2012 Ford Fusion from a dealership last year, 70k on the clock, for nearly $14k financed. That's my first car here.

If you want something that will actually get you from A-B then use that $3k as a down payment.

Pulaski

I agree. My experience is that anything upto $5k is just about ready for the breakers yard, if you buy such a vehicle the only assurance you have is a continuous stream of repairs.

That said cars last a lot longer in the US, especially when they spend their life south of the harsh winter weather. Our Honda Accord has recently racked up 305,000 (three hundred and five thousand) miles. It is still my wife's daily driver, and while we are hoping to get a replacement this summer, or soon after, I will take over driving it instead of using my F250 every day.

md95065

That doesn't seem too far out of line. This is California - assuming no accident damage the body will be in reasonable shape - some scuffs and scratches on the paintwork but not rust. If you are lucky you could put another 100k on it without spending too much on maintenance apart from obvious stuff like brakes or tires.

Try to get to $5000 and you might have a chance. Don't forget to figure the cost of insurance into your calculations.
1:45 each way is a lot - I would class anything up to 1 hour as not unusual and more than 1:30 as starting to be excessive (but there are certainly plenty of people with commutes that long).

Since you are in Santa Cruz, let me suggest taking a look at The Argus Company - used car dealer - has a decent inventory under $10k and one or two under $5k - he tends to get a lot of BMW, Mercedes and convertibles which may not be what you are looking for, but the owner is IMO pretty reputable and honest - I bought my S2000 from him a few years ago and was happy with the deal, but otherwise I have no connection with him.

Buying from a private party will, in theory, get you more for your money but could end up being a lot of hassle - with a dealer you should have a reasonable assurance that the title will be transferred to you without any problems or surprises and that the vehicle will get through a smog check, with a private sale you are really on your own.

Englishmum

You might want to look at buying an ex rental car.

Why you should buy a hire car

5 Reasons You Should Buy A Used Rental Vehicle

For example: I don't know which part of CA you are in, so I went to the Hertz website for their ex rental sales and rent to buy within 500 miles of CA (they will transfer cars and do the paperwork across State lines too).

They have a number of 2014 Chevy Spark LT hatchbacks available...ok it's above your budget in the range of $7800 to $8k but it's worth taking a look.

Check out all the car sales from rental companies like Enterprise, Avis, Budget, National etc.

Or you might want to take over the lease of someone who wants to get out of theirs but has already taken all the up front costs of it and you just have the monthly payments instead:

How to Get Out of Your Car Lease the Cheap and Easy Way on Edmunds.com

ottotheboar

I would steer clear of anything with of blown head gasket as it may have overheated which can result in an expensive repair.

Harveyspecter

OP, I picked up a 2004 Santa Fe V6 recently for $3650, but with 180,000 miles on the clock. It is however, 1 owner from new and has been looked after. It is purely to get us around locally while we get settled, and any long distance work we will do will be done by a newer car once we both get jobs.

I certainly wouldnt 'rely' on a sub $5000 car for that sort of commute, even though I can do a lot of repairs myself, that's a lot of mileage to be racking up.

cheradenine

Thanks for all the advice so far.
I'm starting to get a bit stressed out over this job, I was supposed to sign a contract last week but things got 'pushed back' including the start date.

I've been reassured that it's not a case of if but a case of when. Without a copy of the contract however, I won't have proof of earnings so I won't be able to get finance?

I'm kinda worried I'll end up buying a car and this job pulls out at the last minute and I'm left with a motor I can't afford to run

Marc_ely

That's a huge commute even for California. Almost all of our staff are within half-hour, and I live 10mins away from work (gloating).

Used car prices are distorted. You just have to accept it I'm afraid.

A couple of ideas:

I bought my car from a local dealer. It's a Ford Escape V6. It was 7yrs old, 85k miles and only $7k (before 1k of taxes etc). The reason it was cheap is it had had a rear end shunt when it was new, which got listed on its Carfax. I'm pretty mechanically competent and I've never bought a lemon (yet) so I took the gamble. I've still got it 2yrs on. It's hideous to drive, and quite the most unrefined "modern" car I've ever driven.

You can buy privately but you still have to pay a tax on it and there is of course no come-back. However private cars are quite a lot cheaper than dealers. When you see how shiny and overstaffed main dealers are, you will see why!

I asked my friendly experienced mechanic about good car brands when we were having trouble with our Dodge minivan. He listed the worst cars for reliability as:
Saab (not that there are many around)
VW
Dodge/Chrysler
BMW (once they get over 100k miles)

All the usual Japanese brands are good but hold their value. Of the USA brands he was most enthusiastic about Fords.

Korean brands (Kia and Hyundai) get decent reliability scores, and they depreciate hard so it might be worth looking at those too.

Good luck with the traffic!

cheradenine

Thanks Marc.
I think I may have overstated the length of my commute, my gps says it's about 1 hour 20 mins. Still a bit of a drive though but like I said it would only be a temporary thing.
I'm surprised about the VW being grouped with the 'avoid' cars, I thought they had a good rep back home.

any idea what sort of mileage to be looking at?
Some cars look ok outside and in but then they will have 200 to 300 miles on the clock.
I just saw a 2000 Honda civic that looked decent but the high mileage has put me off

Pulaski

VW's in the US are not the same as those in the US, and certainly don't have the same reputation for quality and reliability as they do in the UK and Europe.

For domestic brands I would agree with the recommendation for Ford vehicles. I am about to clock up 100,000 miles on my truck within a couple of days, and my Mustang GT has almost 60,000 on it. I have no regrets about buying either vehicle, and have toyed with the idea of buying another 2002 Mustang GT for commuting.

sir_eccles

Not the same cars. The North American Passat for example is completely different.

Pulaski

.... Different body, longer wheelbase. IIRC, the US Passat is only sold outside the US in China.