AdobePinon

My first insurance over here was with Farmer's Insurance (not to be confused with all the other "farmer insurance" companies) - paid $55/mo for a new Civic fully comp. Second best quote was Progressive at $130/mo, then GEICO at $135/mo. When I asked the agent about the difference, he told me that Farmer's treats no insurance history as a three year clean record.

Bob

Same with Concord...which I think I'll be getting...

Yorkieabroad

I'd second whoever it was that suggested looking at the Mazda 3. We got one 6 months or so ago, intending it to be my wifes commuting car, but once we got it, I hijacked it and she's stuck with the SUV. Its a great little motor.

Not sure if its Mazda in general, or just our dealership, but the finance was good/easy. We did it in my name to try to build credit history, and it seems Mazda Finance didn't check me out too well before they offered the loan. Whether it was end of quota enthusiasm, late evening purchase or what, they offered me a decent loan, and I took it. Got rejection letters for the next few weeks from banks they'd try to sell the loan to (not my problem), and eventually Compass Bank picked it up. I paid it off in 4 or 5 months (can't remember exactly) and my credit score rocketed

On the insurance, we used a broker that all the rest of the family use (he insures 4 houses, 7 cars, 8 lives for the family etc etc) and he really worked hard to get us a good deal - hawked it round and round till he found a company willing to look at letters from our previous insurers (AA in Singapore and before that the UK) stating no claims for 20 odd years, and got us a decent deal. And it worked out for him too, cos he's got all our insurance business now as well!

Definitely go and test drive a 3 - they're nifty little motors!

Englishmum

We're going out to look for a car for our son tomorrow.

Like you, we live in New Jersey....we've decided on a Subaru Outback (thank you to all you guys on this board who've recommended a Subaru.. ). I don't want him being a novice driver out on the winter roads out here (our town is full of winding narrow roads and hills) without an all-wheel drive - and as he likes to go snowboarding he will be driving to the mountains as well.

It's hard to know whether to go for a car which is older (and high mileage) and risk the car being off the road and having potentially expensive repairs or for a newer one which will cost a lot more....even secondhand cars which are three or four years old aren't cheap for the Outbacks in our area.

The odd thing is that there are no AA vans on the road as we know it in the UK...do they even do roadside repairs or does the AAA just get everything towed to the nearest garage?

Has anyone taken out one of those extended warranties which you can buy online or at a car dealers or are they just a rip-off?

To the O/P: What we have been doing is following the advice on http://www.carbuyingtips.com (I used this site for research before we relocated to the US five years ago!). One of the best tips we learned was to never disclose to a car dealer how you are going to pay for the car....my husband looked at some cars last week and one of the very first things the salesman asked was "how will you pay for the car - finance?". We will probably pay cash but the info from the website is to get the price in writing of what they will sell the car to you for...THEN you discuss finance - but it's usually cheaper to get finance from other sources than a car dealership! A good place to look for new and used cars in NJ is

http://www.nj.com (click on 'Autos' on the home page). I've had a quick look on http://www.craigslist.com for NJ and on ebay but I think we will stick to a car dealership to be honest.

Before buying any car (whether from a car dealer or privately owned) we will pay the $20 or so to use the data held on car VIN numbers on http://www.carfax.com to see if it's been in an accident or if the current owner is actually a finance company with a lien on it and not the person selling the car!

The major problem we have is trying to work out what to offer as a fair price....we've got the latest edition of the VMR Used Car Prices but knowing when to 'walk away' if you do find a car you like but feel that the dealer isn't budging much on price (I bet they'll say that everyone is looking for AWD cars now that Winter is coming?!) ....I know you should never pay the asking price at a dealership but it's hard to know what really is a fair price and how to strike a good deal?

Is it true that the end of the month is the best time to buy a car (something to do with the commission the salespeople get from their managers)?

AdobePinon

Hit or miss. Sometimes it works great, sometimes it doesn't make a damned bit of difference. Sometimes you get lucky and he'll sell you model X cheap because he can't get more of model Y from the manufacturer until he sells the last couple of X. Look at Edmunds for pricing. If you can get it for around TMV, then you're getting a reasonable price at that time in that market. If you want to stick it out, you can certainly get lower. For a new car it is often possible to get at or below invoice if you're patient. Be very wary of 1 - 3 year old used Hondas, Toyotas and Subarus at dealers - it can be hard to get the dealer to budge on price and you'll often be able to get a new one at a lower price with a lower APR and a full warranty.

The way I buy cars now is:
1. Go get a test drive. If I like the car, make a low offer on the spot. If he doesn't take it (almost always true), invite him to call me when he has something to say, and walk away.
2. Get a couple of quotes via Vehix and Autobytel. These sites used to be great. Now they're crap, but having a price in hand makes it easier to do the next step. I did buy one car at this point ($50 over invoice, good enough).
3. Start calling dealers up to several hundred miles away. Tell them what I want and see what they can or will do. If they don't want to deal on the phone, I tell them that I don't feel like driving to their dealership, which often changes their mind. I don't spend much time in each conversation. I keep it simple - a couple of minutes at most, no real haggling. Just here's what I want, what can you do sort of thing. Keep doing this as long as I feel like. I got one car after ~2 weeks of calling different dealers, sometimes more than once.
4. When the quotes start to get more interesting, play them off each other. I got another car within three days doing this.

Shahlax

Is mazda 3 a new model or can i get one from say 2000/2001?

Shahlax

[QUOTE=Englishmum] ....I know you should never pay the asking price at a dealership but it's hard to know what really is a fair price and how to strike a good deal?
QUOTE]

I agree that's it's hard to know what is a fair price. Thanks to everyone who suggested Edmunds - it's fantastic. I read on the site that a toyota camry and honda accord are very popular hence are more expensive than similar casr like the mazda 626. So might go for this.

Also does anyone know a free way I can check my credit score?

Ray

Came out in 2004 ...

fatbrit

Here: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

But if you've never had credit (and I mean credit, not just paying accounts!), it's a waste of time checking it. You only get one free pop per credit bureau per year.

You can estimate your credit score for free here: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp
It's a waste of money buying it. The calculator above will give you as much as you need to know.

You aren't related to BE user WaxWabbit, are you?

Shahlax

Cheers, I'll check it out. Who's waxwabbit?!

Bob

Waste of money because they just end up ringing the nearest AAA garage and tow your motor, depends on membership though, so you might get a rental, but it's not like the AA or RAC, no competition to give better service unless you live in a large city area where you could just ring a local garage rather than having to put up with whatever is there.

Ray

Now that was really funny ...

Yorkieabroad

[QUOTE=Englishmum]The odd thing is that there are no AA vans on the road as we know it in the UK...do they even do roadside repairs or does the AAA just get everything towed to the nearest garage?

QUOTE]

If you're looking at AAA membership, check out the coverage - the basic service only gets you a 3 (or is it 5?) mile tow - any further and you have to pay more....

Englishmum

[QUOTE=Yorkieabroad] It sounds like a total rip-off then....on the other hand I wouldn't like to see my lad stranded and he doesn't have a credit card. Oh heck. I bet we will have to get a card for him - hadn't thought about that!

I looked at the NJ AAA website...it has hardly any info on helping stranded motorists....it's all about selling travel packages, theatre tickets etc.

http://ww1.aaa.com/scripts/WebObject...=074&zip=07078

It is very odd - what happens if you are in another State and the car breaks down...they don't seem to have a 'get you home' service like they do in the UK, or a 'Five Star' service for going abroad (like when we used to drive in France, Italy etc.) and we have driven up to Canada in our car.