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I have a 2000 Accord I wanted to keep running until I could afford the payments on something nice and recent (was at 232k and running strong) but I got hit by a schoolbus so now I'm looking for something maybe just a little nicer than it was. The insurance process is slow as poo poo and I'd like to know exactly what I want before I need to go buy it. ~$3k budget Need it for commuting and hauling one other person plus a sedan trunk's worth of equipment, would like to keep the same footprint of a sedan or a compact. Also live in Minnesota so hellacious cold and pounds of road salt will be flung at it. I would like something reliable and not ungodly ugly. At the moment I'm looking at 4 cars that are a decade old and are in good physical shape but have very high mileage, including an 06 Pontiac Grand Prix GT, an 06 Buick Lucerne, an 06 Chevy Cobalt, and an 07 Chevy Impala. The Buick has the least miles at 138k and the rest are 170-200k. Is it bad to look at cars with so many miles, rather than something older with less miles? My car already had 133,000 miles on it when i got it and it lasted nearly a decade/100k miles more but I realize that probably isn't common and could be giving me bad judgement.
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Jan 28, 2016 02:27
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:50 |
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Grumpwagon posted:Look for Focuses as well. They're cheap, reasonably reliable, and parts are cheap for when something does break (which, with a $3k car, will happen). For whatever reason I was under the impression focuses were poo poo, so that's good to know. There are a few '01s in my area for ~1500, and that's about it; is it worth considering? tater_salad posted:If you want that kind of reliability buy another 2000 accord or upgrade to a bit newer civic. Good to know, I'll avoid GM. Any thoughts on the Pontiac? I don't really know poo poo about them. Grumpwagon posted:The problem with this is you're paying the Toyota/Honda tax. Everyone looks for a civic/accord/corolla/camry. They're probably a bit more reliable, but when you're talking about a 15 year old car with 150k++ miles, you're looking for the vehicle in best shape and current maintenance, not the maker with the best reputation. The Focus is a step down, reliability wise, but it's a small step, and they're a lot cheaper, so you can get a newer/lower mileage one for your budget, which means less repairs. You'll likely end up with a lower total cost of ownership. Yeah, what grump said, there aint poo poo for used accords/civics/camrys here because everyone is still driving them. They're all either from the mid 90's and asking for a lot more than seems reasonable or relatively new and way out of my price range. The only one I could really find that matches what I want is an 04 accord with 207,000 miles on it for about three thousand, does that seem reasonable? That being said I can't say it was a flawless run with my Accord, the transmission failed, I replaced it completely, and that one failed two months outside of the three year warranty. I also just spent $675 replacing the entire power steering system that went out suddenly over the summer, and had to replace the struts twice midway through its lifetime.
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Jan 28, 2016 03:13
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Tahm Bwady posted:Pontiac is GM build quality with more EXCITEMENT Sweet sounds good. Sorry if this is an annoying way to do it but I've scoured the local places with the new info and I've got a small handful to choose from: -'05 Honda civic lx 188k miles $3,500 -'06 Ford Taurus 134k mles $3,000 -'04 Ford Crown Vic 138k miles $2,000 (I don't THINK it's a retired cop car, but I don't actually remember if there were any of those that weren't) -'05 Ford Focus zx4 Sedan 147k miles $3,500 -'05 Ford Focus zx3 Hatchback 110k miles $4,000 (This one is really stretching my budget, but has the lowest miles and the hatchback would be really useful) I realize there's no perfect answer here but, like, which one would a smart car person pick?
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Jan 28, 2016 07:07
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nm posted:(Like every V6 honda of the early 2000s had serious automatic transmission issues. Get a 4 or get a manual.) Well poo poo that explains a lot
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Jan 30, 2016 01:49
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Okay so nearly all the deals I made to see cars today flaked out, but I found one that looks really good but is risky. It's a 2007 Ford focus ses with ~110,000 miles on it, and the body looks like it's in really good shape, for $2400. The issue is the guy wouldn't let me bring it to a shop to get checked out first; he said I could bring a mechanic over to look at it but he won't let me take it in. I don't know any mechanics personally who could do that for me, but I want the car a lot. What's my best course of action?
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Feb 1, 2016 02:00
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IOwnCalculus posted:That price also seems suspiciously low for a 2007 with 110k miles - which makes me think unreported salvage. Out of all of the Focuses (Foci?) on Phoenix Craigslist, the only two that seem to be newer than '03-'04 at under $3k are one that looks like it was beaten with an ugly stick (and seems to be for sale by a dealer trying to operate under the radar), and one with an awful ad that doesn't show poo poo. Yeah it's way lower than the rest I've looked at. My second choice was basically the same exact car but an '05 instead of '07, it was at a dealership and a grand more expensive, and that already seemed like a better deal than most I've found so far. The only thing the guy mentioned is that the back right ball joint would need replacing eventually but I'm pretty sure that was like a $300 repair the last time I had it done and that doesn't quite balance it out on it's own.
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Feb 1, 2016 06:42
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Forgot about this thread, but I ended up getting a crown victoria instead of a focus since I found one at half the age/mileage of the cars I was looking at for the same price. It's utilitarian as hell on the inside but the trunk can fit like twelve people in it. It's also super easy to remove stuff and replacing the audio equipment in it is a fun first car thing that I've worked on myself. After driving the Accord for a decade having a transmission that doesn't slip feels like magic too. Downside is it's big and I'm bad at parking.
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Mar 15, 2016 06:06
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Purple is a great color and I wish more cars were it
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Mar 17, 2016 05:47
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I am considering getting a new car if I stay in Minnesota cause not having awd during the winter here sucks rear end. My budget would be pretty small, trying to stay near $6k. I’m seeing a whole lot of mid 00’s Audi a4’s (mostly the 4 cylinder model) that are pretty cheap, is there something bad about that model that makes them that cheap and that common? Other likely option would be a ‘07ish Subaru Impreza, probably the sedan but maybe the hatchback.
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Jun 12, 2018 05:03
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I was afraid the maintenance costs might be high. It sucks because there’s a lot of Audi tt’s sitting around and a coop with awd and a hatchback trunk is like my dream car. I guess it might be worth it to research the quality/price of local Audi mechanics but it sounds like it’s maybe not a practical choice. I live in Bloomington (if I stay in MN longer though I’m moving into one of the cities cause I’m going crazy out here), work in Minneapolis and drive all around a 10 mike radius of the city all day for work, so being able to get around no matter what is important. I got stuck in a lot of places or just plain couldn’t get out of my driveway when snow emergencies caused the side streets to take 2-3 days to get plowed. If I can’t get around I don’t get paid and I lost a lot due to all the loving blizzards this year. For subarus I was thinking maybe a legacy 2.5 or whatever might be good so if it rusts less than the other types that’s good too. There are also several of the awd lexuses around for cheap too, I know the 340 is supposed to be really reliable but is the maintenance expensive on those too?
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Jun 14, 2018 06:27
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A family member is offering an 07 subaru outback for $2500. Knowing the people they have taken very good care of it, it has the best interior/entertainment options that were available at the time, and it looks virtually immaculate but it's at 150k miles and I'm not sure if they've gotten the seemingly guaranteed head gasket issue yet and I'm afraid I could be buying a time bomb if I say yes. From what I know it burns oil and leaks a small amount, would getting the 40 point inspection the local subaru dealership offers be thorough enough to make sure it's not gonna poo poo itself 3 months after I buy it?
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Jul 22, 2018 18:36
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Yeah I figured those three are the biggest landmines. But also I live in Minnesota, and a cheap used subaru with no rust is more exciting to most people here than a new BMW and I've been looking at used ones in that age range going for easily twice as much or more. I've been recommended a place that does good 40 point inspections that is specifically a subaru place so I'm hoping if maybe they give an OK on those specific things it could still be a good deal? Even if it needed $1k worth of repairs right away that price is still good for what it is here. They do also have the service history so I'll find out when I see them next weekend if any of that's been done yet, and also get to test drive it. It might not be a good metric but the part about burning oil didn't seem that scary to me because my Accord was burning oil for like at least the last 30k miles I had it and never caused any problems worse than having to get a lot of top offs at Jiffy Lube.
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Jul 23, 2018 03:17
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I got good news back about the used subaru I was offered, since the 100k mark it's had the timing belt, head gaskets, water pump, a.c. Freon and compressor, and like a dozen other smaller things replaced (breaks rotors tires etc), so it seems like for major inevitable repairs the expensive ones shou I'd be in pretty good shape until it gets close to the 200k point. Price was $2500k and feels like it would be a nice step up from my crown Vic with a non functioning a.c. that might cost a ton of money to fix (it's an electrical problem they haven't figured out yet), janky mostly non functional locks, no carpet or center console, horrible gas mileage, engine misfiring, no awd, etc.
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Aug 5, 2018 22:56
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The only time I ever used the sunroof in my Honda was when I had a really tall Mohawk and had to open it so it wouldn't get bent on the ceiling
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Aug 11, 2018 03:27
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Every car I've owned has had the check engine light on for it's entire lifetime in my ownership i completely tune them out by now I think that is normal though when the most expensive car I ever owned was worth $4k
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Aug 23, 2018 18:09
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I forget that other states have emissions testing. Maybe we just realize that the weather here kills off cars before they’re old enough to cause problems anyway
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Aug 26, 2018 06:32
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Car max offered me $200 for my car
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Sep 27, 2018 02:54
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It was a lowball that was so low it was funny. I don’t expect to get much for it but I know if I went to craigslist instead I could at least get enough to cover the tires I’m gonna need for my new car. it’s an ‘09 with ~130k miles, body in not amazing shape, almost functional ac and an ever so slightly misfiring engine. I saw almost the exact same car on there for $1500 a month or two ago so I might ask for that and just try as hard as I can to keep it in four digits. That sounds high but in this climate a car that can just start in winter without problems will have a pool of interested buyers
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Sep 27, 2018 03:39
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:50 |
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All the mechanical parts of the AC like the compressor and whatever work, but the computer isn’t sending the ground to it when the cars on so it doesn’t kick in. Those are the words a guy in a jumpsuit said at me so I hope they actually mean something real CannonFodder posted:IME it's when there's a slow leak and the a/c blows cold half of the time. Cold cold cold weak weak weak and so on for a week or two until getting a can of refrigerant. Yeah one of the engine coils is kinda wonky. Two of them were totally shot cause coolant was leaking into them and hosed them up but I replaced those, so the car went from shaking hard when idling or accelerating to driving mostly fine but will get a little bit of engine shake if you are cruising or too slowly accelerating around 40mph. Other than that the engine runs well though, and it is actually a decently fun car to drive for being such a boat. There’s no carpet in it so you really get to hear that V8 moan
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Sep 28, 2018 01:20
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