Used Car Buying Advice Please!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, so if any of you have seen old threads by me, you’d see that I’ve ran into some car problems, or rather my family has. To spare you the details, one of the cars engine spontaneously burst into flame. Nobody was hurt, but needless to say, we need a new car. Or rather, I need a new car.
Anyway, I’ve never bought a car before. I’m looking at used cars in the $8000-9000 range. I want a sub-compact preferably, or a compact, but small is better. Gas economy is pretty important too, as is durability since I have a rountrip 80 mile commute five days a week.
Here are some questions I’ve had while looking through sites like autotrader.com and kelllybluebook.com:

Is it better to go with a top-rated car (a la 2000 Honda Civic) with ~50k miles on it or a lower rated car (04 Pontiac Sunfire, for example) with only 15k miles? Assume price is pretty much the same.

I saw a 94 Honda Civic listed as having only 5000 miles, $8000, and it looks like it’s been pretty modified.
Here’s the description:

What does “Car- needs kit” mean? It won’t drive otherwise? Nevermind that I have no idea what a skunk2 manifold, B16, LA tranny, etc, etc, means, is this a decent deal? I am not very fast, nor am I furious, but it’s got great mileage and cost is acceptable too.

I’ll post more when I have more questions. Anybody have any recommendations on good sub-compact to compact sized cars on these? Also, anybody ever buy off the internet? What steps should I take to make sure I won’t be ripped-off, or are there any built-in protections? I know enough to get a detailed history of the car using the VIN, but that’s about it.

Thanks once again for the auto help. Oh, and my mom’s new MINI should be coming in the next month. She’s pretty excited. Especially since it was her car that just went up in flames.

2

That Honda sounds like a racer special. I don’t know what “car-needs kit” means either, but it sounds like a car I wouldn’t want to drive 80 miles a day. It’s hard to go wrong with a Honda or Toyota, even with 50K or 100K miles (it is possible, my SIL’s Celica needed two quarts of oil a week before she sold it with only 75K miles), but they’re still the safest bet. There are tons of cars, though, in that price range. My father has had two Sunfires, both of which had no problems. You would get a newer car, probably with more options and fewer miles, but with generally less reliability. I’m pretty partial to Mazdas myself. You could find a nice Protoge or 626 for that price (or even a Miata!). Here’s a decent article with some practical advice.

Basically, go drive some cars, decide what you like then do some research on prices…and enjoy yourself!

3

Hmm. This isn’t your normal economy car. This is a hot rod.

B16 in a car ad generally means B16Ax where x is a number from 1 to 4. This is a very hot Honda engine, with non-sedan-motor power characteristics. It’s a great engine, but it may not be what you want for just pootling around town.

Turbo means an aftermarket turbocharger has been added. I’m VERY leery about turbocharging a high-output high-compression engine. One misfire and there’s a hole in the block…

9.01 8th mile means it does 1/8 of a mile from a standing start in 9.01 seconds. This roughly corresponds to a 13.50 quarter mile. That’s very fast. That’s Mustang GT territory.
$8000 for a 10-year-old hot-rod Civic is quite a bit over the odds. For that money, you can get a dead-stock 1999-2000 Civic Si. Car and Driver called it the best car in the world when it came out and since the subcompact market hasn’t really done much in terms of light sporty cars since then this is the best of the best. They get 40 miles to the gallon and they’re extremely reliable and durable cars.

4

Never buy a car that has a can of Bar’s Stop Leak in the console.

I know it’s tempting to buy a car that’s all tricked out for speed, but don’t. It has been flogged hard, and that’s not good for any part of the car.

5

The bad thing about all this is that I only have roughly two days to look. I work all week, and I only have the rental until next Friday.
So Hondas and Toyotas are good cars? What about a 50k 01 VW Jetta? I’ve pretty much decided against the hot-rod car. That’s what my video games are for. Any particular Toyota’s recommended? What about Neons? Those seem to be going for pretty cheap as well.

Thanks for the advice guys!

6

Oh yeah, for a Honda, Toyota, Mazda, or BMW, mileage doesn’t matter, period. It’ll be 300,000 miles before major components wear out through overuse. What you have to watch out for electronic stupidity (even power windows are too complex for car manufacturers to get right) and components designed by engineers who don’t give a damn about them (HINT! GET A MANUAL TRANSMISSION!)

Another thing is that you don’t have to spend your whole budget. You don’t have to spend anything like that budget to get a really good, reliable economy car. For $2000 you can get an '88-'91 (squareish) Mazda 626. They’re pretty much indestructible - just watch out for rust. For a thousand more, you can get a '92-95 (curvy) 626. Just avoid the automatic in the newer 626es - it’s garbage.

Don’t bother with the classifieds or the used car lots. Go to autotrader.com and find a dozen candidates. Drive 'em all and buy the best one.

7

Neons are cheap and for good reason…

Avoid the Jetta like it were plutonium. Bosch screwed up royally.

Rent the car for another week. A couple hundred bucks of extra rental fees is nothing compared to a few thousand wasted on a bad car. Never ever buy a car in a hurry.

If you just want a cheap reliable runaround, contact me through my profile. I’ve got a car for sale for 1/8 of your budget - invest the rest.

8

This gives me a new perspective on the Back to the Future quote:

9

Neons weren’t bad cars - they just weren’t particularly good cars. If you buy one, just make sure that you replace all the engine seals at the same time. See, they knew that the seals were a problem, they just didn’t bother to fix it.

We’re in just about the same situation, audiobottle, looking for a similar car. We’ve just about decided on a 2000-02 Toyota Corolla 5-speed. We already have a 1999 Tercel, which is a fantastic run-around-town car, but in addition, we need something just slightly bigger and more powerful for our long highway trips.

10

Don’t ever buy a car where the owner lists his drag racing times in an ad. Even if it only has ten thousand miles, those were probably hard miles.

11

Ah, I’m back from a long day of looking at cars. My impressions:

Toyota, Honda = awesome endurance cars. Also equals much higher used car price. I saw a Toyota Corolla with 99k miles going for almost $10000! What is that about? However, there were definitely some Corollas that were in my range with good mileage. Same goes for the Civics.
I saw a Saturn Ion, 2003 model, with 27k miles, manual transmissions, for only $8000 too. How are these Ions? I really liked the dealership guy; seemed very friendly. He also claimed that Saturn has the lowest insurance rates, as well as being very durable and dependable cars. Anyone driven the Ion? I haven’t test driven yet since I was just looking around to get ideas.

12

I feel your pain, and I see your location is North Carolina. I had to replace my beloved Subaru when it was crushed by 3 oak trees in Hurricane Fran. I was on a tight budget, traffic lights were out all over town, and I really couldn’t afford a rental car for more than a week.

And - I did just fine.

I really recommend the Honda or Toyota. In the case above, I wound up buying a '92 Honda for $5600 (I forget the mileage now).

I used to sell classified advertising for the News & Observer, including auto ads. Based on that experience I really focused on Hondas especially and Toyotas as a second choice. After selling probably thousands of car ads, it was clear to me that at 100,000 miles, most American cars are essentially beaters. They go for a couple thousand dollars, and some may never sell.

Another piece of advice. When you pick the car you like, take it to your mechanic. If the seller won’t cooperate with that, move right along. Get your mechanic to quote any repair work that needs doing, and negotiate that off the price.

Good luck!

13

On top of the very hard miles that the dragster no doubt went through, there is also the chace that the car no longer passes emissions with all the modifications made.

14

I currently have a 96 Saturn that is a fine car (not an Ion obviously), burns a little oil but gets decent mileage and would be a fine car for a long commute such as yours. My sister bought an Ion new that is similar to what you describe. She loves it. I think the dash board is a bad idea, but I haven’t driven it or anything. An Ion would likely be a dependable, reliable car for some time to come. If you like it, I’d say buy it.