I hear horror stories about dealers, and apparently a national clearinghouse like Carvana is scarcely better. Is there a good alternative to Carvana? All I want is a decent fuel efficient workhorse vehicle like a Toyota Corolla or Honda Accord.
I had a good experience with Car Max, as did one of my sons.
I’ve had good luck buying from a private seller and getting a good mechanic to look at it before I pay for it. Pick a make and model known for longevity and don’t look at anything with high miles. It might not work but it’s better than the alternatives. In my opinion.
If you do look at Carvana or Carmax or similar, don’t limit yourself to just what your local outlet has on their lot; search their entire national inventory. If you want something that will last “forever” look for low, but not crazy low, mileage relative to age. e.g. 100 miles per year is a red flag, as is 30K miles per year But 4-8K miles/year is ideal for long life. And better if it’s from a non-snow, non-coastal part of the country. Do know that they move cars all over the country so just because you find it at the e.g. Phoenix dealership does not mean the car was a desert car its whole life; it may well have been a Boston or Florida car for most of that time. But the Carfax report, which they will give you, will indicate where it was registered and where it was maintained through its life.
They are skilled at pricing based on actual condition, so you won’t get a steal price-wise. But you will get a solid car. They also sell warrantees that are real, and are cheap for the coverage. And they come with a (IIRC) 1 year warrantee So if the car turns out to be notso hotso, your net cost to fix will be small.
By “bulletproof”, what are you looking for? You could buy either model used from a Toyota or Honda dealership, particularly if you buy a “certified pre-owned” vehicle. Although I expect you’ll pay a lot for these cars; probably enough that brand-new cars would be only slightly more.
I’m looking to neither get screwed on the price nor buy a lemon. I also don’t want surprise fees to jack up the price by a significant margin, like what happened recently to a Doper’s son.
The only good way I have found is to buy from a trusted mechanic. However, those “Certified” used cars are never lemons, or so I have heard. That doesnt mean there might not be a problem or two, but nothing serious.
Really both Toyota nor Honda vehicles are almost never lemons.
First tell us how new a car you want with how many miles and your budget, The answer is different if you want a 3 year old car with 50,000 miles than if an 8 year old car with over 100,000 miles is acceptable.
My and my son’s experiences exactly. Their warranty is cheap for the coverage and when that solid car I bought from them was totaled 4 months later they refunded every penny of the warranty to me, not pro-rated at all and they did it pleasantly the day I notified them, didn’t have to ask twice or haggle with them.
$10-12 grand out the door — and by that I mean the price of the car, plus tax, title, license, the whole magilla. I imagine that would get me a decent used Corolla with, I dunno, 60-70k miles?
I’m not a car guy, but every Toyota I’ve ever owned has been a peach. Hell, if I hadn’t wrecked my 1986 Toyota pickup I’d probably still be driving it.
As Ralphie said in A Christmas Story, some men are Baptists, some are Presbyterian. I’m a Toyota man.
That seems optimistic. Double the mileage and/or stick with a private sale.
Yup. Toyotas and Hondas tend to keep their value more, as they are seen as more reliable, and if cared for properly, can easily double or triple those kind of miles before they’re done.
Checking Carmax listings for here (Chicago area), for a Corolla with around 60-70,000 miles, you’d be looking at $18K - $21K (and that doesn’t include the extra “whole magilla” things the OP wants included in the final price). $15K or so gets you a Corolla at around 100K miles.
Yeah I underestimated by a bunch. But my budget still stands. And a Toyota with 100k miles will still give me a years of reliability.
I do pretty good going to Hertz Car Sales.
When I wanted to replace my Jeep 15 months ago I found a used Jeep on Carmax. They had a 30 day no-questions-asked return policy (capped at 1,000 miles), and I did end up returning the Jeep after about 3 weeks and maybe 600 miles. So that was nice. This particular Jeep had problems I discovered as I drove it and after a few hundred miles I knew it wasn’t a Jeep I wanted to keep. Their return policy was a nice feature.
I ended up buying a new Subaru Outback after returning the Jeep.
I kept a running list of the issues with the Jeep. Here’s my list.
ISSUES, 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 3.6L V6 gasoline
ACC non operational
front end occasional knock or click, usually when turning, a single knock or click
oil specks on tailgate — tried some hard acceleration
seat heater weak, passenger seat
front end shimmy at highway speeds
dashboard bubbling
sunroof action is noisy
tailgate action is noisy
right front door click on opening
QL air suspension action is noisy
occasional single beeps ⇦ FCW off???
driver seatbelt retractor is slow
Red were major issues, yellow were minor ones.
I was pretty happy with Carmax.
“Lemon” is a term for a new car with inherent defects. And yes, nowadays they’re rare for every brand, but as you rightly say, Toyota and Honda are probably the best of the bunch.
When buying used, any car can be converted into a rolling maintenance nightmare by a bad enough prior owner. Although the OP misused “lemon”, I suspect that’s their real fear: buying an abused car.
Lemon laws in some states cover used cars.
You take a chance with any used car. Except for a car I paid $300 for I have them inspected by a mechanic. Anyone who doesn’t agree to that inspection isn’t selling to me.
I also figure out what engine and transmission rebuild/replace costs are. It still has to be a good deal if I end up having to pay that much in the next three years.
To me the least awful way is to stick to private sellers, not dealers, and make sure to get it checked out by a mechanic (as well as getting Carfax). My reasoning is that, sure, a private seller may be trying to rip you off, but you are at least dealing with a part time amateur trying to rip you off versus a dealer who is a professional who rips punters off for a living.
That said, that approach only really worked for me as a childless single dude with plenty of time on his hands (not to mention that the number of private sellers seem to have fallen in recent years), when I brought a car last year I just didn’t have the time for that, and just sucked it up and went with a dealer. We spent a while online researching the kinds of cars we wanted and had the budget for, and then narrowed it down to one at a local-ish dealer, got Carfax (but not a mechanic inspection), turned up went for a test drive, discussed it with my wife for a couple of minutes, then paid and drove away. Ended up with a reliable 10 year old low mileage Mini that’s been going fine.
One thing I was amazed by is how the dealer was not remotely interested in haggling on the cash price, like not a cent. Car dealers are not really in the business of selling cars nowadays they are in the business of selling loans.
Conventional wisdom is to avoid discussing how you’ll pay until the price is settled on. That’s when you say you’ll be paying cash or have financing through your own bank/CU or whatever.
That said, I’m sure they can tell when you’re being coy about it and you’re unlikely to spend much time with their finance guy.