Try and save up a bit more. You're not going to get anything even close to reliable for less than $2000. If you don't have a choice, I would go for an old Honda or Toyota.
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Car forum?
- Thread starter dinghy
- Start date
I was going to say check out old Volkswagon Beetles but, they are more pricey than expected. The cheapest running one on this site was about $8,000. 
http://www.oldbug.com/sales.htm
http://www.oldbug.com/sales.htm
Since you stated that you didn't know much about cars, I rephrased your list into what the items should be:
Runs well
It's not on it's last mile.
Decent "verifiable" gas mileage. Cars that old may get half their rated mileage due to poor maintenance.
I need a backseat for my honey.
I need a way to get my honey into the backseat.
and then you woke up. All ancient cars need repairs. Sellers try to hide them long enough to make a sale. Nature of the game.
What tools do you have to fix a car? Tools are expensive. Since you've never worked on a car, where would you start?
Do you have a few hundred to spare for on going maintenance, especially the major interval maintenance requirements? f(30, 60, 90k miles). Which probably have been overlooked by the previous owner (which may be part of the reason it's being sold).
But I have a lot of specifications.
These are the exact opposite of the cars you should be looking at. They are expensive to repair, break down a lot, needs lots of expensive basic maintenance, take it to the junkyard if you have a major problem kind of cars. You'll look cool as you get towed to the repair shop.
BTW, how will you pay for insurance, tires, basic maintenance, delayed maintenance and heaven forbid, a major mechanical problem?
What you'll learn is that most people don't sell cars that are running well and don't break down.
You're best bet is to find an original owner Toyota with repair records on hand.
Wow you really got me pegged.
I'm going to try and see if my parents will help me with this car for things like insurance, some gas, maintenance, since I offered to drive my sisters to school. I estimate they spend 80+ minutes a day driving to and from school, and I thought they'd take the chance to cut that out of their day. I don't think they'd outright pay for a car and everything that goes along with it though.
For working on a car, I only have a basic toolkit with sockets and stuff and a power drill I think. I don't have any experience working with cars, but given the opportunity to learn from either the internet, or I believe my friend's dad was good with cars, I think I could learn. If I had too, do you think there is enough information on the internet?
I'm going to try and see if my parents will help me with this car for things like insurance, some gas, maintenance, since I offered to drive my sisters to school. I estimate they spend 80+ minutes a day driving to and from school, and I thought they'd take the chance to cut that out of their day. I don't think they'd outright pay for a car and everything that goes along with it though.
For working on a car, I only have a basic toolkit with sockets and stuff and a power drill I think. I don't have any experience working with cars, but given the opportunity to learn from either the internet, or I believe my friend's dad was good with cars, I think I could learn. If I had too, do you think there is enough information on the internet?
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
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You have a toolkit with sockets and stuff, and you think a power drill?
You might as well start finding a good mechanic now
Your best bet, if you want to work around cars, is hang out with people fixing them. You learn stuff, you'll learn how to properly use the tools (very important) you'll learn how to do the basics, like changing oil and rotating tires, etc. It's all pretty basic, but it's good to see it before you do it.
Yeah, but that takes nearly 1.5 hours out of your day to finish homework and get to practicing. IMO, it will get old real fast.
If you do sign up to be the chauffeur, your parents should provide a well maintained, reliable car with all the gas and reg. maintenance/repairs provided to keep you and your sisters safe on the road.
If you put some of your money for part of the car, that's great. If you continue with the chauffeur business until you graduate or sister's start driving, then you earn the car.
You'll be saving them the wear and tear on their cars and reduce the depreciation and repair costs lower by keeping their accumulated miles much lower.
A good mechanics set of tools costs thousands. Then you have the testing equipment, adjusting equipment and ...and...and
Just jacking up a car and getting it on jack stands is dangerous to a newbie. It's a dirty job, you need a place to leave the car for awhile if you can't find a part, and fluids can leak on to the driveway. You need a good jack (not the one that came with the car) and non-rusty jack stands (preferably new) with a sufficient of stability to hold the weight of your specific car.
No. You don't have the tools for one and secondly, printing out a web page won't see you through a lot of the trouble shooting because problems can be multifaceted.
Your car will be become your unpaid part-time job.
FYI, I still have a '96 Honda Accord that I bought new. Right now it needs new tires, new front axle boots, 90k major maintenance. I got an estimate from an experience local mechanic: $400 for Michelin tires, $280 for the axle boots, about $350 for the maintenance. It also needs front struts and a battery: maybe a couple of hundred more, installed.
You do the math. And this is a car that really, has never broken down or not started, ever.
Do I have the money/knowledge or time to find/buy all the tools (maybe some new, some used), learn about the repair, price/buy all the parts, take apart an old car w/o a lift, install everything perfectly and then trust me and family on the freeway at 70mph? Well, I do have the time and the money, but I won't spend on tools that may only be used once.
You can find late '90s Accord for about $3-$5k, depending on the shape. Maybe a Civic for cheaper, but probably not because they get very good mileage.
You need to talk to parents in detail about what you want to do and find out what they are really willing to part with in cash.
You'll need income to support the car so you'll have to get a job.
Probably should do that first, actually. Then you'll have some $$ to budget for the future. What you're talking about is just getting the car and not being concerned about future costs, just hoping they won't be much and hoping that someone will help you fix the car for free.
That's not a good plan, IMO. You really need add'l cash to start with to buy a newer car. Then you'll have a chance of less repairs in the future.
Good luck.
So true that it hurts, especially with older cars. Whatever car you decide to get, make sure there are no leaks, no odd sounds, no overheating, and make sure things you would assume wouldn't be broken actually work, like door handles!
Here's a nice long horror story for you:
Recently I bought a 1990 Acura Integra with 237k miles for $1650. This was the first car I had ever bought for myself in my name, so I didn't know what to look for and what to watch out for. Now $1650 sounds cheap, but for the particular car that I bought, I paid way too much. Now that I know a bunch of things that are wrong with it, I wouldn't have paid more than $800 for it. I can't even begin to describe all of the problems this car has, and what really sucks is that I keep discovering more.
First off, it has 237k miles. Honda engines can go well beyond that, but even then it's still pretty high, so that was stupid on my part. There was an odd noise coming from the engine, but I didn't know what it was and still don't. (Here it is if you want to listen for youself: ). I was told by the guy who sold it to me that it was the A/C, and me, not being very car savvy at the time, believed him. I still have no clue what the sound is, but it's definitely not a good one, and there's a pretty good chance that it's something serious, like a spun rod bearing. I also noticed that it seemed to run a little rough, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. It turns out that one of the spark plug wires had a hole in it, so sparks were flying out of the wire, causing the engine to misfire. You'll never guess how they "repaired" it. Rather than go out and spend the $40 on a new set of spark plug wires, they wrapped the individual wire with duct tape. Yes, you read correctly, duct tape! What the hell were they thinking!!! That was just the beginning of what I found out was a very poorly taken car of car.
Second, the car was very well detailed, so a lot of the major flaws were hidden. For instance, the guy was pretty slick about hiding the fact that the inner door handles didn't work. I didn't think anything of it because that's something a reasonabe person would assume worked without question, but when I took the car home and tried to open the door, guess what happened? No dice! Both of the inner door handles were broken! Also, the tires had tire shine on them, which made them look brand new, but when I was changing my oil, I noticed that the inner side of both of the front tires were worn down to the metal. That's definitely not good and a very serious problem, especially since I was driving on the freeway.
Thirdly, when I tried to get the car smogged, the car failed miserably and was deemed a gross polluter. You wouldn't believe the numbers I got. They were just outright insane. For instance, in the state of CA the highest Hydrocarbon (HC) levels your car can emit is 121 parts per million (ppm). My car emitted 3151 ppm!!! Yes, that is not a typo. I soon found out that in the state of CA, the seller is responsible for the smog, not the buyer, so keep that in mind since you live in CA. I tried to get my money back since the the car was in such bad shape and I was deceived, but that wasn't even close to being a possibility. I also tried to get the guy to help me by chipping in for the smog, but he stopped answering his phone and never called me back. Long story short, I ended up giving the car a good tune up for about $300(i.e. changing the spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, filters, fluids, oxygen sensor,etc.) and now she's running a hell of a lot better with more power and passed smog with flying colors. So now I'm driving it around, but it leaks oil, even after changing the oil pan gasket (don't get me started on that), and it's still making that noise, but like I said, it sounds serious, and it's most likely beyond my automotive "expertise."
I could go into more, but I'd be here all day. I definitely learned my lesson, but unfortunately, it was the hard way. When you go and buy a car, take a person that is car savvy with you, preferably a good mechanic with the gift of gab (to talk the seller into lowering the price
). Also, take note of who you're buying the car from. If something seems fishy, it most likely is. The guy I bought the car from was a complete slimball, and I put way too much trust in him. Even with my gut telling me not to go through with it, desperation and impulse make a person do very stupid things.Anyway, I hope that my early morning ramblings help you in your quest for finding a good reliable car, and if you're not sure what a certain car costs, use the Kelly Blue Book in conjunction with edmunds.com's True Market Value (TMV). That way you get a good idea of what the car is worth and what people are actually paying for it.
Gool luck!
$1495 for a '90 Toyota Corolla with 133,000 miles for me
That was baltimore though, but I'm sure a deal can be had over there too. Yes, about $3,000 will get you a pretty good car and cars under about $2,000 are kinda sketchy but depending on where you buy it can be had. Mine was in good condition, and since it was owned by a mechanic it was kept very well, and had many parts replaced that it needed.
Just keep looking. You'll find something, also try networking. usually thats the best way to find anything(car, job, equipment), ask around if anybody's selling a car, you may just get lucky.
Carforums.net is a good forum. For around your price range.. you can't go wrong with a 90's Corolla. They're excellent cars and get great gas mileage. There's also Toyota Tercels which are like Corollas but they're smaller and get better gas mileage. Another car I would recommend is a Geo Metro, if you can get over the ugliness and slowness.. they can get around 45 mpg and are fairly reliable.
You can get a car for plenty cheap if ya research on how to do everything and ask alot of questions on a forum such as this one.
When I was 16 I knew nothing about cars, bought a grand am for 650 bucks and kept it a year and a half before some lady hit me. It had 90k miles on it and I learned how to swap a transmission for a junkyard one.
Now I own a jeep with 125K currently on it and a dodge caravan with 240K on it.
I have rebuilt the motor and transfercase in my jeep, as well as replaced and rebuilt a rear axle, welded up new suspension and have modified it extensively. The minivan gets routine maintenence but it is not driven quite like my jeep
Start learning now, the knowledge you acquire will save you you thousands upon thousands in life. And in my case has made me a little side money
When I was 16 I knew nothing about cars, bought a grand am for 650 bucks and kept it a year and a half before some lady hit me. It had 90k miles on it and I learned how to swap a transmission for a junkyard one.
Now I own a jeep with 125K currently on it and a dodge caravan with 240K on it.
I have rebuilt the motor and transfercase in my jeep, as well as replaced and rebuilt a rear axle, welded up new suspension and have modified it extensively. The minivan gets routine maintenence but it is not driven quite like my jeep
Start learning now, the knowledge you acquire will save you you thousands upon thousands in life. And in my case has made me a little side money
vw vortex!
93-99 vw golfs and jettas are pretty good runners with the 2.0, but avoid those automatics on older vws, they're finicky, so it'd have to be a stick.
Repairs are a little more costly with them, but the good thing is that generally they don't need repairs all that often, less than many other manufacturers cars of that year/size besides the Acura integra and the honda civic and accord.
It's also very common for them to last well beyond 200k miles with good maintenance and gentle care. Plus they're fun little cars to drive and can be bought for your price if you look very hard.
93-99 vw golfs and jettas are pretty good runners with the 2.0, but avoid those automatics on older vws, they're finicky, so it'd have to be a stick.
Repairs are a little more costly with them, but the good thing is that generally they don't need repairs all that often, less than many other manufacturers cars of that year/size besides the Acura integra and the honda civic and accord.
It's also very common for them to last well beyond 200k miles with good maintenance and gentle care. Plus they're fun little cars to drive and can be bought for your price if you look very hard.
Having owned 2 Volvos and 2 Saabs I can assure you that
the cost of parts for those cars is stupidly expensive.
You can double stupidly expensive to outrageously expensive
for an old Mercedes.
the cost of parts for those cars is stupidly expensive.
You can double stupidly expensive to outrageously expensive
for an old Mercedes.
I highly disagree there a some ver good used cars out there ... for example My 1995 Grand Prix SE bought it in the beginning of July for $600 from a private seller.. Thew a new belt on it and its been driven every day and still running strong.
I best advice it to look at your local newspaper and see whats available for your price range... bring someone who knows cars with you so they can look it over and try to make sure it doesn't have any major issues.. and for God's sake stay away from the cheap Fords and cheap Hondas ...
I've got a '78 Mercedes and it looks great and was pretty cheap initially BUT parts for it are expensive. 80's Volvo's and Mercedes will cost you a fortune in parts and labor every time something breaks.
If you want a cheap, easy to maintain car that gets good mileage, pick your favorite domestic (GM, Ford Chrysler) and get one of their used econocars.
Chevy Cavalier
Ford escort
Dodge Neon
and so on.
The best place to find deals is to look through the classified section of your local paper or in an automart publication. I've gotten great cars for less than a thousand bucks but only by knowing what I'm looking for and doing a LOT of shopping around and rejecting all the less than great deals. Patience and selectivity is the key.
Take a look at what your neighbors may have sitting in their driveway. My neighbor had a 94 Plymouth Colt sitting with no tags that I scored for $200. Needed a little work but nothing major. Tires, brakes and typical stuff like that. Including purchase price I've got less than $800 into the car.
3 years and 35000 miles later I'm still driving it, and getting 42 mpg.
3 years and 35000 miles later I'm still driving it, and getting 42 mpg.
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