Woody said at 3:19 PM 03-23-2004: Definitely spend a couple bucks and get the Lemon Aid Used Car Guide. If you are only spending $2000, I wouldn't worry too much about mileage and just make sure you get something that won't average $300/month in maintenance/repairs.
brandon [email] said at 3:53 PM 03-23-2004: Personally, I would save at least another grand for tax, title, license [miscellaneous other fees] and put 2,000 down against at most a 10,000 dollar used car. You can easily find hondas and nissans in that range with from 1 1/2 years out and more out and with 30-40K miles on them.
Stay away from geo, kia, hyundai (in that price range) saturn, and anything designed for 18 year old ex-raver kids.
kara [email] said at 4:02 PM 03-23-2004: It would take me at least ten months to save 1000 dollars.
My credit is too ridiculous for a loan.
"Personally," it sounds like you have more options than I will for the next few years.
Basically I've been looking at Toyotas, but can't seem to find anything from the 1990s for under 2 grand..
just thought I'd ask for ideas.
brandon [email] said at 4:32 PM 03-23-2004: You should get an early-80's American sedan. Right when they were starting to get big again, and before fuel injection. Sure, they get like 14 mpg. But the engines are workhorses that, if you keep them lubricated, will never die.
kara [email] said at 4:55 PM 03-23-2004: i just dont want to deal with getting a car where I cant bring it straight to my mechanic and have it looked at right away, and make my decision... and I dont want to deal with bidding.
art said at 4:58 PM 03-23-2004: good points. I always have bought used cars from dealers because I can knock on their door if something went wrong. I know that probably isn't an option for you with your budget and all.
kara [email] said at 4:56 PM 03-23-2004: also, due to my lack of car, I'm very limited geographically in where I can look, and theres not much ebay going on in the city
amanda [email] said at 4:06 PM 03-23-2004: I have a '92 Toyota Corolla, and he treats me well. Everyone with a Corolla I know/meet echoes my love of this car. Apart from minor things like changing the oil/brakepads/occasional maintenance thingy, my car has yet to encounter an expensive breakdown of any sort. After the horrors of my two years with "Lord Kimbote" (1981 Renault Encore...*shudder*), "Tom" has blessed me with 5 years of impeccable wonderfulness. I highly recommend his brethren to you, both in sedan and station wagon forms.
Woody said at 4:35 PM 03-23-2004: Anecdotally, my 93 Saturn SL2 has ben insanely good to me. It should sell for less that 2K US. The only things that have broken were non-essential stuff (interior). The automatic shoulder belt is painfully slow now, but only in the cold. I've had it 6 years, it's at 290,000 kms and I have yet to spend a dime on repairs. Wait, change that, I had to replace the wiper transmission because it corroded. Probably a cold-weather thing too.
josh [email] said at 4:37 PM 03-23-2004: And my 94 Saturn SL2 had an electrical system that was failing by year 5 of ownership, non-powered windows that wouldn't roll up or down, rear struts that blew, a leaking head gasket...
loren [email] said at 4:39 PM 03-23-2004: You could pick up an early 90's Civic Hatchback for that much, probably with close to a 100k miles. But they'll easily go to twice that if taken care of with normal maintenance. Just make sure whatever you get you get it checked out by a mechanic.
dave said at 6:22 PM 03-23-2004: mid 80's volvo 240 gl. mine has over 400,000 miles on it. no engine or transmission work besides routine maintenance, ever. loren's idea is probably your best bet though. on the other hand, you might be able to keep about 1,500$ of your money if you went with my idea :)
Pinky said at 7:28 PM 03-23-2004: My cousin went to an auction and got a 97 accord for under 2000...I think it was 1600 or something. The auction process sounds a bit bizarre, and it's probably hit or miss, but there's definitely some good deals.
jake said at 9:43 PM 03-23-2004: Super cheap deals:
There's a late 70's datsun that apparently gets up to 40 mpg when driven right...That's a lot better than my 98 Honda's 25 mpg (I pretty much have to drive it wrong for the deliveries I do).
Also, there's some diesel cars (maybe cadillac) I've been hearing about that you can convert to soy-diesel, and then get free "gas" from restaurants that don't recycle their cooking oil. I'm told that $2000 is about the starting for that, but this is not at all first hand...
Outside of those hugely california-kooky ideas, you can probably get a geo metro for cheap. I drove one for awhile and it had amazing pick-up, for being a car made out of paper clips.
pokey [email] said at 11:07 PM 03-23-2004: Our 92 olds cutlass (a very popular car) had 180k miles on it when I slid it under a semi. Mark still drives it, on occasion, though I won't, ever again. It was a good car. It was 6cyl, though, and it is likely that you could do better, as far as gas milage, with any little 4-cyl, but that olds, and the one Mark had before it, was a workhorse.
If you could find a "good" car (toyota/honda) for that price go for it... Usually those cars are great way past 100K/200K miles. If you can't find anything like that---- I have a friend who bought a 1990 Volvo 4-door--- for like $1800. He loves it-- gets good milege/comfortable and so far (he's had it for 2 years now) has had NO problems with it. The only thing with Volvo's are that repairs might be more expensive that Jap. cars. But, then... less than $1600 bucks for a car is pretty good. Look in your local classified for good deals also. A word of caution though--- before you lay your money down, bring the car to a local mechanic and have them do a once over. You dont wanna shell out your hard earned money just to get ripped off with a car that is undriveable after 1 week.
