Fiscally reasonable way to buy a car?? Tips??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CPO is the way to go. Most CPO are off leased vehicles so they are about 3 years old. You can search the local dealerships but I went straight to the USA websites (of the makes that you are interested in) and search for CPOs that way. I then narrow down to the Eastern region and target neighboring states. I got a better deal outside MD/DC/NoVA area (and the car was delivered to me at no charge, from NC, after a testdrive)

I agree. My sister and BIL spend a long time online looking for a car. They only want CPO cars. They have found good cars coming off a lease at 18-20,000 miles. My sister just bought a car and it was shipped from Iowa. she's had no problems with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, decide whether you want a car to drive (German cars, Mazda, Subarus to some degree) or an appliance that gets you from A to B (Honda/Toyota, Hyundai...)
Then decide how much you can spend to buy and on an annual basis for maintenance, fuel
Put the two decisions together and you'll have the best car for you

Example of how marketing does a number on people. What does your car say about who you are? What does your dresser represent in you? You must have this brand of luggage because that's what cool, interesting, happy and unconvetional people get. You are you regardless of what crap you own or not. These things say nothing about you (* except if you're a bald guy in a BMW convertible, that screams "small penis").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BMW is going to kill you on parts and repairs in the long term (so will any german car), I would stay away.

Bear in mind that used vehicle certification from a dealer adds cost to the car, it's not free to the dealership and they pass the cost to you.

Get 1-2 year old car with low mileage. Check "True Price" to see for how much other people bought a similar car.

Find a good mechanic (if you don't have one) to inspect the car before purchasing (this was you dont' need certification to be sure it's not a lemon).

Go with a brand that has low maintenance costs and sells in high volume. Don't pay the luxury premium on BMW or Acura. Honda CRV is a good choice, if you want a third row of seats - Honda Pilot or Toyota Highlander.

Please help me find one of these. Preferably in western moco. Please!

[Anonymous]

"Find a good mechanic (if you don't have one) to inspect the car before purchasing (this was you dont' need certification to be sure it's not a lemon)."

Can you explain how to get this to really work?

I have had two or three HIGHLY recommendable mechanics over the 23 years I have lived in MOCO. I have LOVED their work and their prices were reasonable.
These are my mechanics not my friends who work as mechanics like I had back home.

Every time I approached one of them about doing this, they say bring the car in it will take about 2-3 hours of labor. I guess in 1993 that might have cost $200
but now it is closer to $400. I would gladly pay $400 for this service on the car I buy but if I look at 3 cars, I would be out $1100 and even then not sure I'm driving a
car home...

I always end up buying new.

[Anonymous]

I almost forgot, I don't live in western MOCO, sorry.

[Anonymous]

If you want a Honda or Toyota, they hold their value like crazy. We found the little bit in savings for getting a 1-2 year old car wasn't worth the great restrictions on inventory/risk of not knowing what happened during that time, so we've started buying new the last couple of times.

[Anonymous]

Agree with some of the previous posters, for a Toyota/Honda/Subaru there is no point going used - low inventory and not much of a discount off of new, if any, just less warranty left.

Use a buying service (Costco and/or true at - note that who you use for truecar matters - true car through usaa is lower than just going to true at.com) to get a starting price, then email a few dealers and play them off of each other. We got our Subaru for around 4% below invoice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Find a good mechanic (if you don't have one) to inspect the car before purchasing (this was you dont' need certification to be sure it's not a lemon)."

Can you explain how to get this to really work?

I have had two or three HIGHLY recommendable mechanics over the 23 years I have lived in MOCO. I have LOVED their work and their prices were reasonable.
These are my mechanics not my friends who work as mechanics like I had back home.

Every time I approached one of them about doing this, they say bring the car in it will take about 2-3 hours of labor. I guess in 1993 that might have cost $200
but now it is closer to $400. I would gladly pay $400 for this service on the car I buy but if I look at 3 cars, I would be out $1100 and even then not sure I'm driving a
car home...

I always end up buying new.

Ours also takes ~2 hrs but charged us nothing. My husband has been using him for an older german car repairs/maintenance for several years, so I guess he was a profitable and frequent customer

If you have to pay for the check up, then unless you know you want this specific car, don't get it checked. Look at the Carfax first to see if anything has happened to it. Limit the mileage you're willing to take. Less driving = less chance of crap having happened to the car. Last one we got was 8 months old and had 4K miles on it.

I take exception to what others are saying about new cars: the destination charge alone is ridiculous, I mean getting the cars to the dealership is part of doing business as a dealer, why am I being charged for somebody else's overhead? Why not their electicity bill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Forester in 2014. We had a hard time finding gently used ones on the market. I took that as a good sign, since people tend to buy them and hold on to them. It seemed you could save $5k to get a vehicle a few years old, but they all had about 80K in mileage. That wasn't worth it to me so we ended up buying new. If we'd had more time to wait for a good deal to pop up (a year or two old and low mileage to save a few thousand) we would have. But we didn't have the time to watch for it.

We did exactly the same. Bought a 2016 Forester last month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BMW is going to kill you on parts and repairs in the long term (so will any german car), I would stay away.

Bear in mind that used vehicle certification from a dealer adds cost to the car, it's not free to the dealership and they pass the cost to you.

Get 1-2 year old car with low mileage. Check "True Price" to see for how much other people bought a similar car.

Find a good mechanic (if you don't have one) to inspect the car before purchasing (this was you dont' need certification to be sure it's not a lemon).

Go with a brand that has low maintenance costs and sells in high volume. Don't pay the luxury premium on BMW or Acura. Honda CRV is a good choice, if you want a third row of seats - Honda Pilot or Toyota Highlander.

Definitely something to consider. European cars have higher repair costs (parts are more expensive). Japanese cars are middle of the road, and American cars are cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I have a CPO 2012 BMW X3 and you get an extended warranty that takes you to 6 years 100K miles.. but it doesnt cover everything. it certainly gives you peace of mind that you are not getting a lemon. Ive only had the car for 1.5 years and have put 15K miles on it -- I havent spent more than $100 on maintenance and I get a free loaner when I take it in. Happy with service so far...

[Anonymous]

Also re: X3 - i put 89 octane in it (medium grade)-- not 93 and it runs beautifully.

[Anonymous]

you will find that you can negotiate price on used cars a lot less than new cars. if you are looking at a new car, use the app True Car for a real price of what you can get under MSRP (almost 10K off when we bought our Audi A6)

[Anonymous]

Can anyone comment on the difference, if any, between the USAA and Costco car buying services? Do you get a better price with one vs the other?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also re: X3 - i put 89 octane in it (medium grade)-- not 93 and it runs beautifully.

You are wasting money right there. Either you pay for the premium fuel that is recommended, or you go with regular and have the engine slightly detuned for performance. You don't really get the benefits of savings or performance with 89.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/automobiles/03OCTANE.html?_r=0