Anonymous wrote:Can you afford anything more expensive than that? Seems like you’d want something that’s at least safe for your kid. I can’t imagine a car under $2,000 is going to be safe.

This. We tried for $5k, then for $7k finally found something that passed inspection and didn’t need a ton of repairs immediately. In between, we bought a car privately and had to resell it a month later. Luckily, it went to an enthusiast of the model who was delighted to get something to tinker with with his teen son. We broke even, minus the costs related to the MVA.

Here's a couple of cars close to your price range. Be prepared to haggle, you should be able to get fairly close to your $5,300 price. The one that's $7,200 has 24,000 miles less on it so I'd probably aim for that one. It's going to be a PITA haggling it down but it's a used car so the price is definitely negotiable. I'd probably aim for about $6,000 which is 15% off the asking price.

https://www.355toyota.com/used-Rockville-2011-Toyota-Corolla-LE-2T1BU4EE5BC699238

https://www.fitzgeraldtoyotagaithersburg.com/used/Toyota/2011-Toyota-Corolla-308fd6110a0e09b126def8483f702bb3.htm

If you do go with Craigslist or something like that, you can always have the seller meet you at a mechanic to get it checked out.

Autotrader.

Anonymous wrote:I should have clarified...car is not going off to school with DD. I haven’t looked for a car in a long time so I was hoping to find a nice Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. It does appear that I will need to increase budget.

yes, significantly.

Between Carmax and Craigslist/Facebook, there are a lot of dealers with used cars — especially if you look further out in the suburbs. Maybe check that out?

The last car we bought used, I looked on Truecar, to identify dealers that had what i was looking for. Also check kellys bluebook for a sense of what's a good deal. Good luck!

$2,000 is a car that's going to have a lot of problems. $5,300 you can buy a better car but don't expect a miracle. I'd look for a used economy car like a civic or a corolla. No doubt you can buy some cheap Ford or Chevy for that price as well.

When I moved to DMV in 2011, I bought a 7 year old Prius off craigslist for $6K And I thought that was a great price! I’d definitely consider trying to increase your budget by $3K at least.

Anonymous wrote:I should have clarified...car is not going off to school with DD. I haven’t looked for a car in a long time so I was hoping to find a nice Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. It does appear that I will need to increase budget.

Honda’s and Toyota’s tend to cost more since they hold their value more and even w/100,000 miles are still very reliable.
Unfortunately everyone knows this.

Ok...i can up it to $5300 max

That’s not a reasonable price for a nice, safe used car.

I should have clarified...car is not going off to school with DD. I haven’t looked for a car in a long time so I was hoping to find a nice Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. It does appear that I will need to increase budget.

I have a 18 year old Camry that would sell for about 2k, but it's not that safe and I would not put my college kid in it to drive to school, unless it was to a local college. I don't even drive it on the interstate for any length of time at this point, because I don't feel it's safe enough for me.

Get then at least a 5k reliable car that's been checked out.

Can you afford anything more expensive than that? Seems like you’d want something that’s at least safe for your kid. I can’t imagine a car under $2,000 is going to be safe.

Any ideas? Facebook is all lies, fake posts and shenanigans. Carmax doesn’t have cars that cheap and don’t want to risk my life with Craig’s list.
Looking for a nice car for DD going to college in the fall.