Thx for the very helpful advice given.

This is re: miles vs. age of car.

Car 1: A Toyota Camry 2010 at 81,000 miles.
Car 2: A Toyota Corolla 2015 at 101,000 miles.

Almost the same price for both.
Would it be better to buy Car #2 since it is five yrs. newer even though it has 20,000 more mileage?

One other thing is that it’s not good for a car to sit around, not being driven. So low miles can actually be a bit of a red flag. Def go with the newer car.

11:20 here again. Also have your car insurance set up before-hand. Either:

a) agree the deal one day and put down a non-refundable deposit and agree to come back the next day to take delivery (tell them to have all paperwork ready). Then that evening call to get car insurance.
or
b) Do it all at once while you're at teh dealer -- call your insurer while there, and they cna email/fax the proof of insurance to you.

You need to have insurance for the car to drive it off the lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine a dealer not holding a car for you for 2-3 days if you give them a deposit. Also, not returning the deposit sounds almost criminal. If you are new to dealing with used car salesmen ask your step dad to help out.

Think of it from teh dealers' side -- if anyone can come in, leave a $1k refundable deposit,and now the dealer can't sell that car to someone who walks in an hour later ready to do a deal, then people could abuse it. Find cars they like at 3 different places, and put refundable deposits on each. THe deposit is meaningless then.

OP HERE:
Thank you to everyone on here who has responded thus far.
It appears that even though the miles are low, buying an eleven-yr. old car would be a huge risk.
I am seriously reconsidering my purchase thank goodness‼️

I did offer the dealer a non-refundable deposit vs. financing, but looking at it the next day I do not think this would be such a wise move after all.
And yes - if the dealer gets a cut of the financing then I can see why the car salesman pressured me to finance.
However I do not want to go that route.
I prefer paying in cash because I want to avoid the hassle of time filling out paperwork, waiting around, verifying my info, more waiting….and so forth. 😬🙄

They will probably make you wait around and do some paperwork anyway. For example, when paying cash (check counts as cash) they need to report it to the IRS for anti-money laundering. But just bring a good book and just be patient and wait. If you want it to go faster, go in mid-day during the week -- things are slow then and you can get in and out in an hour ideally.

Just be firm about not wanting to finance, don't claim it's due to paperwork because they will have an excuse for that. Just tell them you don't want to take on any more debt and that's that.

Find a new dealer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine a dealer not holding a car for you for 2-3 days if you give them a deposit. Also, not returning the deposit sounds almost criminal. If you are new to dealing with used car salesmen ask your step dad to help out.

Think of it from teh dealers' side -- if anyone can come in, leave a $1k refundable deposit,and now the dealer can't sell that car to someone who walks in an hour later ready to do a deal, then people could abuse it. Find cars they like at 3 different places, and put refundable deposits on each. THe deposit is meaningless then.

OP HERE:
Thank you to everyone on here who has responded thus far.
It appears that even though the miles are low, buying an eleven-yr. old car would be a huge risk.
I am seriously reconsidering my purchase thank goodness‼️

I did offer the dealer a non-refundable deposit vs. financing, but looking at it the next day I do not think this would be such a wise move after all.
And yes - if the dealer gets a cut of the financing then I can see why the car salesman pressured me to finance.
However I do not want to go that route.
I prefer paying in cash because I want to avoid the hassle of time filling out paperwork, waiting around, verifying my info, more waiting….and so forth. 😬🙄

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine a dealer not holding a car for you for 2-3 days if you give them a deposit. Also, not returning the deposit sounds almost criminal. If you are new to dealing with used car salesmen ask your step dad to help out.

Think of it from teh dealers' side -- if anyone can come in, leave a $1k refundable deposit,and now the dealer can't sell that car to someone who walks in an hour later ready to do a deal, then people could abuse it. Find cars they like at 3 different places, and put refundable deposits on each. THe deposit is meaningless then.

The dealer gets a cut if they do a finance deal. If you don't want to finance, then don't. ALso, they are going to try to sell you all kinds of warranties, add-ons, and so on. Generally these are best avoided. I had to go back to the dealer the next day after our nanny bought a new car and got suckered into every plan and protection under the sun. Luckily it was teh finance manager's last day before he moved to another dealership, so he didn't put up a fight.

Go for the newer car. Many parts on cars go bad with age, not mileage.

I can’t imagine a dealer not holding a car for you for 2-3 days if you give them a deposit. Also, not returning the deposit sounds almost criminal. If you are new to dealing with used car salesmen ask your step dad to help out.

Don’t buy the 2010

Anonymous wrote:I have a 12 year old car and I would not buy an 11 year old car. My car has been well maintained, but things start to break just because they are old, not because of mileage.

Very true.
Age is much more important than how many miles have been driven.
Because you never know what miles were stop and go versus freeway/highway.
A newer car may have more mileage but overall is just in much better shape than an older than ten year old car.
My aunt bought a newer Toyota Camry. The mileage was more than 12,000 per year but the car was in better shape than an older Camry with half the miles.

I have a 12 year old car and I would not buy an 11 year old car. My car has been well maintained, but things start to break just because they are old, not because of mileage.

I wouldn’t buy an 11 year old car, even if the miles were good.

Listen to your stepdad. They make more money if you finance.

I am the poster who recently was involved in an auto collision & am due to receive a settlement payment from my insurance company (by Wednesday they promised.)

▶️: Question 1 - I found a used car that I am interested in purchasing this wknd, but unfortunately do not have my settlement check yet.
However I DO have $3G in cash that I could give the dealership to hold the car for me until Wednesday, but they do not want to do that.
Instead they are encouraging me to instead use the $3G as a down payment for the car then finance the rest.

If I give them a deposit to hold the vehicle for me > I would not expect that I could drive the car home.
I would just expect that they would not sell it to anyone until Wednesday.
And if I could not have the remaining monies by Wednesday, then they could keep my deposit & I would lose the car.

I prefer to do a cash transaction - out the door quicker and avoid too much paperwork.
But the salesman is pressuring me to finance the car, then when I get the rest of the $$ to pay off the car and it is that simple.
But my StepDad is telling me to give a hard NO to this.

▶️: Question 2 - I like a car now.
A Honda (known for reliability as well as keeping its value.)
It is an older car, 2010 but the miles are only 78,000.

I also have an eye on another Honda which is actually newer (2015), but has higher mileage (116,000.)

I want the older car since the miles are so good - but people are saying the miles do not matter. That the car is too old and it would be better for me to purchase the newer car even if the miles are higher.

What matters more?
Age or miles??