Blue Book Prices Used Cars

Q.I am going to move to mid. west next month. I would like to spend $5k to buy a reliable used car for my daily commuting. If this is not a dream, please tell what kind of car I will get. If you just out of school and get a $45k job, will you directly go for a brand new car? This question may be kind of silly but I am not a American and don't know American life style.

A.I made a similar decision recently, and brought a used car. I originally intended to spend $5K, but ended up spending $6K. I also help my mom purchased an used car for about the same price. I started at my local library, where I picked up the Consumer Report annual guide, which list the reliability of various cars. They also have a list of suggested used cars. I also looked up car information in the Jack Gill's Used car book, and the Consumer Guide Used car book. For prices, the library usually carry the Kelly or the NADA car price guide (often called the blue book, but is sometimes orange). I also weighted various variables. For example, I avoided all the true sport cars like the Mustang because they would be murder to insure. I also look for cars that had a decent crash test rating. I avoided exotic car that would be costly. The car also had to have decent trunk space. I ended up with the Acura Integra, Honda CRX Si, and the Honda Civic SI. When I later shopped for my mother, I had a wider choice because she didn't particularly cared for how the car perform, as long as it was reliable. I ended up with a much longer list. I think I ended up with Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tercel, Dodge Spirit, Plymouth Acclaim, Chrysler Lebaron sedan, Ford Escort (91 or later), and Nissan Sentra. You basically have 3 markets to buy your cars: the new car dealer, the used car dealer, and private owners. I seem to have better luck with private owners, because you can usually get a better price from them, however they may have strange work hours (you want to inspect the car in the day light). Car dealers are more convenient, but a pain to deal with. The most important part of buying a used car is the inspection. Make sure you borrow one of those guide, and memorize the checklist of things to check. A used car will not be perfect, it will have some problem areas. The paint may be a little scratched. The wiper blade may be broken off. You just want to make sure that you don't spend too much money to repair the car, so the important thing is to insure that the engine and drive train works. When you inspect the car, the dealer sales person will make comments like "Our mechanic went throught this with a fine tooth comb ... We would never sell you a car with problems ... We have been in business for 45 years ... blah blah blah". Ignore them, and go on your inspection or tell them to put it in writing. 85% of the cars I checked out for my mother had one or more major problems. You should also bargin. What I usually do is to drive by and pick out a bunch of cars on your check list. Look up their blue book prices. You'll notice that the dealer often price them about $1000 more. You can usually knock the price down if you bargin. The dealer is often better at bargining than me, so I usually go when sales are lean, such as around Christmas or the winter season. They are more desparate for sales. Look for manager specials. I was able to purchase a Geo Prizm 1992 for my mother at below wholesale price. You have to tell the salesman that you want to buy the car today, and if the car is not sold to you at a satisfactory price, you'll go elsewhere. Another note, with a $45,000, I may probably consider a new car or at least spend another $3,000 for a 2 year old used car. New cars are great if you can't afford to miss meetings due to mechanical failures or don't have time to tinker. Of course, that depends on how expensive is the area you're living in. $45,000 in New York isn't much at all (you're better off not getting a car in NY any way), don't know about places in Canada.

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