Low Cost Used Cars

Q.My 19 yr old nephew will be off to first year of college next fall. He desperately needs reliable and economical transportation as he will be in college abt 4 hrs away. What vehicle.... model and brand....would be a good bet for him to buy? We are thinking brand new vs used....so that he will have a warranty and can fully concentrate on his studies at school (he wants to become dentist) ... and not have to worry abt a used car and breakdowns. But we are on a budget. he has worked hard and has a good savings.... plus his family (uncles, parents) will help him with cost a new car as well. We need something that will help keep his insurance costs low as he is in that high risk "bracket" at his age level. Advice?

A.I would recommend a Hyundai or a certified used Honda or Toyota to get the best warrantee coverage and value for your dollar. I do not expect a lot of work will have to be done on even a 5 year old Accord or Civic. Most new cars are not worth the cost. They lose something like 1/3 of their value as soon as you drive them off the lot. They are now used. Keep in mind all machines will fail given time. Hondas and Toyotas are very reliable, however. A young Honda or Toyota is typically no different from a new one except for how strong the new car scent is. Older cars tend to have lower insurance costs because of their lower value. Part prices go down as the car gets older until the parts get rare. I bought my 1988 Accord in 1995 for $5190 out the door including DMV fees and tax. It had 101,822mi. on it. Now it has 227,6?? mi. The purchase price has worked out to about 4 cents per mile. It runs great except for some vibration at idle when in gear. Over the years I have done work on it to keep it in good shape, which has cost me about 5 cents per mile. This is about the same as the cost to fuel it. Over the past 9 years I have gotten stuck 3 times - 2 times because of faulty AutoZone parts, one time because I didn't change the timing belt. It survived the belt letting go. In short, this car is costing 15 cents per mile including fuel and purchase price and excluding fees and insurance. Most college students are probably looking for cheapest per mile. Fees and tax are a negligible percentage of the operating cost of most automobiles. The biggest additional cost is insurance. Insurance is a big variable. Insuring a 19 year old on any car will probably cost at least $1000/year (or there abouts), $2000/year for a sporty car, and $4000/year with any moving violations. There are a lot of factors to the insurance cost that vary from state to state. These may include your credit rating, the value of the car, the safety rating of the car, the age of the drivers, the number of drivers in the household (weather or not they drive the car), the number of household members (weather or not they are licensed), the age of household members, the driving records of other insured drivers on the policy, your neighborhood, miles driven to/from work/school, yearly mileage, anti-theft devices, driver training, and other public records obtained in secret. In my opinion, the best priced cars on the road are Hondas and Toyotas. From my experience they will save you money over an American made vehicle, even if the American made vehicle is thousands of dollars less to purchase. I am wary of American made Japanese cars, but they are still good. In my opinion it is better to buy a car from an individual than a dealer. Dealers have great resources to cover up defects and are looking to maximize profit. An individual is just trying to sell it for more than the pennies-on -the-dollar that the dealer offered them for the car as a trade-in

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