Buying a car?

I'll see how this protective coating on the floor and underbelly look if I go check it out.

Wranglers rust real bad even if you do nothing but drive on the road.

94 wrangler is a YJ which has the old dash/interior and leaf suspension all the way around. The leaf setup is what gives the old "bouncy jeep" ride. The '97+ models have a much nicer dash and coil suspension, the coils give a much better ride on the road. I'm more a fan of the old inline six cylinder they used to put in them rather than the I4. I had a ton of fun in mine while I had it. It was a nice run around town / beach mobile. Sucked on the highway and got terrible MPG but I never drove it far so I didn't mind at the time.

Has anyone bought a car from Carmax? It seems like they have a very large selection.

1 year birthday of my Honda Accord. 30K miles and not an issue yet. Pretty solid car.

I swear by Hondas. I had a CRX that I put 350K miles on before it was falling apart and I finally junked it. I have a 2006 Civic with 175K at the moment. Also owned an Accord and an Element and currently have a '96 Civic hatchback which is falling apart in many ways but the engine is fucking rock solid. Kick myself regularly for ditching the Element but it was one of the early fulltime 4WD ones and sucked total ass on MPG.

Noodles, 30K isnothingon a Honda. Drive it until the wheels fall off IMO. Car payments are total bullshit, its a utility not an investment or a status symbol...or shouldn't be.

Relevant to the Jeep I still haven't gone to look at, saw a Toyota Tacoma for sale at some repair shop on the side of the road. A 2002 with 190K plus miles and the dude wants nine fucking grand. Says something about Toyota and why I can't fucking find one for sale, but that's still insane to me.

EDIT: Kelly Blue Book on that seems to be about 7,600 so he's asking high but damn that shit holds some value. Never owned a 'yota but I hear they are as dependable as Hondas.

Kaita_sl said:

Has anyone bought a car from Carmax? It seems like they have a very large selection.

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There's nothing wrong with Carmax. Make sure to check out their website as they'll ship vehicles in from other regional CarMax's for a pretty nominal fee if you find one you like thats at a Carmax a few hundred miles away.

Just make sure to do your research yourself. In my experience the salesmen at Carmax just don't know much about the vehicles. Then again they pretty much carry every make and model so it would be damn hard for anyone to know them all intimately.

Their pricing generally seems reasonable. Cheaper than the used lots at most major dealerships, but not as cheap as some of the mom&pop used lots, but you are also probably less likely to get totally screwed on a lemon than some of those mom&pop used car lots. If something goes wrong, Carmax is a large corporation that will make a legitimate effort to fix the problem.

Famm_sl said:

I swear by Hondas. I had a CRX that I put 350K miles on before it was falling apart and I finally junked it. I have a 2006 Civic with 175K at the moment. Also owned an Accord and an Element and currently have a '96 Civic hatchback which is falling apart in many ways but the engine is fucking rock solid. Kick myself regularly for ditching the Element but it was one of the early fulltime 4WD ones and sucked total ass on MPG.

Noodles, 30K isnothingon a Honda. Drive it until the wheels fall off IMO. Car payments are total bullshit, its a utility not an investment or a status symbol...or shouldn't be.

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There's a fucking CRX outside on our street every day, and it's gone every evening. Sturdy little car.

Careful buying used cars.

So I bought a truck about 3 years ago used. Great condition and got a great price on it (about ~5k less than anything I had seen). Checked the carfax and everything was clean. About a year into owning the car I noticed some rust on the drivers side. Not much, but everything else was in good condition. Went to a bodyshop and the guy said that the driver side had definitely been repainted. I figured the car had been in an accident, but the rust wasnt too bad and it drove fine, so I ignored it. I decided to trade it in today and get something smaller, and they ran an Autocheck on it and that came up showing it had been in one accident with no damage, and one accident with unibody damage. They offered me 10k for it (I had been thinking 16-19k). I figured the rust would decrease the value, but since I thought it had a clean Carfax it should still sell for a decent price. Going to check out a carmax to see what they would buy it for, but pretty bummed. If they dick me over I might try to sell it myself, but I'd feel bad dicking someone else over like I was.

Famm_sl said:

I swear by Hondas. I had a CRX that I put 350K miles on before it was falling apart and I finally junked it. I have a 2006 Civic with 175K at the moment. Also owned an Accord and an Element and currently have a '96 Civic hatchback which is falling apart in many ways but the engine is fucking rock solid. Kick myself regularly for ditching the Element but it was one of the early fulltime 4WD ones and sucked total ass on MPG.

Noodles, 30K isnothingon a Honda. Drive it until the wheels fall off IMO. Car payments are total bullshit, its a utility not an investment or a status symbol...or shouldn't be.

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Oh I intend to. My wife's Civic is around 40k miles and the worst we've had it has been replacing the wiper blades and once we had a tire go flat when she drove over a screw. These things are tanks.

Wiper blades are expendable anyways, they're supposed to be changed frequently

Prime, did you buy from a private person or a dealership? Selling an accident car withholding that information is serious business here and can void the purchase, ie you'd get your full money back after 3 years.

Sigh I have a definite offer to buy a 2014 Honda Civic LX new for 19k and a potential offer for a 2014 Honda Civic EX @ 20k. Not sure which I should take.

Other cars I have tried are the Ford Focus SE for 17K (A plan pricing after taxes), Toyota Corolla LE for 17k (Unlikely as the dealer was pretty shitty to me although other Toyota dealers have agreed to match), and a deal on a used Nissan Cube and New Nissan Versa Note which probably aren't worth mentioning.

What would any of you do? I'm leaning between the Honda's and Toyota for a decision on Monday.

Absolutely Honda or Toyota IMO. I'm a Honda fanboy as I said, but I'm sure the Corolla is a fine car, Toyota has a great reputation. I personally like Civics better but its personal preference, they are both just econo sedans. Buy what you like best, but yeah fuck the rude guy go get matched with a dealer you like better.

I'm planing to get a minivan in a few months when our third child is born. The Honda and Toyota vans are nice, but they are 10k more than the Dodge and Chrysler's. Anyone have any experience?

I'd drop the extra $1k EX. You get the ride quality of the larger tire, still cost effective at 16". Also, power seats, moon roof, etc. The overall comfort value for a small payment increase would be worth it to me.

elcaro1101.2_sl said:

I'd drop the extra $1k EX. You get the ride quality of the larger tire, still cost effective at 16". Also, power seats, moon roof, etc. The overall comfort value for a small payment increase would be worth it to me.

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Looks like I am going for a 2014 Honda Civic EX. Price before tax and fees is $19,750. MSRP on this car is $21,880 and Factory Invoice ( I know it's not really what they pay) is $20,390.

Only fees where 150 Document and 7% sales tax. At one point I had two dealerships on the phone going back and forth taking $100 off each time if I would commit to either one of them right there and then.

I think I did ok.

The civics are nice. My wife's is way too small for me so that's the only reason I upgraded to the Accord.. but she loves it.

Kaita_sl said:

I'm planing to get a minivan in a few months when our third child is born. The Honda and Toyota vans are nice, but they are 10k more than the Dodge and Chrysler's. Anyone have any experience?

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I'd say it just depends on how long you plan on keeping the car. You can probably drive the Honda or Toyota over 200K miles with minimal problems. I'd be very surprised if the Dodge or Chrysler last that long. But if you're the type of person that gets rid of a car and gets a new one ever 5 or 6 years then it really wouldn't matter. If you want to try to keep the vehicle as long as possible, that extra 10K might buy you 5+ years of longer vehicle life.