People who know things about cars

[Arclyte]

Don't pretend like you know shit about cars diggles. On the rare occasion your fat ass leaves your dim hovel, you need to be rolled down the street like the blueberry girl from charlie and the chocolate factory

[Shannacore]

Boyfriend's parents have access to Consumer Reports, so I guess I'll check those frequently. Pretty reliable, right?

[Chippy]

Yes, that is a pretty accurate source of information.

[Raavak]

get a used Honda Accord
they seem to run forever and get good gas mileage

[Slave]

Originally Posted by dredge [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cars are stupid, save your money. A car is transportation, period.
Your not going to get a "whip ride" for 15K anyways so your smarter purchase would be to find a granny car to buy off some senior.

For example I bought my 90's Buick for $1500 off some granny that only used it to go to the groceries store once a week.

It had 24k miles when I bought it 8 years ago and has about 60k now. No payments, no major maintenance, no rust. I plan on driving it till it rots.
Look in the traditional newspaper classifieds, ask friends and coworkers, stay away from dealerships.

Look for Buicks, Grand Marquis, Taurus etc...
:-)

Originally Posted by Massive Marc [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My first car was a Delta 88 LOL. Just get something that gets you from point A to point B until youre done school and have a decent job. Then buy whatever the fuck you want.

Originally Posted by Ephirith [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Please don't take loans to buy a car you can't afford, just buy a cheaper car. Cars are not investments.

You would be better off buying 10 granny cars and driving them around until they got 1 problem on them and then leaving them on the side of the road. Except that's crazy, right? So just get one and fix it up or buy a new (USED) car as needed, whichever is cheaper.

12,000 dollars for a first car is absurd.

Get something with A/C, Heat, radio, working driver side window, and low miles for under $1200 and you can't go wrong.

I am 35 years old and I have never owned a car model later than 1989. My insurance payment is under $35 a month.

The Falcon, my 1989 Buick LeSabre, is like a couch on wheels that gets 25mpg and cost me $700. It has under 100,000m.

[Knuckle]

Honda, Nissan, Toyota.
That's if you want a vehicle that will last and provide excellent fuel economy.

[Zogimer]

Originally Posted by Knuckle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Honda, Nissan, Toyota.
That's if you want a vehicle that will last and provide excellent fuel economy.

Boring, boring unless you've got a crazy budget for thier sport cars, boring.

Get something fun to drive, like a used Miata.

[Myth]

A lot of good points on here. Regardless of what you buy you will at some point need a mechanic. If you already have one, ask them for their opinion because they will be the one working on your car.

If you are going to have it maintained/repaired by a stealership, then purchase your car at one you trust.

Always, always, have your potential used car purchase checked out by a mechanic you trust. Any dealer worth their shit will allow you to take the car for a few hours (leaving your license/current car as collateral). Getting your future car on a lift and looked at by someone who knows WTF they are doing is huge. Personal story, my current car was listed for 11,995. I took it to my uncles shop, put it on the lift and found it was in an accident (front passenger bumper bracket was bent). I was able to haggle price down to 9995 because of this. No big deal, it's just a bumper bracket but dealer knew, did not tell me about it, and it wasn't on the carfax report.

Moral of story, get your car checked by a 3rd party.

[gotrocks]

Originally Posted by Myth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Moral of story, get your car checked by a 3rd party.

this is extremely good advice.

also,

Originally Posted by raavak

get a used Honda Accord

this is the sweet spot, honda accords will, quite literally, run forever, even if you treat them like absolute shit. I know this from personal (anecdotal) experience.

[Auvdar]

I got a 03 Hyundai Elantra new for around 12k that I was able to pay off in a few years. Have had almost zero problems with it, with basic maintenance. Has a lot of miles on it now (just about 150k) since I would drive to Seattle a lot. Still runs great and gets around 32-34 MPG now.

My Dad also had a Hyundai from the 90's, thing still runs decent. They aren't powerhouse cars, but everyone I know who has had one says they are hard to kill. Plus they are cheap.

Next car choice would be a used Subaru Legacy.