Posted on: 10-09-08 20:48:33
Hey CD's
I am a new grad-new job guy looking to buy a car. I have saved up some money and am still doing so. In the mean time, I am confused as to what to buy.
Budget: $10,000 all incl. Max
Purpose: Drive the car for about 3 years maybe 4 and then change.
Options: 2004 Honda Civic, 4 Dr, Automatic, approx 100,000 Kms
OR
2006 Chevy Impala, 4 Dr, Automatic, approx 95,000 Kms
I am 24 years old, so need to keep the insurance aspect in mind as well. My current car should hopefully sell for abt $1500-2000.
I want a 4 dr and mid-size or bigger car(no yaris, echo etc). I can't think of any other reliable cars to buy within that budget. I dont want to buy a car and spend money of repairs. I already have a heap of junk and I think I have had enough of it 
I am wondering if its better to buy an american car with more features, later model year versus a jap. I would really appreciate the CD family's take on the cars, suggestions, ideas, comments. Thanx a ton....
Quote:
Originally posted by pandu_hawaldar
Options: 2004 Honda Civic, 4 Dr, Automatic, approx 100,000 Kms
OR
2006 Chevy Impala, 4 Dr, Automatic, approx 95,000 Kms
Driving 95,000Km in 2yrs is like an abuse of the car - do you think its going to last you for another 3- years? Most american cars will start to die from 150K kms. Civic @ 100,000 km is not bad, but the insurance will be very high. OTH, why dont you consider something like Nissan Maxima or Ultima? I believe you should get 2004 Nissan/100000 Km for under 10,000 and the insurance is also cheaper (compared to Civic)..
On a related note, my friend just bought a Mercedes C240, 2004 - 60,000 Km for 15000 - I think that was a good deal he got.
Good luck.
Hiren
2004+ impalas are very reliable. Avoid any before 2004 Will be less insurance than the Civic and bigger will consumr more fuel though
For 10K you can get a lot of reliable cars no problems
Quote:
On a related note, my friend just bought a Mercedes C240, 2004 - 60,000 Km for 15000 - I think that was a good deal he got.
There is a reason why these cars sell for 15K, they are amongst the most unreliable cars. Atleast american cars are cheap to fix. Recommend he budget atleast 250$/pm on maintainance
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Quote:
Originally posted by chittesh
There is a reason why these cars sell for 15K, they are amongst the most unreliable cars. Atleast american cars are cheap to fix. Recommend he budget atleast 250$/pm on maintainance
Thanks for the 'news'
We selected this car from a lot of models available between 12~24K...also a few senior friends (with ample auto experience) did not raise any such redflags when we requested thier opinion...lets hope for the best.
Hiren
(The avg price of a BMW 325i on autotrader with a similar mileage is about 20K, see the difference between the BMW and the Merc. 2001-2007 mercs are known to be problematic and expensive to maintain) Said that I hope your friend gets lucky with the car..
The following are very good investments before buying any used car
1) Carfax: to check out vehicle history (Kms, accident records etc)
2) Consumer reports: a 1 month subscription, it will give you very accurate reliability information of most (if not all) cars sold in US and Canada since 1997
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Live and Let Live
