Buying a used car
- Started
- Last post
- 63 Responses
- dog_opus0
I got my 2001 Ford Escape used for a really decent price in 2003, and I love it. Thus far, I've replaced four cylinders, the brakes, and one tire (in January). It's good on gas, super-dependable, and the dogs get the whole back portion of the vehicle when we go hiking (almost) every day. I'm in New England and the four-wheel drive has been a life-saver too. And thanks to Sea-Sea, it even has a QBN sticker on it!
I just happened to know someone who was looking to get rid of it to buy something nicer. I know: Chances are you don't, but I still had to endorse the car. I want a Volvo wagon for my next one, but the Escape is still doing fine for now.
- noneck0
@iCanHasQBN
Again, I agree completely with what you're saying. Urban planning is terrible. SUV purchases a particularly ego-driven and unpractical. I haven't read anything that made me say, "whoa, wait a minute."
But the reality of my situation is that I don't live in a european city. I live in the northernmost city in North America, a city with one of the lowest population densities of its size, and terrible urban sprawl. My existing and future lifestyle requires certain "features" of this vehicle that I've considered carefully, and have identified the best solution for my situation.
As you and others have said, it's my choice, and only I know what my life really demands. I'm not apologizing for my choice, but I have tried to explain a bit of why I'm purchasing a vehicle I don't normally agree with. This, I don't mind.
I started the thread looking to see if anyone had good suggestions, tips, ideas, or methods for getting the best possible price for a used car when I'm under no pressure to be anything soon. I'm not looking for suggestions on what to buy. I am looking for suggestions on HOW to buy.
- noneck0
Gonna stay away from the auctions because you don't have any idea what you're buying. Not that you're really sure of anything when buying a used car.
Thanks to you and the few others that had some good tips on buying used cars, it's appreciated.
- Just curious, have you looked at any Diesel vehicles?ismith
- not sure why I capitalized dieselismith
- Generally you'll only find the diesel engines in VW (which are nice) or in 3/4 ton or bigger trucks.noneck
- around here on the farms we've got diesel fords and chevys, trucks and suvs.ismith
- I do like the diesel VW vans though. I just mean if you found a comparable diesel, would you prefer it?ismith
- Around here diesel is $1 more per gallon, but a little further south and it's $0.50 cheaper on average.ismith
- ETM0
noneck,
Have you looked into auctions? Banked owned etc. Might be able to find something newer for cheap. But its a crap shoot, of course, on what's offered.
- iCanHasQBN0
ETM, god forbid a topic gets slightly diverted into a more in-depth discussion. Because that never happens here on QBN, right? So tell me, how exactly do you survive on a daily basis with people that might have a differing opinion than you? I imagine you with your index fingers placed snug in your ears going "lalalalalalalaaaa".
If you don't want to read my shit, nobody is forcing you to. All you need to do is look at the username next to the post. I was on my way out anyway, I've said my piece. Have a good day.
- You're talking about differing opinions with your single-minded responses? Ha! Laughable!ETM
- You have cemented yourself in my mind as both hypocritical and a clown.ETM
- But I am not the one who is telling the other to "keep your mouth shut".iCanHasQBN
- you can have your opinion, but i don't respect it. however, i respect your RIGHT to have that opinion.iCanHasQBN
- I am saying stay on topic for once and actually contribute relevant info the the OP.ETM
- LIGHTEN UP EVERYONEismith
- Just the general issue with QBN, lots of opinions, little useful contribution.ETM
- If you really want to talk about contribution, start with giving less advice on how to buy an SUV.iCanHasQBN
- LALALALALALALALAismith
- ok im out. i promise, ismith. gotta run to a wedding. bye kids.iCanHasQBN
- Its actually advice that applies to buying most any car. Could be a Yaris. But you'd have to look past your narrow-mindedness to see that.ETM
- mindedness to even recognize that.ETM
- no no I like the banter, I just don't like arguing about it. it's like literary incestismith
- just not really literary. whatevsismith
- ismith0
Title coulda been Buying a used SUV.
- ETM0
This is where you just keep your mouth shut if you have no info to share directly related to the topic. People who love to take threads off to their own tangents just dilute useful info, regardless of topic.
This could have been a 1 page useful thread to the OP if people could just resist the urge to spout every opinion in their head, useful or not.- I think full-size SUVs are excessive, but why not help the guy out regardless.ETM
- iCanHasQBN0
noneck, you can buy whatever you want to. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I dont know your personal situation of why you need one. If you tell me you do need one, then I can only believe you. I hate to feel like I'm policing someone or making them feel guilty. But 90% of people with SUVs do not need one. How do you think people survived in the 80's when there weren't any SUVs around? To Kona > do you not think that people had baby seats, and strollers, and groceries before the boom of the SUV in the 90's?
I must state that I not only dislike SUV's, but I dislike all cars in general. I'm targeting SUV's here since they are the worst option. The real issue is urban planning. This is the root problem. sprawl, suburbia, how irresponsible governments and planners have set up our lives so that everyone must get into a vehicle to go ANYWHERE. I understand that eliminating SUVs will not solve much, but an overall less dependency on cars and a decrease in amount of cars in our lives WILL - and it starts with a mentality of cleaner driving, and more importantly, smart urban planning that makes it possible for people to move about using other forms of transportation.
Do this, go into Google Maps and drop the little StreetView guy into any part of the city of Copenhagen. Look around. Their lives are not dominated by cars and abandoned parking lots. They are free to walk and bike about their neighborhoods. The scale of the city is CORRECT. It is HUMAN scaled - not VEHICLE scaled.
- ETM0
Why apologize? You asked some advice on the process of purchasing/haggling a used vehicle and iCanHasQbn had to attack you and SUVs everywhere. Don't believe he even including one useful bit of info towards your OP.
But the story about his mom and the '88 Camry was touching.
*wipes away tear- why should i assist in the purchasing of an SUV when I'm against the entire notion?iCanHasQBN
- noneck0
@iCanHasQBN
I don't disagree with anything you've argued, really. That lifted Excursion is obscene. I live in a city populated by 25 year old assholes that make $120K/year working on the oil rigs, and they have nothing better to spend their money on than jacked up 1 ton pickup trucks that they use to drive to the movies.
Clotaire Rapaille talks about SUVs and egos, in his brilliant book, The Culture Code. You should watch the PBS Frontline segment where talks about his work (it's the fourth clip, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr…). He sums up the how/why of SUV design really nicely.
That being said, I do require a large SUV for some of the reasons I've stated earlier. A minivan won't work, neither will a wagon. So I'm going to be a used one, not a new one. And it's going to be a second vehicle; 90% of the time I'll drive my small Japanese sedan that gets 30MPG.
- vaxorcist0
But seriously..... if you don't mind the abuse, getting a big, unhip, overdone SUV may be cheap, as people are trying to get rid of them....
And... drive your hummer alot less, ride a bike some more.... and you're more green than a pious prius driver who commutes hundreds of miles a day....
in 1980, my dad bought a really cheap big old 1971 plymouth fury, after calculating that he'd have to get over 100 miles per gallon to make up the difference in the cost of the car versus a newer datsun.... as he didn't drive much at all.... so he, the rational physicist, decided he didn't mind the people calling him names, he also calculated that in environmental terms, building a new car takes a huge amount of energy, thus negating some of the gas mileage advantage....
- ETM0
Seen this one noneck?
http://www.autotrader.ca/used_ca…
- 23kon0
find a truck you fancy in car trader mags or online - one thats not the original owner.
look for a similar photo of a smashed one on google images.
photoshop the advertised car's reg onto smashed photo.
show the guy/girl the photo when you go to see it and tell them theres no way that you are paying full wack for something thats been a writeoff in the past and that they'd been ripped off when they bought it from previous owner.
also, pretend you can see where the smash has been fixed up - imprefections in the paint where the sun is shining on it funny.
lolol
- vaxorcist0
Find a broke idiot who bought an Escalade and can't make the payments... send him all sorts of fake bill collection notices you designed, then put an envelope on his Escalade saying you'll pay $3000 cash tomorrow morning for it if he has the title...
- Lol. That'd be fun.noneck
- How the FUCK do you find a broke idiot who bought an Escalade and can't make the payments?monospaced
- go to a rap concert.iCanHasQBN
- those are called leasesidiots
- ummm... go just about anywhere in miami or los angeles. tons of "welfare-laden" escalade driversismith
- My original plan was to buy something from the southern states and drive it back.noneck
- But I'd get hit with a $4000 surcharge at the border for driving a gas guzzler. Plus all the other fees.noneck
- haha really? that sucks, but maybe you should consider... getting... a wagon... from one of those southern states...ismith
- but really there's a charge for that kind of thing?ismith
- idiots0
- it's lowered, what's your problem now?idiots
- nothing. it's not an obstruction anymore. just tacky as hell.iCanHasQBN
- what did they do with the drug dealer car. lol.akrokdesign
