First Car Help!

[Sweet_D]

So apart from this being my first post on this site, I’m also looking to buy my first car. I’m looking to spend about $1000. Given my budget, the cars that I’ve been looking at are either pretty beat up, or beautiful with thousands of dollars worth of repairs you can’t see. My question for all of you veterans is, what should I be looking for?? Obviously if they say the car has a blown head gasket, it might be worth it to just keep looking. But other than that, I don’t know how serious a lot of the issues these cars have are. Like, is a small hole in the exhaust a big problem? What about mileage? I know I’m going to be looking at, at least 100k on the cars within my price range, but are some cars better with high mileage? I heard 100k is nothing for a Honda, but is that true?

Basically any tips or info you can impart about buying a used car (what to look for, what to stay away from) would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

Topic

[college man]

look for cars that look clean inside and out.(looks can be deceiving) look for a car that may need minor stuff tires,paint faded ect…..
as for the engine and trans you might want to take it to a mechanic to have the car checked out. this way hopefully your not buying
someone elses head ache. (been there) your right on the 100k on some cars is nothing. But what you need to know is was it a hard
100k life or a well cared for 100k. good luck in your search. C8-)

[johnzcarz]

+1 on getting it checked out first.

[skim3544]

All depends on your perception of what $1000 should get you. I think you can get a moving car for $1000, but cannot expect it to be problem free. I would look for any car that does not have engine and transmission problems – everything else should be easy to replace/fix. In my area, most of the derivable cars run around $2500 (and need additional $1000 to fix it up)

[redfury]

I’ve actually been looking at cars in that range, up to 2000 dollars. What I’ve found is that you are going to get find cars with an excess of 200k on them but run well still, bad body damage, or some phantom problem the owner doesn’t want to deal with.

Personally, I like the cars that have a potential problem and craigslist ads help the savvy buyer decide whether it’s worth looking at or not.

Here’s things I look for.

If the car is TOO CLEAN, then it means they are trying to cover something up.

If the owner says the fix is only a hundred bucks, then why didn’t they put the money into it and sell it for more?

I’m wary of how an ad is composed when describing a problem. For example, I read one ad that spoke of all the new parts put into the car. The list was an obvious laundry list of parts thrown at the car to fix a larger problem ( Ie. new thermostat, radiator, hoses and they say it needs a new water pump otherwise it’ll overheat in a couple of miles….)

flags go up for an over heated motor, potential head gasket/cracked head issues unless a visual inspection of the car indicates coolant leaking out of the weep holes for the water pump .

I am also wary of any car that is for sale cheap with high miles when the seller doesn’t know anything about the car and is reselling it because they got it “in trade” or whatever other reason that it came into their possession.

Most cars will hit 280-300k if they aren’t smoking, overheating and still produce decent power and have a little maintenance done to them. If the car has a timing belt, it’s not a bad idea to replace the timing belt unless the owner provides receipt of one being done if the mileage is over 100k. Transmissions will last a long time, but you want to smell the dipstick to see if you can detect any “burnt” smell coming from the fluid after taking it out for a test drive. If the shifts are smooth at a normal pace, but firm when the pedal is depressed you are generally in good shape. If the shift from 1st to 2nd is harsh no matter how hard you push the accelerator, that’s a flag. Something is wrong with that transmission.

Now the kicker. If you have a particular vehicle in mind, say a VW Golf, go drive one out of your price range and use that as a measuring stick against the cheaper more “experienced” versions in your price range to determine the overall health of the car.

[wafrederick]

You won’t find any $1,000.00 and below cars,cheaper to send them to the scrap yard selling them for crush.They are not worth driving on the road most of the time called a pile of junk.No such thing as a cheap car anymore thanks to our lousy president and cash for clunkers.

[Trcustoms719]

Quoted From wafrederick:

You won’t find any $1,000.00 and below cars,cheaper to send them to the scrap yard selling them for crush.They are not worth driving on the road most of the time called a pile of junk.No such thing as a cheap car anymore thanks to our lousy president and cash for clunkers.

Could not have said it better man!

[dollman0]

stay away from major problems as the car is not worth fixing if it is not running. Check it out on Kelly Blue Book to find the Book Value, thats what it is valued at by insurance. Use the trade in value

I got bent over on a S10, the people lied to me and I finally called the junkyard to come get the truck off my property. The exhaust valves were burned up (dead cylinder). Window would not stay up (the door was totaled inside) there was other stuff like the heater that did not work… This is stuff to watch out for on a cheap car…

I drive a 91 Tercel, it got wrecked and Progressive would only pay $700 for the car and left me stranded, the repair estimate was $2,400… this is how book value works.

[Author]

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