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Looking for a dependable car for my daughter

Looking for a dependable car for my daughter

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by: jayenmontana Active Indicator LED Icon  OP  New Member
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 12:28pm  
I am looking for a dependable car for my daughter and grandbaby.  She has $2500 to spend.  Any ideas or thought, please let me know.  We dont know many people hereThanks 4951
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Ray Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 12:31pm  
It is going to be tough to find something decent for that amount. I fear you would have more repairs than the value of the car is worth. Does she have steady income? Purchasing an off lease item from Hertz is a good bet....and they are usually warranted still.... 4951
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jayenmontana Active Indicator LED Icon  OP  New Member
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 12:33pm  
She is a college student.  she does not want a payment until shes back on her feet.  I think she's  alittle smarter than I was at that age  lol 4951
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Ray Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 12:41pm  
I would save that 2500 bux to put gas in a friends car for rides. It its close to school get a bike, ride the  bus. Remember, buying the car is like getting married. there are HUGE maintenance costs, tires, repairs, insurance etc. that come after the purchase. The realization of this financial hickey comes to fruition after the newness of the cool ride wears off! Emoticon 4951
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ForeCPA90 Active Indicator LED Icon 9
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 1:42pm  
I bought a 10 year old VW Passat for $4,000 that was in immaculate condition a few years ago.  It had about 120,000 miles on it.  I drove it for 3 years and never had one single thing go wrong with it.  My ex wife traded it in so her son could buy a truck, otherwise I would still be driving it.  Cheap reliable cars can be had. 4951
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KTownTexican Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 9 years ago   Sep 16, '14 2:04pm  
I am looking for a dependable car for my daughter and grandbaby.  She has $2500 to spend.  Any ideas or thought, please let me know.  We dont know many people hereThanks
 
@jayenmontana: I have a 2003 VW Passat, we have posted for $4900, but wiling to come down. Its in the classifieds. Its a great running car, just its to small for family of 4 with teenagers. has 100750 miles.for $2500 you can find some cars, but they may not be in great shape. I was looking for my daughter, and it was tough.
4951
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mgw300e Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 11:12am  
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Mccrj Active Indicator LED Icon 2
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 11:47am  
 
@mgw300e: I would rather have this...https://www.kingwood.com/mobile/classifieds_view_ad.php?classified_listing_id=273571&classifieds_category_id=10&ampEmoticonage=
4951
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analogkid Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 11:52am  
Very long post follows; long story short, be prepared to budget in additional costs for repairs that ensure the safety and drivability of the vehicle you purchase.  It will, in general, be very hard to find a vehicle and/or sellers that you can trust.  I wish we had more to spend, but this was what we had.  Oncology research doesn't pay very much.  Read on, if you dare:We just went through the angst of helping our son find his first car.  Budget was $3500, though we were hoping to be a bit under that knowing that some work would be needed and wanting some extra cash to deal with it.  We hit Craigslist pretty hard for the past six weeks.  I don't trust the small shade tree dealers, though many of them post ads as "Owner Only" on CL.  I got a 30 day subscription to Autocheck.com ($40) to try to help inform us of salvage titles, instances where the car had periods of no reporting, location history, etc.  Obviously there can be issues with these reporting companies, but they did help us eliminate a lot of cars before even going to look at them.  Popular Mechanics has a nice used car checklist that, while being a bit overblown considering what price range we were looking in, was still a nice guide to have along when we did go to take a look.  Having it checked out is certainly a nice idea, but you should be pretty committed to the car at that point, otherwise, how many times are you willing to pay $100-$150 for a used car inspection at a shop before buying?Inevitably, you will be taking a leap-of-faith, unless you know someone that has a one owner vehicle to sell.  We found a couple in Tomball selling their 1992 Toyota Celica GT for $2700.  It had 130k miles, a nice compendium of maintenance records, very clean, etc.  They had just bought a 2014 Mustang for the wife as a new toy and so they wanted to part ways with this car.  The hood has a couple of rock chips, but otherwise it doesn't have that sunburned effect that so many Hondas and Toyotas have here, and the finish was in otherwise very nice shape.  It was essentially a one owner as they bought it with 15k miles.  He's a retired Marine, having served two tours in Vietnam and then working for 43 years at a local company, and she does some side work as a graphics artist.  Test drove the car midweek last week and got to a school parking lot to do some maneuvering and open the hood for inspection, and saw a bit of white steam coming up from behind the engine.  Not much, and no smell really.  With quite alarmed looks, they said they had washed it that afternoon and that there must have been some pooled water collected somewhere.  Drove around some more and eventually back to their house with no further evidence of steam.After another test drive on Sunday and no further evidence of anything wrong, we bought the car for full price, as we just didn't feel like it was worth asking lower.  They pushed $200 back across the table to us and said they appreciated us not haggling on price, and respecting that our son had worked hard this summer to earn some of the money.  I drove it home from Tomball, enjoying the ride, with no issues at all.  Son drives to school next day with no issues; drives home and there is a bit of steam coming out from under the car.  Crap.  We take it in to Louetta Automotive and they tell us that the rack and pinion is leaking and needs replacing, along with the power steering fluid return line - $1200 after some discounts applied.  An alignment was required given the nature of the work, which they only charged half for. They also did an oil change with a synthetic blend at no charge.  They said it has been like this for a while, but probably not noticed due to infrequent driving.  We contacted the sellers, just to let them know what happened, knowing they owed us nothing, but thinking they may offer something.  They are sending a check for $800 to help defray the costs.  They really weren't looking to make a bunch of money on the car and appreciated that it was to be someone's first car.  It sucks terribly to get nailed with that kind of bill that soon, but still feel that we have a very good vehicle, and one that I would like to keep in similarly good shape.  The interior is great; clean, no tears, very little sun fade, etc.  It drives extremely well still with absolutely no squeaks or rattles.  I think they are good people and went beyond what they needed to do to help us.  The car never showed evidence of steering issues, no whining from the PS pump or anything.  It is a 22 year old car, four years older than our son, but has been taken very good care of for the most part.There were few cars that we were ever very close to making an offer on.  We did the best we could with observations, driving, reading up, then kind of went with our gut in making a final decision, especially after trying to get a read on the seller and what we thought of them.  Good luck in your search and I hope you find the right car. 4951
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analogkid Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 11:56am  

- - - - - - - -
>> @jayenmontana: Just saw this in the classifieds:
 
age=2" target=_blank rel="nofollow">www.kingwood.com/mob ile/classifieds_view _ad.php?classified_l isting_id=27354Emoticonage=2
 
@mgw300e: I would rather have this...https://www.kingwood.com/mobile/classifieds_view_ad.php?classified_listing_id=273571&classifieds_category_id=10&ampEmoticonage=
 
@Mccrj: Looks nice; essentially an eight year old car with an average of almost 20k per year. National average is 15k per year.    We have had three Fords, and none of them were in great shape upon getting upwards of 120-130k miles.  Maybe the Focus is better.  We are gentle drivers and sticklers for scheduled maintenance.  Since this is one owner, they should have records, and the timing belt should have been changed in this vehicle not so long ago.  At the very least, I would see if that has been done.
4951
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analogkid Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 11:58am  
Oh, and always ask for the VIN.  We had several people never get back to us after asking that.  It can be obtained in several places from the vehicle, but you may save a trip by getting it from them beforehand if you find something questionable. 4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 12:09pm  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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analogkid Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 12:17pm  
Yeah, sorry about the length.  Most people don't come here to read novelettes.  After what we just spent, any reward would be nice. :-)  We really like the people; had a nice long conversation with them on Sunday about various things.  Just very refreshing compared to most sellers that we met with.  I don't think they meant any malice - but then my big fault is inherent trust and assuming people are basically good.  Fortunately, my wife is just the opposite, is a harsh negotiator, and essentially believes in the dark side in dealings like this.  Maybe we got suckered.  Time will tell. 4951
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magnoliamam Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 2:10pm  
analogkid - my goodness you bought a 22 year old car!  What did you expect?  You paid $2700 minus the $200 they slipped back to you minus the $800 they are returning to you ? - I'd say yall got a heck of a deal and found some extraordinarily good people.  Any used car is gonna need some work - I don't understand why people expect to get a fine vehicle for very few dollars.....do you realize how much brand new ones cost these days?  I'd say thank your lucky stars and thank God for those nice kind people - good luck with the car for your son and good luck with his driving safely....... 4951
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analogkid Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 3:16pm  
analogkid - my goodness you bought a 22 year old car!  What did you expect?  You paid $2700 minus the $200 they slipped back to you minus the $800 they are returning to you ? - I'd say yall got a heck of a deal and found some extraordinarily good people.  Any used car is gonna need some work - I don't understand why people expect to get a fine vehicle for very few dollars.....do you realize how much brand new ones cost these days?  I'd say thank your lucky stars and thank God for those nice kind people - good luck with the car for your son and good luck with his driving safely.......
 
@magnoliamam: No illusions that there wasn't going to be some work needed, and I don't believe I suggested otherwise.  I fully understand how much new cars cost as we have a 2012 Sonata, not new but close, thank you though.  I'm pretty sure I adequately outlined my appreciation for the sellers accommodating us, despite my (stated) acknowledgement to the lack of obligation on their part.  A part of my intention was to explicitly state that I think we did pretty well, all things considered.  You got the message, so my reporting must be fairly clear.  We're not fortunate enough, nor the type anyhow, that hand the keys over to a new Beemer or Mercedes to their teen, contrary to what I see in the parking lots.  I was merely attempting to point out our very recent, and similar, experience relative to the OP's request - and just how somewhat unlucky, but still fortunate we are.  Thank you for pointing out the obvious issues to me though.
4951
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jls2 Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 9 years ago   Sep 19, '14 7:52pm  
I just saw a car for sale at the car place next to the Post Office on W. Lake Houston. It was parked in the front - a Honda Accord LX sedan - 2002. There was no price listed or mileage. Here is the number if you are interested - call Kevin - 281-360-2838. I think that might be the owner of the car place. A pretty deep blue color. Two things to find out - has the timing belt been changed and how recently and has the transmission been replaced. The 98 - 2002 Accords had problems with their transmission. I had a 95 and then an 03 so I skipped that generation. 4951
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