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My 2000 Ford Focus just ate itself with 160k miles. Technically it still drives, but it is no longer a car I feel comfortable driving more then 10 miles away from my house. Being an 11 (almost 12) year old car and a early focus, it's pretty much time to call it dead. I think I'll try to sell it or trade it in but I doubt I'll get more then $500 for it. I bought it for $9000 in 2001 with 12k miles so I feel I got my monies worth. It started dying about a month ago so for the past 30 days I have been looking at cars. I test drove the Honda Civic, Honda Fit, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Mazda 3, VW Jetta, VW Golf, Ford Focus, Ford Fusion, Toyota Matrix, Scion xB, Scion tC, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Sonata, Suburu Impreza, and Hyundai Elantra Touring. I also drove some sports/luxury cars since I could afford them and I wasn't sure I wanted a 'cheap' car. These were the BMW 335i, Infinity M37, Audi A5, and Hyundai Equus. These were all 2011 year cars. After driving all these cars and taking copious notes I came to a few conclusions. I realized that the expensive cars would make me go crazy because I have no garage and people in Maryland are horrible drivers that would bump me in parking lots. Ample evidence of this can be seen on my Focus. Additionally I am a cheap bastard. I'm pretty much set on the Hyundai Elantra. For it's price it cannot be beat. That being said my next choice would have been the VW Golf TDI or the Honda Fit. Tomorrow or Wednesday I plan to go in and get one from some dealer around here. I was going to buy a used 2010 Elantra for $14,800 but I think it is overpriced.
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Apr 5, 2011 04:25
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n8r posted:What sort of "dying" does a car do for a month but is still driveable? Well it wasn't 'dying' for a month, just certain (non-critical) things broke and it occurred to me that fixing these problems would cost more then the car is worth. Then I realized that if something actually made it undrivable it would be far to expensive to fix.
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Apr 5, 2011 05:01
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Today my car exploded. Something about a valve in the engine. I'll hopefully be able to limp the old bastard into a junk yard. I'm kinda sad actually, this was my first car and up till now it had no mechanical problems. It's like a 45 year old who is perfectly healthy then has a heart attack and just drops dead. I'm going to shop around for an Elantra, see if I can get a good price. I may get that $14K Elantra I saw. Should I pay in cash? I can if I need to, but I already have financing set up. I'm not sure what my best option is... Thwomp posted:I wish I wasn't so goony feeling guilty about something I should be excited about. This is my exact issue. I have boat loads of money but I feel like a moron buying a new car. The problem is, it is so difficult to find used cars that arn't garbage for a decent price. I don't understand how or why econoboxes are priced with like $1K/year depreciation schedules. How does that happen!? I blame cash for clunkers.
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Apr 6, 2011 00:36
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Arzakon posted:$15K shitboxes don't have the value to depreciate that quickly. The only ones you'll find heavily discounted have had 20k miles/year put on them. At best you are going to find one private party for a small discount and also avoid having to pay sales tax and all of the other bullshit dealer fees. In Maryland your car gets assessed sales tax when you register it if it was a private deal. Also what sort of bullshit fees should I be aware of? The only one I know of is the pre sale prep.
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Apr 6, 2011 02:15
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I bought an 2011 Elantra today for @ $16,500 + $720 shipping. It's the GLS automatic and I'm pretty sure I got a great deal. I got the new one since I wanted the long warranty and a car with a known history. Also it was only about $2-3K more than the used ones I was looking at so I figure it was worth it. I paid $8,000 down and financed the rest at 1.9% for 36 months. I'll probably pay it off before then though. It is also awesome looking, which I have had to tell my self multiple times is perfectly fine for a car to be. For some reason I always think my car has to be an ugly heap for it to be economical. I would not recommend it for anyone taller then 6'3" though. I'm 6'1" and it fits me like a glove. I could imagine someone taller would have some issues getting in and out and with the head clearance.
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Apr 8, 2011 03:37
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