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I'm going to need a car pretty soon for college, but I frankly have no idea where to start. My question is - I'm on a limited budget (probably $3000-4000), so is it possible to find a car that won't break down the moment you purchase it? I don't know anything about maintaining a car, and I don't really have any mechanically inclined friends either, so what should I be on the lookout for? I just need a small, efficient car (preferably manual transmission, as that's what I'm used to driving) to get from apartment to school and work.
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Jul 24, 2011 17:33
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Leperflesh posted:Zipcar or similar? I know they're in LA, although I'm not sure if it works out economically for you - those deals tend to be best for someone who doesn't need a car every single day all day. This is another very good point. If you live in LA, leasing is a super dumb option when you're driving 40 miles a day to get around. Why exactly do you need a car? Can you literally not get around to work at all or do you just want one for social purposes? I know its tough in LA without a car, but can you use the bus or trains? If so, you should suck it up, because it's going to hurt a lot less than leasing a car or outright renting for a year.
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Sep 19, 2011 00:02
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Daeus posted:So you understand that your lease payment if for the depreciation, yet don't understand why we think it is a bad idea to lease the car for the first year which is where is takes far and away the biggest depreciation hit? Zipcar in Los Angeles is pretty lovely and hard to use outside of a few lucky areas. You basically need a car of your own in this city, but his best option is to find a $3-5k car instead of leasing a new one.
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Sep 19, 2011 07:44
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PrettyhateM posted:I live in San Francisco and I am starting new job in cupertino at the beginning of the year. This is about a 50 mile drive all highway. I havent owned a car in 6 years so its been awhile. But I have about 10k saved right now in my savings account and I was referred to this "broker" that people seem to love in the city. He showed me this car. Buy a Smart car if you're concerned with the parking, and then drive to the Caltrain station and take the train to Cupertino. 50 miles one way is a seriously lovely commute and hard on any car, and taking the train sounds like just as good of an option. Shipon fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 19:35
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I'm finally in the position where I'm making pretty good money and can afford something fun, so this is the first time I'm going to a dealer to buy a new car (all my cars up to this point have been <5k beaters off Craigslist with well over 100k miles). Been looking around and I found a dealer nearby that has a '24 GR Corolla Premium coming in the next few weeks and asked me for a $500 deposit to reserve the car, so I put the deposit down. Dealer claims they don't do above-MSRP and the sheet they gave me with the suggested retail price has about 1k in extra stuff that I'm not terribly enthused about but I'm also not really going to get super in a fit about, total price a little under $42k. Toyota's financing rates seem to be absolute rear end (I have a ~770 credit score and their site says it's like 9.8% for a 60 month loan???) so I spoke with a local credit union and applied for a loan (hard credit pull) and they gave me a pre-approval at 6.5% for 60 months. Got a call from them, told them I was still waiting on the car to arrive but just applying in advance so I could come in with a counter offer for financing, but they said I needed a purchase order and proof of insurance before being able to approve the loan. This seems like a chicken and egg situation to me - to get the car I need the loan but in order to get the loan I'd need to have a purchase order and insurance on a car I don't own yet. Is there something I'm missing or is this something dealers know how to handle fine?
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Dec 23, 2023 09:14
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Dealership called me this morning saying the car's arrived. Spent about 2 hours in there, they tried the "here's 8k of warranties" but I pushed back pretty easily, didn't give too much fuss (I let them have the tire replacement plan, it wasn't too much). Didn't even try to sell me on gap or whatever (mainly because I put 30% down). Ended up paying ~43k before tax and registration, well within my budget (650/mo at 5.79%) Now to figure out how these drat infotainment things work 
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Dec 30, 2023 03:45
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Steve French posted:For what it’s worth this is not my lived experience; they’ve had best rates for me maybe a bit less than half the time. Most recently Bank of America had a much better rate than any other lender I looked at. Yeah when I posted in this thread last month i saw someone suggest BofA and they ended up being almost a full point lower than the credit union (5.79 for BofA). It doesn't hurt to have multiple preapprovals.
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Jan 14, 2024 19:23
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Travic posted:Well that was awe-inspiring. Did the test drive earlier today and yeah, that thing is fun. Wildly fun. I definitely need to look into getting one. Now you're in for the fun part, finding one that they won't add 5-10k markup on top of.
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Feb 18, 2024 06:23
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My car came with wireless carplay and i really don't like how it's a second or two laggy to do any audio changes. I also wish the Qi charger actually worked with my phone, but I blame the dumbfucks at Apple who decided the camera needed to have a protruding bump out of the body instead of the body just being slightly thicker and flush with the camera.
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Feb 19, 2024 00:08
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wesleywillis posted:Jesus christ. Thanks gently caress my only MUST HAVE OR NO DEAL EVER poo poo is a Manual Transmission. that is my biggest reason i refuse to go EV
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Feb 19, 2024 01:48
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just saying that glad I don't have to give a gently caress about poo poo like that on something that would otherwise be the perfect vehicle
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ethanol posted:one weird trick I used to get a Toyota special incentive financing was to come in having just totaled my brand new Toyota with 2000 miles on it therefore qualifying as a loyal returning customer drat I hope the insurance company didn't stiff you on the value of it, what did you end up getting from them?
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Feb 19, 2024 23:35
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ethanol posted:I got back $2k more than I paid for the car actually because I sent the adjuster a bunch of annoying messages about Tacomas being marked up (it was during covid) oh drat nice
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Feb 19, 2024 23:45
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jokes posted:Big agree. Everyone asking what car to buy should ask first "should I just get a Prius" first. Pretty much everyone I've known with a Prius has had their catalytic converter stolen, and that's quite an expensive replacement
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Mar 1, 2024 00:04
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Nitrox posted:I'd like to point out that Hyundai did a recall and somehow fixed the easily bypassed ignition issue. The insurance rates did not subside. It might take another year or two for statistics to catch up. Thieves aren't gonna know a fix has been made, they'll bust your car open anyway and gently caress up your ignition trying to get it to work
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Mar 2, 2024 00:09
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They need to make a prius with a manual transmission like the first gen insight. Actually, honda just make the og insight again
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Mar 6, 2024 22:03
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IOwnCalculus posted:Yeah, the Toyota tax is real and absurd. The last time I shopped them was when I bought a '98 Ranger in 2011, and for the same money a Taco would've been 10+ years older. The Pinto motor in the Ranger was far from modern but it did at least have an OBD2 fuel injection system (and never once set a code in the time I owned it). A Taco at the same price would've either been carbureted or very early fuel injection and I had zero desire then (even less now) to deal with those on a not-project vehicle. Everyone spent so long telling people to "just buy a Toyota" it ended up making everyone with a Toyota car think they have something more valuable lol
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Mar 7, 2024 02:43
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Everybody that hauls poo poo wants a van with fold flat seats. Everybody that commutes wants a Prius. drat the CAFE standards that stole station wagons from us
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Mar 11, 2024 07:59
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Thermos H Christ posted:So we think we know what car we want to buy, and we’ve found it in stock at multiple dealers. We’ve asked for and gotten the supposed out the door price from a few of them. What is our next move as far as negotiating? Don't admit to it. Come to them with a preapproval from another bank and let them try to match or beat it. If you finance through them, wait 2-3 months and then just pay it off. Unless you're buying at a buy-here-pay-here lot it's most likely just a simple interest loan so you'll only have to pay interest for 3 months, and if you let them think you'll make them money on the financing they'll be more likely to cut you a deal elsewhere.
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Mar 21, 2024 06:12
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Motronic posted:It's not just Ram. People have had it with $85k strip model trucks and $100k well equipped trucks. The lots are overflowing with them at Dodge, Ford and Chevy too. They finally pushed too far and with interest rates what they are the kind of person who would spend 6 figgies on a measly 1/2 ton pickup (read: toy, not a truck capable of real truck-type work) simply can't afford it. In that same price range but targeted at a very different market segment, Porsche can't seem to keep Macans and Cayennes in stock however. the amount of people who buy 90k trucks while calling themselves "working class" but think someone buying a macan is a bougie is lol
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Apr 4, 2024 01:03
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Guinness posted:As a rule, every new generation of a car model gets bigger and fatter and more expensive. A 2024 CR-V is two generations newer than your 2013 and in a segment where most buyers place passenger and cargo volume at the top of their list so that's what new models focus on. "but they're safer!" has safety meaningfully made any improvements since, like, the early 2000s? seems like all its done now is made them even more deadly to pedestrians due to higher weight
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Apr 5, 2024 01:17
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don't pay for the car in cash right away. just come in with financing preapproval or go with the dealer's bank and pay off the loan in a month before more than a trivial amount of interest accrues. unless you're going to a buy here pay here lot you're only gonna be dealing with a simple interest loan so no worries about early payoff penalties as ethanol said if they think they can get you on the financing they may cut you a deal on the car price, but the "bad loan" won't matter if you pay off the whole thing at the first statement
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Apr 26, 2024 17:31
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zedprime posted:Your goal/trigger point for getting a cashier check is signing a purchase agreement or invoice. Sometimes dealerships let you do this remotely but it's not super popular yet. You may be asked to do a partial down payment by debit or credit card as part of finalizing the agreement before they agree you can have the car while you go back to the bank. You will want to plan like 4 hours of your day to deal with all this poo poo. Yeah even on excellent credit rates are just under 6% right now. Unless you go with the manufacturer subsidized loans but those usually only apply to models no one wants to buy without a discount.
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Apr 26, 2024 17:45
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