Author Topic: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!  (Read 2575 times)

Captain PlanIt

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Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« on: December 05, 2016, 12:26:36 PM »
So, my 2004 Nissan Sentra is corroding pretty badly, and my mechanic advised me to replace it in the near future. My aunt recently bought a new car and is willing to sell me her old 2006 Honda CRV (150K miles) for $3300. She has owned it since it was new.

It's a good deal, but I find myself dragging my feet about owning an SUV. It's just a lot of car after being used to driving around my little Sentra. I test drove it and found it to be wider than I like, though I'm sure I'll get used to it. It was also pretty noisy, but it is an older car so it's to be expected. CRVs are well built cars...I'm just reluctant because I don't particularly want an SUV.

I have 10K in emergency savings, but obviously I'd like to spend as little as possible of that money. I have considered finding a small hatchback via craigslist instead. I test drove a scion and hated it. I haven't found many interesting cars that match my aunt's price range. I think I'm probably better off buying a car that I know has been taken care of from family, rather than risking getting a dud. But I'm still having trouble getting over my bias towards SUVs.

What do you guys think? Is this a huge no-brainer that I'm just being silly about?

NoStacheOhio

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2016, 12:28:30 PM »
Seems like a good price.

Some of the road noise might be the tires. We just replaced the original tires on my wife's CR-V with highway-biased ones, and it make a huge difference.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2016, 12:49:35 PM »
What's your driving like? A CR-V is going to be thirsty.

marielle

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2016, 12:55:16 PM »
Sounds like you need to test drive a few more cars. Perhaps even go to a Carmax lot and test drive a few sedans and hatchbacks? Then buy a similar car on Craigslist. You can always have a car savvy friend come help you inspect the car, or ask for maintenance records from the owner. Ask for the VIN before even looking at the car to make sure it's not a salvage and look for obvious signs of neglect. With some time I'm sure you could find an older $5000 or less car that's only had one owner who had the maintenance records.

The CRV has pretty bad gas mileage so that's another thing you'd have to live with. It sounds like you have a little bit of time still to look for a car, so just check Craigslist periodically before making a final decision. Maybe it's worth paying slightly more ($1000-2000) for a car with less than 100k miles that you actually like.

Captain PlanIt

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2016, 01:07:08 PM »
What's your driving like? A CR-V is going to be thirsty.

I go through about a tank of gas a month, sometimes two.

Dicey

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2016, 04:48:44 PM »
Hard to justify a hybrid with such low mileage (yay, you!). Any meat left on the bone? Could you buy it, drive it for a year or two, then resell it for what you paid or better?

Captain PlanIt

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Re: Replacing a Car - Advice Needed!
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2016, 04:58:47 PM »
Hard to justify a hybrid with such low mileage (yay, you!). Any meat left on the bone? Could you buy it, drive it for a year or two, then resell it for what you paid or better?

It's in good condition, according to my aunt's dealership. I think it would definitely last me a year or two. I have no idea if it would hold its resale value at that point.