Should I get new hardware - is it time to buy a car?

[MadRat]

I'm about to spend $18000 on a Silver 2000 Intrepid ES with 7000 miles on it. Its real hardware related, man. 100% hard-core hardware. 🙂

The car is pretty nice on the interior and exterior; leather seats/dash, CD/cassette, all electric controls, power everything, automatic transmission, aluminum wheels, V6, four-wheel disc brakes, huge trunk, four doors, bubble headlights, etc. No scratches or dents of course! Sports a powered sunroof, aerodynamics package, keyless entry, and some other little novelties. Its shiny silver paintjob with deep brown leather interior. Is it worth $18000 for it, though? I know nothing on such stuff. Give me your opinion.

1. Financing - what should I aim for?
2. Warranty - is it worth it? ...for how much?
3. General tips?

The short of it I put $500 down on it tonight. Told them I'd decide to finalize by Saturday. Need the opinions by Thursday night so I can have peace of mind all day Friday.

 

[gnognugs]

Find out if was ever in an accident, no matter what the salesperson says about it.
There is an internet site that can check by VIN number.
Check www.autobytel.com for pricing, and reviews.
Check for other reviews
Ask your bank for the N.A.D.A., and Black Book values of the car. They should be happy to supply you with these, since they would need to know them if they were going to do the financing. If they will not, do your bamking elsewhere.
Find out if there are any special financing incentives (students, grads, newlyweds, whatever).
Shop around for financing.
Shop around for the car.
Never ever have your heart set on a car.
Never ever ever let the salesman know that you do!

The Internet gives you great advantages in car buying. Use them.

I work in Insurance. We buy crazy amounts of cars every day (because of crashes). Shop around.

As for the car. I've always found Japanese cars to be the best (by far) for the money.

Good luck🙂

 

[Jumpem]

Check out Edmunds.com and Kelley Blue Book for car values.

 

[gnognugs]

Good site for finding info about vehicle history. I forgot to post it before.

BTW, when you are talking to the salesperson, always talk about the dollars over the life of the loan. This helps keep the price in perspective, and eliminates any doubt about the value of one deal over another. $18k might be more like $23k. Another dealership may have a different interest rate, cash incentives, whatever.

If you have a trade-in. Don't tell the dealership about it untill after you make the new car deal. Lie if you have to. This will be the only way to really know what they would offer you on the car. It will be much less than you think.

 

[tkdkid]

Get two dealerships to compete with each other.

Take your time...know what you can spend and if they try to get you to pay more just walk away, go somewhere else, no matter how much time you've invested at that dealership, no matter what papers you've already signed.

Two competing dealers though will go nuts trying to beat each other..especially if you've got exceptional credit.

 

[MadRat]

Thanks, guys. Honestly, most of this was some of the first things I did. Got a brother who used to sell cars. 🙂

The car was a demo for one of the engineers at the Dodge Corporation. The dealership is the first place its been since. Its been at the dealership a week, which doesn't surprise me. I'm in a fairly rural town and these people like FORD! *mumbled words* (Excuse me.) 😉

I haven't went up against the F&I guy yet. Shouldn't be tough to get 7.5-8.0% on the loan. There is still 2.5 years or 29000 miles left of warranty, which is worth the two years I'd set as a minimum on any used car. (Technically it is a used car.)

The car is $20k. I was offered $2000 on my trade-in, a beat-up '94 Cavalier with 95000 miles and a number of dents and scratches. (Got hit by a deer, imagine that. It hit me on the side after I stopped!) Actually I was offered much less, but a little weaseling got the trade-in price raised alot! It had alot of little problems, too, like the key is stuck in the ignition and there are problems with the drivers door from the hit. I was hoping to get exactly that amount. (Plus I didn't tell them about $1200 of insurance money that I'll use to get plates.) I'll be very happy to get out of this other car. What a relief to bail on a car near its pinnacle.

Its funny how insurance is pretty close to the same amount on a newer car as the old one I had.

btw - This is the competing dealership. The other dealership wanted about $23k for something comparable on another lot. I happen to know the owner of the dealership that has this car on it. I'm sure its fair price, just don't know if better isn't out there. 🙂

 

[jamarno]

Do you really want a Chrysler, especially a used one? They have some of the worst quality, and even with most of the factory warranty still in effect (3/36K overall, longer for some emissions-related components) you may not be covered very well because Chrysler hates to pay warranty claims, sometimes even for the most obvious problems. That's not to say that you'll probably end up with a lemon because you probably won't, but your odds for quality are much better with Toyota or Honda.

Have the car's computer read out by somebody who understands how to interpret computer readings. I'm not referring to the simple numeric trouble codes from the computer but the actual data stream that shows things like temperature, manifold pressure, fuel injector pulse width, etc. A good mechanic will have a feeling for these and be able to tell if something is even slightly off, but a bad mechanic will say everything is OK if no numeric codes appear, or may suggest a tune-up or injector flush.

Extended warranties are rarely worth the money on a car, especially if they're not from the manufacturer because then there will be all sorts of exclusions, and you'll have to get prior approval for all repairs.

If you find any problems at all with a car, complain a lot as soon as possible because the policy of most manufacturers is to be much less generous after the first year or 12K, and don't accept the excuse that a defect is "normal" because almost surely isn't. Also don't let the dealer get by with not giving you a receipt for each repair because that's a way of hiding evidence in case repeated service is required.