Used car search. reliable, efficient, minumum loan amount

[Turin39789]

I'm torn, and I'm probably going to have to get out and test drive somethis weekend.

I think I'm leaning towards the truck. I'll have to deal with poor acceleration, boring drive and less than stellar gas mileage, but it will be a step up from my current mpg, will give me the utility to drag motorcycles etc around. I'm hoping to become a homeowner next year and it could come in very handy. If I get a truck I'll probably keep it until it dies, but regardless it will be a 5 year min vehicle.

Otherwise I really like the idea of the Focus ST, although it does also take a small mileage hit from the larger engine. I'm also keeping the pontiac vibe in mind. I've found a company offloading some tdi jetta's at a decent price, but it's more than I wanted to spend and I'm trying to stop the spend happy tendency.

I think the cars will be more fun to drive, more feature rich, etc. But not the utility. We already have to Scion Xa which gets upper 35+ mpg for long trips, and old motorcycles for fun rides. The car would be fun, but the sedan won't be great for loading up dogs in. Which leaves me looking at the hatches, the focus hatch seems to have most everything I'd want other than side curtain airbags, and the price is great, but it's ugly. The vibe can step up but will be a few grand more.

I don't know the options on the ranger xlt I found on craigslist, but they are asking 8k for an 06 with 40k miles. I ran it through KBB and only clicked XLT , 40k miles and it came out to 7215 private party good condition so maybe I can get it down some.



blog.garage.anandtech.com

 

[Possessed Freak]

Truly go el cheapo, get a very used S series Saturn. Those things last forever and get great gas mileage.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak
Truly go el cheapo, get a very used S series Saturn. Those things last forever and get great gas mileage.

I should point out, I know I'm not going for a true el cheapo car here. Instead I am el cheapo. I thought about getting a second car to the beetle two years ago, found a 97 volvo 960 for under $1k with some ugly body damage but drove ok. Had it for about 6 months before the engine blew(wtf?!) sold it for scrap for almost as much as I paid for it.
Last winter I picked up an 87 toyota tercel for about $250, it was a decent runner but the mpg were disappearing and it was flooding so I dumped it in july for the price I paid for it.

The original idea was to get a $5k or so loan for 36 months, about a $150 payment and to make $300 payments to get it paid off quick. I started to bump up the price as I found lenders who didn't want to loan for less than $7.5.

If I get a truck I need to talk this one down to 7500 or so, or find a cheaper one, but the idea of only 40k miles intrigues me. If I get a car I'm in the same boat, or I need to stop looking at the higher $ cars and go back to comparing the focus wagon to the elantra gt etc.