Everything is overpriced...or maybe i'm just not used to buying a decent car.

I have a 14 year-old black Polo Volkswagen. No air conditioning.

 

Do u want it

I can sell it to you for a good price.

 

149 999$

 

Giving you the friends discount because I'm nice like that.

I can sell it to you for a good price.

 

149 999$

 

Giving you the friends discount because I'm nice like that.

ur so friEndly

inorite

Cycle.

Miles and miles and miles and miles.

Get a scooter, a classic lambretta. They are pretty expensive though :|. Probably less than most cars still.

Cycle.

Miles and miles and miles and miles.

 

It's hot as fuck 99% of the year. If I lived in Canada, New England or Europe, i'd like a bike. But I also drive 1 1/2 each way to school.

It's hot as fuck 99% of the year. If I lived in Canada, New England or Europe, i'd like a bike. But I also drive 1 1/2 each way to school.

 

Buy a horse.

Steal a horse.

Eat a horse.

Nah, the used car market in the US really is crap. You can buy a used car almost for the same price of buying a new car in some cases. It really is ridiculous. Maybe it has something to do with dealerships trying to get customers locked up in financing so they try to make their new cars more appealing than used cars that would normally be completely bought at the time of purchase? Just my opinion.

THere are a few articles flying about re the bottom falling out of Detroit and its failed car industry. Derelict buildings everywhere apparently. When I get off this stupid phone onto proper internet I should post them

Building shitty, over-priced cars and corrupt unions destroyed Detroit.

 

Nah, the used car market in the US really is crap. You can buy a used car almost for the same price of buying a new car in some cases. It really is ridiculous. Maybe it has something to do with dealerships trying to get customers locked up in financing so they try to make their new cars more appealing than used cars that would normally be completely bought at the time of purchase? Just my opinion.

 

But aren't those cars not worth it? I don't think I'd trust a new car under 14,000. I'm only looking to spend 9,000 total. The cash for clunkers raised prices a lot too. My first car was a 10 year old Corolla with 87,000 miles on it and it cost me 3,500 back in 2007. Now a 10 year old with over 100,000 miles is like 6,000 at least. Ridiculous! EDIT: also there is a lot of inflation since then, thanks to trillions of dollars being poured into the global financial system. Everything is way overpriced now, even though they say we're fighting deflation.

THere are a few articles flying about re the bottom falling out of Detroit and its failed car industry. Derelict buildings everywhere apparently. When I get off this stupid phone onto proper internet I should post them

Or you could just have me drive down the road a few miles from my office and snap a few pics.

 

 

Building shitty, over-priced cars and corrupt unions destroyed Detroit.

No.

The (private sector) auto bailout (which taxpayers actually benefited from in the end), is a different can of worms than the (public sector) city bankruptcy. That's mostly due to the insane decline in population in the city over the past several decades. Ongoing expenses, but spiraling property tax income... that's destructive.

 

I'm certainly not pro-UAW by any means, but that's not what "destroyed Detroit".

 

That debate can continue in the news section though.

All bailouts in the end hurt the majority. When the incompetent fail, the competent come in and buy up the assets and that is useful for everyone but the people who failed. Bailouts keep the assets in the hands of the incompetent which hurts productivity in the end. Just like with the banks, you reward failure and punish those that were doing well by taking away their chance to gobble up the competition that failed. So in the end, the taxpayer lost with propping up the corrupt, incompetent auto industry. They argued all our bailouts of the major banks help the taxpayer in the end, that is the same lie. Just ask Japan(their economy and banking industry). Bailouts never, in the end, benefit the average person. Just the rich and corrupt and hurt the people that are responsible and should benefit from their competition going under, and buying up those assets cheaply.

 

Why did the population decline over the past several decades? Wasn't it the shrinking auto industry? As the unions became too powerful and corrupt, and well, they built shitty cars, it's easy to see why the industry hasn't done well in the last few decades, leading to people leaving.

 

It's not just the auto industry, they played a major role, it's the runaway government we have everywhere that was the problem. Detroit is just one of the first to fall. We're a nation living beyond it's means in every aspect(the average person, corporation, banks, government all are on average). Also, how much of the government is controlled by the failed auto-industry in Detroit from lobbying? I'd bet a lot.

Eat a horse.

 

 

Horses for courses

Debating whether or not I want to get involved in this thread (re: Detroit)

 

:awesome:

I'm guessing you support the bailouts?

Or you could just have me drive down the road a few miles from my office and snap a few pics.

whichever's easiest :p

Are you looking around dealerships or privately advertised? Of course those privately advertising will look at what dealerships are selling similar type cars in the same condition and undercut a bit from there.

Private sellers. I'm going to have a mechanic look at it and see the carfax. I don't see the benefit of buying from a dealer.

It depends on the dealer, contrary to assumptions there are dealers who need to care about their reputation from a business perspective (People who buy used cars are going to be return customers within 3-5 years, only people who buy brand new cars want them for over a decade or much more) so they will try to avoid making a tiny profit on a piece of shit. That's what it's like here, and I have a relative from Florida and oddly enough not long ago we were talking about what it's like over there as they know someone who sells used cars, as I was buying one here. I was buying on short notice around Christmas, I planned on getting a different newer one and getting around the same amount of money back, I only spent £1,000 on a 2001 Corolla with a whopping 210,000 miles on it, but it looks nice, runs brilliantly, I haven't heard a sound out of it yet (And everyone says this) and several months later I really want to keep it. I'll make a decision when the tax runs out in a few months (Though I'll probably re-tax it anyway for selling it on).

 

 

But I did also see some terrible pieces of shit for way more then a grand. Also, that was from sort of a dealership, this guy buys and sells lots of used cars and keeps a big yard of them for people to view.

Corollas are great cars. Toyota in general is an excellent brand. I disagree with the 3-5 years, if you buy a decent used one you can make it last a decade. Mine wasn't in good condition and it lasted 6 years. So if I spend 8,000 on a 2006 and take care of it, it may last 9 or 10 years, I hope. I know people with 400,000 miles on their Toyota. Your car looks like it's in excellent shape. Maybe you'll get 400,000 miles on it.

 

I'll check out some dealerships and see how much I can talk them down. I'll have cash, which helps. I have no clue how to negotiate though. I just assumed offering them a thousand less, cash and go from there?

 

EDIT: Also, for the next year i'll be driving 300 miles a week for school. So I want something with lower mileage and then after I graduate hopefully I won't be doing many long distance trips, besides going to up to Ohio to see the family. I put 113,000 on my Corolla because I went all over the state and east coast with that car.

 

EDIT EDIT: I may lose my job soon because I can only work 3 days a week during the school year and the boss wants to hire his friend who can work anytime. So I may have to do a thousand less and use that money to cover my cost of living. I'm lucky because my bills will only be 80 a week while in school, so it's not too bad.

Yes you can make it last a decade, but I don't think most people would want to, the value of it goes down drastically after a handful of years so personally I don't aim to keep a used car several years.

 

As for negotiating, a thousand less seems a bit drastic, I'd say about maybe 15-20% less of the value they're looking for if the car is in good/decent condition. So if it's $3,000 try and knock off 5 hundred, you might get away with 300 or even 400 off it, but they might not take you seriously at all by trying to take a thousand off (Remember they might have spent money to fix it up to sell, and want some sort of return for that effort). If you start way off the price you'll find yourself coming down very quickly and that means you lose control, but say you start at asking $2,500, it's easier to stick to around that and eventually go up to $2,600 etc, then the seller will feel you're not going to budge much more. But if you started at $2,000 they won't even try to meet you half-way, instead they'll just ask for more, from there it won't be long until you're cornered into offering $2,850 or something.

 

Also when it comes to looking at the car, be fair but don't compliment it too much, politely focus on the faults which every used car has (In my case this Corolla didn't really have any except the miles so I did make that a concern at different points, said things like "It'd definitely be worth more if it wasn't for the miles y'know"). If they've fixed a few things up then fair enough, however if they are practically un-willing to negotiate because they've spent a lot on repairing half the friggen car, then use that against them and wonder what's happened to this car that it needed so much fixing up and what could go wrong next. I looked at another Corolla estate at the time and all this guy could talk about is the million things he's done to it, and when I drove the thing it rattled like hell, when I brought up the point that he's fixed it up so much and I wonder what will need fixing next, he was willing to come down a lot (From around £1,600 to £1,200 or probably even more if we kept talking, my offer started at £1,050 so you can see I wasn't going up much but it was realistic for the shitty condition of the car) but I had to think on the spot and had a really bad feeling about buying it in the end (Which is embarrassing in the middle of negotiating but so glad I didn't buy it). Another tip, completely avoid talking about what you can afford (If you're going to say the price is too much make sure you're clearly saying it's too much for that car), not everyone will agree with me on this one but from a sellers perspective- who really wants to hear that? You want what the car is worth not what the person buying it can afford, as a seller that'd put me right off, nobody selling a car treats charity cases. However I don't think there's much wrong with comparing it with other cars you can claim to have seen which are of a similar quality but cheaper and how you'd have to consider going with that one instead, but do re-iterate your interest in this car, otherwise they'll know your lying or wonder why you're still hanging around if you actually want another car that's better and cheaper.

 

And finally expect for finishing a negotiation to take a very long time, well in my experience anyway, you don't just bark a few numbers back and forth, you might even find yourself babbling about nothing to do with the car for a while just to take the conversation off the burner for a bit. That does depend on the seller though, they might not mess around, but remember it's rare that they'll give an outright no as long as your price is somewhere in the ballpark, so just push as much as you can.

 

And now I'm talking like I'm an expert I should reveal I got about £120 or so knocked off the car I did buy which isn't incredible but it was already a cheap price for the quality of it and the guy knew that, 200,000 miles or not, as well as that it had nearly a full years tax and MOT so that's saving a few hundred (A lot of cars being sold don't have this so you're always adding that to the price in your head) and it also meant it could instantly be taken on the road with no hassle so the convenience was a benefit on his part.