need used car buying advice

Look for a early 2000's Acura Integra. The chicks love it! That was my first car (a 94).

 

I went into MacHaik Ford back in 2002 looking to pick up a used vehicle, and ended up purchasing a brand new F150 for about $11,000 from the used car salesman.

 

The last generation BMW 3 series (E46 from '98-'06), a used VW Jetta/Passat from '00-'04, a first-generation Lexus RX (my brother is selling one, very reliable and roomy car for college), and last you can't go wrong with a Toyota/Honda but I don't that fits your not-too boring qualification.

 

You might be able to get a 2000 Lexus IS 300 for about 6K. It might be more like 7K, but it is well worth it. Very reliable. You can run a Lexus for 200K miles with no problems.

 

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...ion=&max_price=6000&cardist=29&standard=false

found that.. its a bigger/roomy car... my friend's dad had one... pretty nice for its price.

 

I would stay away. While you might be able to afford a used one with high mileage with your budget, the maintenance and repair cost down the road will bankrupt you.

Stick with Honda/Toyota with a 5-6k budget.

 

also Acura's are very reliable, since they are made by Honda... the Acura RL is the best car Acura makes.

 

I would say it's probably more important you look for what's under the hood as well as the exterior.

If you are looking to buy a car over 90K miles on it, there's quite a few replacements you have to ensure (e.g., timing belt, possibly spark plugs, etc.). You also probably want to make sure the original engine and tranmission is still intact. I think that's what's difficult about buying a used (or new for that matter) car unless you know what to look for.

But I would suggest an early model Acura although they are stolen quite a bit.

 

+1 to this as well - also BMWs are known for their electrical problems, which will also bankrupt you in repair.

 

Get a toyota celica gt
Its very fun to drive gets 32-36 mpg highway and its affordable but you have to look around because they arent made anymore ppl overprice them. i got mine for $4900 with just below 83k and it was an 02. the only diffirence in the gt and gts is that the gts has a little more horsepower. Trust me you'll get hooked on celicas.

link heres a web site all about celicas. check the forums.

 

The cars for sale in the Taquerias Arandas parking lots are usually boss.

 

The GTS is Guaranteed Tremendous Safety, while the GT is merely Guaranteed Tremendous.

 

Sweet! Now we know where to meet all of the online womens!

 

The parts and maintainance are way too expensive for a BMW. It's actually cheaper to maintain them in the first 3 years, because of free maintainance from the dealer.

 

I meant to say that the car payments and maintainance combined on a new BMW are actually cheaper than maintainance and no car payment on a old BMW.

 

to the original poster, i've had good experiences with toyota. camry is the safest bet, albeit maybe the most boring. celica is a good option, especially if you get the 7th generation bodystyle (00-05?)

not to hijack the thread, but any ideas for a 20k, 05-09 sedan or cuv?