Be Careful When Using Consumer Reports As A Source Of Information For Finding A Reliable Used Car, Particularly Older And Less Expensive Cars.
I believe that they somehow offer some useful help selecting new or newer well maintained used cars, but it is my opinion that when buying cars such as this the condition of any particular car is much more important than model-year, make, and model.
I believe you should evaluate each car (and have it professionally checked) on it’s indivual merits, regardless of model-year, make, and model. To pass up cars not recommended by a magazine is not beneficial as some of those cars possibly represent the best cars and the best values.
I’ve been a CR subscriber for decades and I look at the “Good Bets / Bad Bets” cars and the “Used Cars To Avoid” lists and the vehicles are primarily Japanese cars, it appears. However, I buy all well maintained used American cars, many from the not recommended lists and have never bought a bad one. Many American cars are priced lower than comparable Asian cars.
Here’s an example of “Good Bets” : Chevrolet Prism / Toyota Corrola (no model-years given). I don’t see either of these cars on the used cars to avoid list (any model-years).
Now go to a recent discussion and read an owner’s experience. Be sure and read all comments from contributors. http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2277646/my-1999-chevy-prizm-may-be-an-oily-lemon.
On the other hand, our family has cars that are not recommended that are used every day and need virtually no repairs and are very reliable and ecomomical in tens of thousands of miles of driving. One of them was purchased nearly 4 years ago for $4,000.
I’m not saying that CR advice is wrong, (I look at it before purchasing cars as well as other information sources), but it just can’t work for all situations. Each vehicle has to be evaluated on its own merits or a buyer could miss some good purchase opportunuties.
Thanks a lot everyone for the advice! Well I haven’t actually been out to look at cars myself, but my mom’s mechanic friend can sell me a 2002 Mercury Sable Wagon for about $1,500. It’s in really good shape with 132,000 miles and it just got new brakes and tires. I saw it today. Although, the car is so ugly! I wish it was a sedan… what do you guys think? Is it worth getting for how cheap it is or should I just keep looking?
I dunno, but given your cost constraints and the likelihood you are inheriting an older, inherently less reliable car, you are highly unlikely to get your ideal. If your mom’s mechanic friend owned the car and can vouch for its history and/or the maintenance record, you may have to sacrifice the aesthetics for the greater security that you’re driving something that was well cared for. Just sayin’.
There might be something to the whole wagon thing, if it’s really in good shape, as advertised. Don’t forget about all the stuff you’ll want to haul to college, and home, not to mention to and from parties…kegs can take up some space
Put anything you don’t spend on the vehicle into an account somewhere for any future maintenance. There’s bound to be cost involved, so you’re at least prepared for some of it. Try not to touch it for all the other fun things you end up doing.
As for the Contour problems, everyone has a bad ride sometimes. I never said there weren’t exceptions.
How good a friend is he? Would he roll over on you and let the friendship with mom evaporate? If you think he wants to be a long-term friend, it might be worth a shot. That gives you $2500 for repairs if needed. While it has new brakes, does it have new brake fluid? When was the transmission fluid last changed? If the mechanic worked on this car for the previous owner, he should be able to tell you. If he can’t, ask him to throw in the brake and transmission fluid changes as part of the $1500.
He’s a pretty good friend, my mom has known him for a while and her ex co-worker is his wife. I know he has been working on the car for the previous owner, and the owner was getting a new car so they didn’t want to pay to get all the little things fixed. I figure I’ll get a carfax to look at all the past repairs. Is there anything else I should ask about the car before making a decision?
Think twice about the CarFax. They only report things that are in the public record. If the car was in an accident it may not show up in the CarFax report. Read the money-back guarantee closely and decide if you want it. I wouldn’t buy it, especially if the mechanic has known the car for a while. It sounds like it’s worth a shot with the fluid changes, or at least finding out how long it has been since they were done. If not in the last 30,000 miles, ask to have them thrown in.
Well, the Carfax won’t always show all the records of repairs, though it should show you if the car has been totaled or salvaged – although I should also say I looked up my old Volvo to sell it this year and was shocked to learn that Carfax had found out two months AFTER I had bought it that it had been totaled the year before! (By insurance. The title was clean.)
So I’d say ask the mechanic friend for all the past maintenance records he has on file, including oil changes, etc. and for him to detail all the “little things” the previous owner didn’t want to fix. And if he doesn’t have a huge stake in the sale (like he really needs it off his property RIGHT NOW), see if you can get a read from him on how well the previous owner treated it. Did they come in all the time for regular maintenance? Or did they come in once a year to have something glued back on to the engine?
Also – ha! – I’m the one from the other thread about getting a possible lemon Chevy Prizm. And even though I might have bought a lemon (true, true, CSA), I’d still recommend the old Prizms. I had a Geo Prizm I got from a friend of a friend – wonderful hatchback (and you’d be surprised what you want to haul, so I’m in agreement that a wagon may be good) – and it ran like a top, with regular maintenance. That car will be the one I compare all future cars to.
And she was old and not much to look at, but she’d been well-maintained and I kept her up until the tranny went and nobody in my area would touch her to rebuild.
Another thing to consider is gas mileage, if it seems like ongoing money will be an issue. You’d be super lucky to find a reliable car with good mileage that costs less than $4,000, so you might want to take the hit if the Sable has bad mileage but has been well maintained. It’s easier to absorb periodic $70 fill-ups into a budget, usually, than a $500 driveshaft replacement. But if you found, say, a smaller car with a comparable maintenance history and record of reliability, you might go for that.
Other than agreeing that Carfax should not be the last word due to omissions and inaccuracies, I’d say the Sable wagon would be a good deal for that price if it checks out ok. Do not rely on anyone’s word that it’s in great shape.
Like you, I have issues with the looks. I owned an 87 Sable wagon that was a great vehicle but it was one of the uncoolest cars on the planet.
In '96 when the Taurus/Sable redesign came on the market my first thought when I saw the regular sedans was what in the world is the wagon going to look like. They did not disappoint either; donkey ugly and worse than the first generation.
What would I do? Put the wagon on hold, try to find something else, and fall back on the wagon if it came down to a justhavetohaveacarrightnow situation.
