Car 1 - 96 Chrylser Concord LX with 193,000 miles. Car runs well and seems in good shape. Is that to many miles? Also the hood, roof and trunk has issues with significant paint wear. Is this just a paint issue?
Car 2 - 1992 Jeep Cherokee 4-Door 4WD and body in good shape, interior also and runs good and no issues expect the front bumper. It is bent in. It is fine on the passanger side but as it goes across it ends up that the driver side is pushed under the grill a bit. Could the frame be bent? The car only has 130,000 miles on it.
I am just looking for local around town transportation and both are in my budget range.
I would stay away from either one; the Chrysler will soon have expensive transmission problems and you likely cannot afford the required upkeep of an older 4WD vehicle.
Shop for a barebones, low mileage compact such as a Mazda Protege, or Hyundai Accent.
I have not found any of those types within my limited budget limits…
Car 1: The paint loss is probaly because the car was not waxed. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless the primer is gone and there is rust. If you want the paint to look fresher, get an exterior-only paint job to freshen up the main areas of the car. You can save money by masking everything you don’t want painted yourself. Talk to the paint shop about how you can save money (if you are interested).
Get a mechanic to check the car before you buy it. If it checks out, you might be fine. I say might, because any 14-year old car can have issues at any time. Be prepared to make repairs every year in addition to the usual maintenance items.
Car 2 (truck 1): If it passes a mechanic’s inspection, you could be OK (it’s 18 years old). If you don’t like the damaged bumper, you can replace it yourself. You can find another at a junk (uh, recycling) yard. You should replace the bumper shock absorbers at the same time. As to the frame: I doubt that it’s bent. I think there would be more damage to the front end than just a bent bumper. If the truck had been in an accident bad enough to bend the frame, the hood, front facia, and probably at least one fender would have been replaced. If they went to all that expense, they’d replace the bumper, too.
These are falling into your budget range due to damage and cosmetics.
Cherokee are very well made vehicles if it has the 4.0L engine 6 cylinder (not 2.5L). The hit sounds minor. And if the hit was more major no one would spend the money on fixing a car this old. Have a mechanic look it over. Look for rust.
Chrysler catr forget it.
Do not pay more than $400-$500 for either of these beauties, and that is if they run well and have decent tires.
There’s a newly-listed 1996 Camry with the same mileage as the Concord in your area for the same price. That is likely to be a better option for you from a reliability standpoint, though you would of course want to inspect it thoroughly.
(No, I’m not stalking you. I looked up '96 Concordes to see what they were going for, and found the car you describe 
)
There is no car at those prices on any car lot anywhere near my area. I might get another beater from the goodwill auto auction for those prices, but the average price of cars I am looking at is between 1995 and 2995. used cars in my area are not cheap.
The Jeep is a 4.0L L6 OHV 12v what ever that means. Why no on the Chrysler?
Dealership car or private owner? I can’t go with private owner because i don’t have the full cash, and a BHPH place will offer me payments. Where did you find this listing. Right now I am finding BHPH places outside of Indianapolis are better then what is in Indy, so I am road tripping this Sat.
Ahh, yeah, it’s a classified ad, so private sale. Ahh well.
yea kinda thought that, while a private owner is okay, they won’t take “payments” so that reall puts a stop to those.
I wouldn’t recommend the Chrysler because of the high miles and because they aren’t very reliable. The Cherokee, on the other hand, has a great engine. My friend has a '96 model with almost 300,000 miles.
BHPH places are very unreliable places to get cars. They pay next to nothing for the cars, so anything the sell them for, the down payment usually covers their cost. The remaining payments are pure profit. And they will retrieve the car if payments are not met. They typically use underhanded methods to get these cars looking and running as good as possible to sell them, but those methods are quick covers for sometimes terminal or dangerous conditions. They do this because they know you most likely don’t have the money to have the car looked over by a mechanic before purchasing.
Buyer Beware!!!
I think you are right in the old days and with some corner street places, but i am looking at family owned places that provide warrenties and such and have been around for at least 20+ years. In a perfect world i go to a big time dealership, but they won’t finance me and the payments would be way over my budget is.