I am in the process of buying a car from the lot I work at, but I am undecided. First of all, I am a single grandmother and I am trying to make the best decision I can. I have the choice of a 2010 Chrysler Sebring, which appears to drive well and nothing showing up on the AutoCheck I ran on it. It has 98,000 miles on it. Then there is a 2013 VW Jetta with 108,000 miles and the AutoCheck is showing that it had three accidents and listed frame damage. According to my work, they say they would have checked the frame before putting it on the lot for sale. Also, after a day of driving the Jetta I noticed when I get into the car to drive it I am smelling an odor that seems like cat urine. They agree to look at it again. I just want to make a good decision and not get taken.
Frankly I don’t care for either one. But the Sebring would be better than any vehicle that had frame damage .
Three accidents? that means it was driven hard, and possibly not maintained. And a VW with that many miles on it is near the end of it’s life. I’d pass on that one.
The Chrysler is not great either, as they have a poor reliability record. But if you can get an independent mechanic to check it over before you buy, and you have evidence that it was well maintained, it could be ok.
you have no other choices?
Do you trust the owner and mechanics at the lot to give you a good deal ?
Good question , it does not sound like they are looking out for their fellow employee.
I am really not sure if I do completely trust them. The VW has been there over 100 days, so that makes me nervous too. Unfortunately, I have had circumstances happen and my credit is shot, so I am very limited on what the bank will finance me for.
+1
My preference would be neither of them, as both have consistently lagged the better models in terms of reliability.
However, if it has to come down to a choice between those two vehicles, I would opt for the one w/o a record of having been in 3 accidents. Speaking as someone who has driven 7 vehicles over the past 48 years with zero accidents, I can’t even begin to imagine how irresponsible a person must be in order to have 3 accidents with the same vehicle in just a few years.
If somebody is so irresponsible/reckless as to have that many accidents with one vehicle over a period of 4 or 5 years, just imagine how that person undoubtedly abused the vehicle every time that he/she drove it!
I agree. I wish I had other choices, but I just don’t. Thank you.
I agree with the others here. Neither one of these choices is ideal. Neither VW or Chrysler is known for reliability. That being said, I did a quick check of both cars on CarComplaints.com. This site holds complaints and recall information on just about every vehicle out there and I always check it if I am not real familiar with a car.
The Jetta gets many more complaints than the Sebring. This, and the fact it isn’t wrecked, tells me that the Sebring would be the choice to make. It seems to be a no brainer given these two choices.
Now if it had been a 2000 Intrepid with the 2.7L engines, I would have told you to walk to work instead of spending money on that scrap metal. Odds are that the engine wouldn’t have made it anywhere near 100,000 miles before blowing up. Then there are otherwise good cars with a bad year here and there. The 2007 Camry with the 4 cylinder comes to mind.
Thank you as well for the advice
You work at a car lot and only have these two choices ? What kind of lot is this?
It is because of the circumstances I have been through which resulted in my credit becoming horrible. Now, according to the dealer, these are the only two cars that the one bank that will finance me will work for. It is unreal to say the least.
My Wife’s nephew has really trashed his credit over the last decade or so. He went car shopping and had the same experience.He could not obtain credit on his own and the car lots would offer him a choice of 2 or 3 dogs.
The typical scenario is to offer junk at higher than clean retail, then reduce the price by 20% or so and show the reduction as a down payment. In Florida I believe the maximun interest rate is 29.9%. Then you add fees.
His “friend” is a mechanic at a buy here pay here lot. The vehicle he recommended was beyond junk. It is expensive to be poor with trashed credit.
I know it’s money, but spend the $100 to get an independent mechanic check the Sebring before you sign any papers. It may save you thousands.
What price are they offering you?
Look into alternatives, I’d say this situation is a loser, you have a good chance of winding up with a useless car and out a lot of money. Find ways of doing without a car if need be.
to put it another way, I think your choices are: no car, or a useless car and minus a lot of money.
I guess I agree with the others. I’m not a fan of Chrysler right now but seems like the better alternative. Where’s that Monty Python “run away” clip for the VW?
DThe “bank” is owned by dealer brother in law? Typically, a bank qualifies a buyer for XX dollars. Based on what they can pay monthly. Bank says loan can be financed for X months. Which means loan is paid off before car has zero value.
The 2010 Chrysler Sebring is not an expensive car, I pay in cash for cars like this. I would rather save for a few months and pay in cash than to pay top dollar and finance a car for twice of what it is worth.
The smells and accidents would take the Jetta off the list for me.
Under the circumstances, I guess they won’t let you take the Sebring to another mechanic for a prepurchase inspection. Since you work for them, they might not appreciate that. If you can get it for a day or two, have a prepurchase inspection to tell you if anything is wrong with it. If there is too much wrong, it might be better to pass on both. Don’t tell them you did this if you think they’d might fire you for it.
You work there, you hopefully know a selesman you can trust. I would go the route of telling him your price range and asking him when something I should look at comes in let me know. How did you end up looking at the Jetta?
Don’t buy either one. Find another way to finance it and buy something else.
They are offering them at cost to me because I am a manager. I know the cost because I can see all the information on every car. I wish I would have known about this site sooner. I am going to ask the dealer if there is anything else at all I could possibly get besides these two.