Dream on

Darling husband is looking for a ‘new’/used car.

He thinks that he can find one with less than 80K miles for less than $6K at a dealership, no less.

I fear the recreational drugs he did in his youth are catching up with him.

Is he dreaming or am I wrong?

I’m sure he can find something for $6K with under 80K miles (some new cars actually still sell for around $10-12K), but it probably won’t be anything you will want. A new car dealer may not have anything in that price range, you will be shopping at used car lots and private sales. Personally, I would consider better cars with higher mileage.

Sure you should look for cars that depreciate more than the popular ones. So no Honda/Toyota. Look into domestics and Koreans.

When Dodge discotinued its Neon about a year ago, dealers were pushing the last of the new cars of their lots for about that price. So I’d say, yes, it’s possible.

Let him look around. Can’t hurt. Some people have loads of fun just shopping. Eventually he’ll change his criteria to what you’d consider more reasonable.

You might find a 2005 or 2004 Chevy Aveo for that price. That’s about it.

Just on a quick search I found a few Acura TL’s from the mid 90’s with 80k or less on them for your price range. Nice cars. Check 'em out.

If he is looking for just dependable transportation (and good fuel economy) a 2002 Prizm would be in your price range.

Do you have other requirements for this vehicle?

Lee

Mazda 626 sedan. Not from a dealer, however. Pretty good car, underpriced on the used market.

I shouldn’t sell him short. He knows it’s got to make me happy, too. I like our '98 Nissan Sentra but my back doesn’t.
The Nissan would become his ‘basic transportation’ car
(AKA Winter rat) & the “new” car would be for hauling mama around in comfort.
So, we need a car with comfortable seats, but not a geezer car.

We don’t do Mopar. But, yes, he’s having a great time checking out cars on the internet.
Keeps him busy at 2AM on the weekends.
He’s a 3rd shift person…

(I hate that I can’t change my post!)
That said: Criteria may change, $$$$ won’t. We don’t finance. We pay cash. Kinda’ limits the choices, but also limits the debts.
Been there, done that, took forever to get out of it…:slight_smile:

I don’t need a domestic or a Korean, I need a CAR! :):):slight_smile:
sorry, I couldn’t resist.

hmmmm…if my back likes it, that could work!
Forgot to tell you all: We’re in upstate NY, near the PA border.

Don’t be afraid to walk into a dealership and ask if you can sit in any of the cars on the lot, letting them know you’re testing for comfort(though the real test would be on an actual test drive over several miles). A good dealership will let you, if they refuse, walk away and try again. I was surprised to find out how comfortable some of the most uncomfortable looking seats can be.
Went to a Dodge dealership down in Delaware Ohio and they had both a Daytona R/T(purple no less) and an SRT-8 Charger. The seats in both of them looked very uncomfortable(SRT-8 looked the worse with it’s leg and shoulder side bolsters), but I tried them out just to see how they’d feel. The SRT-8 seats felt like I had sat down in a Lazy-E-Boy recliner, very comfortable. You’ll also find that bench seats will be more comfortable, so you may wind up getting one of those “geezer-mobiles”(hey, old people don’t buy them for nothing ya know :stuck_out_tongue: ). The seats in my 65 Chevelle are bench seats and, if I could, I’d take them out and put in any new car I’d get, they’re that comfortable, even 42 years later.

Ahhh…fond memories of bench seats…
'60 something cars…back roads… ;);):wink:
I digress…

Yes, the first test for any car we look at is cncop test. It doesn’t take long for me to decide that the seat & I won’t get along.
We looked at a pretty Saturn a few weeks ago. Met most of our standards until I sat in it…
Husband would have bought it until he heard the fateful words: “You buy it, you drive it, I won’t ride in it.”
The salesman suggested that husband buy the “little woman”(OH, THAT WORKS TO SELL A CAR!!!) an after market cushion or 2.
Husband barely kept me from making the sales MAN a ‘little woman’!!!

Just so you folks know: cncop is 5’ 4" & 138#'s.
So I’m not exactly looking for a seat to pour huge amounts of bulk into.

Also take a look at Galants and Diamantes.

It is kinda funny how we’ve “progressed” in car seats in 40 some years. Gone from roomy bench seats with barely a blind spot, to huge blind spots, seats the squeeze us into shapes that some jackhole thinks is “ergonomically-correct”. But, when you think about it, weight of the cars hasn’t changed much. Cars still average 3000 pounds or more today, when they weighed slightly more that yesteryear.

Not true. You can buy a new Aveo for around $7k if I recall.

There are plenty of nice cars with <80k miles for less than $6k, especially if you’re willing to get a car that’s 5+ years old.

You can definitely find another car with that criteria. An Aveo definitely comes in the price range and you can probably get it for even less miles than what you mentioned. I looked around for six months to find a car for about that price with less than 60,000 miles and I found it. You might have to look at ex-rentals or something like that, but it can be done. And, you can get an extended warranty on many of these cars, but you might go over you budget limit.

Why can’t you? click on the pencil icon on lower right of the post.