I’ll be buying a car in Michigan to drive to California in a couple weeks. I’m leaning towards this: http://tinyurl.com/q6k4fy
What about a new scion, yaris, or honda fit? Anything else I should be looking at new/used?
If I buy something used, should it pass emissions test in cali? Is it possible to have something weird wrong with it like the O2 sensor not working right?
Nice, but the problem with buying over the internet is that you can’t have it thoroughly checked out by your own shop prior to buying.
I’d suggest looking at a new xA, Yaris, or Honda Fit instead. Perhaps you could even rent a car for the trip and buy when you get to California.
I don’t think it’d be very cost effective for me to rent. I know that I could probably get paid to take a car to cali also as I could just drive to any state first then drive to cali, but I’ll be taking my cat with me and that probably wouldn’t be allowed and I just want to get to cali as fast as possible.
I am definitely gonna test drive and get the car checked out before I buy it. Maybe someone can even check the emissions here. This place is about 20 miles from my house. I’ll check out the cars you mentioned too, thanks.
Oh how about a hybrid?
'06 Civic Hybrid/42k miles/$15k
Is Crown Motors a Honda dealer? If you buy a certified car, it should be factory certified. I don’t think you can get a certified Honda from anyone but a Honda dealer. It appears from the add that Crown is a Honda dealer, but not certain. Check the details of the certified car warranty. Can you get service at any dealer? If not, it’s a long ride back to Michigan. There’s a link to additional information about the new warranty. Just make sure you understand it.
There are also great deals on Chrysler and GM cars now. You could pay less than the asking price for that 2006 Civic for a new 2009 Cobalt LS or LT. You get a 3 year/36,000 mile full warranty and a 10 year/100,000 mile drive train warranty. Before you say “Oh, no! It’s a Cobalt!” test drive one and see if you can stand it. This is no knock on the Honda. I like mine, but I also like my money. A Cobalt might be a good value for you. I would not, however, buy an Aveo.
Yeah they’re a honda dealer and it’s factory certified so I can take it to any honda dealer.
I posted the wrong window for the 06 hybrid link so if anyone’s confused that’s why.
I really like the honda fit since it gets really good real world gas mileage from the reviews I’ve read, but I’d have to get the sport for cruise control which is one other thing I’d need. It looks like it’d cost around 17-19k to get the fit, cobalt, or yaris with cruise control. The scion xD has cruise control and is 15.3k new so I’m leaning towards that right now.
Is is possible to still order a 2008 model from the factory new? On cars.com it lets me change the year to '08 for a new car and it drops the price ~1k-2k.
I think I’ve got it narrowed down to the cobalt and accent. The recommended price on cars.com for the cobalt is 16,600 and 16,000 for the accent.
If I change the year to 08, the cobalt is 15k and accent 14k. I looked through the new car inventory near me but nothing had cruise control. I’ll call around tomorrow to try to find something already in stock with cruise control as that’d probably be cheaper than ordering something new?
I’m leaning towards the accent because the warranty looks a lot better than the cobalt. Anything else I missed? The honda fit sport starts listing at 17k, and I was kind of turned off by the xD because of the 5 year power train warranty even though it’s the car I like the most because of looks/features/price.
You should be able to negotiate the Cobalt LT-1 to under $14,000. I saw several on a new car lot recently for between $13,000 and $14,000 with cruise control and AT. If you want a manual transmission, the cost is dropped about $1000. I live in MD, not MI, but I’d bet the prices are much lower than you have been quoted. Edmunds says that the average for a Cobalt LT1 with AT and cruise is about $15,100 in Ann Arbor, including rebate and destination charges.
If you find a dealer that it going out of business and has a car with over 200 miles on the lot, the deal will astound you. Check on line for dealers within 25 to 50 miles of your home to see internet pricing. I found a car exactly like this (but it had a spare tire, too) for $12,300 after discounts, rebates and destination charges.