What’s a good price to buy a cash car?

12 comments

1. If you’re going to buy a cheap car the biggest things are going to be getting something known for longevity (Toyota, Honda). If you can, have it checked out by a local mechanic. If the car has service records available even better.

2. 0. They are parked all over just steal one, bruh.

3. 2-3k is decent. It will have issues usually but most used cars do. #1 thing is the miles, #2 rust of frame, #3 year/model.

   For example I just bought a 2001 Chevy Silverado for 3200. It has 120k miles and quite a bit of rust. I can easily get 100k+ miles out of the engine with proper maintenance, but I’ve had to replace the brake lines. Which leads to my next point.

   It’s a good thing to learn, having things break on a car, for one bringing it to a shop is like 50% the value of the car so might as well buy the part and learn to fix it yourself.

   Edit to add: forgot about my other beater which is a 2003 Aurora, has every single warning light on. Got it for 800 5 years ago and it’s never quit in me.

4. The used car market these days is wild. Cars that would have sold for $3k a few years ago now sell for 2x that. If you can even find them.

   It helps to be very particular about the make and model. Unfortunately other people do do and the resale price reflects that. So yeah, I think if you want something more reliable be prepared to spend more like $5k. And from a private seller. Dealers are a ripoff. They get them at auctions, clean up a bit, and resell them for a huge markup. And then try to upsell you on nearly worthless extended warranties. I hate used car dealers so so much.

5. Prices of cars are coming back down, but I’m not sure if 2-3k will do it. But it probably will, as long as you are willing to do the work yourself on it and learn.

   I daily drive a car that was $3500 and have been for 4 years now. It’s an 01 Lexus IS300 (you won’t find one that you can daily for around that price unless you get incredibly lucky, they went up in value a good amount during covid).

   I would recommend finding a Corolla in your price range. Toyota/Honda are your best bet, if you want to fake the funk a bit find a Lexus/Acura as they are just a Toyota/Honda with badge engineering because Americans are stupid.

6. At 5k, you can buy a nice 10-12 year old car with low miles. Think little old lady that stopped driving a lot. Like a Toyota Matrix (I got one with 80k miles for my Aunt 2 years ago, runs great, no issues, good on gas). Paid $4300.

7. You would be safer leasing a new one or spending enough to where you have a back up camera

8. There are a lot of factors involved. I’ve had some good luck in buying cheap cars over the years. I’d say the number one thing that can work in your favor is time. Check the ads every day, maybe twice per day, and wait. You’re waiting for something that looks very good, a real bargain. Not just the kind of stuff that’s there all the time.

   When you get it, first thing day one is go get an oil change and spark plugs. If it’s cheap, expect there’s been neglect, regardless of what they tell you, so do those things immediately…or at least within a day or two. Don’t go driving all over before you get it done.

   Accept that it’ll have problems, and go for problems that don’t impact the ability of the car to get you around. Minor dents, torn upholstry, stuff like that. Worn tires? Easy fix, and you’ll have new tires that you can have confidence in. You’ll need tires in due course anyway.

9. Whatever price the car is worth

10. You can buy a car for 2-3k but you’re going to need to be prepared for things to come up in probably the first 2 months of ownership. A lot of cars in this price range you’re going to be probably buying from individuals, or small dealers that buy low value trade ins from big dealers.

    A car that’s still truly worth 5-6k is probably going to do still be in decent shape but might still have 2 or 3 things going against it, like age and mileage.

11. More money doesn’t mean less problems

12. Toyota corolla 4k it’ll last you forever.
    Look at like a 2008-2010 you can probably get one for that price now.