four doors and a seat full of Cheerios
| Since the very recent birth of our son (three weeks tomorrow!), it's become even more apparent how much we need a four-door vehicle. My two-door Civic can accommodate the infant car seat, but only with the front passenger seat positioned as far forward as possible (not suitable for any type of road trip with two, sometimes three, adults, a dog, a baby, and all associated gear), but Mr. Savvy's truck is not suitable for a car seat of any size or type. And as soon as the babe gets any bigger, it's going to be very difficult for me to do the maneuvering necessary to get his seat in the back seat of my coupe. But maybe we have a solution! My dad's company car is up for renewal, and he just called today to say we could buy his old one for $7,295. It is a 2005 Chevy Impala, 78,000 miles, brand new tires, all highway miles, impeccably maintained, no known issues, and driven only by my dad. I'm more of a Honda girl, but good deals on used Accords are few and far between, and a new Accord is not in our budget (at least not comfortably). I've had great luck with buying one of his company cars in the past. I needed a car my senior year of college and bought his just-off-lease Taurus for $6,050. I drove it for about 10 months and put over 20,000 miles on it, and then sold it for almost a $1,000 profit when I bought my Civic. I'm not sure that this Impala is priced quite as good as the Taurus was, but my research indicates they are asking $1,000 - $1,500 under private party value, and just a little more than trade-in. My thoughts right now are that we buy it, drive it for two-three years, and hope that Honda comes out with an Accord wagon, which is what I really want. Labels: vehicles |
posted by savvy at 10/20/2007 10:27:00 AM
Comments on "four doors and a seat full of Cheerios"
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Anonymous said ... (2:56 PM) :
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LaTejanaFria said ... (10:07 PM) :
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savvy said ... (10:32 AM) :
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savvy said ... (8:10 AM) :
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SavingDiva said ... (12:10 PM) :
post a commentSo glad you're back! Can't wait to hear more about the adventures with your little one. Have you come up with the baby's "blog name" yet? Lil Savvy? Baby Saver? :) Hope all is going well (outside of the car hassle)!
POST MORE PIX OF BABY SAVVY
That is a lot of miles for an 05'. I would not pay more then $5500 for that vehicle with that many miles on it.
You can find 2-3 year old vehicles that are practically brand new with under 30,000 miles on them. Keep looking.
I would be kinda pissed at my dad if he offered me that deal.
You may want to conside the new Honda Fit. Not quite as luxurious as the Accord, but it's what would work for you.
It's like a mini-van, but in compact size. I got one last year and have been very happy with my purchase. Very roomy, four doors. I put a 3.7 cubic foot freezer in the back with a little room to spare.
My only complaint: it's very basic, with no frills. It gets great gas mileage: 37 city/42 hwy.
LaTejanaFria - I will look into the Fit, but I have a feeling it is over our price range.
Anon - where did you come up with $5500? That's way below even trade-in value on this car. I've been searching high and low and can't find any sedan under $8,000 that has low miles and is a 2005 or newer, even the high mileage cars cost more like $10,000.
Also, the car is a company car, ie the company sets the price, not my dad.
There you just said it, "trade in". Your going to pay thousands more to a dealer and that dealer is going to give you way less for your trade in.
Private party is the way to go. You probably use Craigslist.com for other things right? Well it is great for vehicles too. In my experience company cars are always badly abused. I drive one my self and when it starts making noise or a light comes on do I take it right to the auto shop? No, I think to my self, I'm glad this is not my car. But if it was only driven by your dad then that might be a bit diffrent.
May be I'm wrong but it sounds liike your looking mostly at dear lots. Your going to get screwed by a dealer. You will pay thousands more, or less for your trade in. They will hide defects and sell you any peice of junk.
I quoted $5500 off the top of my head for the high milage. Why buy a two year old car with 7 years of milage already on it?
$5500 is about what he would get from any private party and I bet a dealer would offer even less if you actually took it to them, not just plunk informatrion into kbb.com
What about other brands? Saturn makes really reliable cars that are reasonably priced. Consumer reports can stear you towards a several reliable vehicles then just keep your eye on CL.com.
Just my thoughts on car buying. Dealers=Evil. High miles=some one elses junk there trying to off load.
Anonymous - I don't think you understand car values. Trade-in price quotes are lower that private party and dealer quotes, and the $7300 price is lower than even trade-in in every place I've looked. I've compared the $7300 price to kbb and edmunds, as well as the pricing report on Consumer Reports and that price is well below the private party and dealer prices.
I've also searched Craiglist and Madison.com classifieds extensively over the last couple months, and the only vehicles that are in that $7000-8000 price range are typically much, much older than 2005 and all have high miles or some other defect. I've called on numerous cars and test drove a few used cars, and all were in worse condition, older, and had almost as many miles as this car.
If you find a 2005 Impala with high miles for $5500 you should buy it. They are going for about $9,000 (one had over 100,000 miles) on Craigslist here. And like I said in my post, the last time I bought my dad's company car, I drove it for almost a year, put on over 20,000 miles and made a profit when I sold it.
I have an Impala (2000), and I really like it. It's been a pretty good car, and it's really roomy. You can fold down the seats which is great for putting bikes in teh back.