How I bought my Camry...and live with it.

[avinash]

just 2 pics are not enough and btw i already did check them.

sorry saar..will post more...but my car isn't glamourous..

Finally you have started.



Yup, we also talked about it and it had a transmission problem IIRC.

yupp..the rangie..

next time CALL.

ok sir..definitely..I think I did refer cars.com too..

Avi. We know you are lazy.

how ?

Nice... keep up the flow avi..

sure bud

ah another interesting thread there avi... I somehow prefer Autotrader to craigs, may be cuz i got mine from autotrader
carmax is tad too expensive, but then yea they do give quality cars that you can drive out hassle free.

ah now why didn't the Rangie work.. Curious curious

Hey can you shed more light on the CARFAX, i dont think it captures all the work that is done on the car, and also its not updated then and there right. Suppose I do a engine work today and sell the car next week, it would not show up on my CARFAX. So what is the point of doing it. It must be the same with accident history too right?

carfax is very imp yes but I guess the delay is a loophole. cannot rely on it completely though..general intelligence needs to be applied.

I think prabhuav got caught with that delay in the carfax reports getting updated...

what happened ?

I bought mine from Craigslist, Honda Accord manual transmission, bought it for $4000.
2years and 23,000 miles later,

Timing belt $500
Snow tires $250
Ball joint damage $150
Stupid electrical work -$1800 (there ii another thread on this)
Savings/everymonth on not taking a rental car/bus/flight to Chicago- -100*24=-2400; I usually do (Chicago-- Upper Michigan ~400miles)
SAvings on gas mileage-- Never calculated but the Honda MT gives 35mpg on highway , most rentals gives 32-33;
Savings on relocating urself to the new job (~-700)

Still I don't need to take rentals for trips less than 300miles. And the car has now 120K on the odo.

Well Buying a cheap car was always worth it. Plan to delegate this car to the Winter beater/ daily office driver and get something fast.

120k? that's it? you've got a rare car my friend.

[avinash]

..aah the Range Rover..in typical brit green..I kept dreaming about this car coz I had made up my mind about it and it being a terrific offroader, I had even started looking for Off highway Parks, 4X4 trails etc. I even made some 'Jeep' friends in ATL much before I even bought this car..such was the enthusiasm. this is when I ended my search for a car..till I reached Peachtree City,GA.
I landed on a sunday and called the owner and told him that I'll meet up with him on wednesday that week. He was cool with it. I found it weird that at such a price, it is still available. am I missing something here?

aah yes..the carfax..for the uninitiated, Carfax is a complete report of all cars in US. this report will tell if the car in question has ever been in an accident and all service records..all with the VIN as the reference number. Pretty cool stuff. Now I was just heeding to excitement and I'd not even checked on this rangie's carfax report. called him again and asked for one..he did email me the report and promptly told me that he has been changing oils all by himself and therefore , the last few oil changes will not figure out in the report. I was cool with that coz I knew that servicing at dealerships is super expensive in US..

I went through the report thoroughly and found nothing to be worried about. I still knew that there has to be something that's not right with the car. So I preponed my 'meet the rangie' plan and rented a pontiac G5 coupe on monday and went out that evening to Atlanta. btw, Peachtree city to Atlanta is a 30 mile drive.
met Frank, the owner ( a 60 yr old man) who took me around to his Range Rover..it looked fantastic..just the way I had imagined it to be. it was going to be my next car..MPG (miles/gallon) be damned.

1. body condition. check
2. no accidents. check
3. suspension. check
4. engine oil level/condition . check
5. fan belt . check
6. tyre wear.check

untill this time, Frank spoke nothing..and then,
I asked " so Frank, why are you selling this car?"
he says " off late I am having some transmission trouble.."
oh ooh..I said " what kinda trouble ?"
Frank " there is some unusual shift behaviour"
I said " what do you mean"
Frank " well, in 'Park' it should not roll, this car does. There is a lot of noise from the transmission"
I said " did you get it checked?"
Frank "no..I guess I need a new transmission"
now that is the reason for the low price..this car was worth just $2000 without a working transmission...I totally hated this guy for having hid the fact. since he had never taken his car to a service center since a long time, this issue never got into carfax.
I silently walked out all frustrated. did not even bother to test drive it.


Now I was back to car hunting.

[avinash]

thru all this, one thing starting to bother me...resale value. SUV's used to be hot property but that is in the days gone by..now they just sit on dealer lots for long..this realization pushed the Ranger Rovers out of contention. I did have Jeep Wranglers on my radar but most of them are modified with something or the other and good ones are rare to come by. so SUV's went off my list. what next?
what's the other other car hot in my list ?

oh yes..the W126..grand daddy S Class. I'd always wanted to buy one in Bangalore.. I friend of mine was selling it and I so wanted to buy it but since I was moving to US, I did not do much about his W126. but now that there was an abundance available, I started looking for them..good ones all came in at around 4-5k and not so heavy on miles..but I was going to pile miles on it though. Kept searching for the right one..in the meanwhile, looked at BMW's too..none of the BMW's I saw were worth considering for one reason or the other..while searching for these german cars, I also got enlightened about the maintenance costs..HIGH ..very HIGH and most mechanics would shun away from german cars coz they take too much time to work on..so therefore, slowly my want for German cars too faded away..

I had a time crunch .I was going to be in Peachtree city,GA for only 10 days after which I had to go to Americus,GA..the only fact bringing fame to this town was a hurricane which tore away some parts of this city..that apart, this town was a small quaint town in the countryside of US. And once I move away from the ATL region, the search narrows to whatever is available there..which is all american cars. I stay away from all american used cars..why? more on that later..

With time, I had no option but to do what most people (not just indians) end up doing..buying a Jap car..now I understand the logic..Very low maintenance cost, long engine life, parts last longer, good MPG, reliable, good resale value and a generally good demand in the market (means I can sell it quickly).

and with that, I officially started looking for used jap means..read Honda CIVIC/Accord, Toyota Corolla/Camry, Nissan Maxima/Altima.

[Jomz]

120k? that's it? you've got a rare car my friend.

I bought it with 97k on the odo.
But there were tons of cars (Honda Accord's) with 100k or closeby in the 4k budget in craigs list.
Meanwhile my cousin sold his 156k run 99- MT for 2.7k last week.
Al ths is in Chicago, IL

[avinash]

i got back to classified again..I had only 1 more weekend before I packed up and left to americus..I had to find a car asap. but which one? jap cars are available but not all are good to buy..civics are notorious..many of them have engine swaps for mods or have very high miles..the ones with low miles needn't have to be so..the ads cleverly word it as "120k on the engine" ..people who just read 120k get fooled coz the ad means that car is way older and has had an engine swap and then run for 120k..now that's a car phaked beyond recognition. I had to filter these out..then there are those who price the cars really low and have genuinely low miles but with salvage title..what it means is that the car has met with an accident and has been declared as 'totalled' but has been repaired to run again. now this is scrap value coz nobody wants to buy these..well, not me atleast. these 'salvage' titled cars are next to impossible to sell.

my new checklist :
1. non smoker car
2. good service history.
3. no pets.
4. genuine miles (car/engine/transmission)
5. no salvage title.
6. less owners (preferably 1 owner)
7. no engine work (done previously or pending in near future)
8. no mods whatsoever.
9. direct seller..I avoid dealers.
10. not repainted.
11. no accidents/dings/dents
12. carfax report.

now you see how I learnt about US used car scene thru the 1 weeks of research.

I started shortlisting cars and then came this majorly attractive ad on craigslist..
'2006 PONTIAC GTO/50k miles/no accident/genuine title/single owner/must sell immediately/$ 6000.'

aah..now I found the next best ad after the Range Rover.
no phone number on the ad so I had to email which I did immediately.

the pontiac GTO is a rebadged LHD Holden Monaro. one of the better known RWD performance car...naaisss..i like i like..and guess what, I even got an immediate response...

[avinash]

craigslist is a a very good classifieds site but then it also hosts a lot of scamsters..

I'll explain.
this Pontiac GTO ad sounded very nice and looked like the deal of the year. But when I got the reply, I smelt something fishy. summary of the lengthy reply - car is in Texas, he 'says' he is a soldier and is deputed to IRAQ and has to sell immediately, I pay via ebay motors and the car with title will be shipped from ebay motors' yard to my location. if i don't like the car, I can return it.
This ad was a carrot for all the stupid folks of US. whats wrong with that ad you say? well, I can't even see the car since it is so far away...so, I'm not even sure if the car in the pic is the car that's for sale..he does give me a VIN and the carfax will be predictably good...but what I could be getting for that money will be a only a title and a heap of metal..yupp..if its met with an accident and had only liability insurance (3rd party) , then all that'll remain will be a heap of metal...and that's what was being sold..you can find an ad like this ever so often and only careful eyes can point them out..
and btw, after making the payment I'm not sure if there is any legal way of tracing the transaction too so all that is a big scam..
the symptoms became more and more predictable as I bumped into more such ads..

so I continued searching...

[avinash]

5 cars shortlisted for shortlisted for inspection for the weekend .

1. 1995 Acura Legend.



2. 1997 Acura Integra.




3. 1997 Nissan Altima.



4. 1996 Civic sedan


5. 1996 Civic coupe


well, actually shortlisted many more but then I could end up speaking with only 5 of them prospective sellers.

Took a Rental Kia Optima and left on sat morning.

btw, the images are not of the actual 'for sale' cars. I just downloaded some random pix from the 'net.

[shishirbn]

Vehicle is in too good condition man..Nicely maintained

[Magic]

Ok....now we have to change the EMI Scheme...he is now hibernating....off season hibernation is not encourage, please release the rest of the installments

[shishirbn]

His signature also says "EMI"