Suggest a car for me on a $9,000 budget?
Hi I'm moving down south to Mississippi delta region in June, live in the Minnesota twin cities now. I would like to buy a car that can take about 3-4 trips back and forth (2000 miles round trip) every year that is OK to really good on gas mileage (no less than 22 mpg hwy) and is kind of wide that could carry two sea kayaks on top (most 4 door sedan could do this, but something with a factory rack would be awesome). I would like the car/truck to have less than 100,000 miles on it and be no older than a 2001. Other than the few big trips I'll take, it'll also be my daily commuter of about 15-30 miles round trip.
I have a budget of $9,000 cash. but would be nice to keep about $1000 to the side just for incidentals and repairs that might come up. I'm really looking for something I won't have to repair majorly for the next 60k miles.
Thanks for helping!!
that's an excellent price to start with I suggest start looking at Edmund's.com , there are many ways to search for vehicles in that price range, I suggest finding a honda, a nissan or a toyota front engine rear wheel drive if possible, These three companies are well known for cars going well into the 200,000 mile range and far Beyond in many cases. Subaru is an all wheel drive that has a great durable car too, and holds its own beside the other three
I learned many years ago by trial and error mostly to test drive any used car for sale when cold. My cold start test drive starts by asking the owner the night before to not start the car the next morning, because I wanted to test drive it after sitting over Night. After opening the hood to make sure the heat was not rolling off the radiator, I started the vehicle it should start easily and stay running, no rattles bangs or smoke clouds, give it a minute or two to warm up for oil circulation , then drove it like I stole it. Any used car that would run, drive and stop and get up to freeway speed (55 mph) may not be in too bad of shape. A vehicle that had an engine problem or transmission problem often would not even move for up to 16 minutes.until Warmed up when cold, And yes there are people with no honor, who would try to dump a used car cheap on some unsuspecting buyer, by "forgetting to mention" that the vehicle tranny was failing.
I also would test drive a vehicle for 30 to 40 minutes to give ample time for any kind of problem if there was one. This could be followed by a mechanic inspection, that I highly recommend if your going to spend 9 grand on a used car.
www.samarins.com is a website that has some free information on how to buy used cars, and what to look for, www.samarins.com also has some used car reviews that may be helpful too.
