how many miles breaks the deal, buying for around $2000?

[user removed]

Sounds like you have an advantage over Va citizens, a dealer without a business location?

Under those circumstances I would hold out for a better deal, but the I'm kind of old school. If you go back to the 90s consider the 91-94 sentras. If you want somethinglike the FRS get the SER sentra, nice little rocket ship.

After 200k miles it really depends on the previous owners care for the car. If you "know" everything wasdone properly and on time then you could hope for 300k. If you can do the work yourself then a high mileage car can practical.

And like you posted, when you have an FRS (love to drive one) then why bother with old crap.

Or you could (assuming you always have another car in inventory for sale) just pick up a $650 bike, like my GZ250, and reduce your fuel consumption 50% when you can ride. (75-80MPG).

regards
Mech

[doless]

i have a tiny lot where i keep records and it's my registered area of business, and the guy i rent it from is a family friend so it's fairly cheap.

The reason i'm looking for a car is so i always have one in between other vehicle sales, I don't buy in huge volume or anything so i want something i can dd and rack up miles on.

The fr-s is great, but i don't need anything that nice or quick for a dd.

I own a 2005 r6 i use in the summer, but with the michigan potholes and winter conditions it isn't practical right now. I love bikes but they get eaten up in MI.

I'm still holding out, very ready to pounce on the next best deal to come up off craigslist. The hardest part is getting one with the right history.

[War_Wagon]

That sounds familiar, that's why I always have an old Civic sitting around with insurance on it. Anything nice enough to sell or export gets sold, the leftovers get driven ha ha. I have a Sentra SER Spec V sitting around, but it's low miles and the last thing I want to do is rack them up before summer when it's actually worth something! Brembos, limited slip front diff, 6 speed all stock (if you got one with the good options)- if you want a cheap rocket for less money than you could put all those upgrades into something else for, those cars are the way to go. The best part is, no one knows what they are, so when you find a cheap one, it's REALLY cheap

[yoyoyoda]

With FWD Toyota's When buying 2nd hand always look at the exhaust manifold underneath the car.
If it has burnt oil on it then you have a main bearing seal gone.

If you see this then the engine is pretty much wasted and on its last legs.

I personally try to always get a car with the lowest mileage possible. As people are getting more and more laid off I don't trust ANY car under 200,000KM (km, not miles) now, the reason being is that people are holding onto their older cars for longer, skimping on maintenance, etc, and because newer engines produce more power they thrash the life out of them just because they can.

Older cars had one thing going for them, the lower power output meant you couldn't rev them up to 4,000 rpm or higher at every single intersection like you can with modern cars today, so don't expect modern cars to be any where near as reliable as older select few ones.

I wouldn't be suprised if in 10 years time the 2nd hand car market will go completely to waste as everybody starts selling bombs, lemons, etc. That is what the used car market is like here, right now. You cannot get a good decent reliable 2nd hand car anymore here, everybody drives them into the ground now.

There is no end to the number of cars that I've seen while looking for a car that have severe oil leaks from the main bearings, plus transmission problems, and a whole host of other rubbish which has been tacked up, temporarily repaired and masked over to make it look like its working but in reality its not.

Used car sellers here in my part of the world are filthy rotten liers and will do nothing but try and sell you absolute rubbish for twice or four times the price that its really worth, and then act insulted when you try to haggle.

I bought my '00 Camry for $1,200 with an engine head gasket leak, transmission oil leak, brakes so bad they couldn't stop the car at all. (At 272,000km) (I had to use the emergency brake the first intersection I came to).
Locks wouldn't lock.
Interior held up by thumb tacks.
Paintwork was utter trash.
Tyres were bald.
Power Steering system leaks.

(I fixed the power steering system leak with Lucas stop leak fluid though.)

And I'm the least likely person to afford these repairs, yet I am stuck with repairing it because I cannot afford anything else better. And even if I could save up $3,000 or more I will more than likely get another lemon as I've said before sellers here are filthy rotten scoundrels.

The worst thing is that this was the best car out of all 8 others that I looked at, and I spent 6 months looking.

So instead of just keeping on shopping I got fed up and bought this one, now I'm gradually dumping money into it, because its better this way, at least I know for sure that the engine bottom end is good, the most crucial part of a car, and everything is there, seats, windows, doors, headlights, indicators, paint.

The last 3 cars I've bought on the 2nd hand market have been like this, the last one I got apsolutley screwed over by the seller and I spent $3,500 on a complete and utter BOMB.

I'll probably never buy another 2nd hand car again, fed up with working on them all the time and wasting money on repairs that previous sellers should have done. I'll just keep this one on the road until the bodywork is so badly rusted my spare change falls through the floorpan.