5 years ago...I found a 98 Mazda 626 with 190k for $1350. Drove it everyday until 2 months ago. It died. Immediately replaced it with a 2000 Eclipse, 175k...that was hit on every corner except Metcalf and 75th st. Looks great from 10 feet, drives out nice. $2000.00. I hope the Eclipse lasts as good as the Mazda! In both cases...I had to kiss a few frogs..... And I am a trained professional!
I could have kept to a budget of $1500 easily, with a little time, but I don't believe it would have looked as good from 10 feet away!(and I do plan to be dating...a decent car is a must!)

No car yet. I picked her up from work and took her home last night. As far as buying a $1500 car, she says she has $200 in her checking so thats not an option. I know the BHPH car lots are a terrible option (generally) but it might be the only option this woman has left.

I consider rock bottom to be the point where you realize your actions are responsible for the mess you are in and you have the internal growth that allows you to change your bad choices and start crawling out of the hole you created.

In her mind, she just keeps having bad luck and none of it is her fault.

PM Sent.

This is where I currently live!

BHPH is probably NOT an option either....

I'm afraid you are likely correct.

I only base my opinion on 24 years of car sales...Oh, wait...that's longer than Argo has been alive!!

probably a last resort.

but if she absolutely must/can, stay the F away from the dealership there off of Bannister road...can't remember the name.

I've read VERY bad reviews of that place.

I respect your opinion and am not trying to argue with you... But...

What do car sales have to do with this woman being a lazy miserable pos and a drag on society and her kids? Or did you miss my point?

Neil's Finance Plaza. This is an older article, but I hear nothing has changed.

Repo Men

by Allie Johnson

Jimmie Brockman says Neil's Finance Plaza took him for a ride.

Jimmie Brockman was working as a warehouse supervisor in Kansas City, Kansas, when his fifteen-year-old son called to say he'd found a car he wanted to buy.

The teenager said he had seen an ad in the Thrifty Nickel for Neil's Finance Plaza that promised "Just $59 down and you drive away." But the Brockmans' car purchase in February 2000 wasn't nearly that easy.

Brockman expects to face the dealership in court for a second time this August.

When Brockman and his son were car shopping, he thought of Neil's Finance Plaza as just another car dealership -- despite the fact that its advertising clearly targets consumers in dire financial situations. In late-night TV commercials, folks who appear to have led hard lives praise Neil's for putting them in cars when no one else would. An ad in the Yellow Pages proclaims "WE FINANCE" and promises incredibly low down payments. The dealership also sells Christianity -- on the car lot, salespeople comfort distressed customers by telling them God will provide for them. The bottom of the Yellow Pages ad reads, "We Thank The Lord Jesus For Allowing Our Business To Prosper: To Him Be The Glory!"

Brockman's son, Marcus, was weeks away from his birthday and had lined up an after-school job at a Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor. He would make just enough to pay for his own wheels.

After work, Brockman drove to the dealership on Bannister Road. There, Marcus showed him a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am with more than 100,000 miles on it.

Brockman could have been a more wary shopper. But he says he was exhausted from all the overtime at his job. After talking payments with a sales manager, he said OK. He figured his son could afford $120 every two weeks.

A Neil's Finance Plaza employee ushered Brockman into an office, produced reams of paperwork and pressured him to sign quickly. "She told me I could read it another time, later," Brockman would later testify in court. He closed the deal, then stuck the paperwork in the glove box.

When he did read the documents, Brockman was stunned. He knew that the car's Kelley Blue Book value was about $4,500, but the documents showed a purchase price of double that -- $9,395. With his $100 down payment and a 19 percent interest rate, Brockman was going to end up paying $13,475 for a car that would probably break down in a couple of years.

Since the dealership hadn't signed over the title to him, Brockman took the car back, offering to pay fair market price. The dealership refused, so he signed a release, left the car and figured that would be the end of his interaction with Neil's.

A few months later, Brockman was at work when a man served him with legal papers and said, "You're being sued by Regency Financial Corporation" -- the financing arm of Neil's.

The breach-of-contract lawsuit claimed that Brockman owed Regency $4,712. The company had been able to "sell" the car back to Neil's, but, according to its lawsuit, "The proceeds of the sale were insufficient." Regency threatened to damage Brockman's credit and garnish his wages.

Jackson County Court records show that Neil's has filed more than 2,000 such lawsuits in the past five years.

http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/repo...nt?oid=2169505

My uncle just restored some old 50s or 60s tractor back to factory.

See if I can find pic or actual make.

yep; that's the place I was thinking of. I had a co-worker years back go through them. very similar situation. she was recently divorced, out on her own etc; Divorce took its toll financially etc.

She ended up with an older Cavalier; ended up looking at the ammortization schedule and showing that she will have paid nearly double. 30 days later, the transmission was slipping, then ultimately failed. she was stuck with payments, on a car she couldn't afford to fix.

luckily, someone we worked with had an older car that used to be their sons, and they basically donated it to her. but she was still making payments for, I want to say, like 7 years.

Dude you are not helping her in the long term.

http://www.lightrailnow.org/images02...-lrt-n-bus.jpg


http://hoopedia.nba.com/images/4/44/..._all-stars.jpg

lol @ the Converse.

The only thing I'm trying to do is keep her from turning my wife into a taxi with her sob story.

Nothing...I was commenting on her lack of vehicle. as far as her being a "a lazy miserable pos and a drag on society and her kids" ....folks get themselves in binds...sometimes the solution is NOT that easy to find....I'd be damned if I could pass judgement on her.........or just about anyone..... But YOU, seem quick to do so.

I agree with Jason and also disagree with this statement.

My father and I have bought 5 cars over the years as police tow auctions. Granted, 4 out of the 5 needed a bunch of work, which we were able and happy to do ourselves. Though the first car I ever owned, we bought at a police auction when I was 16 in 2006. 1989 Ford Crown Victoria. Bought it for $225, and it ran like a champ. That big ass boat was completely worthless in the snow, fishtailed everywhere in the rain, had a 5.0 V8 that got like 14mpg, but the interior was super clean, and most importantly, it ran. Good memories with that car

Sounds like giving up the kids is a good idea, especially for them.

Good luck with that now. I should preface that by saying that I am talking about my area. I don't care how well you know cars, in my area you would be lucky to find anything that was driveable on the freeway for under $1500. I have bought over 30 cars in the last 3 years from individuals, craigslist, referrals, customers, auctions, and I have only lucked into 2 cars that I got cheap and ended up being able to flip them fast with a minimal investment. If it is really that easy for you to find cheap well running cars you would be a fool not to take advantage of that and flip as many as you can IMO.

I was also commenting on her lack of a vehicle, that I don't understand how this happened. She apparently had a job, so why just let her car get repoed like that? You don't just suddenly have a bill like that and have your car dragged away in a single day. While she had the car she should have done everything in her power to raise the funds to keep the car. Instead, she knows she can rely on the OPs wife, and that's inexcusable. If she can't get her head out of her ass she needs to let someone else care for the children. Kids don't need to sit there and watch their mom cry while the car is being towed away. They need to have a mom who sets an example by chasing afterthe damn car and keeping things in order. There's too many damn resources out there to live like that.

The Crown Vic was really the exception. We bought it for $225, I drove it for a year, ended up selling it for $1200. We bought a 94 Honda for $500 put a new transmission in it, and sold it for $1700. A 94 Talon we bought for $125 which needed a motor and transmission. The AWD and turbo were both good, so we dumped a grand into it and I drove it for 2 years beforre selling it for $2200.

I have always had good luck buying cars cheap and then turning around and selling them for profit. But no way could I do it without my father, not to mention it takes a lot of time to get some of these cars back in running order. Once again I go back to saying the Crown Vic was really the only exception in terms of minimal time and investment.

I should've clarified, i meant when buying from a dealer.

Yeah, if your careful you can get a decent little ride for 1500.

"They be like Tech N9ne he crazy huh", sorry I had to say that, everytime I see your picture I think of that song.

She should check out KIA if she makes 250 or more a week they guarantee financing. My car broke down the other day spoke to KIA today going to look into buying a used car from them. I did some research those buy here pay here are huge ripoffs.

Ahh captain-save-a-ho. If it was a man we wouldn't be doing jack shit exept for telling him to get a job, but cause she has a sometimes wet hole we want to help her.

Actually...not so much. But we do want to discuss it!

Um, pretty much not. But thanks for playing.

Once more, I don't disagree.

Can a 590 really get a car loan, because that's where I'm at. Almost all of my bad credit comes from struggling to pay off my college loans (went through a period of shitty paying jobs and couldn't afford the nearly $600/mo in payments) and not having any other credit. I'm going to need a car, I could afford the higher interest payments but I'd rather pay 7% interest than 20%

Yes, it will likely be from a sub prime lender, and not EVERY 590 can get a car loan, as there is more that goes into it than just a score.

Bring everything you can to the table, money down especially. Time on job, low debt to income, not a boatload of debt, good payment history with at least 1 lender, even if you have missed other payments. Any/all of these things will help you get bought. You also need to pick the right car, consider things like a total cost of 10k or less, but something with decent miles. You might have to buy a 60k mile cobalt or Focus or something, with not alot of options, but its about the bank being secure, and they like newer cars with lower miles better.

Like I said, I have seen scores in the 400s bought before under the right circumstances.

something with between 50k and 100k made in the last 8 or so years is what I would like if it's reliable. how much does income play into the loan decision, because (not wanting to brag) I make good money (about $18.50/hr). i don't have any repos or leins or bankruptcies, just not much credit and what I do have ain't so good. all of my debt comes from my student loans, but there is a lot of it (around 50k total).

Well debt to income can be a deal breaker in some cases. When I bank looks at your DTI they look at your current monthly outgo versus your gross income. If your making 18.50 your making roughly 3330 a month (x40/x4.5) Your monthly bills (this includes things like your rent, and any debt payments not things like your electric bill etc) determine your DTI. All banks have different debt to income requirements but the lower the better obviously. You can't forget that they will also look at the new incoming car payment when determining loan factors too, so that goes back to choosing the right car (right year to get an acceptable term/payment option) There are lots of things that go into that loan decision like I mentioned before. Banks have different combinations which work for them, but basically they look at DTI, Score, total debt, and some banks things like time on job or time at address. They then assign you a tier based on that score, and what tier you end up in decides what kind/amount of loan you can get, if any.

cool thanks, that clears a lot of things up for me.

Down Payment will also help you greatly. That is why I said the OP lady can't even use BHPH. Most likely a BHPH will require at least $1000 down. Down payment will put you into a better equity position so the bank won't be at as much risk...thereby increasing the desire to lend.