Best and Worst vehicles under $6K

[Groves]

What are the darlings of the sub-$6,000 car market? What are the tempting stinkers?

My household knows that when I need knowledge & wisdom, with a side-salad of snark & buffoonery, I seek if from you all.

"I'll ask Chiefs Planet"

Child No. 3 had a 2005 Prius just go belly up. Main battery, we'll probably pay to find the bad cells to make it more sellable. So now they're in the market for a vehicle.

I used to be current in my "No subarus after 200k" and "No Buick Encores with the Ecotech" and "No Jeeps ever" type of 'wisdom', but I'm out of date. I know it's always a tradeoff between condition and miles and reliability.

I need your help.

[booger]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

I bought my first Toyota Camry in 1992 with 25 miles on my. A "box" Camry that I traded in on my 2nd Camry that I kept for 2 years before trading it in on a Tacoma.....

I kept that Tacoma until I traded it in on my 3rd Camry in 2016 which I still have.to this day.

I have always heard that if you do the normal maintenance and keep the fluids changed at proper intervals they will last for years.

Yeah heard the same. 4Runner has a long running reputation as well. Only 250 hp but plenty of torque. Very good steel on both brands. TRO package on trucks and suv holds their value as well. Sequoia Pilot and into the Lexus GS 470 and others have some solid vehicles that lasted quite awhile and many are still available. The problem now as the years go by and times are tough is folks put off oil changes and maintenance work and push some of them vehicles to far and they still run but they all have an expiration date. Vehicle maintenance just isn’t figured into the budget like it used to be and you can see that in used vehicles these days. Also quality control in all manufacturing isn’t what it used to be. Those solid dependable every day cars are what lots of folks are longing for today

[booger]

Originally Posted by Fishpicker

I dont have much to add here except

Visor: See the Whole Market

this has got to be the greatest car sale website ever. this aggregates ALL car sale listings on the internet.

Thanks for the link! A good versatile search function on that site. Especially once you find your year make and model you can nitpick the search for specific engine drivetrain color and key features and that’s what it comes down to. Especially like you find it’s got everything but you notice most you find don’t have a sunroof. Well use a nation wide search and you’ll find out if that’s normal or just a coincidence for your recent searches etc. Great source for folks to have in their research toolbox

[booger]

Groves maybe check out Toyota Venza…Hatchback both 4 and 6 cyl. Bang for your buck wise the minivan platform is a solid fwd spacey option and might get you closer to your price target range. Sienna and Honda odessy have plenty of 300k vehicles out there as does the Highlander. Those vehicles all hold their value well so you’re probably going to be at least in the 7-8k range to start but that’s a guess. The minivans are comparable to the success rate of the accord and Corolla just the different platform

[crayzkirk]

Stay clear of Hondas with the VCM V6. Lots of problems with oil consumption and spark plug fouling. I bought a used one with 25K miles in 2012 and every 10k, it fouls a couple of plugs and starts burning oil like crazy. VCM = Variable Cylinder Management or we stop the valve train on a couple of cylinders turning it into a V4 instead of putting a six speed transmission to reduce RPMs. Major POS. Valve cover gaskets go bad and required disassembly of half of the intake manifold to change. GM tried this and had similar issues.

[booger]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

Stay clear of Hondas with the VCM V6. Lots of problems with oil consumption and spark plug fouling. I bought a used one with 25K miles in 2012 and every 10k, it fouls a couple of plugs and starts burning oil like crazy. VCM = Variable Cylinder Management or we stop the valve train on a couple of cylinders turning it into a V4 instead of putting a six speed transmission to reduce RPMs. Major POS. Valve cover gaskets go bad and required disassembly of half of the intake manifold to change. GM tried this and had similar issues.

Yeah was that the GM cylinder deactivation experiment? Heard that was short lived. Good thought but really needs longer term R&D

[Buehler445]

This is just me, but steer clear of the known cars that last forever. They hold resale too much.

What you need is a ****ing grandma car that is 15 years old and has 60,000 miles.

A low mile ford is going to get more trouble free longevity than a 200K Corolla.

RE: new cars, I keep the wife in a good car. Dealing with the wife on a car breakdown is on my list of never ever worth it. Fortunately she doesn’t put much miles on and I have her in an 18 Yukon with 65K on it and have some time.

My pickup is a farm wagon. It’s pretty new but I put 30K or so a year on and like htis I’m not running it out of warranty. It’s a tool. I need availability. I don’t have time to **** around with breakdowns.

I have 3 old high mileage pickups for farm work. They’re reliable and I’ll run them until they’re not. I need low cost for those functions.

Surprisingly, I was doing pretty well trading 80/90 K for a 20K one. But since the used market has failen off I’m doubtful the next one will be good, but I’ll probably do it anyway. Because I’m after reliability.

So with my vehicles I have 3 distinct goals filled by very different vehicles.

Low cost mile
Availability
Happy wife.

[threebag]

I just bought a 2014 Ford Fusion SE to flip. Figure I will drive it for a bit before I do though. 140k clean and only dropped a thousand on it

[Rain Man]

I'm shocked at the prices of used cars these days. I've seen a few notices from friends selling cars and I thought they were way out of line. Then I checked and they weren't.

[Groves]

Some good advice in this thread. Much appreciated!

Gonna hit the sites and the streets and get it done!

Will keep ya posted.


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[Hoover]

In 2018 I sold my 2008 Toyota Camry with 220k miles on it to a kid from my church for $1500. I just wanted it gone. Kid is still driving it, and has no issues. Put like another 120k on it. Nuts that I sold it for 1500 bucks, and nuts that he's still driving it.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm shocked at the prices of used cars these days. I've seen a few notices from friends selling cars and I thought they were way out of line. Then I checked and they weren't.

Yeah, it sucks ass. Cars you used to pick up on the daily for 800-1200 bucks are now 4-5k. Most are in the "why the **** would I ever pay you that" category, then you realize the next group is really more like 8-10k that you used to pay 3-5 for and got a decent ride for a few years. 3 of our kids will be driving soon and I just don't want to pay much for their first car... ugh

[TinyEvel]

Don't be tempted by "nice" car at surprisingly low prices. like an older Audi, BMW or old Mercedes. Those get down in the 5,000s and still look posh but within a few months (if not immediately) you'll be hit with a 2000-3000 repair bill and that will happen every year.

[crayzkirk]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Don't be tempted by "nice" car at surprisingly low prices. like an older Audi, BMW or old Mercedes. Those get down in the 5,000s and still look posh but within a few months (if not immediately) you'll be hit with a 2000-3000 repair bill and that will happen every year.

How true... I had a 1986 Audi 5000 wagon. The body has galvanized panels and didn't rust, the interior was heavy grey leather, it was a beautiful car. I spent a bunch of money getting the everything fixed. It had a computer system that monitored everything and would beep and flash a red triangle with a code in the center of the dash. About every year, it was beep beep beep, flash [insert code here] flash, beep, beep, beep. It meant spend another 2K on a repair. I had Import Masters on Cherry on speed dial.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

I've found the cheapest place to shop for vehicles is Facebook marketplace.

We can agree on something, holy shit. It is a very interesting place to shop. I spend about 1/2 hour a day on there just looking. In fact, if it wasn't for marketplace I would drop off of FB.

We bought our Prius C on there, sold our Nitro, bought and sold 4 boats, 3 jetskis and many other things.

Before that it was Craigslist, prior to that it was the newspaper adds.

[hometeam]

There is nothing worth a shit under 6k. Maybe find an old civic on marketplace?