Need a car! Who can finance buyer in chapter 13 bankruptcy?

[L210]

Are you asking where to get a Carfax report? If you're not buying from a dealership that offers Carfax reports, you have to purchase it online. I prefer AutoCheck over Carfax because it has an option for unlimited reports for 30 days, I think. The last time I checked Carfax got rid of its unlimited reports option and it's slight more expensive. AutoCheck gives more detail anyway. Get a mechanic you trust or a lemon inspection company to check out the car.

[todd00]

Hi nikip, You are smart to wait and buy a car with the money you have. What size vehicle do you need and about how much, roughly would you have saved for a car? I ask so we can help you figure some good reliable automobiles in that price range. I suggest buying from a private party rather than a dealer. Dealers so often inflate the prices and can sit on the cars till they sell.

If you are needing a small grocery getter kinda car, and dont mind an older car, I would suggest the ford festiva. Yes, it is an older car, they were made from 88-93, but they are very reliable, have a mazda engine in them, get about 40 miles per gallon, and insurance is inexpensive. Thats what i drive, so I do know first hand about these cars. Because they are a hatchback, and tall, they are very handy. One bad thing, they don't have airbags. Geo metros are another one that got excellent mileage and some of them do have at least a drivers airbag. If you need a bit larger car, the 90s toyota corolla station wagon was a nice car that got pretty good mileage and was a bit fancier. If you are thinking of a van you will sacrifice mpg. I always liked the old Toyota Previa, it was a well made van, but they only get about 18 mpg on average. of course the Honda Civic has an excellent reputation too. With gas so expensive mpg is certainly a consideration among us common folks. I dont know at all what kind of car you are thinking of, just trying to be of help. Good luck.

To give you an idea what cars you might be interested in are selling for, you can look at the links below.
New Car Prices, Used Car Values, New Car Reviews & Car Buying Guides - NADAguides.com Official Site
Used Cars - Used Car Prices, Used Car Values & Reviews - Kelley Blue Book

[LilyLady]

I just purchased a Carfax report. It cost 34.99 for one report. For the next 30 or 60 days (I can't remember which) I can go online and view that one report. I cannot run another report unless I choose to pay again. I ran a history check on my own car. The summary came up that they had over 26 records on the car. We were wondering if the car had been wrecked, or flooded, or something like that so we paid the money to see the history. There wasn't anything major on it at all! It was all ownership and maintenance information.

I also found that so much of their car history reports are inaccurate and/or incomplete. I purchased the car in Texas. When we moved to VA, I had to register the car in VA. Carfax shows the VA registration as a completely separate owner. So their history report shows more owners than the car has had.

A LOT of the maintenance records are not shown but I realize that those records are only as good as the place doing the maintenance. It turns out that there are a lot of service/repair facilities that don't report their data to Carfax. Note: Pep Boys does, though! How funny. All those incomplete maintenance reports and yet a simple tire repair at Pep Boys shows up.

Back to the subject: if money is really that tight, I don't know if I'd waste 35.00 for a car history from Carfax.

[TexasRedneck]

IMO, Carfax is about useless. When we traded in the wife's caddy, she'd managed to put it through a fence (don't ask). No serious mechanical damage, but hoods, fenders, windshields on a 6 mo-old caddy ain't cheap! We traded it in at the dealership that did the repairs - but when they pulled the Carfax, guess what? NO report of it - yet both they AND our insurance companies had filed all the required reports!!

Never, EVER will I spend a penny on 'em!

[LilyLady]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

IMO, Carfax is about useless. When we traded in the wife's caddy, she'd managed to put it through a fence (don't ask). No serious mechanical damage, but hoods, fenders, windshields on a 6 mo-old caddy ain't cheap! We traded it in at the dealership that did the repairs - but when they pulled the Carfax, guess what? NO report of it - yet both they AND our insurance companies had filed all the required reports!!

Never, EVER will I spend a penny on 'em!

I agree. That was my first and last Carfax report. Didn't get much for that $34.99.

[L210]

For $44.99, AutoCheck lets you run as many reports as you want within a 30 day period. I did quickly find out that there is actually a 50 report limit, but I'm guessing most people won't run as many reports as I did. It was a life saver because I found out this one dealership was mostly selling vehicles from flood damaged areas and another car I was looking at was in a major accident and its whole front end was replaced. All of this saved me money because I didn't waste money paying for an inspection that would have found these things afterward. AutoCheck is not 100%, but it's a lot better than Carfax. Some used car dealerships will provide links to AutoCheck and Carfax reports for free. Holiday Motors gives a full AutoCheck report for free and all you have to do is click on the link on their website.