Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Don't buy a new car... ever. Why not look around for another car like the one you had? You're best bet is to find another 2005 Hyundai Elantra in a private party sale. Just look at all its service records and have your mechanic check it out before you buy it.
I've bought used cars from private individuals for most of my life. I've never been disappointed. I stick with cars that I know and love well. And I expect to do some work on them to make them perfect since they are used cars, but a new car requires maintenances also. My stepdad told me 30 years ago, when buying a used car, expect to put another $1500 into it. It could be a new set of tires, brake pads and/or maybe even a new radiator. No biggie. And honestly, the most I've spend fixing up any of my new used car purchase was about $300. Usually, it's been an oil change and that's it.
And another plus about a used car purchase... I love having cars that are all paid for in one shot.
BTW with a user name of MainLineMommy... do you live along the Main Line near Philadelphia? If so, you should have some great used cars in the area to buy. My favorite used car to buy is from a private party that lives in a affluent suburb. The owners never miss their scheduled factory services and tend to drive their cars in a civilized manner. If the cars have relatively high miles on them for their age, they are generally only highway miles from commuting to work. And by buying directly from them, they make a little more than the dealership is offering them for trade-in value and you save on the dealer markup by not buying from a dealer showroom.
BTW with a user name of MainLineMommy... do you live along the Main Line near Philadelphia? If so, you should have some great used cars in the area to buy. My favorite used car to buy is from a private party that lives in a affluent suburb. The owners never miss their scheduled factory services and tend to drive their cars in a civilized manner. If the cars have relatively high miles on them for their age, they are generally only highway miles from commuting to work. And by buying directly from them, they make a little more than the dealership is offering them for trade-in value and you save on the dealer markup by not buying from a dealer showroom.
I wish I could afford to live along the Main Line. We actually moved from Philly to Raleigh about 7 months ago. When I set up the screen name we were renting along the Main Line.
Okay, so we're not going to find a deal on a Hyundai. We're only going to have about $3,500 to put down, so we'll need to get a loan, and the car has to be reliable because hubby has to drive to Philly once a month. Other than that it will get almost no usage.
Does anyone have an opinion on the Mazda5 (mini-minivan)? We want something economical, but would like a little extra cargo room, which is why we were thinking of going with the Elantra Touring.
Any other model recommendation? It has to be big enough to fit a family of four, fuel efficient, and we'd like a final price of about $15k (after fees, etc).
What about a Honda? Or a Volvo wagon? Both companies make awesome cars that last for a long time. Especially if you are in Raleigh, there should be many choices of nice used cars with no rust on them. My tenant bought a '95 Volvo 940 wagon about four or five years ago for $3500. It had a 100K miles on it but looked brand new (it was always garaged). He put some money into the a/c system and also beefed up the suspension. He uses the wagon for doing his small indoor house painting business out of. It's dead reliable and roomy. And most of my Hondas and Acuras were bought with at least 150K miles on them. One Civic has 380K miles on her odometer now. The Acura is at 240K miles now.
When I lived near Raleigh about 20 years ago, there was a complete used car culture going on, almost like Southern California (was). There were all sorts of used cars, some in amazingly good condition, and the locals enjoyed horse-trading htem. Various Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, even the newer Chevy Malibu ought to get a look.
Your spec - fit a family of 4, good MPG, less than $15K - covers a lot of cars.
So I keep hearing in the media about all these great deals being offered for new cars, but I can't seem to find them. We had a perfectly wonderful 2005 Hyundai Elantra that was almost paid off, and then got rear-ended very hard (we were stopped). There is damage to the frame and the insurance company has totaled the car.
We are assuming at this point that they'll offer us what's left on the loan. If we get more than that, great, we'll apply it to the new car. But we're not counting on it at this point.
To replace the old Elantra with a new Elantra, our payments are going to go up quite a bit, based on the pricing I've found online. We got the old one for $14,600 after all fees and such, and financed $12,600, so our payment has only been about $250 a month. I really don't want to go higher than that, unless we do a 48 month loan istead of 60.
So where are all these car deals? We figured we could get a great deal on another Elantra, but the best we've seen is $2k. I'm not sure about additional discounts for Hyundai owners, which I've heard are supposed to be good.
We then looked at several other manufacturers to look for the deals and came up pretty disappointed. We'd like to walk out of the dealership after all is said and done, taxes/tags/etc, for $15k or less. Nothing smaller (or slower) than an Elantra. Are we out of our minds?
Here are the ones we are looking at... I'm not sure if they are good prices yet...we are still looking around..
If you like Hyundais, and I know that they do have a loyal following as someone who works for my father has three (Santa Fe, Sonata, and Tiburon), why not look for a certified pre-owned Sonata? You would really be able to find one in your price range, and it's a larger vehicle with more safety and convenience features than the Elantra that you are looking to replace.
A Sonata with low mileage of the current iteration, circa 2007-2008 or so, would probably be around $13k with the 4 cylinder engine, a tad more with the V6 and leather. That's a good deal of car for the money, and you don't get hit with the depreciation that you do in year 1 on a new Elantra.
The Sonata is proven and would be a great vehicle for long highway trips. A good example, should not be too difficult to find at the Hyundai dealership. With the 4 cylinder engine, it's not going to be a rocket around town, but should be fairly economical to run; and, your budget might even have a reduced payment if you found a good example at a reasonable price.
A quick search revealed a 2008 Sonata Limited with leather (4cyl) with 21k miles for $14,995 asking price, and many in the $12-$15k range.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
