I just wanted to chime in and suggest a Honda. I recently got a honda accord. I could NOT get a loan to safe my life with a fico of 748. VERY short credit history. I had a cosigner help me and ended up with 4.9 percent interest rate. Very happy!
Hi Irish Eyes and other friends. Just a thought....... We have had 6 Hondas and they have been good cars, but they are very expensive to repair when they do break. I commuted for the last few years in a '91 Civic, but found myself looking UP at all the traffic & had no air bags (ie safety), so I sold it and bought another car in October. I always keep my cars in "perfect" mechanical shape - I looked back at the last few years and realized how much $ I had spent on keeping it in tip-top shape. Buying a used car that someone else has paid the "drive-off depreciation" on is a VERY smart decision. You may want to consider the '90's GM cars. They are very reasonably priced used, quite reliable and cheaper to maintain and repair than the foreign cars. There are LOTS of early to mid '90's cars with the "3800" V-6 engine that is like the energizer bunny - it keeps on running and running and gets great mileage. Searching the want ads for a couple of weeks will produce lots of candidates. Even better is to put a "Wanted" ad for one in the local "Nickel" paper. You might find a real low-mileage jewel BEFORE the owner trades it in and the dealer adds on his price. Always have your mechanic inspect your find before you give it a name and take it home! My dad has a full size '90 Buick with 160K miles that gets 30 mpg. We bought a brand new Pontiac TransSport minivan in '95 with all the goodies. It has 120K miles and still gets 25 mpg+ and runs and drives like new. You could buy either of these cars for $3,000 to $5,000 and drive the snot out of them, especially commuting on the highway. I have been in the automobile business and these cars are considered the "best buys" among most dealers. (Notice how most of the police cars and taxis are Chevy Caprice with 300-400K miles or more on the taxis.) Another thing I highly recommend is Mobil 1 synthetic oil with new filter every 3K miles - this will add tens of thousands of miles to a good engine and raise the gas mileage too. It is by far the cheapest insurance you can buy. Anyway, thats my 2 cents from my 40 years of being the "car guy". - - - - - - "Hi officer, nice day isn't it? I was going HOW fast? Would you like a donut?"
Thank you so much "car guy," really awesome info and exactly what I needed to know. Going to find a pic of a Pontiac Transport, never heard of it. Great info =o)
Yeah for us! Local CU approved us today for $7000 loan (we don't need that much, but I aimed high). She said we had "D" credit so our rate would be 6.4%- works for me. DH is going to look at a '99 Chevy Prizm Lsi, fully loaded- $5500- if it looks as good as it does in the add, we are all set. Thanks all for your help!
