Didn’t really get any pictures for this particular week’s blog, but will next week.Okay, this searching for the perfect used car for my son has taken on epic proportions of lies, fraud, scams, more lies, more scams, exaggeration, poor judgment, and time wasted. Well, maybe not time wasted because I have learned a lot about buying a good used car.
With new car prices approaching the price of homes, and sometime exceeding them, a good used car can be a good way to save money on transportation. Us 50 year-olds and up have to consider ways to reduce our expenses, unless you’re rich. I’m not and wish I were. But that’s a whole different subject.
I have generally had a good experience buying a used car. In past posts of this blog I have explained my last purchase that I flew to Florida to get; an ’05 Lincoln Aviator with 43,000 miles. I can drive this gorgeous SUV AWD V8 that is fully loaded, to include a DVD player for the back rows, for years and go well over 200,000 miles. The best part is it only cost $12,000 and is a great luxurious ride.
The search for my son’s car is trickier because there is a smaller budget (he has to pay half) that has been busted several times. The first was a $1000 piece of junk from a relative that we luckily got out of. The second budget moved to $2000 and was an incredible deal on Craigslist.com that turned out to be a scam. There are used cars that looked okay for under $2000, but not for an SUV that would last my son next year through his senior year of high school and last at least a year or two of his dream job since he was 5 years-old; The US Marines. Yes, he goes in right after graduation in June, 2015.
So, the budget moved up to $2500. Most were high mileage (150,000+) and most had rust. I saw a ’98 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition that had only 64,000 miles. But it had rust. How does a car with only 64,000 miles on it get rust? I had numerous Ford Explorers and drove each over 225k miles; none had rust when I sold it or traded it in. My thoughts are that I received more lies; no way does a designer SUV get rust at 64,000 miles, even in the snowy salty, pot-holed roads of North East Ohio. I’ve become too savvy a buyer to fall for lies.
So now what do I do? I’m taking the advise of a friend in Florida. In Florida, retirees sell well-maintained cars and SUV’s with low miles that have absolutely no rust. So, I’m cashing in some American Airlines miles and I’m heading to Florida this Thursday. I have done a lot of research on used cars down there, that are available right now, and there are about ten cars that I’m going to look at. Then I’ll buy one of them, cash right on the spot, then head north. I will drive the car back to Cleveland and hopefully I will have made a good used car decision so I don’t break down getting home. Next week; what I bought and my final conclusions on buying a used car.
Ron Lundmark 