65_valiant
Well-Known Member
I can already feel my feet getting hot posting this here, but everyone like to hear a story about a great deal on a car.
We've been looking for a decent car to replace a 2000 Civic with 225K miles and more battles with deer than it's had owners. We needed something that was at least reliable enough for us to trust going around town with out hoping it wouldn't ka-poot on us miles away from home. It was perfectly fine for taking us to and from work everyday, but the baby wasn't going in it.
We looked at(on the web) tons of 80-100K mile vehicles but never could just jump on one since we knew we were going to have to finance for probably 60-72 months and knew that once we got it paid off, we'd most likely be right back in the crappy little hole we were just in. Sooooo, we looked at brand new, were probably only a few days away from buying a 2014 Mazda 6 i Sport but my insurance company dropped the ball and misquoted me by over $125, so there went that idea.
I was digging and scraping looking for a car again since i figured the new cars insurance and property tax/tags, put me over budget. I was combing Craigslist and saw a bright red 2012 Chevy Cruze. It had 18,800 miles and the seller wanted $12,900. I figured there was a catch, but I wanted to see what kind of story I could get from the guy.
I Sent him a text and he said that his dad was going to have to work the deal out for me (RED FLAG #1) if i decided to buy. I asked about why his dad was doing it and not him. He said he was leaving the country (RED FLAG #2) for work for a few years. So at this point I was like great, another BUSTED lead on a nice car for cheap. Then the THIRD RED FLAG comes my way via text, it has a lien on it.... I figured there's nothing to lose if I prod into the situation and then be able to catch these A-Hole in a scam. I got his full name, employer name, account number for the loan and went about my own little recon mission. Decided enough checked out to call around and get the VIN ran for theft or any other sort of records, turned out not a single hit. I decided it was worth checking the car out and set it up to meet his dad and look it all over.
I tried the whole calling each of them different names to judge reaction or hesitation (I wonder if that would even work, or matter). It ends up the owner actually was leaving the country for work for a few years, and to Paris, France at that! I took it out for a drive and made the deal.
I ended up paying the car off for the owner(12347.62) + he wanted $300 on top of that. Extremely fair deal in my opinion since the bank booked it out at $17,500 and I see quite a few of them online with either more miles, double in most cases, or low options for $15k-$17.5k.
All said and done, I financed a scootch over $13,600 to pay for the taxes and tag fees. I'll refinance after we get our taxes since we decided to wait till after them when the insurance screwed up the quote on the Mazda.
I bought two lottery tickets on my way home from dinner out. ;-)
We've been looking for a decent car to replace a 2000 Civic with 225K miles and more battles with deer than it's had owners. We needed something that was at least reliable enough for us to trust going around town with out hoping it wouldn't ka-poot on us miles away from home. It was perfectly fine for taking us to and from work everyday, but the baby wasn't going in it.
We looked at(on the web) tons of 80-100K mile vehicles but never could just jump on one since we knew we were going to have to finance for probably 60-72 months and knew that once we got it paid off, we'd most likely be right back in the crappy little hole we were just in. Sooooo, we looked at brand new, were probably only a few days away from buying a 2014 Mazda 6 i Sport but my insurance company dropped the ball and misquoted me by over $125, so there went that idea.
I was digging and scraping looking for a car again since i figured the new cars insurance and property tax/tags, put me over budget. I was combing Craigslist and saw a bright red 2012 Chevy Cruze. It had 18,800 miles and the seller wanted $12,900. I figured there was a catch, but I wanted to see what kind of story I could get from the guy.
I Sent him a text and he said that his dad was going to have to work the deal out for me (RED FLAG #1) if i decided to buy. I asked about why his dad was doing it and not him. He said he was leaving the country (RED FLAG #2) for work for a few years. So at this point I was like great, another BUSTED lead on a nice car for cheap. Then the THIRD RED FLAG comes my way via text, it has a lien on it.... I figured there's nothing to lose if I prod into the situation and then be able to catch these A-Hole in a scam. I got his full name, employer name, account number for the loan and went about my own little recon mission. Decided enough checked out to call around and get the VIN ran for theft or any other sort of records, turned out not a single hit. I decided it was worth checking the car out and set it up to meet his dad and look it all over.
I tried the whole calling each of them different names to judge reaction or hesitation (I wonder if that would even work, or matter). It ends up the owner actually was leaving the country for work for a few years, and to Paris, France at that! I took it out for a drive and made the deal.
I ended up paying the car off for the owner(12347.62) + he wanted $300 on top of that. Extremely fair deal in my opinion since the bank booked it out at $17,500 and I see quite a few of them online with either more miles, double in most cases, or low options for $15k-$17.5k.
All said and done, I financed a scootch over $13,600 to pay for the taxes and tag fees. I'll refinance after we get our taxes since we decided to wait till after them when the insurance screwed up the quote on the Mazda.
I bought two lottery tickets on my way home from dinner out. ;-)
