Because every time I check on articles apparently “poor” people according to them are guys with 10000 euro ready to spend like that.
Also the apps for car buying seem broken, they only offer you totaled cars or cars that need serious work at low budgets.
Other have said it too, but I’ll boil it down:
- Budget beaters are not on car apps. That’s mostly dealers, who will be making a profit.
- Buy from individuals. Use general second hand platforms instead, like facebook marketplace or what is used in your location.
- Be weary of private individuals flipping cars, they’re looking for profit like dealers, but will have done nothing in terms of maintenance beside the painfully obvious, which will have been a diy job with the cheapest parts available.
- Running costs are a PITA. Besides insurance and fuel you should look at what a set of tyres costs. For some reason that’s a somewhat decent indicator of maintenance costs level.
- Depending on periodic inspection rules in your country, buying a recently inspected car can mean you have a car for 2 years that you can discard afterwards, instead of sinking a shit loaf of money into maintenance ahead of the next inspection.
- Depending on where you live, cars can have been used as collateral for car loans. Typically not at your price point, but it’s something to be aware of. Buying a super cheap car, only to find out that it comes with 2 times it’s price in debt sucks.
What’s your budget? I mean I don’t think 10k € is a car for broke people, but are we talking 5k? 2k? I found a local Suzuki Wagon R+, 20years old, ugly AF faded paint, but a solid car with a couple of years left, listed for 13k DKK, that’s like 1700 €. I don’t think that you’ll have much luck finding cheaper cars than that.
Also look for modding history in two ways. One, does that model of car online have a big community who loves to mod it? Your insurance is likely not going to be good.
Second, has anything about the specific car you’re buying been modded? Shorter springs, air intake, exhaust changes, tires size different from stock size, etc. Anything looks off? Probably best to move on. It’s likely been an abused toy for someone before you.
Checking various fluids can also potentially help. I also try to consider if there’s any sign at all of major things having issues like transmission, or just small things like electronics I could live without.
Also like your idea about checking and comparing cost of tires for a particular car. In addition to that, the brand of tire and conditio of tires can also tell you a bit about who had been owning it and how they treated it.
First off, always remember this rule: The Poor spend more.
When I was younger, I always bought cheap used cars because that’s all I could afford, and every year at inspection time I would have to dump hundreds or thousands into parts and labor to get it passable.
About 7 years ago I bought my most expensive car, a barely driven '16 Toyota Camry. I’ve put over 100k miles on it since then, and it’s only ever needed typical upkeep like tires and brakes.
Even though the monthly payments were much higher than all my other cars, it ended up costing less in the long run. It’s now paid off, and I’m still driving it with no issues.
If you don’t have the credit to get good financing, work on that first. Then splurge on the Toyota, or other slightly higher quality brand. Search the Internet for reliability ratings. If a particular model is a piece of junk, people online will be happy to tell you all about it.
I believe there is a sweet-spot somewhere. A new car loses most of it’s value at the beginning. And it’s probably most effective to buy it with one year of minor usage or something. That way it’d cost way less an there’s still everything but one year in it.
3-4 years old IMO. Still drives like new and costs 50-60% (depending on the current market of course).
I definitely agree.
This exactly. A cheap pair of boots will wear out and need to be replaced. A nice (expensive) pair will last forever. That’s why it costs less to be rich. Each item a rich person buys is higher quality and more likely to last forever or at least much longer.
I agree with both of you, but it would seem OP isn’t a position to borrow money for a nice pair of boots, but just need to replace the replace the duct tape currently employed as footwear.
Car is a necessity. I don’t want it to get laid and no, a bike isn’t a solution
I’m confused by this response. Did you mean to reply to another comment?
Here in the US below 10k USD and you really don’t want to be buying from a dealer. A dealer typically targets around 3k in profit on a car. The go to place to find cars is on Facebook marketplace, or if you want a particular car, groups for that car. If you have a large friend group (ie church or something) make sure you let everyone know you’re looking for a car. Some grandma out there might want to upgrade (or just get rid of) and would be willing to sell you a car for stupid cheap. That’s how my co workers son got his $500 Civic the other day.
I’m not sure what the FB marketplace alternative is in Europe but I’d start there. Also learn to fix a car yourself. Anything below 3k will need something done sooner or later.
I bought an old truck that runs. I got it from a coworker that for tired of it taking up space in his driveway. He sold it to me for $1000 which was probably a fair price. None of the gauges work so I need to keep an eye on fuel manually.
Cars do cost a lot. Which puts pressure on the used car market and pushes those prices up. But - in 1994 I got a used car, not great, but driveable, for 5k USD. Inflation would put that at $10,550 today. So that is not worse. The problem (at least where I am) is lack of supply even at that $10k.
(I got the $5k by taking out a student loan as I was a student and could, I didn’t have it laying around. It didn’t overextend me, was close to graduation and it was easy enough to pay off.)
I don’t know where you are or what your situation is - we couldn’t afford another car in my household, the insurance is so high here; I got an electric bike instead. Very expensive for a bike but much less than a car, a joy to ride, and insurance $20 a year.
How much do you know about mechanic work?
You’re likely to pick up something that needs a little work the owner isn’t willing to put into it for cheaper.
I picked up a 1996 Chevy Cavalier for $400 2 years ago because it needed ball joints, wheel bearings, and struts. It was a weekend of work and cost me an extra ~$500 or so but I’ve been driving it for two years and it cost me total of $900 to get on the road.
But I also did the work myself which saved a bunch of money.Nothing and I don’t want to do it.
Most of my cars, I’ve bought from friends, co-workers, or relatives, or people that they knew. We agree on blue book value, I get it checked by my mechanic, occasionally I’ve had to get a bank loan, and it’s done.
Part of it’s starting to keep your ears open when you think your current car may be getting toward the end of it’s life, so that you can take advantage of anything you might hear about. Part of it’s asking people if they’ve heard of anyone who might be getting rid of their old car. And part of it is people remembering that you’ve asked about these things before so that, when they or someone they know start thinking about getting rid of their old car, you’re one of the people they think of who might be willing to take it without hassle, at a fair price.
Find out which family/friends are buying a car and get them to sell you their old one. No markups from middlemen!
Craigslist ad got me a 2010 Honda Civic for $5,000 in the city. Nothing but oil changes and one new battery, it’s been living for about 6 years now
He meant today, you can’t get an 8 year old car for $5k anymore unless it’s totalled or has 200k+ miles on it.
Idk maybe it’s just my area, but there’s about a dozen of these on Facebook market place right now for me:
The mileage is “high”, about the same as what I bought mine at (140,000), but it’s a civic. Do basic car maintenance on time, and it will live for twice that many miles. If OP wants to hit me up, I’ll help them look for something in their area or straight up get them in touch with one of the people selling near me. I’m down to road trip the car to them if it’s less than like 8 hours away too
Edit: JK that shit says euros, can’t drive to you sorry lmao
@platypus@lemmings.world
What is wrong with your current car - keeping that running is almost always cheaper. People give up on cars that just need a little work ane falsely claim it is a money pit.
use your local transit system and ditch the car is best but that may mean going to public meetings and demanding service.
I don’t have a car
This. It’s time to replace when your old car takes more $ to repair (factoring in your own time lost, too) than the loan payments on a newer car.
Are you sure - it might be this year but what about next year after those things are fixed. I see lots of people get this wrong and end up with payments for several years for a one year higher than normal bill.
cars do wear out but it isn’t near as fast as nost think.
You’re gonna have to define your price constraints.
Or, you know, just hop on a used car search site and apply a price constraint. Because that’s how search engines of that variety work.
If you’re talking like €500… then yeah, you’re gonna be looking at absolute basket cases for the most part.
It won’t help with weather or provide a lot of cargo space or passenger room, but depending upon one’s use case, an ebike or motorcycle may work, and can provide fast road transit for less than a car.
Depending on local weather patterns
This is next to impossible to answer without a budget and location (at least country).
Depends on where you are.
Here in the US, there are whole streets with dealers specializing in cheap used cars. They aren’t online, you find them by going up and down the street looking manually.
Generally they are POS that won’t go a month without needing a repair that costs more than you paid for the car… but they are out there.
It really depends on the city. Some cities have those dealerships for miles on end, and others don’t have them at all.
It depends on where the big auctions are. I didn’t think there’s any dealer auctions within 100 miles of me. There’s one public auction which sucks ass because people bid stuff up higher than you could buy on marketplace.
For a number of years when I was younger I would go find a sub-$1000 vehicle that was current on registration and just drive it into the ground then go get another one. With nothing but oil, gas, tires and occasional DIY repairs I could generally get a couple years out of them. What I saved on car payments went into a fund for the next one. Then I grew up.
You’re not really giving us a lot to go with here.
If you have good credit an auto loan would help you avoid rust buckets.
Generally, it’s pretty region specific but if you talk to the local shops they will have preferences and advice.
