[mack]

So I guess my family is getting a new car, were looking to spend aroun 14 grand for a 2002 or newer car. My mom is obbsesed with saab's and she found one for 12 g's, 2002, loaded, looked really nice. So she was all set on getting it and today i went and checked the car fax.

Car was a company car.
Salvage Title-major wreck
2nd owner

So my mom called the guy today without me knowing. This was after i checked the car fax. She wanted know what was up about the car, and being the ass hole he is he fed my mom some story about how he bought the car at auction and how it was rebuilt, but over all it was a great car. So this morning i catch her going out the door and i ask her where she is going. "i am going to buy the car..."

I lost it...

Some people are just so stupid and hell bent on getting somthing and my mother does this all the time. This summer she bought a 1974 2002 BMW and casually lost the title for the car, so now me and my Dad cant sell it to get the money back. She wont even tell us where the car is in storage. ( I wont tell you about her stock porfolio )

So now I am in charge of buying a new car. Looking at some Subarus and Saabs. I dont really want a Saab because they are front wheel drive and our last saab bought the farm this summmer when the piston rod detached from a cylinder head and went through the engine block and oil pan. Cause: there was no oil in the car

Any advice on what to buy? Luxury is not a factor.

 

[reflux]

Nice job Mack. As for any suggestions, sorry, I can't help.

 

[caboverpete]

Car was a company car.
Salvage Title-major wreck
2nd owner

and

he bought the car at auction and how it was rebuilt

How exactly was that being an asshole... to me "bought at auction" would mean not the first owner and "rebuilt" would me it was built once and then had to be built again...hence RE-BUILT.

 

[mack]

Car was a company car.
Salvage Title-major wreck
2nd owner

and

he bought the car at auction and how it was rebuilt

How exactly was that being an asshole... to me "bought at auction" would mean not the first owner and "rebuilt" would me it was built once and then had to be built again...hence RE-BUILT.

The car was in a wreck and he never told us. This is 12 g's here...

EDIT: Turns out the car was in a salvage title because it was flooded... all electrical has been replaced, long story short, it might get bought. I remain hesitant to buy it though.

 

[Discostu]

Looking at some Subarus and Saabs.

Sell some of your rugs and get one of each.

I dont really want a Saab because they are front wheel drive and our last saab bought the farm this summmer when the piston rod detached from a cylinder head and went through the engine block and oil pan. Cause: there was no oil in the car

You can't really make conclusions on a car because it runs poorly with no oil... I think thats just a bad idea in general.

Anyway, I would suggest you go with a Subaru Legacy. Ever since our Toyota truck was wrecked our family is Saab and Subaru only. My dad's a nut when it comes to Saab 9000's and he has quite a collection of older ones. My brother has a newer 900 SET and is looking at getting a 9-3 Viggen. My mom has the one subee, a '98 Legacy. While the saabs are nice to drive, if you want something maintenance free go with the Subaru hands down. I can't even begin to count all the frustrations we've had with keeping all these Saabs running. If you want advice on Saabs go to www.saabnet.com . Maybe my dad will even answer some of your questions (although he usually tends to stick to 9000 only technical discussions).

 

[mack]

Sell some of your rugs and get one of each.

HAHA! I wish dude, i wish. Those were bought back when my Dad was working in the 80's, he doesnt work any more, suffers from depression and anxiety.

yeah, the old saab should have run allot longer if it had been taken care of.

 

[-dustin]

your mom sounds like she throws money around anyway, just get the salvaged Saab.

 

[caputo1989]

Can you say frame damage?
-when they fix cars from major wreks it is only body work.
-most body shops don't check for frame damage.

Dont buy used sabb's they all suck.

 

[Lexx D]

Dont buy used sabb's they all suck.

Best answer yet.

BTW If your wealthy it's one thing but if you only have $14,000 to spend on a car why buy a car with bad reliability and high maintnence costs? Buy a toyota, honda, subaru. Toyota and honda are the best reliability and resale, while the suby's need a little more attention but are great to own here in the northeast.

 

[vtrider]

my family has had nothing but bad luck with toyota and subaru. My mother bought a legacy, used with 70,000 miles and managed to have the engine blow up while she was in maine, and my dad had a toyota truck that we had to bolt together from side to side in the engine bay or it wouldve fallen in two pieces, left and right.

On the other hand, my bmw has lasted quite nicely, no problems at all.
I dont really like japanese engineering too much either, german is much more appealing

 

[Lexx D]

my family has had nothing but bad luck with toyota and subaru. My mother bought a legacy, used with 70,000 miles and managed to have the engine blow up while she was in maine, and my dad had a toyota truck that we had to bolt together from side to side in the engine bay or it wouldve fallen in two pieces, left and right.

On the other hand, my bmw has lasted quite nicely, no problems at all.
I dont really like japanese engineering too much either, german is much more appealing

Since you bought the suby with 70,000 on it you can't complain. For all you know the person who owned it before you beat the shyt out of it and never did any maintnence. I can't comment on the toyota since I don't know if you it was new of used. BMW, O.K. they have respectable reliability but don't give the to german engineering until you look at mercedes and VW reliability(hyundai is more reliable), the quality has gone down the crapper.

 

[vtrider]

yeah the toyota was new. true, the subaru couldve been beat when we bought it, but i wasnt trying to hate on them or anything. My friend has a legacy that he put through hell, and its still running very well. I do agree about VW though, i wouldnt buy one. BMW seems to stay pretty reliable.
go get a jaguar. see how that holds up.

 

[Discostu]

We bought our '98 legacy with 160k on it, replaced the clutch and windshield, no other problems...

While the Saabs require alot of work, if you keep on it, they'll keep going forever. One Saab 9000s is doing alright with ~250k, the others range from ~110k-190k.

Our Toyota pickup had incredible reliability, better than the Subarus or Saabs by far, but it was totalled by my bro.

 

[mack]

Well, they just left to go get the Saab. My mother is, well, i wouldnt be able to explain her. She doesnt need a new car, but if you tell her that she doesnt need one then she will only want to go buy it more. She is very insecure.

Turns out the Saab only had minor flood damage up to the seats. The only thing that got fried was the main chip, and that was replaced. Other than that the car seems to be OK> Too bad its an automatic.

 

[merrrrjig]

subarus are nice!

 

[Curb Hucker]

My mom used to have a 9^3 Viggen, that thing was such a fun car to drive, it was FWD which I'm not a huge fan of, but still the thing was like driving around a very fast and fun go-cart.

 

[Hungry_Hank]

look at the VWs my mom just got a passat wagon and she loves it. it runs great, plus it has a warning light for every single thing that could go wrong under the hood (ex: low oil, low batt, even low windsheild wiper fluid). its the 1.8T too, so it gets good milage and still has 170 horses.

 

[rpk1988]

I got a 2002 Subaru Outback wagon with 48K on it for a little under $14,000. www.cars.com is awesome.

 

[mack]

Well they jsut got back the 9-3. It has a turbo, but im not a huge fan of the auto tranny, its a real sucker. It was my first time driving a auto, and there not fun at all, maybe a little easier in the parking lot.

The car is nice i guess, but i found a yellow sheet of paper in the car. It was bought for 7900 dollars from this buisness who specializes in fixing flooded Saab's. So basicly the guy just marked it up 4 grand after he bought it from the buisness. Whatever, my mom makes allot of money and i guess she can spend it how she likes. I still make 7.50 an hour, oh yeah!

 

[blue]

Well they jsut got back the 9-3. It has a turbo, but im not a huge fan of the auto tranny, its a real sucker. It was my first time driving a auto, and there not fun at all, maybe a little easier in the parking lot.

The car is nice i guess, but i found a yellow sheet of paper in the car. It was bought for 7900 dollars from this buisness who specializes in fixing flooded Saab's. So basicly the guy just marked it up 4 grand after he bought it from the buisness. Whatever, my mom makes allot of money and i guess she can spend it how she likes. I still make 7.50 an hour, oh yeah!

I make 4.25+tips. Die.

 

[hooples3]

buying a usedcar is so sucky... you just cant be sure how it was dealt with by its owners. Buying a new car stinks too though.. it loses it value so quickly and its so much money. Id rather spend 3000 on a great bike!!!!!

 

[Lexx D]

look at the VWs my mom just got a passat wagon and she loves it. it runs great, plus it has a warning light for every single thing that could go wrong under the hood (ex: low oil, low batt, even low windsheild wiper fluid). its the 1.8T too, so it gets good milage and still has 170 horses.

No VW! Even if you ignore the history of electrical problems the 1.8T motor is having alot of trouble right now. The engine has been turning the oil into sludge(something about cheap coils), not a vehicle I'd purchase at this point.

 

[Toshi]

No VW! Even if you ignore the history of electrical problems the 1.8T motor is having alot of trouble right now. The engine has been turning the oil into sludge(something about cheap coils), not a vehicle I'd purchase at this point.

yup. the passat is reliable but the golf and jetta are not, and the 1.8T has had many problems.

 

[blue]

What about the reliability of the VR6 engines? A female friend of mine just got a 1999 Jedi with a VR6...it's fast...but I think it will die soon.

 

[mack]

Is this the 1.6T turbo diesel were talking about!?

we have a VW bug with a turbo diesel, and man it sucks. The car gets great MPG, but this winter it cost us 3 grand because a fuel filter clogged and the electrical system went haywire. It took them a week to figure out it was a fuel clog.



The new Saab is pretty fast i guess, once the turbo kicks in it can get going on the highway. Like some one said, it handles like a go-kart.

 

[Toshi]

What about the reliability of the VR6 engines? A female friend of mine just got a 1999 Jedi with a VR6...it's fast...but I think it will die soon.

she just needs to worry about the windows falling down into the doors

 

[Kornphlake]

Has anybody here actually considered a ford crown victoria or mercury grand marquis? I guess this should go in another thread but this one's pretty much degenerated as already.

I'm wanting to get a new used car in the next several months, I'd like something reliable first and foremost, able to fit 3 child seats in the rear seat, gas mileage needs to be at least 20 mpg around town, I'd love rear wheel drive (California folks, it never snows) and something I could tow a small trailer with would be nice too. What is appealing about the crown vic is the retail of about 20K and they seem to depreciate to 7-10k in 3 years or so and stay there for several years. It seems like a better investment than something like a minivan that will be thrashed by the time it's worth 7-10k and will continue depreciating untill it's worthless.

My wife is really pushing for a mini van as our family is growing and we need transportation for lots of stuff and kids. Unfortunately mini vans have terrible mechanical problems ranging from head gaskets to headlights. At this point I'm not sold on the idea of a mini van but I'm going to need a bigger car when our second child is born so it can be paid off by the time our third comes along and still have a couple of years of driveablity left in it.

From what I can gather the crown vics aren't known for major mechanical problems, just explosions when they're sitting stopped on the side of the road and somebody plows into one at 70 mph.

Discuss amongst yourselves

 

[Toshi]

you nailed it, the ford/mercury/lincoln vehicles all seem to depreciate really quickly. another one to look at is the Lincoln LS -- super cheap now after being on the used market a few years. i think buying what isn't popular (as in non-suvs, non-minivans-trying-to-be-suvs) is a great idea financially as long as you the crown vic or other cheap car would meet your needs.

 

[mack]

Honda element might be in the cards. American cars tend to rattle.

 

[MTB_Rob_NC]

This summer she bought a 1974 2002 BMW and casually lost the title for the car, so now me and my Dad cant sell it to get the money back.

You can apply for a duplicate title in any state, usually less then $100.

It was bought for 7900 dollars from this buisness who specializes in fixing flooded Saab's. So basicly the guy just marked it up 4 grand after he bought it from the buisness.

Not that it matters, but I am pretty sure he probably spent some cash repairing the vehicle and then rebuilding the title.

Has anybody here actually considered a ford crown victoria or mercury grand marquis? I guess this should go in another thread but this one's pretty much degenerated as already.

I'm wanting to get a new used car in the next several months, I'd like something reliable first and foremost, able to fit 3 child seats in the rear seat, gas mileage needs to be at least 20 mpg around town, I'd love rear wheel drive (California folks, it never snows) and something I could tow a small trailer with would be nice too. What is appealing about the crown vic is the retail of about 20K and they seem to depreciate to 7-10k in 3 years or so and stay there for several years.

Ok first off, I work for a very large Lincoln/Mercury Dealer (actually we own a number of Linc/Merc franchises. I am not a fan of the Grand Marquis (Granma) as we call it. However from what you have mentioned it sounds like the perfect car for you. Along with meeting your criteria, the benefit the GrandMarquis has over the Crown Vic is that the avg age of a GrandMarquis owner is like 75 years old. They dont put any miles on their cars and they trade them in like every 2 years. If you do some shopping you can find 2001/2/3's with still VERY low miles that can be had at a bargain. They are very simple and reliable cars and if you ever did have to do any repairs yourself the parts are pretty inexpensive, given the car has been around in its current form for longer then I can remember. Throw a hitch on it and it could probably tow more then most SUV's. Its going to be cheap on insurance, you can fit 8 dead bodies in the trunk and 3 FULL size adults in both the front (if it has the bench) and rear seats comfortably so 3 baby seats wont be a problem. It is a tank on wheels and god forbid you or your wife were in an accident more than likely it is going to come out on the better end of the collision.

Again, I do not personally like the car, but we like to say, lb for lb it is the best deal in the auto industry. You can even buy them new when the factory throws out big incentives for under 20k.

 

[dexter]

get a merc merauder (sp?) those things look slick and are fast as balls

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>fast as balls

Are "balls" really that fast?

-S.S.-