Lainey

Have you or any of your kids ever come across what you hope is a "cream puff" of a used vehicle without paying a huge premium?

My son and daughter in law both have a decent commute and rack up the mileage on their vehicles. They are diligent about having the oil changed often, but some other maintenance is likely put off too long, or until a part breaks. They aren't too diligent about the washing and the waxing.

My son has a 2005 Focus they purchased with 81K miles on at least 3-4 years, ago. He's now at 164K on the car. It's been a good car. It hasn't required much more than the normal maintenance items. It runs well, he's been happy with it, but the hood has rust issues, the interior is tired, and it's getting pretty tired overall. Daughter in law has a 2006 Nissan Sentra with about 134K on it. She's happy with her Sentra. It's about to have some body work done as she got rear ended this week. So it will look a bit prettier than it has in a while.

Our friend's Mom can no longer drive. She has a 2010 Toyota Corolla with 34K miles on it. It's got new tires, and a new battery and an auto start which is greatly appreciated here in the northeast. She/her sons are selling it to my son for a very reasonable price. My son and daughter in law took it for a test drive last night and were very happy with it. We know the car is still 8 years old, but the Toyota's generally have a long life. I'm hoping they get a decent amount of time out of the vehicle, as daughter in law will be needing a car before too long. They aren't ditching the Focus quite yet as it's a good car for a new driver (granddaughter) to use. We all know what often happens when new drivers get out on the roads...

So, have any of you found a good, low mileage, used vehicle and not had to pay big $ for it?

Legal Bill

Sure Lainey. This is how I roll. My favorite was a two year old 1990 Mustang GT. I would have kept that car for ten years, but it got stolen. Those cars really fell in value after two year so the savings was like 50% off new for a car that had about 30K on it at the time.

Emil St-Hilaire

Don't worry,Lainey,that Corolla will last for ever.

Jet sitter

I agree with Emil, Honda's and Toyota's last forever. My 2000 Accord has 247K miles. I believe that if could easily go another 247K. Biggest expenses have been oil changes, tires, and a new clutch at 210K.

Conedodger

Curious what it sold for if you are willing to share. I have an aunt with a 2010 Corolla with less than 50K miles that will be for sale shortly. It is hard to figure a price for it.

We are happy with our low mile 2010 Accord EXL-V6 Coupe that we found last fall. $32K car with 30K miles on it. We picked it up for $12K.

engifineer

The closest I have had is the 2013 Tacoma I bought last year for my wife. Not really low mileage for a 13 (70k ish miles) but it was the options that made that one such a good deal. Apparently the previous owner had gotten just about every single TRD add on as well as adding heated leather seats. So, while it had every single part of the tow package, TRD off road package, the heated leather, etc, the Subaru dealer they traded it into treated it as a base model Tacoma and priced it $7k below what my bank pulled up for its blue book. That was more of an example of a dealer taking a trade in of a car they did not know much about I guess.

Lainey

At this time, I don't know which model the vehicle is. They purchased for $500.00 under the lower price on KBB for a private party sale. More than fair especially with the mileage and knowing the person who owned it. She might have been second owner, but had no issues with it.

WVCR-V

Around 2009 or so, my friend bought a 1989 Toyota Cressida from an old lady. It had 30 some thousand miles for $1000. Garage kept its whole life.

dlq04

A one owner car with all the maintenance records and good upkeep are hard to beat, no matter the mileage. These days mileage on most cars is not the big factor it once was.