anyone good with picking out cars?

it has come the time in my life to buy a car and i have no idea what im doing. my older brother is helping me but i wanted to knoiw if there is anyone thats knows a good website or place to find a decent car. i would like to be part of the picking out process. does anyone know anything info that could help me pick out a realible car?

 

Auto trend is not bad. We went to craigslist.com to find my nephews car of course it needed a little work but my Hubby is mechanic so that was no prob. Maker sure it has no leaks no knocks no ticks coming from the engine area. Try to stay low milage to if it is a 2006 with 200,000 not a good buy. Always have a mechanic on stand but to check it over for you when you test drive it if possible someone you trust of course. if you can afford to get a used car from a dealer that is better because you can get a warrenty on it and gap insurence which is very important!

 

900 hp street driven......

 

What exactly is a 900 hp other then a vehicle which is obvious?

 

Oh never mind it is a ford mustang just googled it

 

If you're looking for a reliable vehicle buy a Toyota... the newer ones have no personality imo (style/design wise) but any year they're damn near bulletproof cars. I have had a few old ones including a 1988 I still drive daily, and they run forever... it will rust out way before major mechanical problems if you take even half assed care of it

As far as checking out the vehicle get a mechanic to check:
-Cylinder compression and leakdown test
-Check for DTC codes in the ECM (if available)
-Air leaks in the intake system, carb tuning if carbed

Get it on a hoist and check for:
-Fluid leaks (engine, transmission, drivetrain, coolant system)
-Structural damage or rust on frame
-Tie rod ends, ball joints, and suspension bushings
-CV boots (FWD cars) or U joints (RWD)
-Wheel bearings and brake components (rotors, pads and calipers)
-Exhaust system (rust/holes)

Test drive it and listen for squeaks or rattles, feel for bumps, try out all the controls and make sure it feels "right" for you, if it doesn't feel right don't buy it. What I mean by right is hard to describe, but having driven tons of cars there are some that feel like they were designed just for me (like the 88 toyota) and some that feel like the designer should have been fired for making such a piece of crap. Get something that you like and are comfortable driving.

If you search on Google for used car reviews you will probably find a few good websites for research, look around and narrow your search to a few models first, then head out to dealers and private owners for test drives- don't buy one right away, just ask for a test drive and if they refuse then take your money elsewhere.

 

Good at picking out cars? I'm an expert at picking a car out of a herd of ostriches! It's pretty easy.

 

Yes, toyotas are good. Hondas too but toyotas are cheaper and just as reliable.

You might want to also consider ... I forget the site.... I'm sure someone will know it though- the site you pay a small fee (ten to twenty dollars I believe) and put the car's vin. number in to check it's history.....

 

I'm going to go with the sterotypically hippy response and say ride a bike, earth rapist.

 

Japanese cars can all go to hell.

I totally almost died in one... and they get stolen/chopped quite often and are a bit lacking in ingenuity, to me. I'd prefer the older ones or like... a Subaru or Mazda (since those are the only two Japanese brands my VW dealer really deals with).

But I'm a big advocate of european cars and oldass American cars, though alot of the non-airbagged plastic steering wheels (such as the ones used in the late 60s with the horn attached to the wire-rim-deal, around the edge of the gripwheel) can impale you.

 

i dont have a choice in riding a bike although i wouldnt mind riding my bike to near by places. thanks for the help! i thought honda civics were pretty decent and standard but i looked at some toyotas and they are cheaper. i dont plan nor want to take out a loan to buy this car so my older brother is spoting me 2 grand. other than that im paying for everything else. i orignally wanted a jeep wrangler but there too expensive and the cheaper ones are too old to buy.

 

Jeeps use way more gas than Toyotas- though they are fun to tool around in. My observation is that a Toyota will serve you well and not set you back too badly. Good luck with whatever choice you make.

 

how much are you looking to spend? Are you a new driver? I had used volvos for y first few cars and loved them. My second one was really inexpensive too and ran great.

 

This is from an article about first cars for teens:

top picks:

Honda Accord and Toyota Camry sedans — Here are two cars that are safe, reliable and won’t get your teen in trouble with the fashion police. They are well-designed, comfortable, easy to work on and offer cheap replacement parts. If you can afford it, buy one with side impact air bags.

Accords and Camrys can go 300,000 miles, so don’t let mileage scare you. More important is to see the service history to ensure that the car has been well maintained. Six cylinder cars are quite peppy and still get great MPG. Four cylinder cars are the best for younger drivers with heavy accelerator feet.

Subaru Wagons – Instead of buying an SUV, grab one of Subaru’s many wagons. Over the years, I’ve been impressed by Subaru’s ability to create cars that simply keep running. Since they tend to be heavy, and the engines aren’t that powerful, it results in cars that won’t get kids in too much trouble. (Just stay away from the WRX!) All wheel drive means awesome wet and snow traction, but low centers of gravity give better handling and security than traditional SUVs.

Big Buicks — They’re not the most reliable, cool or impressive, but the resale values of the Park Avenue and Le Sabre are so low that you can buy a slightly used one for a song. (This makes it worth all the complaining your teen will do when you bring home a Buick.) Parts prices are cheap. The cars are a breeze to work on. There are some inherent build issues, like plastic intake manifolds that are prone to leaking on the 3800 V6 engines, plastic interior parts that break and brake calipers that seem to require resurfacing every 15,000 miles, but these cars are still better built than Chevys and Fords…plus safer than any Volvo. Throw a set of snow tires on these front-wheel-drive beasts and their spacious trunks make for perfect transportation up to the ski hill.


cars to specifically avoid — top ten worst cars for a teen.
10- Dodge/Plymouth Neon: I’ll admit that they are very fun to drive, are easy to park and are not bad looking in comparison to other econoboxes, but Neons are so horribly built that owners usually carry monthly bus passes as backup.

9-Volkswagen Jetta: For the same reasons as the Neon, but with parts costs that make owners think they’ve bought a Porsche.

8-Acura Integra: A great car – so great that probabilities state that your teen will likely find it missing from the parking lot. It’ll be found as a shell only, with all the parts already headed to unscrupulous parts dealers.

7-Anything from Scion: I’ll admit that the jury is still out on Scion, but for some reason, all the models are near the bottom of the heap in their respective class for safety. This could be a demographics thing — meaning that the type of people that buy Scions are high risk drivers. It could be, however, that the cars are poorly designed for accident situations.

6- VW Vans: To quote Car Talk’s Click and Clack: “those things are deathtraps.” They are too slow to merge safely on a highway, too top heavy for evasive moves, and crush like a soda can in a wreck. They also cost a fortune to maintain. Plus, do your really want your teen to have a bed in the back of their vehicle?

5- Classic Cars: I like old cars and have logged several thousand miles in old pony, muscle and sports cars over the last decade, but 30-plus year old cars are not reliable or safe enough to serve as a teen’s daily transport. Crumple zones didn’t hit the domestic-built cars until the 1980s. Old brakes are easy to lock. Rear-wheel-drive plus high power means tail-happy dynamics in the wet. And those old non-inertia seat belts have a terrible habit of breaking collarbones.

4- Jeep Liberty and Wrangler: Cheaply made (is there a louder, more uncomfortable ride than a Wrangler?) but more importantly, these vehicles sit too high for such a short wheelbase. When the Liberty debuted, Autoweek magazine rolled one simply trying to measure times through a low-speed slalom.

3- Ford Explorer: Old Explorers killed occupants who wore their seatbelts. Newer ones try to pack seven occupants into a package the same size as an Accord — and still there are cries from watchdog groups about the SUV’s ability to handle routine safety maneuvers.

2- Suzuki Areo and Suzuki Forenza: Not only are people extremely likely to have an accident in an Aero or Forenza, they are more likely to require medical attention than in almost any other sedan. Cheaply made, so not safe.

1- Chevy Camaro / Pontiac Firebird / Ford Mustang V8: Why you’d ever want to give your child the keys to one of the cars that kills more teens per year (normalized for the number of registered vehicles of each type,) than any other, I’m not sure. These cars are a case study in demographics: simply being an owner of a Camaro/Firebird or Mustang GT simply puts one in a group that tends to exhibit a lack of maturity necessary to drive one safely. These cars seem to make kids do stupid things…heck they make adults do stupid things, and they have more sense than teens.

 

I'm pretty good at picking out shitty cars - tell me what you're interested in and if I think it sounds good, choose something else.