Should I buy an older car??

[guppy]

So this morning I was in a car accident. There was about 2.5 inches of snow on the ground and even though I started breaking 3/4 of the way up the hill, my car slid the entire way down, hit the curb of the intersecting road, and went over a 10' hill/drop off and ended up in a park. Not the way to start the day. That car is a 1998 volvo C70 coupe with 140,000 miles. It was previously already having problems idling and my husband was fearing the head gasket was going based on a few things he noticed. We were going to have it looked at next week but since my drive to work is so short I was driving it in the meantime. So now I hit the curb, went over that hill, and the car decides it can start but no longer drive anymore. It was towed this morning. I'm fearing that repairs to this car are going to be in the thousands, and frankly, it's not really worth over 2500-3000 if it was in decent running condition. I obviously need to see what the mechanic says first, but if the repairs cost in teh thousands, what do you suggest?

I've been looking online at other cars. I see a 2000 Honda Accord selling for 5,500 with 60k miles on it in the area (http://allentown.craigslist.org/cto/1508460681.html). Unfortunately I don't have much saved in the bank, so I would probably charge that car or another similarly priced car on a low interest cc (so as not to wipe out my 2k in savings) and then pay off the car in 6 months (we've been doing accelerated debt payoff for a while now and I'm confident I can pay it off that fast or faster). I'm just wondering if I'm going to pay somewhere in that range if I should be concerned with the model year? It has low miles, but is this car going to last another 8-10 years when it's already almost 10 years old? No, I'm not tied to this particular vehicle, but I'm using it as an example of some cars I was seeing online.

Do you suggest buying a "beater" for 2-3k and paying cash or buying a more dependable car with low miles. Again, I'd probably be looking for an older model to keep the price reasonable. Also, my husband has a civic with 170k miles so it'd be nice to have one car that was somewhat reliable. Ok, ok, I know I'm rambling. And FIRST I need to see what the mechanic says (but I'm fearing the worst). Any insight into the situation is appreciated!!

[GREENBACK]

I can see buying an older car but why use a cc for it. Can you finance thru your bank or a credit union?

The reason I say this is you'll likely get a similar rate but they won't hammer you with a jacked up interest rate if something happens and you can't make your payments on time. I think a secured loan is always the better route.

[guppy]

I do have a credit union which offers 3.99% interest rates on car loans less than 2 or 3 years in length. That's certainly an option.

I am considering possibly a saturn or pontiac since I should be able to get a good deal on one of those cars. I'll also have to factor in how much parts/repairs would cost in the future, though.

Still waiting for a call back from the mechanic...

[disneysteve]

I would not buy a car with a CC unless I was going to pay it off in full when the bill came. Besides, you'd have a tough time finding a dealer to sell you a car and let you pay by CC due to the 3% fee they pay on the transaction.

Get a loan for no more than 3 years. The rate from your CU sounds good if that applies to used cars.

I wouldn't expect a 10 year old car to last another 10 years. If you want something to last 10 years, you need to be looking a lot newer but that also means more money. What's wrong with a 10 year old car that only lasts 5 years?

[guppy]

The 3.99% financing fee does apply to used cars, so most likely I will be going that route.

The mechanic was horrible! My husband and I showed up and he immediately had an attitude. Starting throwing around thousands of dollars saying "radiator problems, misfiring problems, possible axle problems". I was going to get an attitude right back but where would that have gotten us. My husband thought the guy was a jerk too so he wanted to see if we could get it away from there and back to the house (1/2 mile away) so he could look at it more in depth. 100 feet down the road it just full out died. It'll start but then it immediately dies. Antifreeze started leaking everywere. It was a mess.

Placed a call to a donation center that'll donate the car to cancer so at least there's one small positive that comes out of all this mess.

Now onto finding a "new" car. Pontiac G6's have some great deals out there on cars with low mileage. Found a 2007 for 8,900 with only 27,000 miles. Husband and I might go out and take a look at it this weekend. This is really not something I expected to do this weekend. All the time spent trying to get out of debt (~16k gone in the last 18 months) only to dig ourselves into a hole by having to buy a car. ugh.

[GrimJack]

The thing to keep in mind about new vs old cars are the safety devices - all things like side-impact air bags, anti-lock brakes, etc. What are you willing to get/give up?

[sfalexi]

FWIW, hondas (accords and civics especially) are some of the higher valued used cars. Value as in "reliability". You can check these cars on edmunds.com and see what the used car ratings are. Hondas tend to come in with a high rating.

[cschin4]

I do have a credit union which offers 3.99% interest rates on car loans less than 2 or 3 years in length. That's certainly an option.

Do NOT finance a car on a CC. Do NOT put any bills onto a CC that cannot be paid by the end of the month. I would recommend getting a standard used car loan via your credit union or elsewhere.

[guppy]

Well, I'm back. After a few days of searching, my husband and I decided on a 2007 Pontiac G6 GT Sedan. With a price tag of $9,995 it was by far the best deal we came across. It only has 40,000 miles and is the newest vehicle i've ever owned. I'm so excited!! We financed the vehicle but intend to pay it off in less than a year. Thanks for all your input!

[disneysteve]

Congrats on the "new" car. Enjoy it and drive it for many years.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Cool, what do you think the sticker price for it was?

[jasonnoguchi]

NEVER buy a car on CC if you don't intend to pay in full within a month (or 2 depending on your cc policies).

[segmond]

it depends on what you mean by "older", instead of focusing on older, focus on reliable. it's not about how many miles the car have been driven, but how many mile is left in it.