coldhands

My wife and I are moving from an urban setting to the burbs. This means that absent adequate public transportation, we have to buy some cars. Looking for advice on the following topics:

1- Strategies to purchasing cars with minimal risks. Private vs. Dealer. Things to look for. Carfacts reports. etc.

2- Where to look for cars. Cars.com Yahoo Motors. Ebay motors. Gov't Auctions? Craigslist?

3- Suggestions of the types of cars to look at (makes/models, how old can you go. How many miles is too many). Can you trust and American car with more than 100K miles? Does a Subaru with 160K miles still have a lot of life in it?

Like most folks these days, we are on a budget. We want to spend less than $5,000 in total. As I said, we need two cars:

One family car for around town and for visiting family 1-2 times a month (100 miles RT, mostly highway). Has to be safe for the kids and not likely to leave us stuck by the side of the road.

One beater for to get my wide the 4 miles to the train station and for the occasional trip around town. (Note, wife cannot drive stick so manual transmission is out).

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts and for your suggestions. Happy motoring.

__________________
"All it takes to make a difference is the courage to stop proving 'I was right' in being unable to make a difference, to stop assigning cause for my inability to the circumstances outside myself, to be willing to have been that way, and to see that the fear of being a failure is a lot less important that the unique opportunity I have to make a difference."

-Werner Erhard

telekinetic

At $2500, you're really in 'crap shoot' territory, regardless of method, so I'd heavily evaluate whether or not you need two cars.

If I were you, I'd spend $4500 on a the lowest mileage newest Honda Civic you can afford, with less than 100k if you can. I'd then drop $500 on a 'might run most of the time' craigslist beater (1989 Cutlass?), with the idea you might have to spend a little bit of money keeping it running.

For places to look, try Autotrader.com and Craigslist.

Something like this:

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...00&cardist=986

Or this:

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...0&cardist=1955

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twisted no more

QuasiMondo

If the area you're moving to has seems to have a high auto theft rate, your second option should be a Toyota Corolla/Camry. Hondas are still popular with the more unscrupulous elements of the tuner crowd and a clean Civic makes it ripe for a spontaneous disappearance.

Subaru Legacy/Impreza/Forrester sounds like a good idea if you find one at the right price. I had an old Impreza that could soak up potholes and boldly go where SUV's feared to tread.

Craigslist, autotrader, cars.com...I don't care much for eBay because the good cars inevitably end up being overpriced due to competitive bidding.

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Fotzlid

Subaru drive trains are pretty much bullet-proof.
old Hondas and Toyotas are very difficult to kill.
your looking at something with 100k+ miles for the price range.
personally, i wouldnt touch most american cars with that much mileage on them.
definately find a mechanic to go over the car with a fine toothedcomb so you have an idea of what type of repairs you might be looking at.
i've never used carfax myself but i question how accurate it would be.
dealer will cost a bit more but will probably come with some sort of warrenty.