Need a cheap used Japanese car in L.A.

March 25, 2011 8:33 AM

Looking for a good cheap used Nissan, Toyota, or Honda in the Los Angeles area for around $3000. Any website suggestions for finding used cars? Or, what is a good dealer to go to?
posted by Charlie Lesoine to Shopping (3 answers total)

Don't count on any dealer doing you a favor. Do the research to figure out what sort of car (model, age, mileage) you're likely to be able to afford. Edmunds.com is a good site for this. Then you will be able to recognize cars you can afford by looking at the car, rather than the sticker price. This is important because many, if not most, dealerships routinely set the sticker prices far higher than the cars are actually worth. Doing so allows them to give you a 'big discount' and still make a big profit -- or get an even bigger windfall if someone actually pays the asking price. It's up to you to recognize what they're doing and to negotiate a reasonable price.

Consumer Reports has an excellent car buying advice section on their website, too.

Some private sellers, if you're lucky, will actually ask a fair price for their car to begin with, but even there you'll want to be careful.

Arrange to have the car checked out by your mechanic before you buy it.
posted by jon1270 at 9:11 AM on March 25, 2011

At that price range you're looking at cars that are 15-20 years old and/or have about 150k+ miles (or MUCH more if they're not as old). I think you're going to be pretty hard pressed to find a used car lot with like a 91 Camry on the lot, most of those are going to be private party sales.

These cars have probably held their value better than you'd think, I'm feeling around about selling my '08 Toyota, and I'm pretty shocked that the resale value seems to still be about 60-70% of what I paid new. (I actually priced it for a relative at about 50% of the new price and I think he was sticker shocked).

My advice would be to scour craigslist, buy something from someone that doesn't seem shifty (sometimes unscrupulous dealers park cars on the side of the road and hide the fact they are professional resellers) and has an honest history of the car (orig receipts in their name, that kind of thing), and save for the eventual repairs. Even the most reliable cars will definitely need stuff in their twilight years.
posted by tremspeed at 11:07 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

My favorites for just looking at stuff is Cars.Com & AutoTrader, because the advanced search features let me drill down and highlight different aspects and get a feel for what's available in various locations. Edmunds.com was mentioned above, as was CR. I would add Kelley Blue Book.com, and consider buying a month of ConsumerReports.org (It's like $6) for access to their extensive reviews and research.
posted by BeerFilter at 1:42 PM on March 25, 2011