My 96 is getting to be too expensive to maintain, and the TC tensioner is making strange sounds in idle, so I am looking to buy a replacement around Xmas time or sooner maybe.
Constraints:
1. Money. I only have about $4K to spend on it.
2. Auto. Too much traffic here and getting worse. I'm too old to want the extra wear and tear on my hip.
3. Needs to be S Texas or it's too far.

I took a look in Craig's centered on San Antonio and I got the following:
2x 2000 @ $3500 & 4500
4x 2001 @ $3900, 4000, 4300 & 4500
2x 2002 @ $3550 & 4800
0x 2003
1x 2004 @ $4500

Now some of the cars appeared to be perfectly OK, but what really got me, was that when I checked the Bue Book its prices (these are all private sales - I cannot abide dealers)were like $8500 on average rather than 4500. Always way higher. WTF? Are Max's selling at depressed prices right now or is the Blue Book just crazy or ..? Well I figure you guys will have a pretty good idea of what is what, so I welcome advice or comments...

 

I bought my 07SL over 18 month ago, and when I looked up the KBB just last week, retail is about $2000 more than what I paid for it. At the time I bought it retail blue book was about $1200 less than what it is now, and I paid about $800 below that. Not sure what the hell it means, but if the car gets totaled in crash, I'm going to make money off the deal that's for certain...never got that out of Olds or Lincoln.

As far as your problem, people aren't going to buy a car with 100,000 miles on it for more then $4-6,000 as it is. Even if the blue book says it's worth twice that, the sellers need to be competitive if they want to get rid of the cars. Be glad, that means you're going to get into a car for cheaper then what the insurance company would pay you if it gets total...

Stay savvy!

 

Yea those are some good prices. How many miles do they have on them tho? When buying a car I try to make sure the car doesnt have over 10k miles for each year old it is. I just paid 5k for my 2000 maxima and it had 98k miles on it.

 

imo blue book is just so dealerships can show customer on the vehicles trading value (which is alway thousands less than actual value) i really wouldnt rely on kbb when buying from private sellers. i would only rely on it if you buy a car from a lot used and you think the car lot is selling it for too much...

 

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. I'm definitely going to get another. I compared with cars from Toyota and Honda, could not find anything with the same value for money. I suspect I will have to choose between a lower mileage 3.0 and a higher mileage 3.5, what to do, arghh... well at least I have owned Maximas for long enough to know what to look for.

 

You say you've only got $4000+ to put on this car, why pay for it up front? Get a bank to give you a loan on a used car, get one that's in a little better price range, and then you can put a lot of money onto the first few payments to bring the amount of payments way down and pay off early. If you limit yourself to liquid cash, you're going to get a beater that will cost you more to keep running then it should.

Just my observation...

 

this.

you are better off spending 8k and financing only 4.