The thing to remember is that buying any car is a gamble. New ones have a warranty, with an accompanying big price tag. A used car is more of a gamble unless you know who's selling it and how it's been cared for. Even if all's well, things still break. You can reduce your chances of unpleasant surprises by deciding on a year, make, model ahead of time and look only for that car. The year can vary a little as long as the design hasn't changed much. Then educate yourself on that particular car before you go shoping. When you get an idea of what you might want to buy, do some research as to what the maintainence costs for that vehicle are. IMO, forums like this are a good place to look. There are forums for honda, toyota, chevy, most anything you can think of. After doing the research, you might conclude your first choice wasn't a good one and explore something different. Keep in mind all cars need things. Belts, hoses, coolant changes, spark plugs, wires and such every 30k. Transmission service at 30k to 100k. Some have a timing belt that needs to be replaced at 100k. Brake life varies, for me they last about 70k at a time. ect. Read through the forums to see if the particular model you're considering has any common problems. Some engines seem to develope sludge easier than others. All will if neglected. If the previous owner hasn't changed the oil as often as he should, or used dino oil when synthetic was required, there could be a serious problem on the horizon. Is it a car that needs a timing belt every 100k, it's a $1000 service, and the vehicle has 110k on it now and never been changed? Something to consider. Don't forget to check the tires. If the tread is about gone, that's another $200+ you may end up adding to the original price tag before you know it. Easy to overlook that kind of thing while admiring the shiney paint. Keeping all that in mind and tenatively making a choice, it'd be nice if the owner would let you take it to someone for a look see. They can check for brake wear, tire wear, condition of the exhaust system, ect. Often times an experienced person can tell if a vehicle as been pretty well maintained or totally ignored with a visual inspection. If you buy off a car lot, keep in mind those guys don't know a thing about the vehicle and don't want to know a thing about it. They'll also clean the hec out of it. Though it's very nice to be looking at an ultra clean used car, all that cleaning may have hidden it's true condition. If you want to be even safer, keep $1600 or more available for things the car may need that you and everyone else may have overlooked. If you find out after the fact that it needs a water pump or something, that's ok. You predicted it might need a thing or two and got the money to cover it. jmo

Thanks for the reply, Joe. My husband took it to our mechanic who said, "You don't want this car." I'm not sure what was wrong, but I guess it wasn't so good under the hood. We revamped our criteria, and ended up buying a 2009 Hyundai Sonata for well under KBB. And our mechanic could only find a couple scratches underneath. It's now our newest car, 2nd best gas mileage, mostly driven by son and husband. I continue to drive the boring white Sienna...sigh.

I'm a Honda zealot also so I'd vote for that. I've had four of them and none have ever had any type of problem and required nothing more than regular maintenance, new tires, etc. I've heard Volvo maintenance and repairs are very expensive. Not sure if that is true or not but I noticed when I had a Lexus all the maintenance was 2x the price of the same maintenance for essentially the same vehicle - Toyota Highlander. I also heard similar reports from someone I work with about another luxury/high end brand - I think Volvo fits in that category. I also haven't gotten the impression Volvo reliability is as good as Honda but that's based on my experience with Honda only and anecdotal reports from a few Volvo owners. I'm not sure what new cars are going for these days but I bought a new 2003 top of the line, everything but naviagation Accord for well under $30K. It's the best value I've ever gotten in a car (we always buy new). In fact, I guess that's the model you are looking at 2003 EX-L - if that's the 6 cylinder model. This is a fabulous car in my opinion.

When I got home at 6:15 yesterday I found I'd received an email from the Honda Fit salesperson, who sent me a price quote, a PDF attachment, at 5 p.m. I had dealt with him over the phone one day earlier and sent him a long email after the call. -!- Yes, the email was based on the draft above, and modified in ways that reflected comments above. I can post it if people want. His message: "Thank you for the detailed email. Here is a price." At 6:30 I emailed back and phoned (leaving message) saying we'd be available downtown around 7:30 p.m. for the test drive he wanted us to do. I live downtown. A similar story: Yesterday I called the Suzuki retailer closest to me and spoke to a salesperson. Ten minutes at 10 a.m. Before 12 noon I sent email to the manager for him to forward to the salesperson. The same long email modified as per feedback received. The salesperson called me back at 2:30; his price was $X thousand lower than the web price. He agreed with me that this was just the "over the phone" price with a stranger so the real price would be even lower than that. After calling him again at 4 he was expecting me to confirm later whether he'd see us that same evening. I sent email at 6:30 asking if it was reasonable to expect him to pick me up and drive another mile to fetch my wife who was finishing work. In other words, if the test drive could start at my wife's workplace or at my place. That email was also sent to the manager's email address, for him to see and discuss with the salesperson. Then I called and asked him the same thing. He went to get the email and consult his manager, and got back to me. No go. At 7:30 p.m. I was at his front door showing him my drivers' license while standing a few feet inside the front door. He gestured to a chair and I said "No time, remember we're driving now to go pick up my wife." He walked over to a floor model to show me things, and I said "You'll show all this to my wife when we get her into the vehicle, right? So let's get going." We left to go pick up my wife. The manager observed from the distance and did not approach. Minutes after picking up my wife, I was driving and my cell phone rang. It was the Honda Fit salesperson getting back to me at 7:50 p.m. Can't talk now, thank you for the email, bye-bye. I drove the three of us back to the Suzuki showroom, my wife drove a second vehicle, and then we did all sit down. Since he used silence as a closing tool, my wife resisted him. --- The best way to save money is to avoid spending money. (An SX-4 at $X deprec./year, plus insurance, plus gas, plus maintenance, etc) We still have our ten year old car depreciating at $1700 per year (bought used) and have never paid for major repairs for it yet. Since last year we now belong to a car sharing service. We've used it a few times. Compare A to B: A. carsharing service, regular car rental service, taxis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carsharing) B. owning a car Conclusion: A is way better. My wife was frustrated with our current situation. Now she is happy. She was the one who said "A" is way better after we went for a walk around the duck pond in the park. At 10 p.m. I feel now I've come as far as I needed to on Tuesday, 48 hours ago. We'll go rent a Versa or a Fit for our vacations. To try it out. I'll look into inventories visible on the web. Thank you!