[sspolo]

Originally Posted by SSeniorMoment

While the the purchase price of the cars the OP is contemplating is w/i his budget, the cost of ownership (repairs) will more than likely eat up his savings account.

I would save up enough for a down payment to finance reliable transportation and put the Camaro purchase on a realistic time schedule, and that may include a second job. Just my $.02,

I've had old cars my whole life (I've only had 2 cars :p) but they have treated me good and I really haven't spent much money on them. My parents also bought used cars with high mileage and those cars also treated them good. So I really hope that the car I buy will treat me good. I did look at financing a better vehicle but I really just want to save as much as I can to buy a Camaro.

Originally Posted by john_

So the first thing you do when you get a job is think about how soon you can get a Camaro. This tells me that 1) you are financially irresponsible 2) while you are doing something sensible like buying a used vehicle, thus avoiding new car depreciation, you are FUBAR by looking at any vehicle with 100,000 miles or more. You will end up sinking far too much money in the car which will then result in you paying triple or quadruple what the car is worth.

Source: I'm an actuary

I really don't have anything else to spend money on. I could just go ahead and save money to buy a house or invest or do something smarten than spending it on a car, but I want to enjoy my life while I'm young. At this point 30k+ might seem like a lot to me, but in reality it is not much. I doubt that once I'm older I will regret spending 30k on a car.
Old cars have treated my family and I good in the past so I hope that continues. However, I did start looking at other options and noticed some other cars (~130k miles) around my price range. They are not cars that I like the styling, but they will probably be better than a car with 200k miles.

Originally Posted by JHart

Do what i did. I have a few friends, who led me to my daily. I bought a 1994 Acura Integra GS-R. The car has 275,000 miles on it, but has been owned by 3 people, the first 2 being the father and daughter, who drove the vehicle pretty much like a family car, and had all service maintained at the dealership the vehicle was bought new, and had a carfax for the next owner. Anyway, The p/o then bought the car, and him being an ASE master technician at a Honda dealership(Acura is the same as Honda for anyone who doesn't know, which i'm sure most do), so he kept upkeep on the vehicle while his wife drove this car as a daily for 5 years. He gave me all the previous owners records and report, and knowing my buddy well he told me everything he had to do to the vehicle while in his ownership, and showed me every problem wrong with the vehicle. i bought the vehicle for 2,000 and have put 600 in it in mods, maintainence, and upkeep, and plan to drive the vehicle 275k more so my camaro can be babied like i want to. Long story short, with a vehicle with high mileage, check the background, and think the more information provided about vehicle history the better.

Exactly! As long as the car was treated good I am sure that it will do fine. The Honda or Eclipse are probably not good choices since those were probably abused. So now I'm looking at Saturns. I've read that those cars are pretty nice and reliable. They are also not usually owned by younger people so they should be ok (I hope!)
I haven't bought a car yet, but tomorrow will probably be the day! wish me luck!