Would anyone consider buying a car with 99,000

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

miles on it?

My wife is pressuring me to replace my aged American car that has >150,000 (dead odometer so not exactly sure of mileage) and is ugly but runs, on the premise that it is bound to die soon (it's a Saturn for what it's worth...) She spotted a Toyota Corolla with 99,000 for ~$7,000. I know Corolla's are supposed to be good and all, but I'm hesitant to ditch my current car for some unknown vehicle (better the devil you know...)

Anyone owned a corolla and can give me an opinion on life expectancy, etc?

[Midlodemocrat]

1. TeenMidlo's car is a 2004 Camry that had 90,000 highway miles on it.

The amount of driving she does, it will even out pretty nicely over the next few years. Toyotas are good for at least 200,000 miles.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

4. WOW! Does TeenMidlo commute

to and from DeeCee or Roanoke each day?

[Midlodemocrat]

No. We BOUGHT it with 90,000 miles on it.

From a friend who had his office just north of Glen Allen. He hopped on 288 and then 64 both ways.

The car is fabulous (except for that stinky, smelly air freshener she has in it). I only paid $11,000 for it and the same car with higher mileage was going for $14,000 at CarMax. I got a great deal.

She commutes to school, but it is not even a mile, so I figure when the car is 4-5 years old, it will have roughly 15,000 per year on it. Sounds about right to me.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

6. Gotcha. This is from McGeorge Toyota on Broad. I promised

She Who Must Be Obeyed that I'd go over after work and take a look after it gets out of the "detailing" shop. God, I hate car dealerships...

(FYI - She is also looking at a Camry and asked about the Corolla for me thinking we could get a special "package deal". She's so cute when she acts naive.

Did I mention I hate car dealerships?

[Midlodemocrat]

7. Go to CarMax.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

8. Been there. Nothing in our price range.

[Midlodemocrat]

23. Try Haley Toyota on Hull.

My friend got her daughter a Rav4 there with 40,000 for $12,500.

[LynneSin]

9. How do you know they're highway miles?

You follow her everywhere or is your home at a Rest-Stop along I95 in Virginia?

[Midlodemocrat]

24. Can't you read. I said HAD.

I would never unleash TeenMidlo on this society. Drive on the highway? No way. :scared:

[driver8]

15. That's good news considering I have a 2000 Camry with 87,000 miles on it!!

I love Toyotas!

[matcom]

2. your Saturn only has 150k?

christ man that car will probably run for another 150k!

what year is it? our '98 is getting close to 150. still runs great!

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

3. the Saturn is a 92 beleive it or not.

I bought it in one of those "Little old ladies who only drove on Sunday" transactions that turned out to be completely true. Low mileage aside, the headliner is pealing off big time and I can't seem to get it to stay glued on, it needs new tires, it doesn't have air bags or ABS, and the AC puts a huge load on the engine dragging the gas mileage WAY down in the summer - but it does start when I turn the key...

[driver8]

16. My wife had a '93 Saturn that she bought before we were married.

We had paid it off and I was going to use it as my car to drive back and forth to work. The car ran like a champ -- it had about 115K miles on it but I knew it had a few good years left.

We had it parked on the street and some asshole (hit and run) totalled it. My wife was so sad -- like she lost her best friend!

I miss that car...

[Maine-ah]

5. the first car I purchased

was a VW with 87k on it. I sold it for a few thousand when it got up to 150k.

[Bjornsdotter]

10. Yes

...my son's Volvo had 150,000 miles on it when we bought it.....it runs like a dream


Cheers

[MissMillie]

11. my corolla was still running after 228,000 miles

if the car was cared for, it's got a lot of life left in it.

[Kali]

12. for a nissan or a toyota? you bet.

[guitar man]

13. It wouldn't necessarily bother me

to buy a car with 99k. Condition and how the vehicle has been maintained is ultimately more important than the number of miles it has on it. I bought a '95 Lincoln Mark VIII about 4 years ago with 100k on it. It now has 195k and looks like it's set for another 100k or so.

I have seen cars with 60k on them that have been treated like crap that I wouldn't touch and cars with 150k that have been taken care of that I wouldn't hesitate to buy at all.

Good luck!

[EstimatedProphet]

14. If you ask me that's a bit high

$5K I could see though.

[Blue-Jay]

17. My thoughts exactly. 7000 is too much.

Unless the car looks brand new, and you have records of all the maintenance history.

[bullwinkle428]

18. Sold my Honda Accord with 250K on it to my ex-wife!

It was on its fifth set of tires, I believe, and the only things it had to go into the shop for were things that basically just wore out from use - brakes, clutch master cylinder, struts, battery...probably something else, but nothing that flat-out failed.

She ran it up just past 300K and ran into some issues with exhaust components starting to corrode and rust away, and it didn't make financial sense to replace it, so she ended up getting a new(er) used car to replace it...

My current Accord has 128K on it, and it's probably more road-worthy than at least half of all vehicles out there on the highway...still looks great and drives beautifully. TLC makes a big difference, so have the car checked out by a mechanic beforehand if you're really serious about it.

[tandot]

19. My 1998 Toyota Corolla had 55,000 miles on it when I bought it in 2001

It now has almost 125,000 miles on it and I never had any problems. It actually gets 36 mpg on highways. However, I now rarely drive it because I started taking the train to work.

It was owned by a car rental company before I bought it.

Ask for the VIN number and check with Carfax:

http://www.carfax.com

It costs about $30 but you'll get a complete history on the car, including any accidents. I did that with mine and that is how I found out that it was owned by a car rental company.

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Forget the car

A BIG (though somewhat late) welcome to DU, you harmless little bunny! :hi:



Now, pardon me for posting and running, but I must go and change my armour.

[flamingyouth]

21. The price seems high to me, but I'm no car expert.

Our Lexus' blue book value is $6000.

My first car had 100,000 on it and I sold it @ 125,000 (it was a diesel). It was fine.

[Richard Steele]

22. Like grandpa Steele used to say, "It ain't the miles, it's the maintenence".

There should be a lot of good years left in that Corolla,
if it was properly taken care of for those first 99 thousand
miles.

With the various Toyotas I've seen, the general rule seems
to be that they will run forever...until the body rusts apart.

If the body looks good, and they have service records to show
it's had all it's regular checkups, 99k is nothing to be afraid of.

I'd offer them 5 thousand, and get haggled up to six. Seven isn't
totally too high if you really like the car.