Buying a car...

I have a Toyota Matrix and I love it.  It's a hatchback (small wagon) and it holds everything I need to put in there - it gets 29 mpg in the city and 33 on the highway.  If your credit is decent, the dealer where you buy your car should  be able to arrange financing for you.  Are you going to sell your truck and use what you get as a down payment or trade it in?

Joyce

I think I will get more money selling it private party. Maybe 2 or 3,000, I hope! Do you have to put a down payment? And how do you know how much you will have to put down?

You are right--you will get LOTS more selling your truck privately.

I am a fan of Subarus, although at this price, you will be buying a used vehicle. That, IMHO, is a good thing. You can get a nice car without paying the depreciation of a new one. To give you an example, the '06 Chrysler 300C I bought was HALF the cost of a new one, still has the factory warranty and  looks (even smells!) like new. It also is cheaper to insure since it's used.

If you are buying a Japanese  car, stick with Subarus, Hondas and Toyotas.  They cost more, but last a long time and hold up well. Toyota pickups will last 250,00 miles WITH PROPER MAINTENANCE.

 Hmmm I was thinking buying one that was a couple years old would be better. Well I still have a little while to think about it. Thanks for the input.

zatchbell322

I think I will get more money selling it private party. Maybe 2 or 3,000, I hope! Do you have to put a down payment? And how do you know how much you will have to put down?

you dont necessarily have to make a down payment. it is a good idea to make at least 10% down payment though.

lorib

If you are buying a Japanese  car, stick with Subarus, Hondas and Toyotas.  They cost more, but last a long time and hold up well. Toyota pickups will last 250,00 miles WITH PROPER MAINTENANCE.

I take my Matrix in for maintenance every 5,000 miles.  Before that I had an Echo, which I really liked but was just too small to put much of anything in.  When I got the Matrix I gave the Echo, which had 200,000 miles on it, to my oldest son and he put another 100,000 on before it finally went to the big car lot in the sky. For mileage, I just don't think you can beat a Toyota.

Joyce

I am seriously eye-balling  the Toyota Corolla. Good gas mileage and the new ones are really cute. It wont be anything like the truck but that just isn't feasible any more. Thanks for the input.If I get 4,000 for the truck, it's value on Kelly Blue Book, I was thinking to put 2,000 ( maybe 3,000) down and reserve the other 2,000 for changing over the title and all that stuff. How do I figure out what is 10% of the car?

zatchbell322

 How do I figure out what is 10% of the car?

Keeping in mind that math is not my strong point I think you can just divide the cost of the car by 10 and the answer should be 10% of the cost.

Joyce

10% is really easy, you just move the decimal over 1 space to the left.  For example:  10% of $10 is $1, 10% of $100 is $10, 10% of $14,575 is $1,457.50

My recommendations...

Yaris (Toyota)

xA (Scion)

Versa (Nissan)

Fit (Honda)

All these are on my list...economy cars that are super fuel efficent and rated very highly with Consumer Reports. The xA's prices have SKYROCKETED in the past several months. They were in the 10-12K range...now? Lucky to find one for under 15K...and these are 2004/5 models since they do not make them anymore. CUTE cars tho...super cute. 

 OMG I love the Yaris!!! I haven't even come across it and I was all over the Toyota website. It is soo cute! And even the most advanced one is cheaper than the corolla.

Thank you for pointing it out to me. It now has the #1 spot on my list. 

FWIW, Scions are made by Toyota.