buying a car, tips appreciated.

[3klipze]

I went around looking for a good 1990+ Japanese car, like a civic or integra and I'm just wondering how far will these car go.. If a civic that is 1994+ that's regularly serviced, would it go anywhere near the 300k km mark? how about an integra 1994+?, would it be able to last that long? I'm currently looking for one with around 150K. and will do performance mods. Also, would the 1999-2003 Mazda protege run decently? they seem to be very cheap and the depreciate quickly.. don't know if they're a great car to buy.. some tip would be great guys! thanks

[Kaiten]

It's tought to say man, it's all dependant on how the car's been maintained and driven. Don't take the sellers word for it if they say the car has been regularily serviced either; everybody says that. Ask for records if there are any, whether it be maintenance or accidents. Take it to a mechanic/shop you trust. Take it out for a drive.

These are some things you can do to increase the odds that the car is in good shape and won't crap out on you soon after being bought. While names like Honda and Toyota make relatively reliable cars, it's not all in the name.

I dunno about protege's, I think there was a thread about them not long ago so try searching for it. Hope that helps.

[3klipze]

Thanks, its kind of hard to find some good decent car to take to the shop. I've asked 1 or 2 sellers but they're not willing to. its somewhat hard.. and definitely i'll test drive before i'm going to buy. thanks!

[cococly]

To the OP:

Did you just get your license?

What's your budget?

My tips for buying a Japanese car built in the 1990s is not to trust the odometer mileage

My personal opionion : Any cars that is over 150,000km must have some major problems, or else why would the seller put it up for sale?

[3klipze]

yup, got my L at the moment. budgets probably around no more than 7000 .

i don't know, maybe some people just want a change thats why they're selling it, but its hard to find a good seller who is honest and is motivated to sell a stock car.

probably planning to do some mods, not crazy because insurance will suck all my money already haha

[chris_89T]

Well it all depends on how its maintained. Working at a shop, i see cars that come in with 200KM + on it, and it runs like new engine wise! It was not as tight feeling as it should be, but no matter how you drive it, rubber gets old, seals leak, etc.

Ive also driven cars with under 100KM that feel like total crap, burn oil, smoke, generally just rough feeling, front end is loose, vibrations.

If your buying privately, just analyze the owner, see how he is about maintenance, does he have records? Does he talk about how hard he drives it? Look over the car, lots of door dings/scratches? Good indication hes not overly concerned about it. Check for oil leaks, dirty engine bay, interior etc. The cars your looking at are very common to be modified/trashed. Be careful of the ones that have been hacked together!

The best thing to do is to get someone who you trust to check it out. BCAA isnt bad, but its best to take it to someone who knows the vehicle inside out. Search up on the internet for common issues.

One thing though. I see this mistake made all the time, and myself fell into the trap. Dont modify a car if its not 100% running properly. You'll get into the habit of "why do this, if it doesnt make my car handle/go faster"

[3klipze]

wow thanks for the advise Chris, yah i have a friend who knows a lot about vehicles and he does his own stuff with the car so i'm planning to bring him along to help an eye. hah i don't realyl get what your trying to say in the last part though LOL.

thanks for all the advise guys!, keep em coming and i'll take all these points to consideration when I'm on my way to purchasing my car

[3klipze]

Also, is there any disadvantage of a person who is selling a car without insurance. i don't know much about it , but isn't it like.. you go with the guy to an insurance agency and transfer the insurance and then you pay for the car then you can drive it away?.. but what if its uninsured? i don't know much about the process, anyone care to explain?

[cococly]

^ You can buy a short term insurance plan, it's like $35/day?( not too sure )

You would learn more once you owned a car all for yourself. You would also understand how frustrating owning a car could be some of the time...

[Edison_Chen]

If the car is currently uninsured, then it is not legal to take the car for a test drive on the public roads, unless the owner buys a 1-day permit for the insurance.

If the car has no insurance on it, and he sells the vehicle to you, then you and him can go to an autoplan to change ownership and you can get insurance at the same time. You will to pay 7% PST on the vehicle price. After the transfer and insurance is done on your car, then you can go back to his house, put the plates on and then drive home

If the car has insurance on it, then both you can meet up at an autoplan, and do everything there (switch plates,ownership, etc). He can either cancel his plates or he can keep them and transfer them onto a different car if he wishes.

If you do not want to purchase insurance right away, you can do a "nonlic" non-licensed transfer, which only transfer the ownership into your name and that costs $28 + 7% pst

[TRDood]

^^^

can i cheat the system by dealing under the table?
say, the seller sold it to me to $100 bucks. i pay $7 in pst.

then just give him cash for the rest of the money (let's say the car is 10000, i give him $9900 afterwards)

[chris_89T]

You can in theory. If ICBC were to find out, they wouldnt be to happy. When you fill out the transfer of ownership form, there is a box to fill out why you got the car for less then its market value.

Back in the day, i thought that would negatively effect your outcome if the car were to be written off/totalled. I later was informed that icbc does not consider the value you paid for the vehicle in the even it is written off due to total loss/damage.

I dont know what it would be considered if icbc did find out. Tax evasion? Thats a criminal offense as far as i know, but i dont think icbc would pursue it that far.

[illicitstylz]

i was in your shoes for the last year.

definitely research about the average prices, i looked on craigslist and bought both my cars from there via private sales.

- just send e-mails initially asking for :

1- clean title? if not, any over $2000 in damages?
2- service/maintenance history ( major things such as timing belt/waterpump/clutch)
3- rust?
4- anything that needs to be fixed?
5- local car? (toronto cars and any other cars from east are rust prone)

then if that looks good, go from there by calling, set up a viewing, if it looks good, make sure you spend the $20 for a icbc vehicle history report + $10 for a lien check at the icbc licensing centre.

if that works out, just tell him to meet at the shop, if inspection works, then you'll just buy it then once you got all the details. that's how i got it done with both my cars and the sellers had no issues.

make sure you get paperwork done at autoplan agent, also for the transfer tax, i've had the seller help me out. wrote a lower value than blackbook, and just noted something that was wrong with it (for mine, he noted like misfiring cylinder or something )

[Blinky]

Originally Posted by TRDood

^^^

can i cheat the system by dealing under the table?
say, the seller sold it to me to $100 bucks. i pay $7 in pst.

then just give him cash for the rest of the money (let's say the car is 10000, i give him $9900 afterwards)

Yes and no.

You can fudge the numbers a bit with agreement of the seller you could, say, declare a selling price of $6k for something that maybe you actually paid $7.5 for. However, you WILL raise eyebrows if you "paid" only $500 for a 2008 Mercedes E-class.

[3klipze]

Originally Posted by illicitstylz

i was in your shoes for the last year.

definitely research about the average prices, i looked on craigslist and bought both my cars from there via private sales.

- just send e-mails initially asking for :

1- clean title? if not, any over $2000 in damages?
2- service/maintenance history ( major things such as timing belt/waterpump/clutch)
3- rust?
4- anything that needs to be fixed?
5- local car? (toronto cars and any other cars from east are rust prone)

then if that looks good, go from there by calling, set up a viewing, if it looks good, make sure you spend the $20 for a icbc vehicle history report + $10 for a lien check at the icbc licensing centre.

if that works out, just tell him to meet at the shop, if inspection works, then you'll just buy it then once you got all the details. that's how i got it done with both my cars and the sellers had no issues.

make sure you get paperwork done at autoplan agent, also for the transfer tax, i've had the seller help me out. wrote a lower value than blackbook, and just noted something that was wrong with it (for mine, he noted like misfiring cylinder or something )

wow what a sweet procedure, thanks for the help, will definitely do this when i got my target haha thanks

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by chris_89T

I dont know what it would be considered if icbc did find out. Tax evasion? Thats a criminal offense as far as i know, but i dont think icbc would pursue it that far.

ICBC would probably just forward your information to the Feds and let Revenue Services look into it. Mind you, there's no reason why you couldn't have "only" paid a small amount of money for a vehicle. I paid $300 total for my current car, albeit it had an oil starved engine in it and the owner simply wanted enough money to pay the Mazda dealership for the diagnostic fees they had charged him. I also paid $600 for a highly modified car that had a spun piston bearing which I ended up stripping down to the shell and crushing. Both times I was given a funny look by the insurance agent but nothing more. And hey, if ICBC or Revenue Canada wants to audit me for all that, I've the paperwork to back it up. *shrug*



The main thing to watch out for is if an owner refuses to part with the car to allow it to go through an inspection, walk away. Chances are there's something he/she is hiding and doesn't want a potential buyer to know about until after the money has changed hands. As well, if the seller is just acting weird or giving you strange vibes about the car, tell them thanks and walk away. Especially for a first car, it's not fun being taken for a ride and finding out two weeks into owning the car that you need to dump $2000 into repairing the engine.

One other piece of advice, be wary of engine bays that look like they were freshly detailed. Yes, it looks nice but it's also a common trick into making existing leaks magically disappear while potential buyers check out the car.

[syee]

If you're just starting out and don't have a ton of money, then I'd probably pick something that's cheap to insure just so you can build up some years under your belt and start getting discounts from ICBC. I noticed you had mentioned a Civic or an Integra, and I would probably suspect that the insurance on those are probably going to be sky high just because of the theft rates on those cars.

If you're not too particular about what car you drive, talk to your agent and find out if you can get a ballpark on insurance rates for various cars that you're interested in. I'd honestly feel ripped off if I was paying $1500 in insurance every year for a car that's really only worth $5000. Obviously, the insurance rate covers not just only cost of the car but bodily injury too but if you've got limited funds, you probably want to minimize expenditure on stuff like insurance that you can use elsewhere.

[Edison_Chen]

The tax information gets sent to the Consumer Taxation Branch. If the price you tell the agent, is less than the book value, then the agent will need to type into the system why you got a good deal, or why it is so cheap.

[some_punk]

Just go to any dealer on Kingsway and you pretty much see what not to buy. Or anything east of terminal.

Just remember that in the automotive industry, it is the industry that you really get what you pay for.

[Uncle Benz]

Originally Posted by illicitstylz

i was in your shoes for the last year.

definitely research about the average prices, i looked on craigslist and bought both my cars from there via private sales.

- just send e-mails initially asking for :

1- clean title? if not, any over $2000 in damages?
2- service/maintenance history ( major things such as timing belt/waterpump/clutch)
3- rust?
4- anything that needs to be fixed?
5- local car? (toronto cars and any other cars from east are rust prone)

then if that looks good, go from there by calling, set up a viewing, if it looks good, make sure you spend the $20 for a icbc vehicle history report + $10 for a lien check at the icbc licensing centre.

if that works out, just tell him to meet at the shop, if inspection works, then you'll just buy it then once you got all the details. that's how i got it done with both my cars and the sellers had no issues.

make sure you get paperwork done at autoplan agent, also for the transfer tax, i've had the seller help me out. wrote a lower value than blackbook, and just noted something that was wrong with it (for mine, he noted like misfiring cylinder or something )

That's exactly the way I sold my sister's old car. Worked out well for both me and the buyer. Don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you want, a good seller should have the answer for most of your questions.

Don't be too afraid of Toronto cars if they have been rust proofed often. Rust proofing is cheap out here and often people get it done before the start of every winter or every 2 winters.
If the car was only rust proofed once at the time of original purchase and is now more then 5-6 years old, just have it inspected.
If you do find a car with minor body rust, it can be fixed quick and cheap. Plus it will get you a much bigger discount on your purchase price that it will cost you to fix the rust. Minor dents here and there, (doors and fenders) are no biggie and you often find them on most older cars because life happens and moms and sisters drive the cars as well. As long as they didn't come from a accident they will not affect the driveability of the car at all, and will work in your favor to lower the cost of the car more than it will cost you to fix the dents.

As for a starter car you can't go wrong with mid 90s corollas or civics. Corolla's especially, know that from personal experience.

Also if you're not good at negotiating, don't be afraid to have another person invovled. My buyer's mom did wonders for getting her a great deal, lol.

[illicitstylz]

Also, if you're looking into integras or any 2 door cars, expect a higher insurance rate.

my previous 96 integra with -10% discount was about $250/month just to give you a ballpark range.

Like previous post mentioned, toronto/eastern canadian car's aren't horrible, but depends on how long they've been there. My car has been there for 2 years but that's it and been in vancouver ever since 2000.

[3klipze]

hm.. why is it more expensive for 2 door? but i wasn't really looking for a 2 door as i don't really like them.. its sporty-ish but 4 door is convient and stylish the same way too, thats depending on the car though haha.

yah im trying to mostly look for BC cars and i've seen quite a bit of people own these protege, and they seem like a good runner that last pretty well.

Integras seem to be one of the most expenive on the market compared to civic and for the money, i think civics are kind of more bang for the buck aiy? i don't see a lot of cheap Integra for sale on craigslist and such..

still look! and again, thanks for tips!. keep up your personal opinions!

[illicitstylz]

integra's are definitely a bit of an "upgrade" compared to a civic since it's badged acura and doesn't have the " civic " stereotype which is why i tended to stay away from it since it gives you that punkish young street racer look in my opinion.

after the integra coupe, and found out two doors are really inconvenient, moved onto an acura 1.6EL now.

4 doors, more convenient, looks classier, more luxurious, much cheaper on insurance

[CivicTypeRice]

^^^ You forgot more slower LOL

[illicitstylz]

Originally Posted by CivicTypeRice

^^^ You forgot more slower LOL

but it has VTEC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on a serious note, i was looking for something more daily drivable with the luxury options where my integra was lacking in that area. This is a better balance i would say.