Would you feel better buying a used car from a

[simple_gifts]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

cheap euro driver

oyxmoron.


Not necessarily.
I have a cheap Euro driver now and have found it to be trouble free over three summers and 34K.
The old BMW cost me 4.5K with tax and title, so it doesn't owe me much.
I've had cheap Mercedes 123 diesels that were reliable and trouble free.
GHT has a cheap Volvo that has required only minor repairs to bring into heavy daily driver use, even if it had better get a new timing belt soon.
The notion that there is no such thing as a reliable, cheap to own Euro car is simply not true.


Ya, I was thinking about my comment and realized a friend got (3) 80s/90s golf/rabbits with blown HG and towed them home and fixed them, drove one for many years and fixed the other 2 and sold them. I think some fit the bill as you describe, but I'd be pressed to find any built after say 1997.

He considers "cheap" free or < $500 lol.

 

[Doog]

I call local funeral directors and ask them if they know of any estate sales where families of deceased people want to dispose of any cars. You can find low mileage 10-20 year old cars that way. Many need some TLC but come right back. Plus heirs usually want to dump them and get the cash.

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
I was in the business 30 years. I use to buy customer cars that were broke bad. Overheated,engine ruined or transmission broke,bad EFI issues etc. FIx them and sell them with fresh engine OR trans. I had some of these that new owners continued to bring in to me. I'd let them take them to another shop if they wanted to look them over elsewhere. I always sold them fixed,good tires,brakes,wiper blades and such. I'd do two or three a year. Made great on them and never had a unhappy buyer. Mainly I did Datsun/Nissan's. They were great cars for the most part to fix and drove and ran great after. Biggest issue was making sure the seller realized how bad it was really broke and not making them feel like the damage was exaggerated just to get their car. That was never the case or intention.

I bought flip cars from mechanic shops which is different than buying a car from an auto body shop. But not a mechanics personal car! Thats entirely the opposite. After working on engines all day the last thing they want to work on is their own. And because they know whats wrong and how to fix it the mindset is "eh fix that tomorrow", which never comes.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Me and my son have supplemented our income for many years by turning cars for a buck or two. Usually we just clean the daylights out of them inside and out and flip them quickly, but we've bought many a "fixer-upper" and made even more that way.

If you're cautious and understand cars you can do this, but if you buy enough used cars sooner or later one will bite you. if this hasn't happened yet you're just lucky or you haven't bought/sold very many!

 

[demarpaint]

On occasions customers ask a repair shop they've dealt with for years if they can park their car there to sell. Once in a while the cars are actually good, and the customer is looking to get more for the car than they could trading it, or they don't want people coming to their house. My friend does this for some of his customers, and will only put good cars on his shop lot because the cars usually go to his other customers. The last thing he wants is to screw another customer with a bad car. The key to buying these cars is to have a good relationship with the owner of the shop. Now as others have mentioned if shops are flipping cars that is another story.

 

[rjundi]

Depends how well you know the owner.

Some mechanics are thieves or simply incompetent while others are absolute stars. Tough business.

If it were me looking for the cheap car. I would find the local mechanic(if any) who is an expert in a make. Once you narrow a choice pay them for check over. This is especially pertinent to Euro makes.

I would not hesitate to buy an old Subaru or BMW. However I know two local inexpensive indy's who are true experts in the makes who would help weed the junk from the diamonds in the rough.

 

[hounddog]

The way people talk about shops is unbelievable sometimes. I've had a give or take 100 cars a day come through shops I ran,worked in. For YEARS. With very few complaints and lots of repeat customers. Lots. Have had a few techs drive junk but most had cars kept up nicely. It also depends on the product. Some are just plain junk. I could buy a Z car or a 210 or a Sentra with t/balt come,bent valves eve7n a hole in a piston. |Pull the engine,hone,bearings,valve job new seals,gaskets paint.|Put a fresh clutch,check brakes,tires,wipers and then detail it.All in house. In a few DAYS if not real busy or at most two weeks. Sell it ad NEVER have a complaint out of it or my customer. We REPAIRED cars for a LIVING. I've worked with hundreds of techs/mechanics over the year's. Yea every now in then a bad one. My job to keep them out of my shops. Worked with a LOT of really good ones. I've gone home with as many as 20 plus cars in the lot with broken automatic transmissions and didn't have one or two trans techs but over half the shop could fix them. Some if parts were available could do one a day. ]ts a site seeinggo 8 to 10 techs all doing automatics on the same day and sharing advice(or not) and not have ONE come back. Had lots of customers fix those bad broken vehicles also.

 

[SLCraig]

Originally Posted By: WhyMe
in my quest for a cheap euro driver


404 - cheap Euro driver not found

 

[Rock_Hudstone]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
Some mechanics are thieves or simply incompetent while others are absolute stars. Tough business.

Don't forget the ones that are incompetent and thieves.