Good car to drive at Tucson?

Good car to drive at Tucson?
Hi,

I am a asian and moving to USA soon for work commitment. Due to the different culture, i am not sure what car to buy in USA. There are many brand that i have not seen before.

I am looking for used car. Maybe you guy can advice me better on what to look out.

I am open to all suggestion

posted by  oceanb70

Lots of stuff to pick from depending on what you want and how much money you have to spend.

Welcome to America.

posted by  newyorker

What are you looking for from this car? price? size? efficiency? performance? status? reliability? cargo room? comfort? Give us an idea of what you are looking for.

posted by  dvdrose18

Price = preferably less than $8k
Size = enough for 2 person but ideally 4 person.
efficiency = good enough for me to travel for long and short distances
Performance = I believe should be at least 2.0L car
Status = looking for used car as i got low budget but looking for not older than Yr 2000 and not more than 70k of mileage
Cargo room = what does that mean?
Comfort = Good if i can go for comfort car like BMW but i am afraid that the maintenance part will kill me.

posted by  oceanb70

Cargo room= place for luggage
Unless you will need a lot of cargo room, you are probably looking at a mid-size sedan. choices include things like:
Honda Civic or Accord
Ford Focus
Toyota Camry
Chevrolet Malibu
Dodge Neon or Stratus
Pontiac Grand Am
Hyundai Sonata
VW Passat or Jeta
Saturn Ion

And the list goes on.

For $8k and reliability you are probably looking at a 2004-2006 model, depending on the make. Domestic cars are cheeper around here, but Imports tend to be more reliable. So you could get a 2006 Ford or Chevy for the same price as a 2004 Honda or Toyota.
On the other hand, if you want more of a status car, you will be probably looking at a 2000-2004, but reliability will suffer.

posted by  dvdrose18

thanks for your comprehensive answer!!!

But i must say that i'm not very well verse in car, therefore alot of term i won't know and would like to clarify with you.

What is Domestics car? Status Car?

and also, to find a 2004 Honda Accord.. it will easily cost $13k based on cars.com

I saw a BMW 300series selling at $8k++. it is worth buying?

posted by  oceanb70

By a domestic car I mean a car from an American company: Dodge, Ford, and GM, and their subsidiaries.

By a status car, I mean a car with a name or reputation attached to it, like Cadillac, Jaguar, Mercedes, etc. Cars like this tend to cost more than they are really worth, just for the name.

Luxury cars, like BMW, tend to be expensive to repair and maintain, especially if you have to take them to the dealer or authorized repair facility.

As far as the Accord costing 13K, I am a little surprised, but I probably shouldn't be. It depends a lot on the style and miles though. If you are shopping dealers, that is probably about what you will pay, however, if you are willing to buy from a private seller, or search the back lots of dealers, you could probably find a descent one for 9K

posted by  dvdrose18

Thanks.. any website recommend for used car sales?? currently i am looking into craigslist.org

posted by  oceanb70

I was never a fan of shopping for cars online, so I don't know which sites are good, maybe someone else can help you out with that.

posted by  dvdrose18

Check out:

http://autotrader.com
http://cars.com
and http://tucson.kijiji.com/ (it's pretty much like craigslist)

posted by  chris_knows

then how do you find private seller?

posted by  oceanb70

thanks... out of this three url... only one i don't know.. thanks for sharing

posted by  oceanb70

Most of those sites are online classified ads for private sellers. There is also the local newspaper's classified section, word of mouth, and cars parked on the side of the road with for sale signs...

posted by  dvdrose18