looking for a two - three year old toyota to buy

Really? In the late seventies the new vehicle market in the US was around

9,000,000. In 2004 it was 19,000,000. In 2006 it was 16,500,000 the majority of which the more expensive trucks, midsize and luxury cars.

Statistically in the US the average NEW vehicle buyer replaces their new vehicle with another new vehicle, in three to four years, with 45K to 60K on the clock The average USED car buyer replaces their used car with another used car in two to four years, with 80K to 150K on the clock.

Whom do you think is spending the most on maintenance and repairs every year?

mike

If you save the money first and avoid paying interest you have more to put into the selling price. The problem when one buys any used vehicle, that somebody else no longer wanted for some reason, is one can never know for sure how that vehicle was used or abused, or whether it was maintained properly or not. I was a retail Group Sales Manager for ten years, I can assure you how a vehicle looks on the use car lot, after the detail guys get finished, is no measure of how it looked when it was traded ;)

mike

LOL! Why is it that small and medium stores always seem to have the owner's nephew or son-in-law working the floor?

To keeps the money in the family, I guess.

mike

Very few people buy Toyotas from the Kankakee dealer. One can drive 15 miles to Peotone or 30 miles to Matteston or 80 miles to Champaign and get much better deals, ususally. But he also sells GM products.

Mike, you old top poster, you. I didn't get 24 K miles, but I also didn't have to pay the original purchase price, either. The cost per mile ended up being a lot less over the life of the vehicle. I can't afford to pay as much as a house used to cost just to lose the largest chunk of my investment in the first two years. You think like a typical brain-washed American consumer.

Charles of Schaumburg

That's why any prospective owner should take a flashlight and be prepared to get their knees dirty and look EVERYWHERE. Open the trunk and pull up the carpet. Unscrew the oil cap AFTER the test drive. Smell the oil, check the dipstick, too. Look at the tranny fluid and even the power steering fluid. Oftimes they will change belts if they're worn but don't change the pulleys, look at the pulleys. Is the radiator fluid in the overflow tank the right color? Does it smell burnt? Any signs of anything worn beyond what one would expect, and/or leakage that shouldn't be there?

Sometimes it even pays to do this to a brand-new, right off the factory floor car! Then you have to be careful with many dealers. They will promise anything in the space-time-continium to close a sale, even if it's not possible. Let me put it to ya this way: If I had a daughter dating one of them, I'd insist on chaparoning any dates! I might get a FOID just for the occasion. . . . Come to think of it, if I had a son dating one of them (I've actually run into a couple women salesmen), I might have to chaparone them, too.

Charles of Schaumburg

Yes, my view of truth is narrow. A broad knife doesn't cut.

But other than routine maintenance such as tires and oil, I've spent close to nothing the last 3 years on maintenance. I kept the last one 7 years. But I'm far from typical. I think the most expensive thing I put out for in the last three years was a CV joint about 2 years back. Tires and oil you're going to have to buy no matter what. Also about every 50,000-80,000, you're going to need brakes (30,000 if it's American), Radiator and tranny flush every second year. New battery usually after the 3d year, that's not expensive.

So in 2004 19,000,000 people bought new. Well, more power to them. I don't have the resources to do that right now. I may be "making enough" to do it, but I've got expenses that have to come out of what I make that most people don't have. I never really have made enough to buy new since new cars got so expensive. And I don't like being beholden to the bank for things. Credit cards are more debt than I like to run up.

Thrift USED TO BE an American value. Now it's Spend all you can, Can all you git, and sit on the lid. I don't believe in that lifestyle. Yes I'm a bit old fashioned that way.

Charles of Schaumburg