: Let me know what you think a good price on this car would be


Storis
03-20-2011, 09:44 PM
I am looking for reliable small car that gets good gas mileage, $7,000.00 or less. There is a Mitsubishi dealer that had a 2005 civic coupe with 99,000 miles for $6,995. I called and they said they still had it, of course 45 minutes later when i got there it was sold yesterday.

Anyway the salesman showed me what they had used on the lot. One that caught my eye is a 2005 Focus ZX3 hatchback with only 43,000 miles on it they were asking $8995 It had hail damage on the hatch, roof, hood and part of the passenger side, but I didn't really care about that if i could get a good deal on it. So the sales manager asks me what price would stop me right in my tracks and cause me to buy today. I said $2000.00 because i figure it will cost about $5,000.00 if I wanted to make it look new again. He doesn't say anything yeah or nay. we keep talking and he says if we took $3000.00 off that would bring it down to $4995. I said would they take that as an out the door price. He says he doesn't know but could try but wanted a firm commitment before he talked to the owner (to me this sounds like they might take $2,000.00 for it plus tax and license fees but he won't commit, wants to hold out for more, and that I probably could walk in with cash and get the car for $4995 out the door).

So I asked him for the Carfax and said I would talk to my wife. I got home and read the Carfax and this car was listed as a fleet car. So it has had the tar driven out of it for 43,000 miles. It runs and drives nice, and like I said i really don't care about the hail damage. I want cheap reliable good gas mileage and I'll drive it into the ground. I figure 43,000 miles of fleet driving probably equals about $80,000 normal miles. So I'm thinking I will walk in and put $2000.00 on the counter and tell them the car has 2 big hits against it. and see if I can get it for less than $5,000.00 out the door. How much would you pay for it.

hypnoticracing
03-20-2011, 09:53 PM
5-6k is a decent price for that, just cause it was fllet doesnt mean it had the tar driven out of it. most fleets and rental companies have excellant service contracts and everything is done at the correct intervals and such.. id say 43k miles is 43k miles not 80k...

Storis
03-20-2011, 10:00 PM
Fleet car could also mean rental and I know how I drive rental cars. I guess when it comes to buying used cars i
tend to be a glass half empty guy.

hypnoticracing
03-20-2011, 10:18 PM
Fleet car could also mean rental and I know how I drive rental cars. I guess when it comes to buying used cars i
tend to be a glass half empty guy.

i drive them hard to but i know when i buy one that they have been maintainded to the fullest and are normally just off warranty and get cleaned/washed everytime they come in etc..

id much rather buy a 43k mile rental than 43k mile high school girls car who only got one oil change the entire time

Storis
03-20-2011, 10:36 PM
True

DrkKnight614
03-21-2011, 08:18 AM
Posted via FF Mobile They have some balls trying to sell a 6 year old car with significant hail damage for 9k. Me, Id walk away from it because there are other foci out there for around the same price without the hail damage. But I wouldnt go more then 4k out the door. It wont be cheap to fix the damage.

WiscoGTI
03-21-2011, 10:06 AM
Yeah, personally, I would just search Craigslist for a used Focus. There's tons of them out there. And for cheap. Forget buying a car with hail damage. And I can think of quite a few cars (even better cars than the Focus) that you could buy a decent used one for $7k.

But that's just me.

Foci are great and I love mine. If that's what your heart is set on, check out CL first. That's my advice. S'where I got mine. And I got mine for about $1000 less than what it was worth at the time.

2002greenzx3
03-21-2011, 10:40 AM
^ what wisco said. i found both my foci on CL. my old 2002 had 42,000 when i got it for $4200. and my new 2001 had 29,000 when i got it for 6,500.

deezx5
03-21-2011, 04:41 PM
Major rental car companies wouldn't keep an 05 this long. Its likely a take home from a utility company, govt, corporate etc.. or in-house vehicle to drive back and forth between nearby sites in the same city. Either way those 45K are almost certainly all city.

Since they already lied to you about the civic in the meantime feel free to lie your ass off to the salesguy to get the best price just don't sign anything. $5K is fair for an 05 but you can probably get it to 4 with hail damage. Also see if you can get the car on a lift to check for any other visible damage.

Storis
03-21-2011, 09:15 PM
I'm not going to even try and fix the damage if i can get it cheap. I'll just drive it into the ground. I won't have to worry about parking lot dings its, just going to be for back and forth to work and banging around town anyway.


I did some looking around and there are alot of them with no damage and the same miles for less than they are asking. So if they don't deal no big thing

red2009se
03-21-2011, 09:20 PM
Fleet can also mean a business owned it. And most middle aged businessmen/women don't drive like teenagers.