Car shopping!

Your halfway there on buying used.The other half is buying non german / non luxury brands. Nissan Sentra, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus etc are pretty solid deals.

Problem with used luxury cars is that maintenence can be costly with those brands and with it being used / old, it's a risk.

I bought a jetta last year cause it was a solid deal on craigslist knowing it would be a risk maintenance wise long term and that was a 2011 so not crazy old.

You ll pay 3k for the car now and another 10k on maintenance in the long run, kinda pointless to go for luxury car w such budget.

Just get a Golf or something, don't know if prices in the USA for European cars are heavily taxed or not though

Volkswagens are considered maintenance traps in US in the economy car market but yea.

You just posted on starting over with no bankroll. Are you sure buying a car is the best thing to do right now? If savings is your goal, I'd buy a used prius, really shop for a good deal. They get crazy mileage. Then you can do uber on your free time to make side income for when you don't want to play poker. They do promotions giving you $25-35+/hr. I did it for a Summer.

Save some money. 5-10k. Go back to 1/2 and grind 5-10k. Then do your 2/5, grind 30k, but keep saving. Find cheap hobbies like going to the gym. Really evaluate your life. After you have 50k+ saved, and some security, you can start even considering buying shit.

Id go more this route: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/19/top-10-cars-for-smart-people/

How are you getting to work at the moment, do you have your old vehicle still and how far are you from work is a bicycle an option?

Lexus is a Japanese import brand which is a far cry from the maintenance expense and nightmare you might expect from a Mercedes or BMW. Those cars were built with the idea rich people would trade them in every few years. Lexus is notorious for lasting 200k+ miles easy and is built around a standard platform that uses commonly available cheap parts. It is in a class unto itself when it comes to reliability and maintenance costs compared to other luxury brands.

There's no way I'd buy a cheap American built car as those are the maintenance nightmares. If I'm looking into the 90's era of cars then it simply has to be Japanese. The problem with something like a used Toyota or Honda in my price range is that many of those cars were driven into the ground by cheap users who didnt maintain them. A 1997 Lexus will always be in better condition than a 1996 Camry.

An old Prius would have shot batteries by now, plus you can't drive for Uber with anything more than a 5 year old car I believe, and you cant find a 2013 Prius for $3000. This has nothing to do with buying a swanky car, I just feel the luxury line of Jap imports are the most well taken care of, reliable, and cheap to repair.

And despite being busto I still need transportation, so I of course have to buy a car.

On February 17 2017 16:32 thewh00sel wrote: Id go more this route: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/19/top-10-cars-for-smart-people/ How are you getting to work at the moment, do you have your old vehicle still and how far are you from work is a bicycle an option?

I'm borrowing a car from my fsmily, and my commute is 30 minutes across a bridge and freeway. Reliable transportation is priority second only to keeping a roof over my head.

no bus or subway around your area? I'd build a decent sized bankroll too before buying a car if I was you

you've shown to lack discipline, if you can force yourself to go around using public transportation while you build your roll it would definitely be a step in the right direction when it comes to being disciplined

otherwise if you're like someone I know he just ends up never listening to advices and ends up broke asking for money, some people are just not meant to manage any kind of money

Public transportation is also not an option. I have to travel between 2 offices when requested to deal with user issues that require an on site technician. Also a 30 minute commute be car would be about 2.5 hours via bus according to google. Namely because there is no useful public transit in my city.

As far as being undisciplined, I mean I made it this far in my life without assistance. I've owned a home, several new vehicles and have had a 750+ credit score for over 10 years. This is like literally the only major life mistake I've ever made. I don't think I'm some huge screw up in general lol. I'm just a wannabe poker player who was not used to managing a variable income.

Fair enough, i don't think people are attacking you for the most part just offering frugality outs that may have been overlooked. I'd definitely seek out something on the top 10 list I provided as consumer reports is pretty reliable metric. And definitely get a manual for the maintenance and mileage and fun factor gains. There are loads of 2000-2005 vehicles for under 3k that have about 100k miles on them that you'll prob be able to resell for the same price in 2-3 years. One craigslist florida search found me a nice manual 2002 accord with 115k miles on it for 2200 in pompano. Also I wouldn't put much stock into the "more likely abused" idea. You'll know once you see the owner and test drive it whether its been abused.

Keep in mind vehicles require maintenance, registration, excise tax, loans if you aren't paying in full, etc. Not sure what your current deal is borrowing a car from family but don't underestimate the amount of savings you could potentially have keeping your current arrangement.

yeah looks like you may really need a car, if so I'd follow wh00sel's advice, pretty sure it's going to end up cheaper than one of those Lexus, I think Lexus is a fine choice since they are very reliable cars but you can find cars that are just as reliable that will be cheaper and that's all that should matter to you, you don't drive a car to impress people, we're already too old for that

top 10 list looks good. i have an 04 honda civic that is in the 'above average' column and it has been good to me

I used to drive a 2001 Camry which should be just a worse version of that first pic Lexus you are considering. You have a point in that it is a really reliable car. Like say for example that first pic car the ES (which I like best out of all of em) had like 80k miles or something with clean title and stellar maintenance its not the worst possible deal I guess if you can scoop it for ~ 2.5k. (no idea what KBB or whatever is im just guessing). And yeah I have no idea about maintenance cost on Lexus.

Soo yeah I can see why you are defensive since you probably put some thought into this and perhaps alot of people in this thread including myself didnt see where your coming from. Id personally buy a newer year >2000 car but up to you. In general though almost pointless to ask us since you don't say how many miles each car has but since you asked I take car #1 (at mentioned mileage/price). I think its the best looking. The sporty look doesn't go well with old used cars unless its a classic like a porsche imo. Car 2 is ugly and Car 3 looks kinda like a hoodlum/drug dealer would drive it. The first pic just looks like your some family man that don't want to spend too much on a car and kept it for along time. I think it'd be +EV for you to get away from the sporty look and switch over to sedans/compacts for awhile anyway since you like really like sports cars bit too much.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ger-buys-a-ferrari-find-a-new-manager

This article is worth a read.

Yeah I've been eyeing the ES300 for quite some time now. I felt the LS400 looked kinda "old man'ish", but figured hey, lets not worry about looks and lets just get a really solid car. I'm sure I'll appreciate the drive in it. But the ES300 is still a damn smooth sedan, really hard to find any fault with it compared to the 400. I've only seen an SC400 in person once years ago. It caught my attention because I had never seen one before and knew it was something different. Now I think it looks kinda odd. The front end of the car is disproportionately long compared to the rest of the body housing a V8 giving it a somewhat roach-like appearance. It also does have a hint of teenage wannabe racer to it so I think I'll avoid that. The ES300 seems to be the best mix of modern styling and comfort without catering to either crowd too much. Plus there's tons available on autotrader/CL. The pricing is kinda scattered, it would seem that people havent studied the market at all and are just selling for whatever they want to get out of it. Private sellers can be stupid like that, and if the owner just put in $3000 in repairs to make it run again he jacks up the price to try and get his money back.

If they all the same price the big body with the rims is tight. U said it's v8 tho probably shit's on gas. Es300 is the most logical choice here

Interesting maybe those luxury models also have low mileage and if the construction of quality is good you might have a pretty solid ride, but its high variance if the tranny or the engine arent in perfect shape you are in for a nightmare you should probably get a mechanic friend to give it a test drive before you buy

what is the bike commute time between the offices? could be an option.

so many people start with car ownership as an axiom and are forced to build there life around that poor decision just as the noob makes a terrible preflop decision but only seeks advice for later streets.