Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss I.
Okay so I am moving to New Jersey and I am thinking certified used car rather than brand new. Any recommendations? It's vaguely near New York, about 1.5 hours away so I imagine the weather gets rather crap in winter and such. Anything you'd recommend? I had a 2002 Honda civic in the UK (UK spec) and now I need to start shopping. I loved driving VWs over here. Oddly the Golf being my favorite over the Passat. My favorite has been the Audi A4s, but those were rentals and not sure I could afford them.
anyway, I am leaning towards a VW Golf, though am not sure the US ones are built the same as the ones in Europe or maybe if I go SUV, been thinking of Toyota RAV4 or Hyudai Santa Fe or Tucson. Any thoughts? I really want to get something with a little more power than my baby civic and good for winter driving.
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I've sworn off of used cars that are only a couple years old (as a way to defer the instant depreciation). I've had nothing but trouble with them.
There are only a few acceptable reasons (meaning there is nothing actually wrong with the car) people sell cars within a couple years -- a whole lot of those cars are something someone is ditching because there are serious problems with the car.
This doesn't necessarily apply to all car types. Luxury cars are something you can exclude, as its common for people to that can afford them to trade them off regularly.
Even "certified" just means that some mechanic has taken a look at it and said it's
currently OK. At the very least, demand to see the service history of the car (including information on whether or not all the major parts are factory original!) And if it doesn't have one -- stay way! If the car has gone through 3 transmissions in 30,000 miles, that's not necessarily a problem that will prevent a car from being 'certified' -- since the current transmission is working perfectly -- now.