Crowdsourcing a car for my sister

Sister and her hubby are looking for a car.  The only car person in her family is her 19 year-old son, and he suggested a Mustang.  She's looking for a reliable family car.  He's no help.  Their idea of car ownership is "buy car, drive car, did we remember to change the oil, why is the check engine light on, oops I think I just put windshield washer fluid in the radiator."

I'm sure she's willing to deviate from this, but she found a 2015 Camry with 70k for $19k and it really tripped her trigger, but her budget is more like $16k.

Budget $16k
Reliable daily transport (auto trans since only 1/4 people in the family can do manual)
4dr car, not SUV
Seats 4-5
Did I say reliable?  Read below for how much that's important
Something mid 2000-teens
Under 100k
Within test-drive range of York/Harrisburg PA (they're right in between those towns)

Why reliability is important; a long story.  Years ago they bought a clapped out Freestar van.  After a few years, Derek noticed the low oil light came on.  It was on for a few days and he figured he should check that soon (although I'm not sure he knows how).  He kept driving it and the low oil light went off.  He assumed he had a visit from the oil fairy and it magically refilled, but it was just that the bulb blew in the dash.  A week later he calls me and says that the van is overheating, but he couldn't hear me over the sound of two spun bearings and all the lifters ticking.

I realize that no amount of reliability will overcome bad maintenance skills, but I'm just thinking that if things fail less frequently, there are fewer chances for them to defer the repair.

They're finally in good jobs that pay enough that they don't have to purchase clapped out wasted cars.  They've traded their K1500 up to a Tundra, traded their Impala up to a RAV4, now they need to trade the Freestar to a Camry-ish thing now that both boys are at college.

And.... go.

- links to ads if you happen to stumble across them
- suggestions on what cars to shop for
- any of you selling something that might work for them?

pic for no reason whatsoever

Corollas are pretty much unkillable.   And can be had in their budget.   May as well go older since they aren't going to take care of it anyway.   Maybe some oil change certificates in their stocking each Christmas could help?

Important question, is the $16k cash, or are they looking to finance and 16 hits the right payment? Older cars are harder to get loans for, that's why I ask. 

Im selling my 06 prius with fresh hv battery, all service, 128k, and southern car....

Buy the most common, best example of a generic appliance you can find. Camry/Corolla/Civic/Sonata/Impala/etc., at that budget just find the nicest one with the most detailed service records. Their budget is only $15,000.

Why only $15k? Because as soon as they buy it--literally on the way home--take it to a trusted local shop and say "I just bought this and it's going away for a year and won't have the hood opened once while it's gone." Plan on spending $1000 to get the car mechanically perfect and you'll avoid at least the first few catastrophes. 

What do we think of the Nissan Leaf? No oil to check there.

One negative I hear about them is that the early cars had short lived batteries.

This also depends on proximity to a charger.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

"oops I think I just put windshield washer fluid in the radiator."

I mean, that's better than the reverse alternative....

gumby said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

"oops I think I just put windshield washer fluid in the radiator."

I mean, that's better than the reverse alternative....

Methanol used to be used as antifreeze, so it's not nearly that bad.

I've used anything watery as coolant in a pinch.  Bottled water, iced tea, Coca-Cola....

Steve_Jones said:

Important question, is the $16k cash, or are they looking to finance and 16 hits the right payment? Older cars are harder to get loans for, that's why I ask. 

Cash likely.  Knowing my family, they probably have enough cash to get most of the way and they'll borrow the rest from our parents.  The only payment they have is on the Tundra.  They really needed a good tow pig for their small TT and they splurged.  It's a 2016 I think, so they were able to find financing on that last year.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Im selling my 06 prius with fresh hv battery, all service, 128k, and southern car....

 

 

I'll float that past them.  Pretty sure they want bigger since the shortest family member is 5'10" but I'll ask.  PM me details if you want.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/808629115964903/permalink/2290234537804346/?mibextid=S66gvF
 

I always head toward older low mileage Lexus' when I am looking for budget friendly reliability. Like Gma drove it for 20 years and it has 30k miles old.

j_tso said:

What do we think of the Nissan Leaf? No oil to check there.

One negative I hear about them is that the early cars had short lived batteries.

This also depends on proximity to a charger.

Mine was fantastic for nearly four years, and needed zero maintenance except a 12v battery and wiper blades. But in this situation I'm assuming it's too weird. 

I don't have anything else to suggest.
 

My reaction to seeing Curtis post a "sister's car" thread was to recall the previous telling of the van running out of oil. I'll bet I'm not the only one to think of that. 

A guy at work drives a 1991 V6 Camry almost every day. The car is older than him, had no crosshatching on the cyls when he did the head gaskets, burns some oil, and has over 300k miles on it. Great car.

Camry is the answer here. 

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

I don't have anything else to suggest.
 

My reaction to seeing Curtis post a "sister's car" thread was to recall the previous telling of the van running out of oil. I'll bet I'm not the only one to think of that. 

I'm still wondering about the midget hooker rolling around in his van...

After driving a Corolla LE for a month.  I told my wife, it's the perfect car for people that hate cars.  Seriously if they want an appliance that can be neglected and will be really reliable and do it's job faithfully.  Corolla. 

Toyota or Ford hybrid will be stone simple, and get great fuel economy for 200k-300k. They're common in taxi fleets for a reason:

Prius, Camry, Avalon and their related Lexus variants

Fusion, CMax (these are both also available in a PHEV that increases the fuel efficiency and reliability even more at the expense of some cargo space) My Fusion PHEV has 76k miles and has needed nothing but an oil change every ~17k miles which the car notifies me of (hard to ignore). It's lifetime fuel economy is over 80mpg.

IF CUVs become an option then you can also consider Rav4, Highlander, and Escape models

Folgers said:

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

I don't have anything else to suggest.
 

My reaction to seeing Curtis post a "sister's car" thread was to recall the previous telling of the van running out of oil. I'll bet I'm not the only one to think of that. 

I'm still wondering about the midget hooker rolling around in his van...

She's starting to smell... bad

The Camry she was looking at sold, which I think is good.  It had bald tires and wouldn't pass inspection because of brakes.  That would have been $2k up front just to get it inspected.

Steve_Jones found a sweet Impreza with flawless records about 40 minutes from them so they're considering that.

Now my sister just sent a picture of a Civic she's considering, but it's at a BHPH for too much money.  They're not financing, but I have a general mistrust of BHPH joints.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Expect that the BHPH won't even sell it too you if you don't finance.  The financing is the cornerstone of their business model.

Stay away.

Impreza? Do those really endure under neglect?  Head gasket?

Agreed, BHPH is gonna be a bad time. CMax might be perfect here, and I'd add that 3rd gen Prii are much roomier than they look.

John Welsh said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Expect that the BHPH won't even sell it too you if you don't finance.  The financing is the cornerstone of their business model.

Stay away.

Impreza? Do those really endure under neglect?  Head gasket?

Not ordinarily an issue. 

Anything new enough to be on a used car lot is going to have some oil consumption.  If they can't keep a pushrod Ford alive they won't make it to the first oil change in a Subaru.  Or a Camry, or an Accord, or damn near anything else.  (Hell, just Thursday I had a 4cyl Toyota with 1800mi left on its lube sticker, still with temp tags from when they bought it, stalling and running poorly. Because it had no oil in it.  2AZ engine?  Not leaking, just burning)

Less charitably, it sounds like they need a gift certificate for Uber.

John Welsh said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Impreza? Do those really endure under neglect?  Head gasket?

I thought they fixed that years ago.  I thought that was more of an EJ problem.  This should be an FB, yes?