I’m sure that you, like me, are always happy to get a great deal on anything. Dawn is 30% off? Huzzah, no Great Value Dish Soap for this guy!
But a great deal on a car – man, that’s next-level (because cars are expensive, obviously). Even a small savings percentage-wise can mean thousands of dollars staying safely tucked in your mattress. And a super-score on a car is also super-satisfying because a good car gives you so much. I mean, can you imagine not being able to just go wherever you want, whenever you want, hauling whatever and whoever you want? Maybe it’s even a fun machine to drive, and/or it swaddles you in luxury. That’s just icing on the car-cake. Other than a house, I can’t think of a purchase that delivers more utility and hopefully pleasure than a car.
So yeah – getting a great deal on a car matters. A lot. My all-time best scores were my 1980 Honda Accord, a fantastic $500 find (if you’re a Member, you can read about it here), and my 2012 Mustang GT. The GT wasn’t exactly cheap – I negotiated exactly zero dollars off – but thanks to my employer at the time, I was able to get X-Plan pricing, which is fixed and low. No haggling, no muss, no fuss, just a brand-new, Coyote-powered Mustang with a bunch more money left in my pocket – which was spent on tires and speeding tickets in short order.
Now let’s hear from the gang:
Matt Hardigree
Someone sold me a creamy Volvo 240 wagon with 15,000 miles, owned by an older couple, for $2500. It was a great car and was, in theory, a starting point for a 302 swap. I never did the swap, partially because the car was in such great shape. When my wife got accepted to grad school we decided we couldn’t take it with us so I sold it for $2,000 to a family friend with the agreement I could buy it back. That friend sort of disappeared from the radar and I have no idea where the car went. I regret letting go of it all the time and wish I could have it back.
Mercedes Streeter
I scored a 2005 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe for free. Yes, I got it for no money at all. There was nothing wrong with the car itself but with a state government. See, the original Smart Fortwo was never officially sold in the United States, but they were one of a handful of cars some crazy companies went through the work to make legal.
Unfortunately, federally legal doesn’t mean state legal and some states have no idea how to handle a modern gray market car. One of these states was Colorado. While the state allowed my car to be registered with its previous owner for a while, it eventually stopped registering the vehicle because the car couldn’t pass the state’s OBD-II scanner emissions test. I knew these cars were kosher in Illinois, so saying yes to a free Smart was a no-brainer.
Of course I still have it.
Mark Tucker
Easy: my ’89 Chevy K1500, in forest service green. $1,200 to buy, and I’ve spent maybe $2,000 more on it over five years. Oh wait, I forgot, I replaced the brakes during a cross-country trip. More like $3,000 in repairs. Still a bargain.
Stephen Walter Gossin
My best buy is the 230,000-mile Jaguar XK from Jacksonville, Florida that the seller bought at auction, then ditched in a parking lot for two years, untouched. He then found a 4-speed all-original GTO and completely forgot about the XK and sold it to me for $1800. I still can’t believe it.
Best deal, tough to say as I have spent so little on daily drivers. Probably the time I traded a water pump install ($50 + my labor) for a 1984 Celebrity Wagon with the Iron Dule and a 5 speed on floor. I never put anything in it except oil changes, Drove the hell out of it for 3 years. Tough car, total stripper, No rear window defogger, hand crank windows, no radio. Was a useful vehicle.
That guy saw you coming. He probably lists it as the best deal he ever made. ????