Where Are Cheap Cars?
Basically, there are four kinds of cheap cars: cheap new cars, cheap used cars, cheap leased cars, and cheap repairable cars.
Then, there are free cars, which we discuss here.
We’ll be discussing all these types of cheap cars on this web site.
Meantime, we’ll give you some information and ideas that you can get you started on your quest for a cheap car.
Here are just some of the places you might look for your inexpensive car:
- Small independent used-car lots
- Consignment car lots
- Police seized-property sales and auctions
- Government surplus vehicle sales and auctions
- Insurance auctions of salvage vehicles
- Repossessed vehicle sales and auctions
- Special car leases – less than $200/month
- Bank repo sales
- Wholesale public car auctions
- Buy-here-pay-here (BHPH) used car dealers
- New car promotional sales
- Special car lease deals offered by car manufacturers
- Unclaimed and abandoned car auctions
Cars for Less Than $2000
Good cheap cars for less than $2000 are not difficult to find. The key word here is “good.” There are lots of cars for less than $2000 that are junk, but the good ones require a little work and time to sort out.
In general, cars that are being sold for less than about $2000 are older models such as the 2000 Acura Integra, 2000-2002 Chevrolet Prizm, 2000 Ford F-150 V8, 2000 Honda Civic, 2004 Hyundai Accent, 2000 Mitsubishi Galant, 2000 Subaru Impreza sedan, and 2000-2001 Toyota Corolla. These are cars that Consumer Reports has found to have above-average reliability. That doesn’t mean, however, that there are not other cars, even newer models, that are in great condition for reasonable prices as well.
Look for cheap cars at independent used-car dealers, consignment lots, public car auctions, bank repo vehicle sales, police auctions, and unclaimed vehicle sales in your area. Check online sources such as Craigslist, Autotrader, and eBay Motors but be careful of common scams (see discussion below).
Bank Repo Cars
Looking for a cheap car for sale? You might to look no further than your local bank.
Let’s explain.
Banks and credit unions finance a lot of cars for people who need auto loans. Sometimes those people lose their jobs, get into divorces, or otherwise find themselves in situations in which they can no longer keep up car payments. They often are late with payments, or miss a number of payments altogether.
If a borrower stops making payments or is consistently late, the bank places the loan in repossession status and takes steps to recover, or repossess, their car. They will send a towing company or repo company to find the car and bring it in. Even if the borrower voluntarily returns the car, it is still considered a repo.
After a car is repossessed the bank can either try to sell it themselves (watch for “for sale” cars in the bank parking lot), or they can turn the car over to a professional car auction company. Smaller banks might use the “self-sell” approach while larger banks nearly always use an auction service. Ask your bank who auctions their repossessed cars. Then contact the company to find out where and when auctions are held.
Cheapest New Cars
We love Consumer Reports magazine, especially the annual Auto Issue that comes out each April. Anyone thinking of buying a new or used car should pick up a copy of the publication before they make a move.
In addition to all the ratings, rankings, safety reports, and used car reports, they publish a list of the best cars that have list prices under $20,000.
This is a list of the cheapest brand new cars you can buy.
Following are Consumer Reports’ selections for 2011:
- Ford Focus SES ($19,995)
- Honda Civic LX ($19,115)
- Honda Fit ($16,410)
- Hyundai Elantra SE ($18,695)
- Mazda3 i Touring (sedan) ($19,070)
- Nissan Sentra 2.0 SL ($19,530)
- Nissan Versa 1.8 SL (hatchback) ($17,250)
- Scion xB ($18,360)
- Scion xD ($16,620)
The prices shown on the above cars are MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price). With price discounts, rebates, and factory-to-dealer cash, you may be able to do much better than these prices.
Not only do the above cars offer great purchase prices, they have rated Very Good to Excellent in the magazines tests of each car. Furthermore, they all have great gas mileage and low maintenance costs which makes the overall cost of ownership very low.
If you are looking for a cheap new car, consider these vehicles first.
You can get free price quotes on any of the above cars from Edmunds.com.
The quotes will automatically include any cash-back rebates or discounts that are currently available.
New Cars for Cheap
If you are currently looking for an affordable automobile, right now is a great time for automotive consumers. Cars for cheap prices seem to be everywhere — especially if you want a brand new car. In fact, new cars have never been cheaper.
Why?
You may have noticed that in the current economy new car sales have decreased dramatically during the last three years. Car makers have had to borrow money from the government to stay afloat. Whole brands have disappeared, or will soon disappear. Car dealerships have been shut down and many have gone bankrupt. Car often sit on dealer’s lots for months before they sell. The U.S. government had to back a “cash for clunkers” program to try and stimulate sales.
Although the situation seems to be getting better now, car manufacturers are currently offering some of the best new-car incentives they’ve ever offered in their history. New cars are cheap compared to a couple of years ago.
What makes new cars so cheap now?
First, there are factory-to-customer rebates — large rebates. Rebates are like cash that you can apply as a down payment to your new car, which can be great if you are already short on down payment money. Rebates reduce the amount you have to pay, although it’s different from a price discount. A large rebate can actually allow you to buy a car for less than dealer invoice price.
Cheap Cars on Craigslist – Scam Alert
Is it possible to find find cheap cars online at Craigslist.com or other online automobile classified ad sites?
Yes ….. maybe, sometimes, and no.
While it is certainly possible to find bargain car deals online, it requires an extra bit of caution when doing so.
There are certainly people who are trying to sell cars cheap because 1) they are desperate and need to raise money fast, 2) they haven’t done their research and don’t really know what their car is worth, 3) the car has serious problems or has been wrecked and repaired, but they don’t mention it in their ad, 4) the car is stolen and they don’t actually have the title (although they’ll make some excuse for the reason they don’t have it), 5) the car is a salvage (totaled) vehicle but with a clean title (allowable in some states), or 6) it’s a scam.
There is a common car-selling scam that is now costing innocent people millions of dollars. People get sucked in every day by the promise of a cheap car, lose their money, and never get the car. You don’t hear much about it because the victims are too embarassed to speak up and law enforcement can’t catch the criminals, who are nearly always in another country. It rarely makes the newspaper or local news.
Here’s how the scam works.
Get a Free Car — Really?
Is it really possible to get a free car or be paid to drive your own car?
Yes, people all over the U.S. and other countries are doing it every day. But before you begin planning your next vacation trip in your new free car, you should understand how free car programs work.
I’m sure you’ve seen cars and other vehicles driving around “wrapped” in colorful advertisements for a business, product, or maybe a new movie. Some of these are company vehicles promoting their own company. However, most others are actually ordinary people who are driving free cars or being paid to drive their own cars.
Advertising companies use “mobile ads” as a way of promoting clients’ companies and products.
Vehicles are “wrapped” with a special printed vinyl material that can be easily changed or removed without damaging paint. It can even be placed to completely cover side and rear windows because it is perforated with small holes that allows the driver to see out clearly.
How does it work?
Take Over Car Payments – $0 Down
What would you say if we told you that you could get a late model car for an effective payment of as little as $99 a month, with no money down and in many cases even get money back.
Here’s how it works.
You find someone (we’ll tell you how in a moment) that wants or needs to get out of their new-car lease. In most cases these will be people who leased a car a year or so ago and have now found that they can no longer make the payments due to illness, job loss, divorce, or other personal circumstances. They discover that the leasing company won’t allow them to simply end the lease and walk away, regardless of the reasons. To end the lease early means losing a lot of money. It’s better if they can find someone to simply take over the lease and avoid termination altogether.
Many of these leases were taken out months ago when special car leasing deals were plentiful and payments were low. The customer might have made a substantial cash down payment or traded in a car having considerable value — which further reduced their monthly payment. Most of the leases had three-year (36 month) terms and mileage allowances of either 10,000 miles or 12,000 miles per year.
Zero Interest (0% APR) Car Loans
Car companies want your business so badly that they willing to offer customers loans at zero percent interest — known as 0% APR rate.
A zero percent loan saves money on each monthly payment, and saves in overall costs.
If you are in the market for a new car, and need a loan, this is definitely the way to buy.
How much money is saved with a 0% loan rate?
Let’s take a look at an example.
Assume you buy a $25,000 car and want a loan for 48 months with no down payment. Let’s say the current interest rate is 5.00%. Using an auto loan calculator such as this one at http://www.firstcarguide.com/auto-loan-calculator, we calculate the monthly payment to be $575.73 and the total cost to be $27,635.17. This means you pay $2635.15 in finance charges (interest).
Now let’s look at the same loan but with 0% interest (no finance charges). In this case, we don’t need an auto loan calculator because the math is very simple. Divide the $25,000 loan amount by the number of months in the loan (48), which gives you $520.83 a month. You total cost is simply $25,000 since you pay no finance charges.
Cheap Cars at Unclaimed Vehicle Auctions
You might be surprised at the number of cars that are unclaimed or abandoned every day, particularly in larger cities but in small communities as well. The vehicles can be newer vehicles in great condition or old, wrecked or broken down — or anything in between.
Unclaimed vehicles are typically sold at public auctions and can be great bargains if you are looking for a cheap car.
These are cars, trucks, and other vehicles that an owner has left on the side of a road, in a parking garage, at a body shop, or have walked away from for various reasons. Police try to locate owners but are not always successful. Some owners, even when located, simply don’t want their vehicles any longer. Some are vehicles confiscated by police from criminals. Others are subjects of mechanic’s liens when owners don’t pay repair bills. Every vehicle has a unique story.
In most states, the law allows towing companies to pick up the cars and hold auctions to sell them to the public. The auctions are typically announced in the “legal notices” section of a local newspaper on a specified schedule, such as every Friday, or the third Thursday of every month as examples. Usually, only one newspaper in an area is designated to print legal notices.
Following are recent notices in a regional newspaper in Georgia:
Cheapest Car Leases
Some of the best and cheapest leases for July 2011 are from Hyundai and Nissan, which is a bit of a change from previous months when bigger automakers such as Toyota, Honda, and Chevrolet were offering the better deals.
Of course, Honda and Toyota were hit particularly hard in the March earthquakes and have experienced some shortages in certain models and styles. In that kind of situation, it is expected that we would not see an abundance of sales incentives.
We list the current lease incentives below that have monthly payments of $200 or less. All require a down payment (cap cost reduction) as well as the first month’s payment up front (due at lease signing). Most include a mileage allowance of 12,000 miles per year, for terms between 24 and 39 months. Most expire on August 1, 2011.
Also note that only selected styles of the listed models are available with the low lease payments. You must choose the style(s) being offered to get the deal.
These special lease deals being offered are nearly all excellent deals, as rated by LeaseGuide.com. Car companies create the deals by lowering price and money factor (finance rate), raising lease-end residual value. In combination, this amounts to low monthly payments — much better than customers could negotiate for themselves.
Here are the current cheapest car lease deals for July 2011:
How to Buy a Car with Bad Credit
Many people in the current economy have suffered the misfortunes of financial pressures, unemployment, and rising costs which have resulted in credit issues, late payments, bankruptcies, repossessions, or home foreclosures.
Even with all these problems, most people will need a car and are finding it difficult to impossible to find money or financial help to buy a car or get a car loan.
Let’s take a look at some of the possible options for people this kind of difficult situation.
Buy cheap – If you can scrape together some cash, possibly by selling things you have, getting a temporary job, or borrowing money from family or friends, buy the cheapest car you can afford with the cash you have. You can always move up to a better car as your finances and your credit improve later. Use the ideas and suggestions found in other articles on this web site for where and how to find good cheap cars.
Buy Car – Bad Credit
Many people find themselves in the unfortunate position of having bad credit – or no credit – and needing to buy a car with a loan.
Banks and car loan companies have become much more restrictive in the last couple of years. They want to be reasonably sure that borrowers will pay back their loans. They only lend money to borrowers with a good credit history, represented by a credit score.
Your credit score is a number ranging from 300 to 850. The higher the score, the better. The score (often called a FICO score) is based on a combination of factors such as your payment history (number of late or missed payments), how much of your available credit you are using (credit cards not maxed out), length of your credit history (a few years is good), types of credit, how much credit (number of loans or credit cards) that you have, or have applied for recently.
If you don’t know your credit details, you should. You can get your current credit reports and credit scores (there are three different credit agencies) from FreeCreditScore.com. These will be the scores that car dealers and other lenders see. Make sure you don’t have any mistakes or old information in your report that is pulling your score down.
A “good” credit score is about 700 or greater. Ascore in the 620-700 range is considered as “sub-prime” which might get you a loan approval but you’ll likely pay a higher interest rate than someone with a better score. You might also have to make a larger down payment to reduce the amount of your loan.
So how does someone wit bad credit, or no credit, buy a car?
Cheap Used Cars for Teens
Teenagers often need to find the best used cars possible for the least amount of money. They want cars that are reliable, dependable, cheap to operate and insure, but yet offer reasonable style, performance, conveniences, room, and comfort.
Buying a cheap car only to find that it will cost hundreds or thousands more dollars to maintain and repair is not what most buyers want. Therefore, smart teen drivers (and parents) will choose cars that have a proven record of better-than-average reliability but still sell for low prices.
We’ve said it before but we love Consumer Reports magazine (and web site). They do extensive research on both new and used cars, and the results are published each year in their annual Auto Issue in April.
We’ll give you some examples of this year’s used car recommendations below. Make, model, and years are shown. However if you want to see complete listings you can find copies of the magazine on some newsstands and in your local library — or you can go to the ConsumerReports.org web site, which requires a modest subscription fee.
Best Used Cars for Less than $4000
- Acura Integra ’00
- Honda Civic ’00
- Hyundai Accent ’04
- Subaru Impreza sedan ’00
Best Used Cars for $4000 – $6000
- Honda Civic ’01-’02
- Honda Accord ’00-’02
- Hyundai Sonata (V6) ’03-’05
- Nissan Xterra ’02
- Pontiac Vibe ’03
- Toyota Camry ’00-’01
Best Used Cars
Every year, Consumer Reports magazine publishes its annual Auto Issue, completely dedicated to automobiles — ratings, results of owner surveys, best and worst makes/models, most reliable, and best fuel economy.
One section reports the reliability history of almost every vehicle model for the past 6 years. From this data they select the best used cars in a number of price ranges. These models earned the best reliability rating for their model years.
Here are some examples of the most reliable vehicles from the most recent Consumer Reports Auto Issue (April 2011):
Less than $4000 – 2001 Acura CL, 2001-2002 Chevrolet Prizm, 2001 Honda Civic, 2001-2002 Toyota Corolla
Lease a Hyundai Elantra for $169
In case you haven’t noticed, Hyundai has become the car brand to watch, with attractive new designs, great prices, great reviews, and even a new luxury model, the Equus.
Hyundai has announced new special lease deals for February 2011 on most of its models but two of the deals stand out and have been rated “Excellent” by LeaseGuide.com.
All of the deals are for a 36 month term, 12,000 miles per year, and require no security deposit. All deals expire February 28, 2011.
First is the 2011 Hyundai Elantra 1.8 GLS with automatic transmission at $169 a month with $1699 due at signing, which includes the first month’s payment. This is an excellent deal that is much better than any deal you could negotiate for yourself. the low payment is made possible by a good price discount, a low money factor (lease finance rate), and high residual value (lease-end resale value).
Cheap BMW Leases for January – February
Most of us usually don’t think of “BMW” and “cheap” in the same thought. However, if you are inclined to want to drive a BMW for the least amount of money, the company and its dealers are now offering some of the cheapest leases ever during January and February 2010.
We show you examples of the the current deals below. These special lease deals are available in practically every BMW model line, although not on all styles within each model line.
All current BMW deals end on February 28, 2010 and are for 2011 models, based on 36 months, 10,000 miles per month, $0 down payment (although you must make the first month’s payment and official fees at time of signing), and $0 security deposit. These are all genuinely good deals that have been created by discounting prices, boosting residual values, and lowering money factors (finance charges). All combined, these factors make for some of the lowest monthly payments for BMW that we’ve seen in a while.
Cheapest Car Leases – January 2011
Car makers and dealers are currently offering some outstanding car lease deals, and some of the lowest monthly payments we’ve seen in a while.
The cheapest leases, in terms of lowest monthly payments, are almost always from car Japanese companies such as Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki.
Below, we list the cheapest leases being offered for January 2011.
These are generally good lease deals and are better than you would be able to negotiate for yourself. If there’s a catch it’s really two things: 1) the deals are offered only on a few selected models and styles, and 2) most (but not all) require a down payment (cap cost reduction). Of course, you can choose not to make the down payment, but your monthly payment will be higher.
Here are the cheapest car lease deals currently being offered:
End-of-Year Cars for Cheap
When new model cars come out every year, dealers and manufacturers nearly always have leftover cars of the previous year.
For example, a dealer might have both 2011 and 2012 models of the same car on his lot at the same time. If both were the same price, customers would naturally buy the newer model even though there is probably no difference, or very little difference between them.
So, dealers and car makers get together and put discounts and other incentives on the older models to give customers a reason to buy. The greater the number of leftovers, the better the prices. This works well for customers because, the greater the number of cars a dealer has, the better the selections — there’s a better chance that customers can find exactly the style and color they want.
At the time of this writing, American car makers (General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford) have the best incentives on leftover 2011 models. The incentives come in the form of large rebates (as much as $4000-$6000), low-interest loans (and 0% APR loans on nearly all 2011 models), special lease deals, and “hidden” factory-to-dealer rebates that dealers use to further discount prices.
Zero $0 Down Car Leases
Is it possible to lease a car with no money down? Nothing down?
Absolutely.
In fact most car leases, even those advertised with a “required” down payment, are also available with $0 due at signing. Of course, the monthly payment will be higher since you are not pre-paying some of the lease obligation. In general, for a modestly priced vehicle, you can expect your lease payment to increase by about $40 for every $1000 you don’t make as a down payment.
Although all leases are structured so that a down payment is optional, some special lease deals offered by car manufacturers in monthly promotions may require a down payment in order to get the deal. You could do the lease without a down payment but the actual deal might not be as good (see LeaseGuide.com for details about how to evaluate a lease deal).