Purchasing Information

[VoltsFRS2013]

Hello!

I'm making this thread as a noobie to the car world as I plan on making an upcoming car purchase.

I'm currently in the market for the FRS in particular, but also looking at a few 2012 MX-5's currently.

I found a 2013 today locally for about $11,500 with 80k miles on it. It's going to be a first car for me and I know insurance is going to kick my ass. The other options were around $17k with about 20-30k miles on most. Should I aim for the lower priced higher mile? I've been so skeptical of buying a high mile knowing people my age probably dog them hard. This one in particular had some body work on it, looked like aftermarket rims, spoiler and brake calipers, owner swapped the scion badges for black toyota badges. It looks beautiful.

At the same time, I test drove one of the Lava Orange FRS' that had about 25k Miles for 17 grand and it was it felt amazing. It's boiling down to the quality of the vehicle vs insurance at this point

Anyways, enough blabber, if you guys could pitch me a few tips i'd appreciate it. Maybe even posting the miles you bought your FRS / BRZ for and what you'd advise me to do. Thank you so much!

[gramicci101]

Have you called any insurance companies to see what your rates would be like? Since this is your first car, that needs to be one of your first steps when you start looking for cars. The car might be completely affordable, but insurance costs could kill the whole idea.

FYI, Geico sucks ass when it comes time to file a claim. I'd look anywhere else.

[soulreapersteve]

So whats your budget? This looks to be a private sale, yes? If so, can you ask if the owner of the higher mileage one provide records of maintenance work done? Can you also wrench if need be? Nothing wrong with going to a shop, there may be more stuff needed to be done on the higher mileage one... Too hard to tell from this post alone.

Also, are you going to keep this car long term or get something else in the near future? If you are going to keep the car for 5+ years, I'd say go for lower mile one.

I wanted to be first owner and planning on keeping it long term, so I bought brand new at ~50 on the clock.

[Tcoat]

Always a hard call and not as cut and dried as some make it. You could get a really well maintained and good condition high mileage car that will give no issue or you can have a low mileage one with nothing but troubles. Really sort of hard to tell sometimes.
I personally would go for the newest with the fewest miles my budget could handle but on the other hand you could do a lot of repairs for the $5,500 price difference.
Oh and don't get too wrapped up in the age of the owner. There are young guys here that pamper their cars and old guys that drive the crap out of them so age means nothing. Be a good idea to have somebody check it out for you though.

[VoltsFRS2013]

Thanks for the information guys! I'm going to take some steps and call the insurance, given i'll be on my parents policy bundled in with other vehicles the fingers are crossed that It won't be too high. We'll be using Geico unfortunately though. My dads been on their policy for years

[Adam_L]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Oh and don't get too wrapped up in the age of the owner. There are young guys here that pamper their cars and old guys that drive the crap out of them so age means nothing. Be a good idea to have somebody check it out for you though.

In general age does matter (its tough to quantify exactly). In general, I'd rather buy from someone in their 40's- 50's , then someone in their 20's- mid- 30's. Ask questions. If the car has been modified in some way, then at some point they were most likely too fast…. too curious.

Who ever your family insurance carrier is, call them and get rates. If the FRS/BRZ works out , then next step would be to figure out if you want a auto or manual. That's more important then color (for most people). Get as close to what you want, as possible (given your budget).

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Adam_L

In general age does matter (its tough to quantify exactly). In general, I'd rather buy from someone in their 40's- 50's , then someone in their 20's- mid- 30's. Ask questions. If the car has been modified in some way, then at some point they were most likely too fast…. too curious.

Who ever your family insurance carrier is, call them and get rates. If the FRS/BRZ works out , then next step would be to figure out if you want a auto or manual. That's more important then color (for most people). Get as close to what you want, as possible (given your budget).

That can be a trap!

[dutchman1]

I personally wouldn't be worried about "abuse" if the previous owner is forward about it. If he was a competitive autocrosser, or a track regular, odds are the car was kept up better than a street user's.

As mentioned high mileage isn't necessarily a bad thing either, sometimes low mileage cars are worse off. Some say it's harder on cars to sit than it is for them to run. Only thing about the twins is that they haven't been around for very long so nobody really knows if they tend to be reliable at higher mileage or not.

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That can be a trap!

Yeh we never beat our cars like this...
though trying doesn't hurt in our cars, cant always judge the age of a tree by it's rings, something like that

[Psilox]

Like others have said, maintenance records would be the most important item aside from whether it drives properly. Otherwise, getting a pre-purchase inspection from a reputable mechanic could be a good idea. Sure, you're probably going to go longer without maintenance with a lower mileage car, but my family has maintained cars well into the hundreds of thousand mile ranges with very little issue. If you're confident that there are no major current issues, and that maintenance has been performed at the scheduled intervals, I'd say go for it!