Comparing a couple cars, input? *bought - page 2*

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

RedRyder said:

Then there’s this..Pavlo is hiding something. lawl:
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...s=100&minPrice=1000&listingId=416465050&Log=0

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classic lexus/toyota colors, nothing says "i'd rather be doing literally anything else other than driving right now" like a beige toyota

i'd hit up pavlo just to see what's up. the pics look they're from the summer, so it's probably been crashed and why it's still for sale. or he's been lowering the price consistently because all the platinum blondes want a white one if you have unlimited carfax it would be worth it to get the VIN.

if you aren't paying for carfax reports, one trick i've done is just googling the VIN when dealers don't post the report (cause they have to pay like $30k a year to have all the carfax advertisements and to allow customers to view the reports)...i've found accidents not in listings, cars that have gone from state to state through auctions, previous dealership's carfaxes after selling/trading the car to the current dealer, even found a $15k car that had $11k in damage not a year earlier be listed without mentioning that little detail. the pics and listing were still active on one of those "EZ repariables" sites

DarkSideAccord said:

I'd avoid the 1st one. Liens means someone owes the bank something and the title will not be handed to u until the lien is clear. Most of the time, the new owner takes over that responsibility.

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wotm8?

the dealership is holding the title, the previous owner would not be allowed to even remove their license plates in some states if a bank still held the title. any issues were between the dealership and the previous owner, or the previous owner and their lender, before the keys and title were handed over. unless socal somehow fucks that up royally

now, private party listings with a lien i'd avoid.

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

I was generalizing liens, but i guess home and auto liens are different

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

yep, home loans (or private liens on cars) are basically you trying to get one bank to loan you a few hundred grand so the previous owner can pay off their few hundred grand without needing suitcases full of cash

licensed car dealers (or if the home is held by an escrow service) lets the previous owner "off the hook" once everything is finalized on their end.

plus, a carfax report will typically trigger the loan/lien warning from when the car was brand new even if it's 10 years old and paid off for a long time. i think my 6ga had that on its autocheck report when i sold it at 16 years old

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

Picked this up Saturday evening - CPO 1 owner (leased) 2011 Venza (with Convenience Pkg) w/56k miles. My first stealership purchase experience was...interesting lol. Really happy with the car though so it was all worth it.





Two things I learned/confirmed about buying a car:
- never wait until you absolutely need a car to buy one, if you don't need a car urgently and can walk away they pick up on that and are more willing to make the deal.
- know all your figures to a tee...trade-in value, how much you want to spend, what you want your loan to be, etc. And know how much you're willing to bend on those.

We got them to come up on the trade-in, down on the Venza, and got an extended warranty all with a good interest rate. Going near closing hours may have helped.

Anyway, thanks all for the feedback.

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

V6, I hope.

How did the wife cope with losing her car for the Venza?

Congrats on the purchase.

Looks good.

First mods?

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

^Thanks. We really didn't want a minivan, and the CRV just wasn't doing it for us. I couldn't find any fitting examples of a Lexus RX that were close enough to see/drive. We really liked the looks and interior of the Venza, and could find few things to complain about. It looks and feels premium, like a base model Lexus imo. And the size is perfect since it's built on the Camry platform.

Moving up to this thing was pretty easy for the wifey, she was tired of the Cobalt. I don't think she even said goodbye to it haha. Don't get me wrong it was a good little car from Chevy and it never let us down, but we got tired of such a small car being our main vehicle and since we plan to have a second child in the next year or two we'll want something largere and figured we may as well get rid of the Cobalt while it's still worth something.

It's a 4 cylinder actually, shocking I know haha. Initially I wanted the V6 but as we drove more examples I didn't feel like it was really necessary, and I won't miss not having to buy 20" tires. The 4cyl is peppy surprisingly, the car doesn't feel like a dog at all. Plus it's the wife's car and she drives across the city every day for work, I'll only be driving it on short trips or to haul stuff. The main goal was the lowest mileage we could get for how much we wanted to spend, we just wanted a nice, affordable, very 'new to us' car to last the long haul. I'd actually rather have the panoramic sunroof than the V6, but my wife somehow didn't care about that lol. It does have leather, bluetooth, fog lights, and one touch up/down windows. The projector headlights on this car are amazing.

First mod...I'll start with converting the license plate lights to LED. Since it's under warranty, I don't want to do anything too noticeable. Luckily the interior is super nice and has modern lighting, so nothing to do in there except maybe map lights and stuff.

ryan s said:

nothing says "i'd rather be doing literally anything else other than driving right now" like a beige toyota

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So true haha

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

^Makes sense and as long as it comes with the standard/extras that you will need, then that's all that matters.

For city driving, the 4cyl will be more than fine. My neighbour has a 4cyl one and she is very happy with it. She said the same thing about the tires, didn't want to have to pay for 20's, lol.

Enjoy, it will make doing those home/auto modifications easy when you have to haul stuff.

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

i hope u didn't tell them abt the trade-in until you negotiated the price of the venza....

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

SykVSyx said:

^Makes sense and as long as it comes with the standard/extras that you will need, then that's all that matters.

For city driving, the 4cyl will be more than fine. My neighbour has a 4cyl one and she is very happy with it. She said the same thing about the tires, didn't want to have to pay for 20's, lol.

Enjoy, it will make doing those home/auto modifications easy when you have to haul stuff.

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It has what we need, though the wife would have liked heated seats. The way the options are divided up in these things is all over the place though, it became a headache to find one with exactly everything we wanted so we took the next best thing. It does have the Convenience Package, among which includes a power rear hatch which is nice to have. And I've read heated seats are able to be added, but we'll see.

Not much in the way of Venza forums haha. I think I can figure out all the minor things I'd be doing to this thing anyway.

DarkSideAccord said:

i hope u didn't tell them abt the trade-in until you negotiated the price of the venza....

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Yeah that didn't come up until later. As did the fact that were pre-financed through our own bank. But we ended up getting a good rate through them anyway so we took it.

Re: Comparing a couple cars, input?

Nice trade up CB.

The gf has the '09 Corolla and we haven't had any issues with its drive train. Minor issues like AC vents smelling and making a noise. The interior has a cheap plastic feel. Otherwise, it's good.

The only experience I have with the Venza is from car shopping with my brother. He's 6'3 and all leg and the Venza was the only thing that didn't have him knees to the dash.