About Used Cars

If you’re in the market for a used car, you might want to get yourself a Hyundai Elantra. Choose any Elantra manufactured from 2003 to 2008 and you’ll probably be a happy camper.

According to Edmunds.com, the Hyundai Elantra was awarded the annual Used Car Best Bet award. Because of their safety, reliability and availability Hyundai Elantras along with 14 other select few vehicles were given the prestigious award.

Edmunds provides a listing other top performers by category. If you’re looking for a Minivan, you’re pretty safe choosing a Honda Odyssey manufactured in the years 2003-2008. However if your more of a pick up truck type of driver, the compact Toyota Tacoma (2003-2008) or the large Ford F-150 (2003-2008) are winners.

Here’s Edmunds listing of the 2010 Used Car Best Bet awards:

Searching for a used car can sometimes be a crap shoot, but selecting a vehicle from the list above may help to stack the odds in your favor. For more information on how Edmunds chooses its winners and more details about each winner, visit their website.

A much untapped market is the Chinese auto buying public. Unlike US car buyers were 85% of car purchases are financed or India where 65% of car purchases are financed, China pays cash for cars. Only 10% of the Chinese car buying public finances their automobiles according to Bloomberg’s Businessweek.

The Other Way Around

The American and Indian consumers should take a page out of the Chinese car buying book. Save money and buy cash. Why go into debt over a commodity that starts to depreciate the moment you get into it.

Because the Chinese consumer prefers to save money and buy items only when they can afford it, I wonder how much money on advertising, rhetoric and persuasion the large auto companies will have to shell out in order to sway the Chinese public to abandon long standing traditions.

Struggling American Families

The American spendthrift mantra of buy now, pay later doesn’t always work. Too many Americans are paying now for foolish impulsive spending earlier. If the Chinese consumer is smart, all they have to do is look at a few American families who are living paycheck to paycheck as a result of their buy now pay later habits.

To the Chinese car buying public I say…Resist!

If you’re out searching for a used car, after doing the usual homework of getting the CARFAX report, checking the car’s fuel efficiency, reliability, and mechanical soundness, spend a little time comparing the current “new and improved” models to those of a year or two ago.

When a manufacturer releases a redesign of a particular car model, the older version drops in value. It doesn’t drop in reliability, efficiency or any of the things that really matter, it drops in value because it no longer looks, feels and smells like the latest and greatest edition of the style (if the Jonses purchase the latest model car, everyone wants to keep up with them).

If you’re truly looking for value in your new car (not just to keep up with the Jonses), check out Edmunds Upcoming Model Year calendar l when you begin shopping for your used car. Knowing which models have undergone a total redesign will be very helpful in getting a good deal on the newly outdated older model.