re: Used car buying advice for an OT poor?

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I mentioned to a co-worker that I was looking to buy used and they said something to the effect "don't buy anything over 50,000 miles" and "don't buy anything older that a few years." There was no reasoning behind this, just their personal philosophy.

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That's just silly.

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Anyway, I'm the kind of person who will drive a car until it dies (or until I get in a stupid wreck), so I'm tempted to go as low mileage as possible but just not really liking the inflated cost of the low-mileage trucks and SUVs. Seems pretty close to what you'd pay for new.

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So are you looking for a truck/SUV? What kind of options do you want it to have?

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Strictly OT poor. I'm gainfully employed and actually have a decent chunk for a down payment ($8-10k). Just zero knowledge of the car market.

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Buy new. Find out what vehicles have the best rebates. You mentioned 6'5 so I'm sure you're looking for a full sized sedan, truck, or suv. Fwiw, I would look at the new impala. They usually have about a 2500 dollar rebate, and it's not hard to find one that was a dealer promo vehicle. That means you get it for a price already well below invoice plus you still get factory rebates.

Also, the new chargers usually have good rebates. I've seen the SXT version(fully loaded v6) with about 4500-6000 off Msrp with dealer rebates as well as the hemi version having about 2000 off Msrp. They are both in your price range, especially after rebates.

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The price range I'm looking at is actually in the $20-27k range.

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That's a good budget. Just bought a great 2011 Ford Edge with 65k miles on it for around $17k. What kind of vehicle are you looking for? SUV? Truck? Car?

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"don't buy anything over 50,000 miles" and "don't buy anything older that a few years."

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Well that's not right. You make the money on your car when you first purchase it. Within reason, it's nice to get something where the steeping portion of the depreciation has already occurred. Cars these days can run smoothly past 250k miles. You just have to make sure the vehicle has been properly maintained. In my case, I was trying to get something under 70k miles.

Also, stick to cars that were only driven in the south, because they won't have the rusting issues that cars get in the north (snowy) areas.

ETA: Try browsing CarGurus.com. It's a great site with lots of local listings all over the US. You can easily set the price you want, mileage, type, trim, year, etc.

Don't discount eBay and other online avenues. I purchased a used truck (two years old with 11K miles) from a dealer and got a respectable deal on it even after paying for shipping from Atlanta area to Louisiana.

One thing that I've found to be extremely helpful is to find message boards dedicated to the brand of car you're interested in, and then find threads on the model you like and let the internet turn you off from buying that car.

You'll learn a lot about the car's tendencies and the common problems and the pitfalls to look out for.