> Speaking of new cars, we're STILL looking. We found what appeared to be a great deal on a '96 Nissan Sentra GXE, but when I took it to our mechanic to have him inspect it, he found a severe oil leak that could potentially cost $400-$500 to fix.
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> The dealer selling the Nissan is have "their guys" check it out, and they said they'd let me know if it's worth it for them to fix it or not. But I'm no longer as excited about that vehicle.
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> The next promising thing is a 2000 Ford Escort that we located at a dealer just down the road from us. It only has 30,000 miles on it, and they're only asking $8400 for it. I ran a Carfax record check on the vehicle, and it came up clean. Looks like it was a rental car before the Ford dealer got it, and it appears that they've had it on their lot since last September. Could be why it's going for so litte. It'd be nice if we could talk them down even more. I'm going to get it inspected Thursday if possible.
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> Looking for a used car can be really insteresting. We've been all over town, and visited seven different dealerships. I must admit that not all used car salesmen fit the fast-talking stereotype; but two of the men we talked with most certainly did! We also dealt with a softspoken fellow, a greenhorn ("this is my first day!"), and a moron. Well, that was our impression, anyway.
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> Gri"want car NOW"shny

I recently saw an article in the paper about the best buys in used cars. It was based mainly on reliability and they listed the top ten. Almost all of them were very expensive cars, but Toyota and Honda were in there with them. Toyota was 4th and Honda 7th. I've bought three Toyota's new and still have two of them. The reliability is unbelieveable. I just drove my 1999 Toyota Camry 2000 miles in less than two weeks. It has about 60,000 miles on it and it never missed a beat. I can put it in cruise at 75 mph or so and it just sits there comfortably, quietly ticking off miles at 32 to 35 mpg. Even at my age, I can drive all day and not be very tired.

I never buy used cars, because I don't know that much about cars and I tend to get somebody else's problems. I drive cars about 200,000 miles in ten years or so and then start looking for a new one. My '89 Camry was still going strong at 200,000, but it broadsided a Buick that darted out of a parking lot across traffic. I was going to go for 225,000 on that one. A great car! I also had great success with a 1980 Subaru that went 17 years and 189,000 with no major problems.
Howard