Happykid’s beloved 2007 Toyota Matrix has died a sad unworthy death at the hands (wheels?) of an electric scooter. The actuator assembly was fatally wounded which tipped the parts & repair into Total Loss. She’s in Knoxville, TN and can live without a car for maybe a month.
Is it reasonable to think that there might be a gently used Subaru out there for $15k? Any other vehicle models that could work for someone who works in theater tech/design and needs to haul stuff around?
What questions should she ask the sellers? Also, is there any chance at all she can get an auto loan given that she has no work yet? Or is this going to need to be a Bank of Mom & Dad case?
If she has a job lined up, she should be able to get a loan based on that. I’ve heard good things about CarMax. If she liked her Matrix, I’d look at a RAV4. I’ve had mine for 5 years and love it.
Right now it’s a seller’s market due to low supply and high demand. I don’t know the market conditions where you are, but a Subaru in good shape (and not too old) might be hard to find for $15k. Still, happy hunting!
My daughter graduated in December and took advantage of Honda’s recent grad lease program and got a Honda CRV (sport trim) for a great price - it’s $215/mo on a 3yr/36k mile lease with very minimal down. She is also off to grad school this fall.
I would guess there would be lots of Subies in Knoxville. We just bought our 20 yr old a used car off AutoTrader.com this spring. It’s a good website for comparing.
We lost a beloved Vibe (Pontiac version of Matrix) several years ago, and looked at CRV’s, Suburu Foresters, and RAV-4’s as well. Different times for pricing, but never found one that met the same great flexibility as our earlier model Vibe. All the above are larger (which we wanted) but also more expensive, and a bit harder to park in urban environments due to size and visibility. Older models of above didn’t have cargo areas that folded true flat. Newer models didn’t have the same great visibility. If interested in a Suburu, the Crosstrek is probably the closest to the older Vibes.
For us, the Honda FIT came the closest to a Vibe, but newer ones are not nearly as nice or spacious as the older models. DH also liked the Kia Niro, which has a hybrid model.
Right now she likes the Crosstrek. I’ll have her look at CRV and Rav-4 too.
@bouders - Sadly, no job in sight, so loans for her will be tricky. Happykid is a brand new MFA in Theater Lighting. While her industry is starting to come back from a pandemic-induced coma, she will probably be a freelancer forever.
Congratulations on your D earning her MFA! I am sorry that the electric scooter exacerbated the demise of her beloved Toyota!
I am fellow theatre professional who, while I have been a little more stationary (with more limited freelancing) over the last chunk of my career, I put a lot of miles on my car when I was freelancing almost exclusively. Since she may not know where her jobs will take her 4-wheel or AWD might be worth looking at.
Over the years I went from a Toyota, to a Jeep, to a RAV-4, to a Subaru, to my current Honda HR-V. The HR-V is a little smaller than the CR-V, but really flexible with how the seats go down. I looked online and it looks like there are some good condition 2016-2017 models in her price range.
Since price seems to be an issue, look into other wagons. SUVs and Subarus are very popular. There are other AWD wagons that typically fly under the radar. Consider Volkswagen Passat and Jetta wagons, and the smaller Volvo wagons like the V60 and V50.
I cannot answer the question about good used cars, but would like to encourage those buying used cars to check that the car does not have Takata air bags–which can be deadly when activated.
Google: Massive Takata Airbag Recall: Everything You Need To Know, Including Full List of Affected Vehicles
Also: Never trust a “CarFax” report. Always have your own mechanic check out any potential used car purchase, although CarMax is good about returns as is Carvana.
CarFax and AutoCheck can let you know about bad things that happened to the car. However, the absence of bad things does not guarantee that nothing bad happened to the car, since not all possible bad things that can happen to a car are findable by their searches.
In other words, the result of running such a report on a car that is “maybe bad” is that it can either stay in the “maybe bad” category, or move to the “known bad” category.
After the Matrix and Vibe were discontinued, newer generation Toyota small wagons / hatchbacks were the Scion iM / Toyota Corolla iM and the Toyota Corolla hatchback. However, they may not be as utilitarian as the Matrix and Vibe.
The Honda Fit is a smaller car with a relatively spacious interior and flexible folding seats.
Larger wagons or hatchbacks of more recent vintage include the Toyota Prius V and Ford C-Max Hybrid (both fuel efficient hybrids).
Regarding recalls, including the Takata air bag recalls, you can put the car’s VIN into the NHTSA search tool to see if the car has any unrepaired recalls in the past 15 years: Recalls Look-up by VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
Note that the Subaru Crosstrek is similar to the Subaru Impreza hatchback. There are several web pages from Subaru dealers explaining the small differences between the two, or you can compare features on the Subaru web site. The most obvious differences are ride height and price (the Crosstrek is higher on both).
That’s what we were finding with relatively new used cars. We got a new '21 Crosstrek back in November. Older S (class of '20) got a new car a couple of months ago and he got an extra discount for being new graduate. They give you two years from graduation. But this was Hyundai. I’m not sure about Subaru.
She’s in Knoxville, TN and can live without a car for maybe a month.
