There is nothing wrong with older cars, and finding private sellers can save you some money, however I would never recommend purchasing a car for that little before a roadtrip. That much money is going to buy you a car that's probably 15+ years old and has 150k+ miles. Even with a good inspection, I would be very hesitant to take a car like this on a major roadtrip.Quote:
the broker who had roadtripped around BC before recommended getting a car for $1500CAN or less, but making sure that it came from people we felt we could trust, ie a private seller, mom-and-pop kinda people. I'm still unsure as to what to do- should I just budget more for a car? Is it going to be worth looking at well-kept older cars? The broker's argument was that older cars are simpler to fix if they do go wrong...
I've found you can find much better value by getting a car in the $4-5000 range. You should be able to find a car under 10 years old and around 100k miles in this price range that I would feel much more confident with.
As far as older cars being easier to fix, I wouldn't agree at this stage. Certainly cars used to be much more simple in design, but you'd have to find a car that's very old at this point for that to be the case anymore. Not to mention, anything older than the 19-90's could be difficult to find parts for.
I would stick with a car mid-90's or newer. American made will be easiest to fix, although these days finding someone to fix the major imports like Honda and Toyota really isn't difficult anymore. If it is something you are worried about, I would probably stay away from VW and the other european models, just because they tend to need more specialized work. But otherwise, you should be fine.
