jgoods

Selling Your Car Directly to an Individual—Without Problems

Last updated: Nov 8, 2019 at 1:40PM
Published on: Mar 3, 2011 by jgoods

Most car gurus know they will get a better price selling their car privately rather than through a dealer. It’s retail versus wholesale. But to make that extra money, you’ll have to do a number of things that may be intimidating or difficult for you. In fact, they should be neither if you follow the guidelines we offer here.

For women who are leery about meeting and dealing with guy shoppers, my advice is always: Bring a friend with you. Here’s a good checklist. Selling privately takes time and effort, but you should reap some very tangible rewards.

Here are the steps:

Preparing the car and getting a vehicle history report
Pricing the car to sell
Advertising on DealFinder and locally
Dealing with buyers and lookers
Arranging financing and delivery

Honda’s New Odyssey: 15 Cupholders and a Trash-Bag Ring

Last updated: Sep 27, 2019 at 4:19PM
Published on: Jun 18, 2010 by jgoods

We’ve been reading a host of comments about how ugly the new Odyssey is, with its “lightning bolt” beltline. One commenter said (scroll down and look for “blackdog”), “looks like they welded sections from three different vans together.” And the car is, honestly, just a mishmash of bad design.

However, others have made the point that minivan drivers are far less influenced by style than utility, and that is surely true. And this is a minivan with everything that traveling American families could want: HDMI connection for video, seating that configures to your every need (see below), a ring to hold your trash bag, a “cool box” to hold a six-pack of whatever, a media tray to hold cell phones, etc., and, best of all, an “Ultra-Wide Rear Entertainment System (RES) with split-screen capability.” I forgot—yes, it does have 15 cupholders.

Everything you need to forget you’re driving.

Cosworth Subaru Impreza STi CS400 Blows Away the Supercars

Last updated: Sep 19, 2019 at 4:10PM
Published on: May 31, 2010 by jgoods

Never having been an enormous fan of Subaru cars, I must admit they seem to have hit a home run with the new WRX STi from Cosworth. With a 0-62 mph time of 3.7 seconds, this beast can actually take on the Lambos and up-powered Porsches—or at least play in the same ballpark.

Cosworth, one of the world’s great tuners and engine-tweakers, managed to get 395 hp from Subaru’s 2.5-liter boxer four. Some of the details are here. With chassis and suspension redos, the car promises to go very fast—and not just in a straight line.

There will be only 75 copies built, each costing $72,000, and they’re only available in the U.K.

So why should we in the U.S. care? It’s just another high-priced hotrod that we can’t buy, right?

Oaxaca Cars: from Suburbans to Custom VWs

May 6, 2010 by jgoods

Cars in Mexico are usually colorful, and a lot of advertising gets done via automobile. This Suburban (I think it’s a Suburban!) is touting Huatulco, a resort community into which the government has put serious money. Most likely some of that ended up decorating this travel firm’s carro.

Oaxaca is experiencing big traffic problems, and you hear lots of horns sounding off, particularly on Friday afternoons as people try to get out of the city. City government is also tearing up and repairing many downtown streets, which creates clouds of dust (polvo) in this dry season and angry reactions from residents. The typical comment is that the repairs are only coming now, just before the elections.

Top Five Sexiest Used Cheap Sports Cars

Last updated: Nov 4, 2019 at 2:36PM
Published on: Apr 7, 2010 by jgoods

“Used” we can all understand. “Sexy” and “cheap”? Well, as came out in a discussion at dinner last night, a sexy woman as defined by a woman is very different from one defined by a man. And “cheap” may well be the most relative term of all.

So here is one person’s idea of how you can spend relatively little money and get a sexy ride. These are all pretty desirable cars, I think you’d agree, and the best part is you’re letting the first (or first and second) buyer take the big depreciation hit.

We lead off with the Porsche Boxster (2008 model shown), because it’s an outstanding car for the money, and you can find some very good deals on late-model cars.

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