The used car market has seemingly been a bit of a Wild West since the pandemic. It’s crazy to think that I used to spend less than $1,500 for a Smart Fortwo with over 100,000 miles, now those same cars today are $3,000 and up. But not every used car is ridiculously expensive these days, and some are way cheaper than you might expect – and that’s what we’re talkin’ in today’s Autopian Asks.
The Autopian staff all gave different, fascinating answers to the headline question. For me, it’s the Chevrolet Volt that can be had way cheaper than I thought. I’m a huge fan of David’s high-mileage BMW i3, but I’m too much of a cheapskate to spend even $10,500 on it, which is what he bought it for at a dealership before having the pack replaced.
But what I could stomach buying is a first-generation Chevrolet Volt. Go ahead and plug “Chevy Volt” into your local classifieds website. You can get a high-mileage example for around $3,000, which is incredible! Even ones with low miles are still affordable. I still believe the Volt is one of the most deeply underrated GM cars of all time. Sure, it doesn’t use a bunch of fancy materials like the BMW i3, but I’ve known countless happy Volt owners.
If I had to throw another vehicle into the ring, it would be the first-generation Honda Insight. If you don’t mind some body damage, paint fade, or a torn seat, you can still find examples for low prices like $3,500. These can get so cheap I’ve come close to buying one several times, myself.
Matt thinks first-generation and second-generation Dodge Vipers are probably cheaper than they should be. Look, I won’t say that Vipers are cheap, but you can get a sweet example with epic tri-spoke wheels for just $40,000!
Matt’s other choice was the Mercury Marauder and sure enough, you should have no problem finding the best of the Panthers for a chunk under $10,000. It’s the same deal with David’s choice of the Ford Model T, just in case you’re looking to go really historic as opposed to scoring a daily driver. Decent Model Ts can be had for under $10,000 and even super nice ones are still not much over that mark.
Jason’s choice was the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, and the link he shared brings us to this example sitting on a trailer in Michigan for $11,295. This one doesn’t drive so maybe it’s not a great deal, but Jason’s heart is in the right place. Prefer something a little nicer? Here’s a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow that’s in much better condition for $16,000.
All of these cars are important pieces of history, too! Sure, a Ford Model T would be a terrible car to use in modern traffic, but if you can go your own speed on a country road I bet you’ll have a ball. Of course, the Dodge Viper is a car that doesn’t need an introduction and even the Marauder is a bit of a sleeper.
So, how about you? What used cars do you think are way cheaper than you expected?
(Topshot: RM Auctions)
1-2 year old VW id4s are in the low teens. CRAZY!! 1-2 year old jaguar e-pace are like 20k tops.. Also used jaguars are all cheaper than you expect. if you played price-is-right rules and asked a bunch of people off the street what a random 4 year old jaguar is worth nobody would win.
I’m not much of a FoMoCo fan, but I do love the Mercury Marauder…I also love and want a 79 Lincoln Mark V
To answer the question: None, since I keep seeing even average cars being a ripoff
“It’s crazy to think that I used to spend less than $1,500 for a Smart Fortwo with over 100,000 miles…” – Mercedes
This made me look twice. For me it’s crazy to think people put over 100K miles on a Smart.
I’ve posted many times, but I’ll post it again. Volt’s are the BEST deal in commuters right now. I got mine with 52,000 miles, (30k on battery, 20k on engine) for 11,200 after incentives. 11 grand for a 2017 car with 52,000 miles is a deal for ANY car, much less one as cool as a Volt. Live in a place with cheap electricity like mine? It’ll pay for itself in 5 damn years.
Oh yes, forgot to mention, buy the right one and you have a 15 year 150,000 mile warranty on nearly the whole drivetrain. Freakin awesome.
What used car is way too cheap? Any car I’m selling. I know what I got, everyone else, not so much.
I’ll sell you my ’98 Civic (that I got for 600$), for the low low price of 15,000$. No lowballers, I know what I got.
I’ll give you quarter of a tofurkey sandwich with the mayo licked off and some pocket lint I got from a homeless guy.
Throw in a PS5 with OEM controllers, and you got a deal.
I have the empty box from a PS5, will that do?
+1 on the Volt. It’s attractive, hilariously energy efficient (compared to gas) for the first 35 miles, and if my son’s experience is any indicator, durable. Good luck finding one though. There are only five for sale in a 100-mile radius from me.
I think trucks and SUVs’ sales prices fall through the floor at about 10 years of age. A 10-year old F-150 is only 1/4 of its new price now. I know the resale value takes a big hit when you drive it off the showroom floor, but dang.
I’ve found the Crossfire to be surprisingly cheap on the market. You can get a decent drivers quality car with under a 75k for less than 8 grand with a decent mix of autos and manuals, ragtops and tin tops. I know the looks are polarizing but personally I’ve always been rather fond of them.
I thought an issue with the Crossfire is that any repair is expensive. You either need Mercedes SLK parts, or unobtanium Crossfire specific parts.
I’ve attempted, on three different occasions, to buy a C5. The first time I was replacing my Seville STS and instead bought an off lease ATS Coupe. The second time I was replacing that and instead bought a 996. The third time was replacing the 996 (I was actually cross shopping against C6 Grand Sports but same difference) and bought an Elise. The Elise is probably never going anywhere, so that avenue is closed.
This time, I set out to replace my trusty dependable C4 and set out from the start to buy either a late C5 or an SLK55; which are both screaming bargains (just like C4s are) and both cost about the same. I had my heart set on a C5, though. This time it was going to happen. I had even planned out the list of mods I wanted to do. And then someone mentioned to me that X150 Jaguar XKs are in the same wheelhouse of price. And not even the ratted out golf course spec early 4.2L cars, but actual hairy chested 5.0 XKRs. And damn it… Probably not going to get a C5 this time either. That’s too much better of a car for similar money while still being in roughly the same bracket to just ignore when there’s major niggles about the C5.
Model Ts are kind of car-like-things, but a model A is an actual drivable by anybody born in the 20th century car. It even has a gas pedal and you shift with your hand rather that the other way around!
Has noone said Miata yet? I wish I’d snagged my NC sooner. Plenty of good ones under $10,000 out there. Dependable, good parts availability, easy operating top makes it easy to live with. I get 27-30 mpg (premium). Hagerty will insure them cheap as a classic/specialty vehicle.
I loved my MGB too, but the Miata is so much more usable as a car. I don’t think there’s much of a better “fun car” value out there. I know I can drive and enjoy it for many years.
Miata is always the answer, but the old ones have tripled in price in recent years, so I don’t think they qualify as cheaper than you’d expect at this point. It amazes me that the first three generations all trade hands for about the same prices at this point despite the 20 year spread in model years. NDs are still more expensive, but a good A, B or C is around $10k.
Yeah, and I get that, but look at what else you get for $10,000 now. It’s hard to find a good daily driver with 5-6 year old car with under 100,000 miles on it for under $10,000 now, but you can get a dependable fun car for the same price. Since prices are rising on NA and NB’s, its a good indicator that they are going to hold value rather than depreciating much more.
Yeah the NC is a good value it’s true. I just have an irrational obsession with pop ups that won’t allow me to get one haha
The pop-ups are a very compelling reason to go NA. Even as prices have gone up on NA’s and NB’s you are getting a lot of car for your money and probably the most fun per dollar you can get. There’s a good chance that they are going to keep rising from this point.
I certainly hope so! I definitely paid a very pretty penny for my recent acquisition, so if I can not lose tons of that in a few years when I go to sell, that would be nice.
Unfortunately, for we tall folk, Miata isn’t the answer. Sure, I can ride/drive one with the top down, but at 6’5″ and all torso, even then I get a headache from the wind buffeting the top of my head. Plus, the top of the windshield frame is right in my field of vision. Plus also, I live in Colorado, so top-down is at best an eight-month driver.
Too bad, ’cause they tick a lot of boxes for me.
I don’t know how they do it, but I know there are seat modifications a lot of tall guys do to make it work but I hear you. And it’s a big commitment to buy a car hoping that mods will make it livable for you.
As for the CO piece, I had a Miata as my only car for several years living in Utah. I put the top down anytime it was over like 40 and dry, I don’t think there was ever more than a week that the stop stayed up.
Yeah, Denver doesn’t get really cold that often. For someplace like Gunnison or Durango or Leadville where -10F highs are common in the winter, it’s another story. A shorter friend was into Miatas and spent plenty at Flyin’ Miatas over time (turbocharging, mostly) and turned his into an excellent street car that held its own for track days.
Then he built an Exocet. Driving it is like carving up the street while wearing a really quick go-kart.
But ultimately, yes, I don’t want to have to modify my daily just to make it usable. As a toy car, I’m still considering one.
on the Volt: you really don’t want a pre-2016 one though, that’s why they are so cheap.
Not necessarily true, they are still good cars. They don’t offer as good of a range, or as pleasant as an interior as the 2nd gens though.
Some cheap used car prices are really just a deposits for inordinate amounts of diagnostic time, hard to find parts, labor costs and maintenance expenses.
At least here in Houston, the Mazda 3. I’ve mentioned it in Discord, but I was a day late to buy a 2023 AWD turbo premium plus hatch with 7800 miles for 26k. That stickers at 38k new. I bought my 2022 AWD turbo for 22k and the dealer lost money on it.
In fact… you can even buy brand new ones at invoice here. Seems like dealers are having a hard time moving them, but it’s a lot of car for the money. I love mine.
Fellow Houstonian here. I may be a Mazda owner too if they ever drop the inline 6 Mazda 6 with a manual transmission.
God, wouldn’t that be a fun car. I’m looking at building mine into the canceled TCR if CorkSport will actually sell the body kit. Mazda gave them the only remaining set of molds late last year. I have zero complaints about the turbo four though. It’s great at getting the power down, and the interior has no business being that nice for what I paid.
Maybe you can convince them to build that 6. No doubt it would be fantastic.
Matt is the only one that knows how to play the game. The Panther platform is the best answer. Cheap, reliable, dependable, great ride, parts availability, nothing to knock it. The others yes you can buy a 6 figure car for under 10k but it won’t run for long. There is reliable transportation and money pits. Only one is a good idea.
I love my Grand Marquis, but they are certainly not the right vehicle for everyone.
Every single audi, and then following that, every Aston Martin Vantage or Jag (pick one) that’s actually been driven is way, WAY cheaper than I usually expect. There are as many reasons for this as there are parts in an engine but if I really wanted to drop 20-35k to drive a james bond poster car, I could. I shouldn’t, but I could.
I find the first-generation hot hatches are still a bargain, if you live in the right place. A Peugeot 205 GTI, Fiesta XR2 or a whole host of their competitors can be had under 10k Euro in surprisingly good shape, and you get a real cult classic with legendary handling, before safe understeer was the only way to make FWD cars.
In fact, I’d extend this to most FWD classics, there’s a Fulvia in the Midwest going for only 15k USD right now!
Used luxury sedans across the board. While some makes depreciate worse than others, it’s crazy how much car you can get if you’re the second owner. I’ve seen very nice Audi A7s listed in the 30s, you can get an A6 with the correct engine (3 liter turbo V6) in the low to mid 30s, 540is dip into the 30s in no time, etc.
The depreciation is damn near 50% by 3 years or so. While I personally would not want to deal with a used German luxury sedan, I know that many sickos on this site (like the wonderful author of this very article!) would be willing to roll the dice. The depreciation doesn’t affect Lexus or Acura quite as brutally, but there are still deals to be had.
Unfortunately with my car down for an unknown amount of time and the possibilities as to what went wrong looking grim (thanks, Hyundai. Never again…) I’ve been nosing around a bit and you can get a lightly used Lexus ES350 in the low 30s. They’re not the sportiest things in the world but they’re fantastic luxury sedans and that 3.5 liter V6 will run until the heat death of the universe.
A current gen IS350 will run a bit more (mid to high 30s) and they get pretty lousy gas mileage…but again, longevity. You can keep one of them for a decade plus. In case you can’t tell I’m a little frustrated with the issues I’ve had with my back to back turbo 4s and am dreaming of picking up a naturally aspirated engine while they still exist…
Details on what happened to your N please! Thought you were generally happy with it
I’ve loved it. Unfortunately the Ns have been plagued by recalls so far, particularly the ones with the rapidly becoming infamous DCT. A recall was issued for my car in June that involved the high pressure fuel pump going bad early, pumping in a mix of gas and air that was too rich, and putting the car into limp mode. There’s also been an issue with the DCTs, which my car was not recalled for but obviously that issue could be out there as well.
I scheduled the recall service last week after the remedy was announced. Unfortunately my local and unsurprisingly shitty Hyundai dealership let me sit there for 2 hours then told me the part was back ordered for weeks. Why they even let me come in is anyone’s guess, but whatever. I left empty handed.
On Sunday when I was driving normally I lost power and the check engine light came on. The car went into limp mode and wouldn’t rev beyond 2,000, which I assume is how the ECU is programmed to protect the engine and transmission when it senses something’s off. Anyway the car is completely stock other than tires and under warranty so I had my mom follow me to the dealership in case the Kona kerploded.
During this incident I coincidentally got an email that the part was finally in. So I dropped it off yesterday, at which point they told me the part isn’t actually in, they won’t be able to fully diagnose the car until tomorrow at earliest, and that it may be out of commission for weeks or even months because of how backed up Hyundai is when it comes to parts and their plethora of recalls/issues.
Right now I’m just waiting, but I am summarily displeased. The car has all of 15,000 miles on it, has already had 4 oil and filter changes in addition to the other preventative stuff, and I’ve taken very good care of it. If it’s down for a while they said they’ll give me a loaner or rental, so I guess that’s good. However the worst part is they’re already trying to set me up for disappointment.
They said yesterday that they don’t know if Hyundai will cover whatever is wrong. I laughed it off and was more or less thinking “they’ll be hearing from my attorney if they don’t”, but unfortunately Hyundai is notorious for this shit. All of the forums are loaded with stories of manufacturing defects causing issues and Hyundai fighting tooth and nail to avoid honoring the warranty.
I guess we’ll see where it goes from here, and obviously I want the ending to be my car being returned to me in good working order on their dime…but we shall see. I’ll definitely keep ya’ll posted, and I do love the car when it works…but as far as I can tell two years in Hyundai has absolutely earned their bad reputation.
Damn I’m sorry to hear that, with just 15,000 on it you’d think you’d be in the clear for warranty coverage, fingers crossed.
I had my 2015 Mazda transmission replaced when it was 3,000klms from the warranty cutoff. Was such a headache for them to finally admit the TSB I showed them was in fact the same problem mine had. I remember asking them how long the new transmission was covered for and their reply was “until your manufacturer warranty runs out” which was the next 3,000klms. Baffled, I sold the car and will never buy a Mazda again (great interior though). The only power we have is to vote with our wallets, I hope it works out for you but I feel your pain and frustration.
Thanks amigo! This is low key a very kind and thoughtful comment. I appreciate it. Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
Dang dude. Sorry to hear that! Hyundai reliability is shockingly bad in recent years. They did really well in the late oughts, but I have been super impressed with the style and drive of the newer stuff, but if it can’t make it to 15k without problems, then how the crap are they still in business?!
100% agree with your assessment of used luxury sedans. I bought my ’06 XJ8 in 2012, it was an Arizona car with something like 98,000 miles. Must have been all highway miles because the interior still looked and smelled brand new. Six-year-old top-of-the range Jag I bought for $16,500. I didn’t mind the miles since my commute is only about two miles, and mechanically the car’s been super solid.
Agreed! I bought a used single-owner 2013 Benz E350 “sport wagon” (has the AMG body kit and wheels, but not the mechanicals) with 30k on the clock in 2018 for less than 50% of MSRP. That works out to about a buck a mile in depreciation before I bought it.
It’s a great road trip car, and it’s only been down for non-scheduled repairs once, not counting some collision repair that wasn’t my fault. It’s pushing 100k now and there’s some spendy service in its future, but I’m ok with that, mainly because I knew what I was getting into when I bought it.
Sorry about your Hyundai issues. FWIW, I had a ’24 Sonata N Line for four months. Car lost all electrics at 1200 miles. Dealer said there was no problem since the car started for them. They wouldn’t give me documentation because, “If there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing to report.” I bailed.
Oh I had the AC go out in mine back in July. It was brutal. When I took it to the dealership it literally started working again. They gave me education that would be at home in a 3rd grade classroom about how AC works and told me there was no problem and that I didn’t know what I was talking about.
That legendary Hyundai build quality and dealership service is definitely living up to its reputation at the moment. I had two completely trouble free years but the devil always comes to collects his dues…
You don’t know how A/C works and I don’t know how to press a Start button. It’s a wonder we can tie our own shoes.
You can add me to the list of people quite happy with their Volt! My 2012 paid for itself in fuel savings alone right about at four year mark, granted it helped I picked it up with 40,000 miles in 2016 for just $11,500. Since 2020, every mile has been gravy. Unfortunately, as I mentioned elsewhere here yesterday, the battery pack showed its first sign of demise yesterday. There is an app/dongle combination that reads all of the cells so I think I’m going to look into that soon. Finding another Volt dirt cheap would be tempting as mine would make a decent parts car. As long as I could check out the traction-battery condition first, it would be tempting.
Anyway, I came here to mention another bargain I purchased that I have been enjoying greatly and bring up often. The Jaguar XK8! I picked up my 2000 for an even $4K last year with 110,000 miles. It’s not perfect, but everything works and over the course of 4,100 miles I’ve only had to replace the transmission fluid, plugs, and fuel regulator. And add some fluid to get the top working again. I also wet-sanded a previous paint-fix on the rear quarter, buffed the whole car out, gave the interior a good going over, and it currently looks like something pretty far North of what I paid. It does need new valve cover gaskets and while I’m doing that I can check to see if the notorious timing chain tensioners have been upgraded. I’m guessing they haven’t been, so that will likely be on the winter project list.
Speaking of XK8s, when are you guys going to okay a series of SW-jaaaaG articles on his yard cat?
The battery problem you’re having is fascinating. I’ve been seeing so many Volts with way more miles than yours with claimed original batteries that still work fine. Weirdly, the issue I’ve been running into with high-mileage Volts (250k+ miles) seems to be with misfiring. I wonder if that has something to do with how infrequently these cars run their engines when you run on EV power alone.
I know that the car is designed to run the engine every now and then even if you do nothing but EV power, but still if you can do your commute on battery alone it could be a while before you burn through a whole tank.
That’s a new one – I wonder if some people just don’t bother changing out the plugs when they’re supposed to and then they foul up over the longer intervals of not running. Even with electric use, I think the recommended time to take care of that was at 100,000 miles. I swapped out the ones in mine with fresh OEM Delcos right on schedule – turned out to be remarkably easy and old ones did at least show some signs of wear. Of course at 250K+ I’m sure other possibilities exist.
Hybrid battery degradation due to lack of use is definitely a thing, at least for Toyotas. When I was considering purchasing a Crown Hybrid the import agent told me there’s a sweet spot when it comes to mileage and age. E.g. a ten-year-old car with less than 20,000km on it will likely need a battery replacement sooner than a car of similar age but 100,000km on the odo. It’s related to the period of time the battery is kept charged up vs discharged, with lower mileage cars tending to be from shorter trips where the battery often doesn’t have time to be charged up properly. This is with Toyota hybrid powertrain though, I imagine the Volt has an advantage in that it can be charged up whilst stationary (and it has a lithium-based battery pack)