[VIPER_SRT]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I agree with those points too.

Regarding our own pet peeves, well, I have not been here long enough to develop any of my own yet! When i drove in NYC last week, I saw people changing lanes abruptly and not bothering to use the indicators. Some were impatient and showed the same by honking at others. And one or two sped down the roads as if they were on fire. But that's about it!

NYC is the best place to reveal your Indian driving skills. All we need to do is stick your nose between cars when changing lanes. An inch of gap is good enough. NY cabbies make everyone drive like maniacs and we got to be one if getting in or out of city.

[rajushank84]

One pet peeve I have with the freeways here(680/880/101) is that people tailgate a lot and start zigzagging like crazy when traffic increases! Sometimes freaks me out. When I went to LA I was like :O

[maddy42]

Pet peeve: Get out of the way on the left lane if you going slow

This sums the best of it all
http://jalopnik.com/ten-things-every...know-459023397

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Pet peeve: Get out of the way on the left lane if you going slow

So I remember reading this - justification for being on the left lane continuously for a lot of people - especially on 2 laned expressways - is that they are driving safer by being at whatever speed they are at on the left lane - they don't have to slow down or speed up or brake or whatever to let merging traffic into the freeway. They would have had to do that if they are driving on the right lane. Of course, they do the mistake of lane hogging, someone else does the mistake of tailgating, I do the mistake of overtaking through the right. Some people leave the left lane when they see people overtaking from the right. I would ideally not want to flash headlights, you never know who is driving and if they have a gun or something.

[josejoseph]

Hi All,

I'm writing this in behalf of my friend. He's new in USA and looking for a car that he intends to keep for the next 1.5 year.

He found online a 2006 Honda Civic which has done 200K. Asking price is $5.5K. Is this a good deal? I saw the pictures and externally the car looks very well maintained. But isn't 200K very high mileage for a 7 year old car?

His usage will be around 1500 miles a month with 40 miles per day for work.

Let me know your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

-- Jose

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by josejoseph

Hi All,

I'm writing this in behalf of my friend. He's new in USA and looking for a car that he intends to keep for the next 1.5 year.

He found online a 2006 Honda Civic which has done 200K. Asking price is $5.5K. Is this a good deal? I saw the pictures and externally the car looks very well maintained. But isn't 200K very high mileage for a 7 year old car?

His usage will be around 1500 miles a month with 40 miles per day for work.

Let me know your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

-- Jose

Hi Jose,

Indeed the price and miles are quite high. In Nor-Cal, for $5k, you can easily find camry, accord, mazda6, civic with <140k on odo and clean title. It should not be that hard to find one in your area too. And since he will doing 1500 miles a month, the lesser the miles on odo the better it is for him.

I even found a volvo s-40 with <100k miles for $5k.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/3710821886.html

So, my advice is to wait and find a car with low mileage and better condition. At 200k, maintenance will be an unknown entity as we don't know how the previous owners treated it. Shoot for something with less than <150k on odo.

[josejoseph]

Originally Posted by chevelle

So, my advice is to wait and find a car with low mileage and better condition. At 200k, maintenance will be an unknown entity as we don't know how the previous owners treated it. Shoot for something with less than <150k on odo.

chevelle, thanks for your quick response. He's in Minnesota so he's looking around there. But thanks again for your advice!

-- Jose

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by josejoseph

chevelle, thanks for your quick response. He's in Minnesota so he's looking around there. But thanks again for your advice!

-- Jose

I just gave a look over of what's in store in MN, found following listing.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hn...706906225.html

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/da...705255301.html

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hn...699965080.html

So, its not that hard to find a lower mileage car compared to a 200k civic for $5.5k. I would never pay that much.

Please ask him to search some more and do some research before buying a high mileage car as he is gonna spend quite some time commuting in it.

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by chevelle

Please ask him to search some more and do some research before buying a high mileage car as he is gonna spend quite some time commuting in it.

Here is some search on my part -

Walser - 3k to 6k cars

Luther Auto - under 10k cars

Lupient - under 10k cars

I guess there are enough and more options available. I just hope he doesn't get sucked into the "I will buy Honda/Toyota, not matter what" - because at his budget, he is going to run into something really old in either brand.

[Jomz]

I think the 2006 car with 200K is a good car.

Given that the owner has driven 30k per year on that car, I would think he would have maintained the essentials ( engine/ trans/ suspension) well, So that the owner is confident to take the car on long trips.

Given that the car has 200K, you could get that for a lower price.

[kraft.wagen]

Originally Posted by josejoseph

Hi All,

I'm writing this in behalf of my friend. He's new in USA and looking for a car that he intends to keep for the next 1.5 year.

He found online a 2006 Honda Civic which has done 200K. Asking price is $5.5K. Is this a good deal? I saw the pictures and externally the car looks very well maintained. But isn't 200K very high mileage for a 7 year old car?

His usage will be around 1500 miles a month with 40 miles per day for work.

Let me know your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

-- Jose

I would stay away from a car that has run 200k keeping in mind that he wants to use it for the next year and a half. Ask him to look for more options other than Toyota/Honda, I'm sure you can get an American car with lower miles for the budget.

[VIPER_SRT]

Originally Posted by josejoseph

Hi All,

I'm writing this in behalf of my friend. He's new in USA and looking for a car that he intends to keep for the next 1.5 year.

He found online a 2006 Honda Civic which has done 200K. Asking price is $5.5K. Is this a good deal? I saw the pictures and externally the car looks very well maintained. But isn't 200K very high mileage for a 7 year old car?

His usage will be around 1500 miles a month with 40 miles per day for work.

Let me know your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

-- Jose

I would suggest to go for older model like 2005 with less miles probably around 100-120k. My 2 friends recently sold their 2005 Corollas on Craigslist overnight for 5k with approximately 120k miles on it. They were in excellent conditions. 200K would be the breaking point for most of the parts

[Ananthang]

Hi All,

Last month I bought a 2005 Toyota Camry. When I filled up Petrol for the first time after buying it, did not close the Fuel Lid properly until the click sound. So the next day when I was driving to office, noticed the Engine Check Light On. When I searched net, I found that Fuel lid if not closed properly until the click sound is heard there is a chance for this Engine check light

Since I knew that I did not close it until the click sound properly, I corrected it and drove the car for few days, refilled the Petrol. The Engine check Light disappeared and I was happy.

But later on Friday, the light was glowing again. Since it was due a fill, I filled Petrol again expecting the light to go Off, but it did not.

I called the dealer who sold me, he says that 100 USD deductible if I take it there, even though he gave a 3 month warranty.

But he told me the light may be ON for long time if it occurs once. 45 to 50 Starts he says. But wanted to confirm the same, if it some other problem, I may try and get it fixed within Warranty period itself

I called up local Firestone and they told 90 USD to check the error code.
I do not see any difference in driving.

I have just come here and really tight on budget. Any suggestions to check the code for lesser cost or your views will help.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Ananthang

Hi All,

Last month I bought a 2005 Toyota Camry. When I filled up Petrol for the first time after buying it, did not close the Fuel Lid properly until the click sound. So the next day when I was driving to office, noticed the Engine Check Light On. When I searched net, I found that Fuel lid if not closed properly until the click sound is heard there is a chance for this Engine check light

Since I knew that I did not close it until the click sound properly, I corrected it and drove the car for few days, refilled the Petrol. The Engine check Light disappeared and I was happy.

But later on Friday, the light was glowing again. Since it was due a fill, I filled Petrol again expecting the light to go Off, but it did not.

I called the dealer who sold me, he says that 100 USD deductible if I take it there, even though he gave a 3 month warranty.

But he told me the light may be ON for long time if it occurs once. 45 to 50 Starts he says. But wanted to confirm the same, if it some other problem, I may try and get it fixed within Warranty period itself

I called up local Firestone and they told 90 USD to check the error code.
I do not see any difference in driving.

I have just come here and really tight on budget. Any suggestions to check the code for lesser cost or your views will help.

Autozone outside of California provides free code check. Apart from that Aamco also provides free code check with a coupon. Third option is to get a scanner from walmart or autozone for $50 and check it yourself. If it is related to the fuel cap, reset the code and it shouldn't come back. If any other code pops up, take it to the dealer and fix it under warranty

Don't pay $90 at firestone or any other places.

[ToroRosso]

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

I just hope he doesn't get sucked into the "I will buy Honda/Toyota, not matter what" -.

Funny thing is , how much ever you stress on this, you cant convince desis on short stint for anything other than Honda/Toyota. I tried advicing some folks to go for a lower milage americans as opposed to high mileage japans, but it has always never succeeded