Best used car for $10,000

An email found its way to my inbox a few days ago from a reader who had read my blog and wanted to buy a car. His question was: "What is the best used car for 10 thousand bucks?" So, I decided to investigate this matter. I set a few ground rules, spent a weekend searching through used car websites and visited three dealerships in my area. The answer, when I found it, was surprisingly simple.

Ground Rules

•  The car has to cost $10,000 or less
•  Car should be in a "clean" condition, both mechanically and physically.
•  Car shouldn't have more than 50,000 miles on it.

Online Research
With the set of rules in my arsenal, I started going through websites with used car listings. Most of these sites act as an inbetween to connect the seller and buyer and would then take a sale commission upon a successful deal. There are two types of online sellers, an individual or a dealer. As I learned, there are pros and cons for both types.

• Individual seller. This type of listing comes from a person who wants to sell his/her car. The price is usually cheaper compared to a dealers because the individual doesn't have to pay for overhead and you will be dealing with someone who is not trained to empty your wallet. However, if the car has any hidden problems that come to your attention after the purchase, there's usually no way to get the seller to pay for repair.
•  Dealer. this type of listing originates from a dealer, someone who runs a dealership and uses internet to attract more buyers. Price will be higher, and unless you're a very good negotiator, chances of getting a sweet deal are zero to none. On the other hand, if the car shows any issues afterwords, you can always go back and either with words or with fists make them to fix your car.

 The car I picked has good ratings at Cars.com

 
After a few hours of online headache, I was forming a good idea of a few makes and models to shortlist. On one occasion I called a dealer in New Jersey to get a quote for one of their vehicles, the price she gave me on the phone was several thousand more than the price on the website, when I told her about the much lower price they had online she replied "Oh that's just for advertisement!"

So beware, this is a dirty tactic that some dealers use, they advertise a low price online to lure the buyer in, then use their sweet-talk techniques to collect more.

Under Cover in the field
My next step was to go under cover as a potential buyer and navigate the tricky waters of used car dealerships. There are 5 dealerships in my area and all of them sell both used and new. Of these five, two have bad reputation, one is new and two are known to be reasonably fair. I decided to start with the new one.

The profile of a winner, wouldn't you agree?

I parked my car two blocks away and walked to the dealership, at the lot I was greeted by a young man who was very polite and asked what make and model I was interested in, I told him I wanted a clean used car with no more than 50K miles on it. He offered a few suggestion but most of them were out of my budget, I then asked for a specific make and model that I knew from my online research I could afford. They had only one and I took it for a test drive. The car seemed fine and I couldn't find any problems, when we got back I asked about the price and he said it was $11,500. If I was to buy the car I could probably shave off 700 bucks in negotiation. So that would make it almost within our budget.

I visited two other dealerships and verified what I had learned about the car and the price.

So what is the best car for 10 grand?
In my humble opinion, at the time of this writing, the best car you can buy for $10,000 is a 2007 Mazda Mazda3 i. Bar none.

 Attractive design with a touch of athleticism 

It looks good, has a sporty feel, interior is very well laid out and of acceptable quality. It has a relatively powerful 2.0 liter 4 cylinder engine with 148 horsepower and as I found out is very fun to drive. There is no contest really. A slam dunk verdict.

Your thoughts?