First: Hello to all forum members!

Second: I am going to see a car in my area tonight and I need your opinions about it. It's a 2005 xA with 80,000 miles. I've run the CARFAX and it's accident free with 1 owner and clean title. It is a 5 speed manual, has 4 brand new tires, power windows, sun roof and stock audio.

The asking price is $5,395 and I am sure I can negotiate it down a little bit.

My questions are:
1) What are the main points I should pay attention to, when I am looking at the car? When test driving it?
2) Any specific questions I need to ask to the seller?
3) I've done some web research about the pricing and this price seems to be lower than all KBB, NADA and random craigslist search results. Any reason why the dealer might be selling it for so cheap? They said the original owner traded this in and bought a new one. They said everything is good and it is driving like new. That's all they told me about the car.

Thank you so much!

Anil

 

Sorry for replying to my own post but it would also help a lot if someone can give me a quick overlook of owning/driving a Scion. I've never had one before and if I buy the above vehicle, it will be a new chapter in my life. At some point, my wife had a Toyota Avalon thus the Toyota love

 

That does sound like too good of a deal. I would be most concerned about them trying to get you to pay through some strange method to scam you or them not actually owning the title free and clear. If that and the test drive are ok then you could have a mechanic you trust do a pre-purchase inspection for you. But if it all checks out I would say jump on it.

 

We bought our daughter a 2004 Scion xA, automatic, with 70K+ miles and we paid something like $6500...I would say if it's a clean title and everything is "legit" then yes it sound like a great deal...Make sure the a/c works effeciently (gets cold rather quickly), brakes are in good working order, make sure all buttons/gadgets are in working order, clutch engagenment, etc...

As far as Scions go in general, they are a great car and relatively cheap to maintain...I have owned (4) in total and absolutely love them...Great car for the money...

 

yea it sounds about right. just listsen to the trans and the engine. ask if they have done any mods and look for anything that looks like it might have been in a fender bender. good luck

 

OK so I've seen/driven the car. We went to the dealer with my wife and son tonight and I gotta tell you, we were a bit surprised to see how small it was. But it was a clean car overall. The interior was a little rough. The clutch was soft and nice and all the gadgets/electronics were in good working condition. The A/C was blowing ice cold within minutes.

There was a noise from the driver side wheel when making sharp right turns. It was almost sounded like metal to metal noise. I wonder if the rotor on that side is rusty or this is a sign of a bigger deal. The mechanic who works there had gone home so I will wait him to look at it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am open to hear your ideas about it.

One last thing: I live in Maine and I don't have any idea how the handling will be in heavy snow conditions. Do you have any first hand experience with xA in the snow?

Thanks!

 

My egg did great in the snow. I wouldn't recommend it for rally cross or anything, but if you've got some decent snow tires on it, you'll do pretty good.

 

not too fishy at all, heres KBB on it in my area
http://www.kbb.com/used-cars/scion/x...&mileage=80000

 

I got my 04 XB with 79900 miles for $5500. The woman I bought it from was no longer able to drive, because she had suffered a stroke. She never advertised it except for around her church, and one day my roommate talked to her, and she had told him she was trying to sell her car. She said in the beginning she was hoping to get $6500 for it, but wanted to get rid of it so she just gave it to me for $5500. The blue book on it was right around $7000 for private party. The price you got seems really good especially for a dealership price. Every dealership I see around here ever since the cash for clunkers is selling all of their used cars for $2000-$3000 and sometimes more than that of what they are worth. That, and if you got a trade in they usually wanna give you $500-$1000 below blue book value for trade in. I am assuming the XA is cheaper than the XB no?

 

See, the KBB value for Good condition in your area for private party is $6,830, which is $1,500 more than this car's asking price. Plus, here the seller is a dealer, which suggests the clean retail value --$9,000+. There is a 2006 xA with 77k miles here in a big car dealer and they are asking $10,950 (outrageous!!). I am still not convinced that his car is clean as a whistle but we will see.

One reason comes to my mind is because this is Maine and people prefer pickup trucks, not fancy little southern cars