You don’t live in Southern California. You don’t live in Florida. You live in the state of Washington where it rains a good 200 plus days a year (give or take some crazy summer). So when it comes to looking at buying a convertible car in Seattle, you ARE taking a chance. Rag top or hard top? The answer is simple, considering the convertible will be closed most of time, better make it a hard top. The last thing you want is to have a slight rip and you find a puddle in your passenger seat in mid January.

So if you must have a convertible for the summer months, here’s a list of some stylish ones that will make you the envy of Seattle, for at least 2 and half months.

2010 Ford Shelby GT-2dr Convertible (5.4L 8cyl S/C 6M)-The quintessential muscle car

2009 VW Beattle-2.5L Blush Edition 2dr Convertible (2.5L 5cyl 6A)-Not REAL manly, but gets the job done in the “fun” department.

2009 Smart Fortwo-BRABUS cabriolet 2dr Convertible (1.0L 3cyl 5AM)-Could offer the best MPG of all convertibles.33/41 MPG

2009 Porche Boxster-S 2dr Convertible (3.4L 6cyl 6M)-A classic.

2009 Mazda Miata-Sport 2dr Convertible (2.0L 4cyl 6A)-It’s small but feisty

2009 Mini Cooper-S 2dr Convertible (1.6L 4cyl Turbo 6M)-You either love it or hate it

2010 Honda S2000-CR 2dr Convertible (2.2L 4cyl 6M)-Honda reliability in a convertible

2008 BMW Z4M-2dr Hatchback (3.2L 6cyl 6M)-Can’t go wrong with this one.

2009 Cadillac XLR-Platinum 2dr Convertible (4.6L 8cyl 6A)-A head turner.

2009 Maybach Landaulet-4dr Convertible (6.0L 12cyl Turbo 5A)-Had to have a ridiculously expensive one. At $1.3 million… it is.

I drive around with my dog a lot. And when I say “a lot,” I mean most all of the time. So much that when I don’t take him, he looks at me with that “Where-in-the-heck-are-you-going-without-me look.”

It’s a look that bothers me, makes me feel guilty. So I talk to him and hope he understands that there are good reasons he’s being left behind – it might be 85 degrees and too hot to leave him in the truck; or I’m going to be somewhere for 10 hours, and I don’t think he’d appreciate hanging out in the back seat for that long.

His name’s Willie, and he’s a golden retriever. When I worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I had the kind of job that allowed me to take my dog with me. This tradition started with my previous dog, another golden retriever named Murph.

As a sports columnist, I didn’t have to go to the office much. I wrote many of my columns from parks. The routine was pretty much the same – I’d make sure I had my laptop battery charged, and off we went – Willie swam after tennis balls in Lake Washington while I wrote and tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep my keyboard from getting splashed by my dog, who always seemed to shake right next to me when he got out of the water.

I’ve had goldens now for 20 years, which means that every vehicle I’ve ever owned has the lovely smell of wet dog. You know that smell, it’s the one you can’t smell if it’s your dog. And it’s the one that grosses everyone else out, especially my wife.

I know a good way to get rid of this problem – never take a passenger with you, aside from your dog of course.

It was worse before I got a 2007 Honda Ridgeline with leather seats. That’s a must for drivers who have dogs that shed – leather seats. The vehicle I had before this, a ’93 Honda Accord, had cloth seats. They have yet to invent a vacuum with enough suction to inhale dog hair, and the heck of it is, that same dog hair that seems glued to the seats always ends up on your clothes.

Savvy drivers who cruise around with their dogs always carry one of those sticky rollers that removes hair from their clothes. Un-savvy drivers like me just try to pick the strands off my fleece sweatshirt, which never works very well, which leads to comments of: “So, I see you’ve got a dog.”

That’s right, Sherlock, I do, and boy is he spoiled. Willie spends most of his time in the backseat, but if he’s in the front seat and it’s a cold morning, I’ll turn on the seat warmer for him too.

There are advantages to driving with your dog. If I’m in a hurry or running late, I have to admit that I occasionally use the car-pool lane illegally.And when I use it, I’ll call Willie from the back seat to the front seat to give the appearance that there’s another living, breathing something in the vehicle. I picture the state patrol guy looking at us going by, and I’m assuming he can’t tell if we were two people, and thus legal, or one person and one hairy mongrel, thus illegal.

At 55 or 60 mph, can he really be certain? I tend to think not. My biggest problem is trying to keep Willie upright in a sitting position so his head is visible above the dashboard. He gets in the front seat and wants to curl up in a ball, which defeats the purpose.

I guess there are disadvantages too. He barks at every dog he sees, which wouldn’t be so bad if Seattle didn’t have so many dogs. And he doesn’t just bark, he goes nutball, barking his fool head off, as if he’d tear that dog apart if he could get out of the truck, when in fact, the opposite is what would really happen.

He’s docile, an I-mean-you-no-harm kind of dog. I’ve got proof. Two years ago my daughter

celebrated her 16^thbirthday at Buca di Beppo in Seattle. I parked in the lot across the street.  While I

was in the restaurant, a crook smashed my passenger window and took my laptop. But he left Willie alone, so I guess he was a nice crook. I’ve often wondered how Willie reacted when the window was smashed.

Did he:

-Try to defend my truck and laptop by snarling and biting the crook?

-Or did he wag his tail and wonder why the crook didn’t pet him before he ran off with my laptop.

My truck’s been damaged in other ways. The console and armrests have taken a beating from Willie’s nails – they’ve got little imprints all over them, signs of Willie-ness everywhere, sure to hurt resale value in the future.

Willie and I have gone on several long road trips – three to Cannon Beach, Ore., two to Phoenix and one to Banff. I always find a stream or a lake or some kind of body of water and let him swim along the way.

We typically stay at Super 8’s because they allow dogs for a nominal extra fee. I’ll ask for two double beds, one for him and one for me. But we’ve also stayed at motels that don’t allow dogs, which is always interesting. I’ll try to get a room a long ways from the lobby so I can smuggle him in and pray that Willie has a bark-less night.

I’m not sure why I’m so crazy about my dog that I enjoy taking him with me every day. There are drawbacks but not enough to leave Willie and those looks of his at home.

 Jim Moore is a former sports columnist for the Seattle P-I, aka The Go2Guy. He can still be found on Seattlepi.com as a freelance writer, and is also a contributing writer for Seattleauto.net.  

The Capri had an eight-track player in it, and I managed to acquire an adaptor that would allow me to play cassettes — the height of technology at the time. “Rust” could be used to describe the color of the car as well as the makeup of much of the exterior by the time I got it. Mechanically, it had seen far better days.

Still, for the year or so I managed to keep it running, I loved that car in the way you can only love your first. I washed it more often than was necessary or practical and cruised through the parking lot of my high school certain that everyone was impressed. They weren’t.

I think every teenager should start with a clunker. It’s a rite of passage, and it gives you great stories about the door you had to hold shut with bungee cords or the time your muffler fell off during your homecoming date. I had a friend whose first car wouldn’t go in reverse, and when we went places we were always hunting for places to park that wouldn’t require backing out later — otherwise as the passenger I was stuck having to push it.

I think I’ve owned nine cars since the Capri, cars of all shapes and sizes. There was the Honda Accord I drove until it had almost a quarter of a million miles, and the Jeep Wrangler I rolled in a snowstorm at Snoqualmie Pass while trying to get to a football game. There was the Datsun 510 hatchback that kept going despite all my abuse, and the Nissan Pathfinder everyone said stunk of wet dog — probably because it had a wet dog in the back seat most of the time.

For 17 years, up until the closure of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in March, I was a sportswriter. I covered baseball for the P-I, which meant a lot of time on the road and a often driving a different rental car every three days. More than a few times, I arrived in a city late at night, drove to the hotel, then the next morning walked out of the hotel and couldn’t remember which car was mine.

I got to drive a lot of different cars, and there were often surprises. I’d get into a car that had an impressive reputation and find that I didn’t like it at all. Or discover a car that was a joy to drive even though it was a make or model I would previously never have even considered buying. Sometimes I’d get a model I’d never even heard of before.

Those experiences have given me a good idea what I like and don’t like in a car, and the little things that make a car the right fit for me. In the end, that’s what matters — having a car that just feels right.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can find a 1979 Mercury Capri?

Dave Andriesen is a former Seattle P-I sports reporter. His stories can been seen on SeattleAuto.net as a contributing writer.

Ever since late last year, car dealers throughout the nation have been feeling the squeeze. The Big Three carmakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, constantly made the evening news with the need for a multi-billiion dollar bailout package. Even consistently performing brands like Honda and Toyota saw sales of their veritable Accord and Camary lines slowly dropping.

Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, announced yesterday that March sales were likely to be even worse than January and February, which had set records for 27 year-lows in car sales. Honda also announced that it would be delaying one of their new factories in Japan due to the low demand. Consumer research firm J.D. Powers came out and said that retail sales for new vehicles dropped 40 percent in the first half of March compared to last year. 

The Northwest – and specifically, the Puget Sound region – was optimistically thought to be resistant to the national downturn in the economy. Up until earlier this year, big local employers like Boeing and Microsoft were still getting brisk business and powering the local business engine. However, with recent layoffs, pay cuts and hiring freezes and falling real estate prices, it would appear that the Seattle region is inevitably tied to the national – and global – economy as a whole.

Seattle car dealers have been caught up in the mess, as almost every dealer has seen sales figures fall  - with the odd exception of Subaru, which has actually increased in sales. Ancedotal reports have been coming in from everywhere of novice but persistent negotiators coming away with great deals on new cars. Bothell resident David P. tells us that he walked onto a lot and was offered invoice pricing on a new, loaded 2009 Toyota FJ Cruiser, which included the $3,000 manufacturer rebate at the time. 

First hand accounts like these from Leonard and David are eye-opening in the world of car dealers, namely because the industry has had the notorious reputation of fleecing customers at every possible opportunity. Now that local car salesmen are willing to offer up select inventory for nothing more than holdback on the front side, it is quite indicative of not only competition among dealers, but also the urgency of closing with a buyer. Only twelve months ago, short of using an auto buyer or being an expert car negotiator, would it be possible to have a car delivered in invoice pricing.

Does this mean that Seattle dealers are getting desperate?  Yes and no. While overall sales are certainly down, dealers are still selling inventory and obviously making money on the sale – whether it be limited to holdback or some number magic on the financing side. Smart shoppers that do even a minimal amount of shopping around will generally find reasonable pricing on the vehicle they’re looking for. Certain makes and models are still in high demand or limited supply, so not all dealerships are looking to unload their inventory to the first buyer that comes by. In addition, not all consumers are born negotiators, so it’s fair to assume many buyers are paying more than they might be able to get away with. 

The overall sentiment of the local car industry is hopeful, but restrained. If you talk to most car salesmen, they’ll be optimistic and tell you things aren’t as great as last year, but still fine. Behind that optimism though, is a sea of worries of what the next few months will have in stock for the auto industry.

But every driver is different and the important question to ask yourself when considering an auto purchase is; what do I need? What do I want? What can I afford and willing to spend?

Answering those questions will guide you to the vehicle that’s right for you.

US News and World Reports published a list of the best and worst vehicles for the money, depending on many specific factors relating to cost. Their rankings are based on opinions from the automotive press, it also incorporates a five year total in ownership of the vehicle, and includes facts from Intellichoice which determines new car values and owning costs.

The rankings are not based on rebate incentives, but more on how much buyers will spend on the maintenance and fuel, while also calculating depreciation. So in reality their rankings are, best car for your money… over time.

Jamie Page Deaton writes

Car shoppers face an uncertain economy and a shrinking ability to borrow. The key to surviving the current marketplace is to stretch your dollars as far as they’ll go — but that doesn’t mean flocking to the biggest incentives.  It means focusing on cars that are proven winners and offer a great value over the entire life of the car.

Here are five from the US News and World Reports 2009 Awards

Toyota Camry -Best Midsize Car for the Money

Honda Fit- Best Subcompact Car for the Money

Hyundai Elantra -Best Compact Car for the Money

Chevrolet Tahoe-Best Full Size SUV for the Money

Lexus GS- Best Luxury Car for the Money

In all, the magazine had 14 different vehicle categories, with Toyota being the big winner. The Japanese automaker placed five Best Vehicles for the Money in their respective classes, also getting another three from Lexus. However the biggest surprise could be the Hyundai Elantra which ended up being the best compact car for the money. Proof the Korean automaker is gaining ground on powerhouses Toyota and Honda.

See the full list of Best Cars for the Money  and all the different categories by US News and World Reports.

Before we start, we would like to give a big thanks out to Edie Hirtenstein, who is the Senior Product Manager at AutoCheck for her assistance on this article. Edie was kind enough to agree to an interview to help explain and answer questions we had about AutoCheck’s features and services.

When running a vehicle history report, each car will have certain information that includes:

• VIN Number
• Engine Type (Ex: 2.0L I4 EFI)
• Year / Make / Model / Style (2004 Toyota Camry / LE / 4DR Sedan)
• Last Recorded Odometer Reading (Ex: 45,290 miles)
• Age
• Country of Origin / Manufacture (Ex: America, Japan)
• Calculated Vehicle Owners (Ex: 3 owners)

When comparing the used car that you’re looking at against the vehicle’s history report, you want to make absolutely sure that the car’s description matches the official information. Some sellers might make an honest mistake and list their vehicle a year off, but less ethical types might “fudge” their car listing in the hopes you won’t pick up on it.

Pay close attention to the calculated vehicle owners, because that is an important aspect when assessing the quality of a car. A car that has had many owners is not ideal because it’s harder to keep track of maintenance records with multiple owners, which is important to know. You don’t want to have a timing belt go out at 100,000 miles when the last owner “claimed” that the owner before him performed the service – you want the actual records. Also, there might be reason the car as changed hands so many times, such as a stuttering engine or intermittent electrical problem that doesn’t show up readily on a test drive.

AutoCheck Vehicle Score

If you’re the type of person that bores easily by details or is daunted by the sheer amount of information involved in buying a used car, AutoCheck has made life easier. As a proprietary service, AutoCheck lists a vehicle score that rates each vehicle on an absolute score of 1 to 100. It takes into account various factors such as: age, vehicle class, number of owners, mileage, usage, title brand, mileage brand, accidents and other factors. In addition to the vehicle score, the report lists the scoring range of similar vehicles (based on year and style) as a comparison.

Example: AutoCheck Score 52. Comparison Vehicle Score 38 – 50.

The comparison score is useful, because age is the most important determinant in vehicle score. This means that the used car you’re looking at might have a seemingly low score because of it’s age, but may score better than vehicles of roughly the same age and model. In fact, the comparison represents the scoring range of the middle 50% of all similar cars, so beating the comparison score puts your vehicle into the top quarter of vehicles in the AutoCheck formula.

Reading the Full Vehicle History

The full vehicle history is the section that lists all recorded events with the car in chronological order. From being titled at the dealer lot to yearly tab renewals, every major event will (hopefully) be found in the history section.

Because there are so many different types of events, we will list both the most common events along with those that you should keep an eye out for:

Regular Events

• Vehicle Manufactured and Shipped to Dealer: Indicates when a vehicle is essentially delivered to a dealer. If a vehicle does not have this event, then the vehicle may have been imported from outside the US or be a rebuilt vehicle.
• Title: Represents a change in vehicle ownership.
• Title (Loan/lien reported): Car was purchased with a loan.
• Title (Leased vehicle): Car was leased from the dealership.
• Title (Corrected Title): Generally indicates a paperwork error on owner of the car with the DMV.
• Registration Event/Renewal: Annual tab renewal. Be careful if you don’t see a renewal each year, as that indicates the car was likely broken, was in an unreported accident or had some unknown reason for not getting renewed. Note that older cars sometimes have missing data from earlier years, so make sure a vehicle has been renewed lately.
• Odometer reading from DMV: These events indicates the last official odometer reading from the DMV. Different state DMVs have different requirements on when odometer readings are mandatory, but most will report odometers during a title transfer. Note that cars older than 10 years are not required to disclose odometer readings.
• Passed Emission Inspection: You want to see these events, as that means the car passed mandatory emissions inspections.

Cautionary Events

• Reported at Auto Auction: Many cars go to auction for legitimate reasons: expired leases, unsold cars and fleet vehicles. That said, there area cars sold at auction include are in need of fixes or repairs. These vehicles are usually fixed by the time they go onto a dealer lot, but if you find that one of the last entry of the vehicle history report lists a car going to auction, you will definitely want to have the car inspected if considering a purchase (that said, our recommendation is you always get an inspection.)
• Fleet / Rental Fleet: Fleet and rental vehicles tend to get a bad reputation because there are many stories of people renting cars and abusing them. Certain companies also have horrendous maintenance policies and essentially do minimal work on a car before taking them out of the fleet. The other way to look at it is that most rental drivers are adults that have no interest in abusing the vehicle, while the good rental companies use a scheduled maintenance for their vehicles. To each their own on these type of vehicles.
• Repossessed: Indicates a car that was taken back from the owner for failure to pay. While a repossessed car in and itself is not a bad indicator (unless you’re superstitious), but what it can imply is that if the owner could not afford car payments, then there is a good chance they could not afford maintenance on the vehicle.

Red Flag Events

• Insurance Loss An insurance loss is a nice way of saying the car has been “totaled”. This can be caused by a stolen car that was recovered too late or a vehicle that had been in a major accident. Stolen cars often suffer significant abuse and are even used in crimes, which may not be the history you wish to associate with your vehicle. Accident vehicles that are totaled are extremely dangerous and probably are followed up with a salvage or rebuilt title if still on the road.
• Collision with Another Vehicle: Even though practically every driver eventually gets into an accident according to road statistics, you still want to avoid vehicles that have been in accidents. While most accident vehicles are fixed up and run fine, there may be unseen damage in the frame or other parts of the car that are a ticking time bomb. Just remember you have many vehicles to choose from while looking for a car, so don’t ever feel committed to one vehicle.
• Salvage / Rebuilt / Rebuildable: A huge red flag. These events are caused when a car has been totaled or rebuilt from a totaled vehicle. These type of cars are often sold for cheap, but it’s definitely a buyer beware situation. You’ve been warned.
• Failed Emission Inspection: Another major warning sign, especially if recently added to the vehicle history. Vehicles that do not pass emission are not legally allowed on the road and can take thousands of dollars to fix up. If a car failed emissions then passed later, it is generally a safer bet.
• Water Damage / Storm Registration: These are specific insurance loss related events that deal with water damage to the car. This is an important distinction because water damage is a ticking time bomb, as it wreaks havoc on electrical systems.

Where Does the Information Come From

Throughout the life of a vehicle, it can pass through multiple organizations that create a paper trail. These include the DMV, auto auctions, dealers, salvage auctions, junk yards, insurance companies, towing companies, police and other independent sources. By law, these organizations are all required to supply the vehicle information when a major event happens with the vehicle. AutoCheck also claims to have access to exclusive auction information that CARFAX does not, which is one reason why car auctions may prefer AutoCheck’s services.

Sometimes, fresh information won’t show up on a vehicle history report either because it hasn’t been reported to the proper agency yet or updated in the history report. According to Edie, AutoCheck updates their databases every 48 hours with information they receive from the various state agencies and sources, so you will usually see recent information that has been reported.

Examples of Real Vehicle History Reports

Now that you’ve read this article, you should have an adequate understanding of what goes into a vehicle history report. For the truly serious buyer or the curious, we will follow-up by showing some actual vehicle reports from AutoCheck that we obtained during our How to Buy a Used Car for Under $1,000 project. In those reports, we’ll show you how to read each specific report and even read between the lines to understand a vehicle history report completely.

We would like to thank Edie Hirtenstein at AutoCheck / Experian Automotive for her help while researching this article!

The most well known provide of vehicle history reports are CARFAX and AutoCheck. Both provide detailed history reports on vehicles that are almost identical. I personally used AutoCheck in our features How to Buy a Car For Under $1,000 because it’s far cheaper than CARFAX and has an option for unlimited VIN checks over a period of 60 days (CARFAX has 10 checks for the same price).

1) Accident History
If you’ve been driving for any amount of time, most likely, you or your car has been in some kind of auto accident. It happens. With millions of drivers on the road, accidents happen each day. It’s important to know whether the car you are interested in buying has ever been reported in an accident, due to the damage that the car may have sustained. It’s also a good way to tell if a seller is lying to you, as any honest seller should tell you if the car was involved in an accident and how it was fixed. If a seller denies the car was in an accident or worse, you see evidence of a cover-up job, you will know to walk away. More importantly, if the car was recently in an accident as is now for sale – you should often run, not walk – as that car is likely unfixed and potentially illegal to drive.

2) Salvage and Rebuilt Title
Imagine this: You just bought a used car from that nice smooth talking gentleman for nearly a thousand less than the closest seller. It almost seems too good to be true. As you drive off, you notice your car pulling to the right and take it to the mechanic. An hour later, he comes back with and asks if you know your car is welded together from two completely different cars. This is an extreme story, but you would be surprised at the amount of rebuilt and salvage cars out on the road. Not all cars with rebuilt titles are junk, as they may have been worked on by a competent mechanic; but only the brave, desperate or mechanically inclined should honestly consider a salvaged vehicle. Not only that, these cars should always be sold with full disclosure as to their rebuilt title.

3) Flood Cars
Seattle is a region not typically known for it’s flooding. Occasionally, a 10 or 100 year flood comes around and claims cars, but otherwise, we have it safe here. Most drivers think that because flooding is rare in the area, there is no need to worry about flood damaged cars. Wrong. Cars damaged by flooding are often taken as far away as possible from flood regions, as buyers there are smart enough to avoid flood damaged cars. Unsuspecting consumers elsewhere in the country however, are in for a nasty surprise. If a car is claimed as an insurance loss due to flooding, the insurance provider is required to state that the car has been damaged as such.

4) Emissions Failure
This is often overlooked when buying a used car, namely because it’s hard (impossible, even) to actually tell if a car can pass an emissions check. A vehicle history check will show if a car has failed to pass the most recent emissions test. That said, it still is possible for a car to have passed the last emissions check but still fail, due to mechanical wear or damage between now and the last check. Never, ever, take an emissions failure lightly, because it will average between $1,000 to $2,000 just to get the car to pass emissions – and perhaps even more.

5) Odometer Rollback
Think that ‘98 Honda Civic with 50,000 miles is too good to be true? Well, it probably is. Odometer rollback is a common practice with shady sellers and dealers. The unfortunate truth is that odometer rollback is very difficult to detect, because odometer readings are only required on vehicles during title registration and other major events – not for tab renewals. This means that unscrupulous seller can rollback the odometer anytime and keep the miles artificially low on a car. If the seller was overly greedy or stupid, they could roll back the odometer so far back that it would cause red flags to come up at the next odometer check. Most odometer rollbacks are subtle enough not to be caught, but major instances will be seen through a history check.

6) Lien /Loans on the Car
When a loan is taken out on a car, the DMV reports that a lien has been taken out on the vehicle. The majority of consumers take out a loan to purchase their vehicle, so this isn’t a major deal. That said, you want to be sure that the vehicle you are buying does not currently have a lien on it and that the vehicle is paid off. The vehicle history services all include a title check as well, which essentially tell you whether or not the car is safe to buy. Always remember to request to see the vehicle title before any purchase is made and verify that it is indeed the title to the car.

7) Ownership History
Most people prefer a car with a low ownership history, because that often means the car has been treated well and maintained long enough to be in running condition. A large amount of owners on a car might signal mechanical issues, poor maintenance and also a lack of documentation to go with the car. Here is Seattle, you can also see if the car has been used on the East Coast, where salt and corrosion may have damaged the under body. It’s also useful to verify a seller’s claim that the has only had X amount of owners.

8) Fleet / Rental Car
I put this here even though I don’t think fleet cars or rental cars are personally a huge liability. Yes, you’ll often hear about that buddy that took his rental car out to the parking lot and doing fishtails, but in reality, most rental car drivers are practical individuals. Fleet and rental cars sometimes have a history of not being maintained well, but you can always see in the history how long the rental car was kept in the fleet. Most rentals companies only keep cars for 1-2 years before selling, so the amount of use the vehicle gets isn’t horrific compared to the miles left in the car. You may prefer a non-rental car for your own mind set however, so it may or may not be important to you.

9) All other damage
While we’ve covered accidents, floods, odometer rollback and other pitfalls, there’s still a laundry list of events that may have happened to the car – fire, hail, stolen, insurance claim, etc.. You want to know if any of these have happened to your car for good reason.

10) It’s Cheap
Lastly, the most practical reason to get a vehicle history report is because it’s worth it! The cost of a vehicle check with AutoCheck is $15 for a single vehicle. That is less than what you would pay to fill the gas tank! The average used car is probably around $8,000 – which means that this car check costs less than a quarter of one percent of the price of the vehicle. For that little amount of money, you can save literally your entire investment by having the foresight to practice some due diligence on your vehicle before purchasing.

So remember, if you’re serious about buying a good quality used car, get a vehicle history report. They’re not always perfect, but it’s far better than the other option of doing nothing!

All of the major US and Japanese auto makers finished the year with a thud, a very quite thud. The only company to offer a little sunshine was Subaru. The Japanese based company was the only one to see a positive increase in December sales.

According to an Associated Press article Chrysler sold 30 percent fewer cars in 2008. Ford sales numbers were down 21 percent than the previous year. While Toyota dropped 16 percent and Honda was also down at 8 percent in overall 2008 sales. The only major automaker who saw positive gains in 2008 was Japanese company Subaru.  Subaru sales went up 0.3 percent, not a lot of gain, but an improvement non the less. Buyers flocked to top selling models like the Forester and Impreza.

What’s all those sales numbers mean for Seattle drivers? Maybe more deals to be had, and maybe more Foresters and Imprezas on the road. Subaru could end up being the unofficial car of Seattle – just don’t forget the canopy.

HILO, Hawaii – A Hilo Chevrolet dealer who tried to crush his Asian auto competition found the stunt a little harder to pull off than expected.

Island Chevrolet general sales manager James Severtson arranged for a Chevrolet Suburban SUV outfitted with massive tires costing $5,000 apiece to drive over a Honda Accord.

On the first attempt Friday, the monster truck blew a hydraulic hose and leaked vital fluid while the Honda remained intact and ready for more.

I drive a Suburban and I also drive an Accord. I would never want to crush either one of them, because they serve different purposes. That’s why it irks me to no end to see this type of cowboy attitude, especially in the middle of the auto bailout. We don’t need more chest thumping about American cars, we need reflection and re-organization.

And seriously, who in their right mind thinks the Japanese make bad cars? The era of the 70s and 80s where American automakers and consumers laughed at shoddy Japanese cars is nearly three decades ago. The fact that anyone can even think that the Big Three make more reliable cars than Honda or Toyota is laughable at best and plain sad at worst.

If Americans want to take pride in their vehicles, then it’s time for the automakers to sit back and do some reflection on why the industry they created from scratch is now in the dying throes of bankruptcy. The problem is that the automakers are not doing that reflection, but instead, blaming just about anyone they can for their current problems: the economy, the union, gas prices, picky consumers and yes, now the Japanese. It’s a sad day when a proud American industry is so in denial of it’s own faults that it resorts to pointless name calling to save face.

Domestic car enthusiasts are probably wondering where are the Henry Ford or Lee Iacocca of our modern times to lead us through this financial mess among our automakers. The answer, unfortunately, may be that those comparable visionaries are here today – they just work on the other side of the ocean.

You’ve got your car requirements down: that was the easy part. Now comes one of the hardest aspects of buying a used car, finding the car you want.

In our Craigslist search for our $1,000 car, our query came up with over 1,000 results. Information overload? Just a little. But we’ll show you how to sort through the junk and find the real diamonds in the rough. Here’s a sampling of actual listings that came up for our search:

1987 Honda Accord – $600 (Suquamish)
new clutch and tranny. needs brake pads. has tabs till April 2009

Not “bad”, but certainly lacks details. No odometer reading, no pictures and no other information whatsoever! The owner saying that brake pads are needed is a luke warm sign, as they are being honest, but we also have to wonder if that also means new drums or rotors will be needed. Passing up for now.

1998 Honda Civic – $750 (Black Diamond)
Front end damage. New Tranie (spent over 1000.00), Automatic, Good Motor, Make offer

This listing includes a picture of the car with a smashed front bumper and bent hood. This isn’t even street legal at this point, with who knows what kind of damage to the engine compartment. Even with the supposed good motor and transmission, this is still a pass.

88 jeep cherokee – $800 (graham/parkland)
i got a 88 jeep cherokee for sale it has the 4.0 4wd auto siting on 30×9.5 high millagge 262,000 has no carpet no headliner it use to be my off road rig its not the perfect rig it has dents dings but it still starts and drives like a champ it might nedd a new ac pulley but i got that in the back of the jeep

So far, the best out of the three highlighted, this seller has put down a good amount of information and has claimed that the car drives well. The problem with an off-road car is that it is driven hard and has probably accumulated lots more muck underneath the car body than most other cars – which means a high risk of rust.

1991 Acura Integra LS – $900 (Seattle)
Red DA 91 Acura Integra/186k miles/Automatic/Power Everything/Ac and Heater/Runs and Drives great/Clean Title/Clean Straight Body/Just needs distributor and it doesn’t have the back seats.

Now, this listing doesn’t sound like a bad deal on the surface if the listing is honest about only needing a distributor cap. A distributor is an easy fix, but will also require the vehicle to be towed back home or to a shop to fix it first. That alone will be $200.

Checking on Kelly Blue Book, this car in fair condition goes for $1,435, though that also means the car is in reasonable running condition. Assuming this Integra does need work, the cap and tow will probably cost about $500, so this car is being sold for a fair value. Not a great deal, but still too much for us.

1989 Toyota Corolla Wagon – $700 (Seattle)
1989 Toyota Corolla Wagon, DX
White, good condition, runs great & reliable.
Gets great gas mileage.
240,000 miles.
Has new starter, battery, & wheel bearing as well as some other misc things.

Now this looks like a pretty good start. The buyer is honest about the recent fixes, the car is said to be running well, it’s a Corolla – a reliable model, and is also a wagon. Why is the wagon a bonus? It means that in the history of the car, it probably was owned by a family, rather than a single individual. We like the idea of a family owned car because adults tend to treat cars better both in maintenance and how they drive the vehicle.

I send an email off to the owner asking about the VIN and a time to check out the car – but get a quick reply from a lady that the car has already sold.

Geo Prizm, 5sp, new tune-up and tires – $995 (Monroe)
Toyota built 4cyl. with no mechanical issues for less than a $1,000.00 Interior and exterior are both average, miles are just over 200K but like I said she runs flawlessly. Needs tabs, clear title and as far as I can see, all painted areas are original so no accidents.

This listing seems very close to the last listing, with a few pros and cons. The nice thing is that it’s 5 years newer and also has 40k less miles, while being only $200 more. For those who don’t know, the Geo Prizm is actually a Toyota Corolla, just with a different label, much like the GMC Yukon and Chevy Suburban or Mitsubishi 3000GT and the Dodge Stealth. Sometimes, car companies work collaboratively on projects.

If you’ve been observant, you’ll already notice the warning flag with this listing: the lack of tabs. If this car won’t pass emissions, we might as well be dumping money down the drain, so it’s important to get that squared away.

I call up the owner and am met with a man on the other end. I tell him that I am inquiring about the Prizm and would like to know the VIN number and also when the tabs expired. He gruffly replies that “this isn’t the kind of car you need that for” and proceeds to tell me that it’s pointless to title check a car that “isn’t at least $10,000.”

Of course, that is completely false – you should check the title history for every car you’re thinking of purchasing. It does validate what we’ve said however that if the paperwork isn’t in order, there’s probably something fishy going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if this car couldn’t pass emissions or had some broken history.

1994 Ford Escort Wagon – $500 (duvall)
I have a 1994 Ford Escort Wagon with 1.9 motor. Good running order all around.
Car is great gas saver, 153,000 miles. This is a 5 speed, Light Green in color,clean inside and out.

Looks like a solid listing for the price. The 150k miles is a plus compared to a lot of the 200k+ listings that we’ve been looking at, so I shot off an email asking for a VIN and other details and got it back pretty promptly.

1998 Chevy Prizm – $1200
1998 Chevy Prizm. Has 224k miles but runs great. In good condition too.

This is short and sweet, but to the point. Good model, only 10 years old, is said to run great and is $500 below Kelly Blue Book for a “fair” price. Shot off email asking for VIN, any major vehicle work and if the car is manual or automatic.

1998 Ford Escort ZX2 Sport (Puyallup)
I am selling my 1998 Ford escort zx2 sport. It is in good condition with a newer transmission and alternator. I am asking $1200 but I am willing to negotiate. Ask for T****.

While it might look like we’re selectively choosing Escorts and Corolla’s – it just happens that these cars are being listed. But it’s also a good sign, because it means that these two models are fairly long lasting if there are multiple listings for these types of vehicles. This listing says a newer transmission was put in, which is great (if verified by receipts). KBB puts a fair market value on this at $900 assuming 150,000 miles, so this listing may be a bit high, but the seller indicates they are willing to negotiate. Sent an email off here and we’ll see where we are.

geo PRIZM toyota corolla fuel efficient … automatic – $700 (lakewood)
This car is a gas saver. It has a 4 cylinder toyota motor replaced at 125k so right now it has about 60k miles on it and the body has 182k. 4 door. passed inspection/emissions. good tabs till sept 09. Heater and ac both WORK excellent. IT starts right up.This car runs and drives. . This is my daily driver. have old reciepts of new battery starter alternator etc. it has good tires aswell.cd player included theres a tiny crack on the winshield but does not affect the view at all.and the axel might need to be changed.makes some noise

This sounds like a strong description, but then ends with that little “axel [sic] might need to be changed”, which is most certainly not a good thing. An odd noise can be many issues that only a mechanic should diagnose, so this is probably the reason it’s listed at a low price for this Prizm.

1992 Mazda MX-6 – $1,395
Brand new clutch passed emissions test runs great and gets 30 to 35 mpg

Higher than we want to pay for, but Mazdas also have a fair amount of reliability – short of the early RX series where they started using their rotary motor. The exterior pictures look good, the car is loaded and the new clutch and emissions passing is nice. The mileage is a bit high as is the price (KBB says $900 for the priced out features), but this may be a possibility.

hyundai accent coupe 1999 (redmond)

EXCELLENT CONDITION WITH 97K MILES,NO PROBLEM WITH ANY PARTS OF THE VEHICLE OR ITS BODY,CD AUDIO PLAYER,BEEN USING CAR FROM PAST 10 MONTHS N THERE WAS NO PROBLEM WITH ANYTHING,GOT REGULAR CHECK.SELLING IT ONLY BCOS IM LEAVING THIS PLACE AND YOU CAN GIV ME A CALL AND THEN WE CAN TALK ON THE PRICE OF THE VEHICLE
I HEREBY ATTACH THE PICTURES

This seller put their full name into the listing, so we Googled their name and found out that they were a software developer with Microsoft. This is a perfect low risk type owner that we like, while the seller did not post a price. KBB says about $1,100 for Accent in fair condition, so this may be a great deal if we can bargain. Low miles, Hyundai is fair in reliability (good engines, not so great transmissions).

Now with all these listings, a few more we didn’t list and a few good prospects, it’s time for the waiting game to hear back from everyone. After that, we can evaluate the cars and go out and check them out for the inspection.

Next: Used Car Inspection 101 (coming soon)