OFF TOPIC- Buying a car in Portland:)

Sooooo we are looking to buy a second car and still being pretty new to the area- we don't know where to go Just need a beater/commuter car, looking to spend like $2000-$2500, but the dealerships around here (Beaverton) all seem to sell *nice* cars that are way more than we want to spend and we couldn't negotiate into that price range, even paying cash.

I know there are some users on here who live in the PDX metro area, so I ask them- Where are all the cheap car dealerships hiding at? Or maybe you're selling a car Any ideas? I tried looking online, but came up with dealerships we've already been to that did not have cars in that price range. I'm leery of buying a car off craigslist, and even those seem to either be expensive or have "o this mystery light on the dash" or "drives nice but needs a new transmission" kind of problems we don't want to get into. Any insights? We don't do the financing/payments thing.

Well, there's a little dealership over here in my town- not sure about their prices, but they have all sorts of used vehicles (about MAYBE a couple dozen cars at the most in their lot- it's a tiny lot LOL)

If you do find a decent beater/commuter and if it's operational integrity is questionable, I'd invest in a AAA membership

We bought my car from a friend, and it has some issues and the clutch might go any day now and who knows what's wrong with the engine, but I don't care cause I have free towing HAHHAA

What dealership is that getwozzy? I've never lived anywhere where there wasn't those little hole in the wall dealerships. We can't afford a spiffy $15K car

The policy we have with Progressive actually covers towing. Had to have my car towed over 50 miles when it broke down in the middle of nowhere once and it cost me nothing Well, it did cost me a bit of dignity seeing as it was one of the hottest days of the year, and I decided to dress rather "scantily" (i.e. a bathing suit with one of those little covers and thats it) figuring I'd just be driving a straight shot home. Never imagined I'd have to sit next to a burly tow truck driver in a filthy tow truck cab for almost an hour:52:

OOOOMMMMMMGGGGG!!!! How petrifying!!!! I would've died! Lol

I was mortified, but I really had no choice. Thankfully the guy seemed rather mortified too and wasn't a total perv. That trip *could* have been MUCH worse. In my defense- Given it was over 110 degrees out, I had 100+mile journey home and had to go on this desolate stretch of the I17 which is a huge hill you can't run AC on without overheating, so I wasn't out of line trying to drive in less than I would normally wear We rent cars for driving any kind of long distance driving now

Thankfully, this car is going to be for my husband. He won't be wearing a bikini while driving if he breaks down (I hope, at least). Not that it gets into the hundred and teens here in Portland anyways (thank god).

Have you thought about looking at dealerships in Vancouver or Camas? They figuar tax on where you live not where the dealership is located so if your in Beaverton you would be tax except. We did that when we lived there.

Have you looked on Autotrader?

I know you don't want to use Craigslist because you don't know what your going to get but if they don't have anything to hide then they won't mind if you take it to a mechanic to have it checked out.