Will That Be Cash, Or Credit? 2007 Chrysler PT Cruiser vs 2013 Nissan Altima

For our Friday Showdown this week, we’re going slumming. Specifically, we’re going to look at a car from one of those seedy buy-here-pay-here places that only advertises a down payment – and a car from a private seller, for sale for the same amount as that down payment. If you’re in a bind and need wheels, are you better off going cheap, or getting something nicer and making payments? That’s what you’ll have to decide.

Yesterday we went really cheap, looking at two cars that were only $600 each. The overwhelming majority of you picked the Saturn, likely due to the Mazda’s rust issues. That’s fair. That Mazda is really rusty.

But I’m still picking the Mazda, just like nine percent of you did. Why? Because the Saturn isn’t currently registered. If you’re really looking for the cheapest possible wheels you can find, every little thing adds up, and if the Saturn hasn’t been registered since 2024, and wasn’t put on non-op status (which I can virtually guarantee it wasn’t), you’ll have to pay for a whole year of registration when the damn thing was sitting around before you got there, just to put plates on it. And that’s assuming it passes smog. Nope, I’ll take the one that’s ready to go right now, even if I’ll need to shop again in six months or a year.

I actually did buy a dirt-cheap car every few months for about four years, in the mid-1990s. I was making five-fifty a hour doing oil changes and replacing serpentine belts at a garage, I had garbage credit from some stupid mistakes, and I just needed to get around. So every once in a while, I’d drop a few hundred bucks on some clunker, and replace it when something broke that I couldn’t fix. A few times, my boss suggested (after I had called in late because my car wouldn’t start) that I look for something newer that I could make payments on. I eventually did so, and that was a mistake – but that’s a story for another day.

Today, I’m going to put you in a scenario in which you have to give advice. A friend has come to you for help shopping for a car, after their busted old ride finally gave up the ghost. They’ve seen these listings for low down payments and lenders willing to take any credit, and they could swing the payments, but they’re uneasy about taking on debt. You suggest a cheap car for cash instead, but that’s what they did last time, and look where they are now. What’s a cheap-car-needer to do? Let’s look at a couple of possibilities.

2007 Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible – $1,500

Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Torrance, CA

Odometer reading: 129,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

If you go looking for cheap used cars, you’re going to find a lot of PT Cruisers. Chrysler sold literally a million of these things in the US, and they’ve held up surprisingly well, so there are still a lot of them around. But since they’re basically economy cars, and Chrysler products, the resale value is squat, which leads to a good supply of cheap, decent-running, used PT Cruisers in the online classifieds. You don’t see too many convertibles, though.

This PT Cruiser has the most common, and least interesting, drivetrain combination available: a non-turbocharged 2.4 liter four and an Ultradrive automatic. It’s not exciting, but it has proven to be pretty durable; I have friends with PT Cruisers well over 200,000 miles and counting. This one runs and drives just fine, the seller says, and it just aced a smog test, which is a good sign.

This is a later facelifted Cruiser, with the new interior, which in my opinion looks too much like a Dodge Caliber for comfort. I like the earlier version better. This one is in good shape, though, especially for a car this cheap. The seller says everything works perfectly, including the air conditioning and the power top.

It is a little scruffy outside; the front bumper cover is crooked, and the seller says some of the plastic clips are broken. There are enough PT Cruisers in junkyards that you should be able to find a new bumper cover for it. Probably even a silver one.

2013 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL – $1,500 down, $7,998 total

Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter DOHC inline 4, CVT automatic, FWD

Location: Concord, CA

Odometer reading: 133,000 miles

Operational status: We’ll presume it runs and drives well

You’ve got to hand it to the Nissan Altima. Yeah, its pratically a cliché at this point: the beat-up Altima from the buy-here-pay-here lot, swerving in and out of traffic at thirty over the speed limit, usually on a donut spare. And just like all clichés, it starts with a grain of truth: a lot of Altimas do end up on buy-here-pay-here lots, and they do tend to get abused. But they seem to withstand that abuse well. What that tells me is that if you buy a used Altima and take care of it, and don’t drive it like a maniac, it should be a very reliable car.

This Altima has the basic 2.5 liter four, coupled to a CVT. I know everybody is supposed to hate this gearbox with no gears, but honestly, they’re not bad to drive. And after my colleagues’ recent hijinks with the taxi and the Murano CrossCabriolet, I have newfound respect for their toughness, too. I’d rather have a manual, of course, but this generation of Altima wasn’t available with one. The seller is too busy talking about the financing deal to proffer any useful information about the car itself, but I think it’s safe to assume it runs and drives fine. These places don’t have time to deal with bad-running cars; they just dump them for cheap.

It’s the fancy SL model, so it has a bunch of power options and what look like leather seats. It’s in good shape, and has been freshly detailed; these places want cars looking their best, so they clean them up nicely. You’d be wise, though, to try out all the power stuff before signing anything, because I doubt anyone at the dealership has done so.

One advantage this has over a cheaper, older car is that it doesn’t look like a cheap old car. If image matters to you, that can be an important consideration. Condition-wise, it’s fine, with just a little blemish on the rear bumper. Personally, I’d rather have something besides plain white, but a lot of people seem to like plain white.

So your homework assignment for this weekend is this: Which is a better way to spend that $1,500? Do you buy a cheap, beat-up but good-running car outright? Or do you put it down on something newer and nicer? Which one will be a better deal in the long run? Discuss, debate, and vote, and I’ll see you back here on Monday.