Re: Re: Toyota Echo
 

My trips are almost never under 20 miles. The warm-up time, based on the dash indicator, seems pretty short though.

Which is better to do: go to a used car lot and purchase a car; or reply to a newspaper ad?

We're in the market for another used car. My husband has a Volkswagen Jetta hatchback (shift) and he likes the roomyness in the car. He'll probably look for something similar. What other cars do you recommend, foreign-wise or otherwise?

I sure did love my Jetta... even more than my GTI Rabbit.

what price range/. payment range ?

what size car?

These days it takes about 5-10 minutes to warm up, but if my trip is 15 minutes, that is 1/3 the drive time. I know I'm not supposed to accelerate hard during this time because the batteries are cold and they don't supply the same kind of power as when they are warm. While warming up, it seems to get about 25mpg. Once the car is up and running, I think its getting 45+, which is what it should be doing.

I've put a little less than 5000 miles on it, and I have noticed my MPG going steadily up these past months, so it might just be the car break in period.

Last tune up was two days ago at the dealer service shop. I really want to do a road trip somewhere just to drive my car around. Maybe I'll go to Atlantic City this weekend and go throw some money away. A nice, long trip is the best way to figure out how well the car is performing.

He's not going to commit himself until he checks the inventory.:haha:

she

Aerion_13 here.

Spoke with hubby. I guess he's looking for something only as big as the VW Jetta, stick shift, hopefully not more than $4,000. He just drives it to work and back.

that's a very difficult car to find

not many 5 speeds left in america, unfortunately.

reccomendations:

another jetta (96-97)

92-94 accord Lx
97-98 nissan sentra
2000-2001 kia sephia ( this is actually a mazda protege), but they dont hold their value for shit, so you can get a good deal on one. and they are actually pretty good cars ($2500-$4600 in NADA)

TO ANSWER YOUR ORIGINAL QUESTION:
a car from a dealer will most likely have gone through inspection at least, and come with some kind of warranty. You MIGHT find a good deal from an individual, but you have a much better chance of getting burnt on the deal because of undisclosed mechanical issues. The best place to look is at a dealer that sells new cars of the same make you like, or online at plces like autotrader.com or it's clones.

let me know what you find, and I'll try to advise you on what you SHOULD pay, and common things you should watch out for.

top 10 cars as rated by consumer reports.

american cars gain ground in reliability ratings:

http://www.consumerreports.org/conte...0404rel002.gif

the article

from the same article:
The last 2 demos i've taken have been the Liberty and the Cruiser. I had a renegade liberty that was just too cool, if the tire pressure monitoring system was a bit annoying. And i am currently driving a black PT cruiser Limited with the platinum pkg, and a turbo motor....a rooom a zooom zooom!

the best and worst used cars.


Jinx and I own a repeat offender :(

link

be patient, it takes a while to load.

As I am not a subscriber to CR I don't get to see the juicy informatin from the survey, but was happy to note that my car was not on that "worst" list at the end of the page.