Help us car shop......
 

t-w need not apply (does he vanity-search?).

We liked the Focus. We're thinking the 2012 Fiesta looks fairly comparable -Focus seems to have "upsized" and beest test drove one a few weeks ago and didn't like it. We can get x-plan pricing on a new Ford.

We've decided we are ready to move to 4 door (and learned that maybe no-one does 2-door any more). We also need a hatchback. Other than that, small is good, cheap is even gooderer. Most little cars (except the Fiesta) seems to get crappy reviews. Is that because they're being driven by people who like big cars? We're not against the idea of a second hand car, but a quick search locally suggests we're going to have to work hard to find something appropriate at a decent price. second-hand prices are high and new prices are low......

If you are an "ecomomy car" driver, please give us a review of your car and your thoughts on the next car you might buy....


I have to say Wolf's comment about the ability to walk away from crashes over fuel economy have certainly stuck with me......

2006 Altima - Lil too big for my needs. It gets mid 20mpg. Plenty of room for 4 people and their baggage. This is my 4th Nissan and I've enjoyed them all.

2008 Toyota Corolla. Smaller than the Altima, gets 30ish mpg. Plenty of room given its size. Just got it this summer @ $7000

I've also owned a Chevy, Mercury and Ford. Wouldn't buy another unless there were no other options. Thats just my opinion. I know people who love theirs now. I'll admit that I owned mine back in the late 80's - 90's.

Best friend has a Honda Accord that has over 200,000 miles on it and he loves it as well.


Oh, and I've had some "intense" accidents in my Altima's over the years.

I second the Altima recommendation. My last car was a 1996 Altima and my current car is a 2008 Altima. Pleased as punch with my cars for the past 15 years in terms of looks, operating cost, incident repair costs, longevity of major systems (exhaust line failed after 9 years, alternator 1 year after that on the '96 car and that's it). My next car will almost certainly be another Nissan, possibly a Rogue.

I would also recommend Volvo but those prices tend to be high (my first car was a hand-me-down Volvo and it saved my life).

The Toyota corolla comes in a five door hatch and has a reputation for reliability and good build, although that reputation has fallen a little lately. My last one was a 1991 model so I can't speak for the recent ones, but they're probably still good.

OK gang, thanks for the suggestions so far, but we're talking smaller/more economy than an Altima. teeny-tiny. You're one or two brackets up with that. Four door, but small. This car usually obnly carries one person smal commutes and it's very helpful if it can fit in tiny parking spaces. And we don't want to be in the $25K MRSP ballpark.

How about Kia Rio 5-Door or Soul?

I loved my Honda, but I like my VW better.

Well built, reliable...

There's a four door Golf that they have in the compact section.

I think small cars do get crappy reviews because they are driven by car reviewers who get to drive lots of different cars but don't have to live with them. A high end Lexus is going to be more fun to drive than an economy car, so reviewers will hate the economy car when they drive it, but the economy cars are better to own.

The Fiat 500 is really cute.

I haven't been paying close attention to this type of car lately. We have a Geo Prizm (Toyota Corolla) and love it. It's been super reliable and cheap to operate for the last 16 years. Well built.

If I were in the market now, I'd look at the Fiesta because I've heard good things about it. I like the Smart car, but it costs about twice what it should.

If you don't like the Fiesta, I'd look at the Honda Fit. MTP likes hers and it gets pretty good reviews.

After the Cellar Car I'm never buying new again in my life, unless there is some sort of lotto win or something.

http://annarbor.craigslist.org/ctd/2715414515.html


you could offer them 4 grand and they would take it

Used cars are a great idea, but there aren't too many of them out there right now, and the prices are higher than ever.

Thanks, Toad, but again, way, way too big! We like to have one big car and one small car and this is the small car we are replacing. Also, a hatchback works so much better for us.

PW have you driven the Kias?

I don't trust the 'expansion' car teams.

2002 Hyundai Elantra 105k $3995
2002 Kia Spectra 105k $3500

If the Korean cars are like Korean food, they'll smell like feet, but have plenty of interesting spice, and will burn a lot of gas the next day.

Look at the hyundais. Our 2004 sonata has 174k on it w/ no real problems beyond routine maintenance.

Thanks, but no way do we want a car that old. And I think those are over-priced for what you are getting and the risks you take with an old car. We had two 2001s we know just what was wrong with them and how to hide it. Cars that age and mileage are worn out imo. Asking for trouble. Glad you got lucky with the cellar car, but I want a little less on the clock and in time.

Yah, I'm just messin with ya at this point

- however -

Every car I've bought and expected to drive to death, I just got totally tired of what was wrong with them. Another year with these stupid stuttering brakes and I will rip my hair out.

On the Cellar Car I knew there would be things wrong, but I would fix them, get them fixed, or just live with it. It was a surprise that I then felt ok about them. The things wrong are almost fun quirks, not the pain-in-the-ass problems that might be the death of the car in 6 months.

Last winter J shoveled the snow off the Cellar Car with a shovel, and she put a bunch of nice lines on it where she took off a layer of paint, as you will do if you shovel snow off your car with a shovel. And I was like, ha ha, wow, if I was making payments on this I would be hugely pissed. Instead, it's just a laugh. It's car character. It's an improvement. What a revelation.

Wow, you sure got more than just transportation out of the Cellar Car, didn't you?

Still do.... most days it is still the second best thing in my life.

I can't make a good suggestion, being as I haven't driven a small car since the Chevrolet Dent Magnet -er- Cavalier, but I will pass on a word of warning not to buy the Aveo. Everyone I know who had one (note the use of the past tense) has hated them and gotten rid of it as soon as possible.

Dad had 2 Kia Picantos, did not serve him very well.
They were new cars, (bought as finance deals traded in as opposed to buying new off the forecourt). The electrics seemed to go every 3-4 months, back to the garage.

The Vauxhall they have now is too large for your needs, but so far it's been heads above the Kias. They bought it when the money from Auntie Alice came through, but it was well worth it.

I loved my Nissan Micra, the gearbox went but I had no other trouble.
And my two Peugeot 205s were still going even after I'd driven them into the ground. This is years ago now though, they're literally different cars.

One thing I noticed then and still do now is how many OLD Peugeots you still see on the road.
They seem to age well.

If you decide to look at the Versa, I can be of some small assistance. I've never driven one, but as I recall it does do pretty well when compared to the fit and the yaris. Mortie git a fit, razz got a yaris. Maybe they will chime in.

My brother had a beater truck for messing around with (his main car is a work SUV), it was an old JEEP truck. Rusty, ugly...so ugly I loved it! Pieces falling off! If we got anywhere near it my brother would run over and act like he was buffing out where we had touched it. He'd say "sheesh, you can't have anything nice!" :lol:

Nuthen like a good beater

I'd love to have an old Jeep CJ7 for a beater.

If I had a beater, I'd want it to be a pickup truck. Not too much of a beater. It would need to start when I wanted to use it. But it could look like absolute hell, and I'd be fine with that.

Hey Monster, what about something like a Toyota or Nissan pickup truck? Small, good gas mileage, reliable, and usefull as all hell!?

Ps...my first car was a Honda CVC. Just about square and could park it on the sidewalk, practically. Loved it! (But they don't make them anymore).

You literally cannot get one for less than $4k though. No matter how rusty and tired. Much better off going with a grand cherokee. You can get a daily driveable one for $3500, and a beater for $1500.

Oh, if I get one I'll be in a position to get one. It would have to be free, or cheaper, to seriously consider one now.

I'd love to have an old Jeep CJ7 for a beater.
You literally cannot get one for less than $4k though. No matter how rusty and tired.

BZZZZZT !!! Wrong , i see them and CJ5's around here for $2500 ish all the time

We just got an Audi A3 a few weeks ago. My wife tried the A4 and decided it was too big. I think the A3 is slightly smaller than the Subaru Impreza Outback Sport that it is replacing.

We drive in a lot of snowy, icy, blizzardy weather (all of that just this weekend), and it handles great - even better than the Subaru. It also gets fairly good gas mileage (~27 mpg, so far).

We haven't had it long enough to evaluate the reliability or maintenance costs.

Thanks guys. The windstar acts as our pick-up. Any pick-up truck would be too big for the second car -we need all the space (such as it is) inside the car for the odd occasion when all 5 of us need to ride in it.

Tony that's a lovely thing to share. Both our cars have been paid off for many years and we treat them the same. The Windstar also has snow shovel lines. :lol:

We just got the windstar back out of the shop, hurrah! and our friend lent us a Toyota truck from the Flintstone era :lol:

Yup. They are both a little tight for me. But not everyone is built like me, 6'6" and mostly torso.

I liked them otherwise. I had a Kia Rondo that I foolishly got rid of early this year. It was rock-solid reliable and cheap to repair (Honda parts or something?).

beest is 6'2" and mostly beestly...... the focus had great leg room for a small car... but if you got in the at 6'6" there maybe hope for him....

thanks

We love Leslie's Honda Fit. Actually *very* comfortable for both front seat occupants, and holds an amazing amount of crap for a car that small. Tiny engine, but cunningly geared, so it gets up and moves like a car needs to. Well worth investigating.

Cool, thanks -it's a hatchback, right?

Yes. 30 mpg average city/highway. The rear seats fold totally flat, and if you slide the front passenger seat forward and lay it down, you have nearly a full seven feet on that side of flat cargo space. If I didn't have a trailer to haul once in a while, I'd definitely consider one myself.

sounds really good -beest said his boss recommended it also. thanks, we will most definitely test drive.

Go to your local library and check out last April's Consumer Reports. They will tell you the good, bad, and the ugly of most cars available. Don't just look at the scores, though. Look at the text for each of the cars you're interested in.

If you have the money to spend, get a year's subscription to the online site. If you do some digging you can find out the dealers invoice figure for most models as well.

Go to your local library and check out last April's Consumer Reports. They will tell you the good, bad, and the ugly of most cars available. Don't just look at the scores, though. Look at the text for each of the cars you're interested in.

If you have the money to spend, get a year's subscription to the online site. Digging around on the site, I found the dealer's invoice price for the Honda Accord we wanted.

Beest sat in a Fiesta today and was impressed by the headroom, but apparently there is maybe only one manual avaialable in the whole of Michigan. They're phasing them out. *sigh*

dated but useful:

http://reviews.carreview.com/honda-f...ig-3s-little-3

Hey, if you can wait, Dodge is coming back out with the Dart!! :D

K Car, K Car, K Car!

i miss my CJ5 :(

So Beest drove the Fit tonight (manual hatchback). Liked it.....except for the fact that the steering wheel pretty much blocked the view of the dash -particularly the speedo. :rolleyes:

What we need is for the car industry to be run like the real estate industry. just tell a buyer's agent what you want and let them get on with it......

Focuses are a great deal right now. Becuas they've gone crap. methinks. we could probably get one for a similar price to a fiesta, but unless its manual and hatchback, we are not interested. beest test drove an automatic in october and it sucked.

As long as we can make the finances work, we're going for new -there's nothing that meets our needs at a sensible price in the second-hand market. We're just not interested in getting a new old car every few years. we hate car shopping, and shopping for old cars requires love...

So, you reckon if you buy a good new car now you won't be car shopping again for years. :right: How old are your kids? :lol:

If you can hold out a bit, Mercedes is planning to bring some new small cars to the US:

Mercedes small cars coming to America

According to the honda web site, the standard Fit has an adjustable steering wheel.

That's what we figured, sales guy said adjusted to max. which is weird. beest's gonna look into it.

I'm kinda thinking that's not going to be in the price range we are looking at...... :lol:

Have you looked at a Kia Soul? I could not believe the room in those cars. 3 adults in the back seat and still cargo room in the back.

oh ...yeah.. and they are COOL

Expansion team. Meh.

'Ow about an GTi?

http://o.aolcdn.com/commerce/images/...nt_Regular.jpg
2door

http://o.aolcdn.com/commerce/images/...nt_Regular.jpg
4door

If I had to buy a new car, I'd go crazy from all the choices.

well, crazier....

i was looking at the golfs, not sure they have anything special worth the few extra thousand.

beest found a manual fiesta avaialble, but it has all the bells and whistles, so costs more than we want to pay with features we don't want/need/won't use....

I'll look at the Soul ....but mostly all i'm hearing about Kias is cheap and nasty feel, poor longevity and not awesome safety.......

Ok why would we want a Soul again? That's the ugliest-ass car I've seen in a while and cost more than a Fiesta when you add the necessary "options" They only just stopped short of suggesting the steering wheel was an optional extra :lol:

Golf VW massive amount of $$$ for replacement parts. i.e. coil/vr for vw $200+ coil/vr regular car $40 I don't know about safety ratings and stuff for a soul it just looks cool and you don't hit your head getting in or out. ;)

Ford is my brand but I drive a Chrysler go figger :P