I need a new carFollow

American vehicles have come a long way in quality, but their value goes down faster than Katie at a Navy party.

For the money (and having the kid along), I'd say look at a Toyota Camry. Good all around family sort of vehicle that's got mileage and pep.

Hard to go wrong in the Toyota family of cars. I like Honda as well for the same reasons, just not quite as much, more of an unbased bias than anything else, I believe.

You're better off selling your vehicle than trading it in, for the record. Dealers have an overstock of used vehicles at the moment and they're fond of just jacking up the price by what they plan to give you for the trade, anyhow. So they're likely to jack up the price of the new vehicle by more than what they give you on the trade.

Keep it simple.

Get your piggy bank , count out enough to pay for the new car, go down and buy it. Then sell your old one to somoene for cash and put that in your piggy bank.

As long as the vehicle does not have any major flaws that you know of like say, you bored out the cat. converters or something, then what TS said is the best route to get hte most for your old car hands down. Sell it 'AS IS' and you should get fair market value.

I don't think I could sell it in good conscience. The timing chain problem alone is a time bomb that'll cost more to repair than I could get for the car.

Another thing to consider about the Hybrid cars is the abailability and the fact you are more than likely going to have to pay a premium to get one in the current market.

They are selling rather quickly and in order to get on a waiting list you have to put cash down or be willing to pay more for it than someone else... or so the local dealer was explaining.

So your gas savings is not all that extensive when you pay 2k more for the car than you should have...

I never had a problem with that, namely because I tend to drive cars into the ground, and they're always worth at least $100 if you can wheel it into a junkyard. Even if it is being towed there by your brother's 79 Caddy.

Yes, I know how to maintain cars, thank you very much. To be fair, though, most of my cars weren't exactly in prime condition to start with, anyways.

Well, I'm no car mechanic and I don't know a lot about the subject myself, but the place I work at has some guys who are constantly talking about cars. From what I listen to, and talk sometimes about, I suggest to you the Volkswagen TDI (Turbo Direct Injection)

Essentially take any Volkswagen car and drop a diesel engine into it. They get amazing gas milage (upwards of 40/50 to the mile) and diesels tend to be just more sturdy engines all around.

Of course look into it yourself, but that's my suggestion.

Random site I found about it -> Clicky.

Seconded on the Toyota Matrix. We've had one since January '02, put 50k miles on it, still works great, no problems. And the gas mileage is nice, considering prices now.

But that cars spacious.

Don't look good, but spacious.

Get a certified pre-owned Honda Accord or Toyota Camry, if you're looking for mid-sized cars, or the Honda Civic if you want something a little smaller and less expensive.

My husband and I have a 1990 Toyota Camry that he bought in 1993. It still runs. It's by no means glamorous or even particularly nice to be in, but it's reliable. There have been a few small repairs required along the way (starter, alternator) but nothing major, like the transmission.

When we had to replace my 1997 Ford Escort with only 72,000 miles (because it had cost us $4000 in repairs over a single year and still wasn't running properly) we went with a 1999 Honda Accord, for roughly $17,000. This is why I recommend getting a certified pre-owned car, because the 7 year warranty is truly a lovely, lovely thing, especially after the Escort, which had required a $3000 transmission repair the week it hit 60,000 miles, with a warranty that only went to 36,000 miles.

At the beginning of this year, the "maintenance required" light came on in the Honda, so we took it in to the dealership to have it looked over. They found a small leak that they thought was coming from a gasket on the flywheel between the engine and the transmission. Now, because this repair would require actually REMOVING the transmission, had we not had the warranty, it would have cost us over $1000. The problem actually ended up being more complex than that gasket and requiring two more "take out the transmission to fix it" repairs, and none of it cost us a cent.

Anyhow, I highly recommend either of these cars, because they have an excellent reputation for reliability, which personal experience has proven to be accurate. But they are also more expensive than other sedans of their size. The 100,000 mile warranty of Kias and Hyundais are seductive, especially considering how much less expensive they are, but a look at Consumer Reports Car Guide shows that those cars simply aren't reliable.



Edited, Mon Sep 12 17:48:27 2005 by Ambrya

Dammit knobby, you made me LOL at work.

Meh, waste of gas. So long as the car tests well for safety, I'm happy. I spent my formative years being carted around in the back of a 1975 Nova. I'm sure Joph Jr will survive in a Camry