New Car

Since I totaled my car last week, I've been thinking hard about what kind of car I should get to replace it.

I had a Hyundai Elantra, but my dad thinks I should get a Toyota Corolla this time around.

Should I go new, or Certified Pre-Owned? What kind of car in that size class should I take a serious look at? All help is appreciated.

Used cars are in general a much better value.

My sister has had corollas for years and has been very happy with them.

I bought the Honda Civic, which generally gets the best reviews. It is incredibly reliable.

As for me if anyone wants to give me the Lexus Hybrid as a Festivus present I'll accept it very graciously.

I agree with your dad... either do a toyota or a honda. (civic).

I would *never* buy a brand new car.... you get ripped off bigtime... if you buy one that's a couple years old and used you get a far better deal.

Besides, honda and toyota both make vehicles that are good for 200k plus miles... so the first 40k miles barely even counts as breaking it in. :)

Pre-owned, but Carfax is a must, especially with all of the insurance claims coming from the Gulf Coast devastation. Certified pre-owned is only available at dealers that offer new vehicles of the same make. Yes, they've performed an inspection to earn it the certification, but a non-affiliate dealer can have an identical car for less.

I find it hard to speak ill about Japanese cars... even Suzukis are well-built (although a little light for my taste).� Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Honda all make great cars. All but Mazda are known for 200k+ miles, but you're paying more for that reputation. I have a 10-year old Mazda Protege that runs great at 125k miles.

Also think about your plans for the car.� If you plan to sell it, Toyota and Honda get better prices on the used side. If you plan to drive it until it dies, why pay for the name?

Excellent point on the name thing...

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the Geo Prisms were just rebadged toyota corollas.
I forget the year range... but... you can get a toyota for a hell of a lot less and it's equally good.

If you are going to buy new (which only makes sense if you plan on keeping the car 6+ years), here are a couple of good sites to help you get the best possible deal.

Fighting Chance will give you lots of good info on past performance of the car, historical buying prices, factory-to-customer and factory-to-dealer incentives, and the holdback. This will allow to you to get as close to dealer cost (not invoice) as possible.

Car Buying Tips lots of helpful hints on haggling, prices, extended warranties, etc. Perhaps the most useful thing here is the financing spreadsheet which will allow you to compare side by side whether it makes more sense to take the low finance rate or the cash back (usually the cash back is the better deal). This is still valuable whether you're buying new or used.

Saftey should be a concern, so check out the crash test data at Insurance Insitute for Highway Saftey and the NHTSA.

I go with Toyota almost exclusively. Corolla is a great car, but is an economy model (doesn't have as good suspension, noise deadening, etc). Camry's rock, but are obviously more expensive. I also love our VW Jetta diesel.

Hope this helps.

I used to be a big fan of new cars, until I bought my 1997 Mercury Villager minivan on EBay for $2700. Now I'm thinking used is the way to go.

Ebay isn't a bad place to look, if just to get an idea of what stuff should cost.

As for makes, the Japanese brands are good as everyone is saying. The Koreans (hyundai and Kia) are also very good now, at a lower price. My personal favorite brand for longevity is Subaru. Their horizontally opposed engines routinely last 300K miles.

European cars are generally very well engineered, but they are not always as robust as the Japanese cars, and can be costly to fix.

American cars are not necessarily bad either and they can be cheaper and less expensive to fix. GM is currently winning awards for the best engines.

Another "rebadged" Japanese car to note is the Pontiac Vibe which is a Toyota Matrix.

I'm going with a new toyota corolla.

I have another question, though. I don't know how to drive stick, but manual gets better gas milage and knocks about $800 off.

Should I learn how to drive stick so that I can buy a manual transmission car?

the savings on gas really isn't that significant..... and $800 is not much of a difference, depending on the price range you're talking about.

That would just come down to personal preference... and... well, I don't think there's any reason to LEARN to drive a stick just for that.

I mean, if you wanted to learn ANYWAY, it would make sense... it's always a good skill to have.... but I wouldn't base your buying decision on it.

Don't forget the Chevy Prisms too!
*hugs car*

It isn't the sort of thing you learn in an afternoon. You basically won't be able to drive until you've had a few days practice, unless you like stalling at intersections.

That said, when you can drive stick, you can drive any car.

If you drive more in city I'd say go with automatic , because manual can just suck ass if you're hitting light after light.
That being said, I like driving stick, a lot.� I love knowing that that car is not going to shift unless I want it to effin' shift... This is where my super controlling side comes out. ;D� Even if you don't buy a manual I'd� recommend learning how to drive one just for the option.

Now that I know how to drive a manual, I won't own another automatic. When I drive a rental, I spend too much time looking for the clutch pedal. :-)

Double-check the mileage ratings on your car choices.�Most newer cars that I've seen have better (highway) mileage in an automatic, and the city mileage is comparable.� When the choices were a five speed manual or a two speed automatic, the manual had a strong advantage.� Now that automatics are into three and four speed or available with overdrive, the mileage depends more on how and where you drive than it does on your transmission.

> Now that I know how to drive a manual, I won't own another automatic.
> When I drive a rental, I spend too much time looking for the clutch pedal.

Heh. I've been driving my boss' (automatic) car a lot lately, and I find that every time I slow down I feel like I should be doing *something*.

That said, I much prefer an automatic. But, then, I prefer big huge American land-yachts, so that's pretty much the only option, anyway.