What car would you recommend?

[rapunzel47]

Originally Posted by yoviher

Anyone had experience with the Sunfire, Sunbird and Grand Prix (Pontiac) and the Lumina and Cavalier? (Chevrolet)

Cavalier is one of the Chevy models I've driven in recent years, and is the first thing I'd look at if I needed to go North American. Not huge experience, as I said, but the most encouraging.

 

[mferr84]

Originally Posted by yoviher

Anyone had experience with the Sunfire, Sunbird and Grand Prix (Pontiac) and the Lumina and Cavalier? (Chevrolet)

I have an 01' pontiac sunfire! I LOVE it. My parents bought it for me a couple years ago. It is not to big(it weaves in and out of traffic beautifully!) It gets good gas mileage. And it was not expensive. I have done regular maintenance on it and NEVER had ANY(even a little) problem with it and it is pushing 90,000miles.
I told my parents if I could I would put it up on cement blocks in my backyard when it quits running. That car has been nothing but good to me!
I am however in the market, because I need something bigger(and lower insurance), and I think I am leaning towards a Pontiac Grand Prix or a Toyota Corolla XRS.

Good Luck to you finding a vehicle!

I also had a SunBird before that... it was not good, It was 6 years old and i ended up spending more money fixing it than what was paid for it

Cavalier and Sunfire are almost the exact same aside from body style.

 

[elizwithcat]

Originally Posted by yoviher

Okay...

I am trying to buy my first car. My parents are pretty much willing to pay for the rest, if I can put a portion of the money (which I have been able to gather, and I am still saving some extra).

Now, while I have been raking in the monies, I have been checking classified ads on cars. This is a country where like half the cars in the country are Toyotas. And unfortunately you can't get any Renaults, Citröen, and Fiats, around here. I have been looking at Toyotas... at Nissan and Mitsubishi... I have also considered the GM cars (Yep, when you consider GM, you are desperate indeed) of Chevrolet and Pontiac (which I can nice models at almost a thousand dollars from the 1990s).

Has anyone got any suggestions of cars that you have had good experience with? Price is of the essence, and I don't want anything big: I will be the first person in my close family not to get an SUV, a 7 passenger van or a Ford/Chevrolet pickup (Any interest in them dies out when I pass by a gas station).

I have toyota corrolla. It's cheap, and not very big.

 

[fwan]

For the 3 years ive lived here in germany i have only seen ONE honda civic
everyone here has mercedes, fords, Opels and volkswagen

 

[arlyn]

I can highly recommend both Toyota and Mitsubishi.

My folks have an 81 Mitsubishi, still running strong and cheap.
I had (until my move) a 73 Toyota Celica, still running strong, still cheap at the gas pumps and still relatively rust free.

If you can find one in your price range, I also recommend Mazda.

 

[gailc]

Originally Posted by fwan

For the 3 years ive lived here in germany i have only seen ONE honda civic
everyone here has mercedes, fords, Opels and volkswagen

As I work for Ford I'm kind of partial to them. How about a volvo??
The older model Hyundai's have quality issues-so skip them.
To check if you are getting a car at a fair price at work we use kbb.com (kelly blue book) you can select manufacturer, model, enter the mileage and features if known.

 

[sooz123]

We just bought a 2006 Hyundai Sonata... beautiful, comfy, lots of stuff (on the LX), but it might be a bit pricier than what you're looking for ($25-26k American). They compare it to the Honda Accord... and even Car & Driver Magazine says the big boys had better be paying attention (their review of this car was astonishingly positive... very few negative points which is very rare apparently).

Hyundais have a bad reputation because of their earlier cars (late 80's, early 90's), but my sister owned a 1991 that never gave her trouble until she ran it's wheels off at well over 100,000 miles. Many sources in the car biz tell me that they've really stepped up their game over the years and they're becoming major competition for Honda and Toyota because the quality has gone way up but the price is still lower than theirs.

I love our Hyundai

So I give it a big

but we also owned a 1989 Honda Civic that is pushing 200,000 miles and still has lots of life in it. As long as you take good care of most any car, you're going to get good life out of it.