Car opinions please!
 

I've narrowed down my new car search to 3 models....what's your fav?

Right now I'm looking at the Mazda RX8, Nissan 350Z, & Pontiac GTO.

I'm leaning towards the RX8 b/c I like the mini door to the back seat :)

BMW 5 series, Mercedes C class, Jetta, Volvo S80, Jeep Wrangler/Cherokee, Tahoe/Yukon..............acceptable sororstitute cars.

"HONDA"!

Have Had 4.

That is all!

Well, $, and Resale does count!

Depends on your income, try not to finance a car that exceeds your ability to pay cash for.

New cars are always bad, going for something 5 years old will save you a lot of money and they ahve already taken the biggest hit of depreciation.

I know millionaires who have never bought a new car.

Price your insurance before you buy the car also . . some states are outrageous.

I have seen way too many people in and out of college bite off a hefty car parpayment cause they wanted a glittery new toy.

That payment owns you. That payment means that you can't take a few months off work if you need to, or if you are fired.

With a high payment you work just to drive.

Re: Car opinions please!
 

I love the Mazda RX8, someone near me in my complex has one in black and I love it.
I'm not a fan of the Nissan 350z. It's a looks like a skittle to me somwhat.
Not familiar with the GTO as much.

I do have to somewhat agree with James. I love my car but wish I had something with lower payments.

And depends on what's important to you. For me, I wanted something small but not fugly from a style point, and something good on gas mileage that has a good track record and a high resale value. Hence my Acura RSX.

If you want it to last long, and expect a GOOD warranty - DON'T buy American.

Agreed.

Unfortunately, I concur.

I'm sort of nervous to see how long mine will last. I not only bought American, but I bought the first year of the model - It's a 2004 Chevy Aveo. But I really like the car, it gets good gas milage, has low payments, and I have a platinum plan on it. Plus, it was actually manufactued in Korea, which makes me feel a little better.

Too bad that's not true.

Asian cars have had a huge amount of recalls lately. Add to that the fact that American manufacturers own parts of Asian and European manufacturers (ie some of the models out now are actually relabled imports) and combine that with problems that are minor as opposed to major engine shutdowns (meaning if one car is ranked a tad bit more dependable it's only because a radio button didn't stick and not because a company issued a major recall).

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/Auto...power_2005.gif

-Rudey

Interesting survey. Unfortunately, my personal experience doesn't match it.

We have three American built cars at the moment and have just a lot of little problems -- along with one or two major ones over the course of owning them.

We've also owned several Japanese cars and were able to drive them much longer with many fewer repairs.

Maybe the "Detroit Iron" is getting better.

ETA, where are the Chrysler products on the survey?

I don't know the model, make, year of your car. It could all be different.

Plus given your experience, you should know that when Jap cars came onto the market they were nothing but undependable rust buckets. It took time to build that quality reputation. Those reputations change.

Plus you drove European sports cars which had to have been awful in terms of repairs. Even now, when I wanted to buy my car I was deciding between Audis, BMWs, and Landrovers - a lot of their models have horrible quality issues. I ended up with a Ford.

-Rudey

I love my 4Runner! 2002 sport edition.

Before that, I had a 97 Honda Accord for high school and most of college. Very dependable. I like the new Accord coupes.

Most dependable
1 Lexus 139
2 Porsche 149
3 Lincoln 151
4 Buick 163
5 Cadillac 175
6 Infiniti 178
7 Toyota 194
8 Mercury 195
9 Honda 201
10 Acura 203
11 BMW 225
12 Ford 231
13 Chevrolet 232
14 Chrysler 235

Least dependable
1 Kia 397
2 Land Rover 395
3 MINI 383
4 Volkswagen 335
5 Isuzu 331
6 Daewoo 318
7 Audi 312
8 Suzuki 292
9 Jeep 289
10 Saab 286

-Rudey

They were tough, but not as hard to get parts and service as they were reputed to be. There were pretty good dealers in Columbus. And, I was a kid then, so I really didn't mind that the heaters barely worked and the Lucas distributor caps and other electrical parts seemed like they were made out of paper mache' and would quit operating sometimes in the rain.

It was a surprise that you had to add 10 weight oil to the SU Carburators every month or so.

My first Austin Healey Sprite had a piece of plywood instead of a floorboard in the passenger side. The car cost a princely $850 used.

One of my favorite old lines is:

Q) Why do the British drink warm beer?

A) They all own Lucas refrigerators.

On the other hand, you could fill the gas tank with "high test" gas for less than $2.00.

But, boy were they fun. Great days!

ETA -- the second list is different than the cut and pasted one. Are they different years?

I have a 1992 Subaru Outback that runs so well, I hate to get rid of it! That car has been abused, off the road to my brother's farm, into the mountains, etc - and it still runs really well. It would be sheer vanity for me to get a new one (but I'd like to, in a way!).

I'm confused. Which is different?

And I am so damn happy that I don't have to put an additive into my gas because they modified the engine. Carbed cars are a hassle but I'm always amazed at how many things change in a car. I only have lap belts and the steering wheel looks like it may kill me if I ever got into an accident.

-Rudey

The second list has Chrysler, but the first doesn't. It also has Porsche as number 2 and the first one doesn't have it at all. Lots of other differences.

Are the lists about the same thing? I'm confused, too.

Nightly News had the Consumer Reports survey for this year, and the US cars did very poorly.

The guy's comment is that at eight years of age, the average Japanese built car has about as many problems as a two year old American car.

For surveys to be that different, methodology's gotta be different doesn't it?

Re: Car opinions please!
 

My bf had an obsession with the RX8. He finally test drove one and didn't like it. Said it left him feeling cold. He's now getting a MINI. (YEah I don't know either but it's his money.)

I'm getting a 2004 Nissan Sentra 2.5S getting sent up from LA to the Carmax up here. The value of the car is accurate and it's something I can make monthly payments on. My insurance will also be resonable as well. (STart looking at quote now.)

Look into credit unions for low interest rates for outside financing. Dealers will always throw in random ass fees so be sure to have some good negotiating skills or bring someone that knows the sales process.

Not paying for your car in full, in cash, is NF. And why would any rightminded human pay to drive a mini.

Oh sorry. OK the first is selective but they should have the same scores for the cars. Look at the column on the right. JDPower is a great guide.

As for other guides, I read religiously Consumer report and consumer guide for this year. They both gave American cars pretty high scores, but still gave higher scores to manufacturers like Toyota. I definitely didn't see anything in there saying US cars did badly and an 8 yr old Jap car = 2 yr old American. The article with the pic of that list I posted actually talked about how well American cars did in consumer report also. I don't think the surveys are very much different.

It really is amazing how much they've improved in quality control. I think it's mainly from the globalization of ideas and processes.

-Rudey

Never have, never will (Lord willing!).

I agree that the RX-8 is gorgeous! I'd always, always, always wanted an RX-7 but, such as life, by the time I could conceive of affording one they quit making them :( The RX-8 doesn't go with my Mom duties at the moment, but I'm hoping sometime down the road I may finally scratch that Mazda itch!

As for the BMW 5 Series, I must respectfully disagree with the governor. I bought one brand new about, oh, two years ago. Let me just say that, within 6 months we had a nickname for that car: "Christine" (yes, after the possessed car in Stephen King's book!) Some examples from a very long "why we should never have gone near this thing" list include: The seatwarmers quit working, the sunroof only closed halfway so until I could get her to the dealer we had a heavy duty garbage bag taped over the gaping hole in the roof. Can you say "ghetto", little kids??? The trunk would not lock and it would happily spring up whenever we hit a bump. Unworldly smells would fill the car when I let the engine heat up. My husband and I would be looking at each other like, "I didn't do that; did YOU do that?" "Nooooooo, wasn't me." One more thing off the top of my head is that the drivers door would not open. So while we were waiting to have it fixed, the whole family exited through the passenger side door. We looked like a big group of clowns piling out of a tiny VW Bug.

We got rid of that thing and I was THIS CLOSE to having a priest come in to bless our garage but I'm not Catholic so that may not have done anything anyhow.

So much for my one big chance to be trendy. My husband just laughs at me as he gets into his nice, sensible Nissan Altima and he calls this "Tracy's $25.000 Ooops" Because that's all we got for the evil thing when we traded it in for my sweet, if unsexy Volvo, whom we've named Sven.

So, here I am back in another mom-mobile: a trusty, boxy, Volvo with a "Save the Chesapeake Bay" tag. Not sexy, but it gets me from point a to point b and, gee, it fits the lacrosse, softball, basketball and field hockey gear so nicely in the back :)

Do you mean the Cooper Mini? I think they're adorable!!! Definitely not a guy car, though.

yeah, i meant for a guy to drive a mini cooper......size alone would rule it out for most guys.

allthough the are pretty good for nice looking girls

Oh, ok. I agree with that; there are cars I don't feel guys should drive and a Cooper Mini is definitely one. Also the Miata, the VW Bug and the jury is still out on the Porsche Boxter although my gut feeling is that it is a Trophy wife mobile.


ETA: For some reason, I feel like Alfa Romeo Spyders, Austin Healeys, Fiats and MGs are all acceptable guy cars but not the Miata. I'm not exactly sure why I feel that way, but I do! :)

You're absolutely right. No miatas for guys. Del sols either.


I want the Honda Civic Si. That would be nice.

That's so hot. I LOVE Volvos. Which one do you have?

I used to have a 1993 Volvo 240 in college. So hot. The plate read VLVO PWR.

I mean, then I wrecked it, but still.

It's just a run-of-the-mill V70.


Hey, if you had to wreck it's good you did it in a Volvo. I feel a certain amount of comfort when I'm driving in traffic; like I have my own little tank or something.

It's EXACTLY like you have your own little tank.

In the '93 year of the 240 model (the last year they made it) the sedan weighed 4,000 lbs and the station wagon (which was the exact same length as the sedan, just with the roof extended) was 4,300 lbs.

That jersey wall didn't stand a chance!

Neither does mine. The foreign cars that my family members and I have owned have been far less trouble than the American cars. Europeans have really got us beat in styling, too. Most American cars make me yawn.

Volvos are great American cars but have a bit of a quality problem in the models I looked at. I just thought it would have been hilarious if i had a volvo stationwagon or something. That joke would have probably sucked once the novelty wore off.

-Rudey

1. The quality certainly does NOT suck in the older models. Now, I can't vouch since Ford bought them, since although the whole family drives Volvos we don't have any newer models. But the 240, 740, and 850 series certainly DOES NOT suck.

2. What's wrong with a station wagon? I mean, granted, with a dog I'd get a little more use out of one than you might, but they're very useful for hauling, say, lumber.

Yes men haul lumber in their station wagons all the time.

-Rudey

Rudey, you are lollericious.

Aside from that, they get excellent gas mileage, and while they have next to no horsepower (116), they have a great turning radius.

-- yay!

You shouldn't have wrecked it. You could have still been riding that beautiful creature.

-Rudey

I KNOW. It had sweet cloth seats.

You didn't put in all sorts of awful and fancy electronic add-ons right? Because manual locks and windows is the way to go if you have cloth seats.

-Rudey

Sadly, it came with power windows and locks. Volvo started using power locks real early on - they were the first to come up with "safety doors" that wouldn't fly open in a crash, which lead them to power locks.

Of course, by power I mean when you turned the lock in the driver's door, all the other locks either locked or unlocked. It's not like I could do anything while driving, or 50 feet away, or anything.

It did have a sweet little tray on the dashboard. For pencils and stuff.