My girlfriend would like to sell her 1996 Honda Civic hatchback and get a four-door car so she can drive our son around in her own car. Here’s the basic requirements:
-Under / around $5000
-Has the upper tether for a car seat - doesn’t need the LATCH system, or lower anchors, only included in the last couple of years. I believe the upper tethers have been included since 1998 or so.
-Reliable
-Four-doors
She’d mentioned a 2000 Ford Focus, but I said I didn’t think that was such as good idea since, while the Focus is a good car, the reliability’s been horrid. Anyone have a good suggestion?
I suggest you post more in your damn journal sani.
I mean it. We want pictures! and updates!!!
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
A Focus has bad reliability over there? Weird, I recall it winning a reliability award in Europe some years ago.
Ah, here we are: it won the 1999 TÜV reliability award in Germany, a quite prestigious one, that.
Can you buy a 2000 Focus for as little as 5K over there? Wow.
Other suggestions: Nissan, Toyota, Honda… isn’t there a 4 door Civic as well? Or an Accord.
Howyadoin,
As a general rule, if you’re going to buy a car with high resale value a la Honda or Toyota, even the low end models, buy new. You’re paying for the name buying used in these cases. If you buy new, you’re the one getting the benefit of the reputation at trade-in time. With the financing deals out there, they’re damn near giving cars away these days.
If you’re looking for used, look for the second-tier Japanese makers like Mazda or Isuzu, or perhaps the Korean Hyundai. Hyundais are a good value right now, the market hasn’t caught up to the quality improvements they’ve made. A Hyundai Elantra could be in your price range.
I’ve not driven, nor shopped for, a Focus. I’ve seen numerous recalls involving the Focus. IIRC, recalls are usually for safety items, which affects suitability for haulin’ the little one.
-Rav
yeah where i live hyundais are cheap as hell. a 2001 model with 30k miles is about 5000 right now.
I recommended buying a four-door Civic, but they’re reselling for around $10,000. I think all Hondas and Toyotas newer than 1999 would be out of our price range.
Anyone have any experience driving or owning the Hyundai Elantra? The Edmunds review mentions that the 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty sort of transfers to new owners as a 5-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty, which would be a nice feature. Of course, what would nice nice is if we didn’t have to make repairs beyond normal maintenance…
my brother bought his slightly used (1 year old and 8k miles about 4 years ago). i think he had no problems until he got to 80k miles then he had a few with the brakes.