Looking for advice and suggestions for a new car

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, I’m starting to seriously consider purchasing a new vehicle, possibly as soon as this spring. Actually I’d consider something sooner than that, but it would truly have to be a deal too good to pass up, and I could also end up scrapping the new car plan altogether or putting it off indefinitely, depending on a few things.

I’m looking for something fairly economical (MPG, maintenance costs, etc.) which I’ll keep for around 10 years give or take. Majority of my driving is local back and forth to work and around town, and I think I drive about 8K - 10K miles per year.

I’d be the only one driving this car, and the majority of the driving would be with just me or sometimes a single passenger. I don’t typically need to transport much stuff either, so storage space isn’t a huge factor, and I’m leaning towards a hatchback.

My price range is very flexible, but I’m thinking in the neighborhood of $20K. Getting a good value is more important to me than just the bottom line price, so for example if there were a car that were “worth” or “should be” $50K which I could buy for $30K, I’d strongly consider that option compared to one that cost $20K but which was just a fair deal.

At this point I’m leaning towards new as opposed to used, but I’d definitely consider used. That’s actually one question I have, from what I’ve heard the gap in cost between new and used has narrowed considerably over the past few years, and its no longer as “bad” of a deal to buy one brand new, is that actually true?

I live in a state with snow, so that is a factor, however its not a huge deal for me. As long as the car isn’t terrible in snow, I’m OK with it, but anything better than terrible is better for me too, obviously. AWD would be a plus, but definitely not a requirement.

Technology is pretty important, and I’m hoping for something that can interface directly with my iPod and iPhone. Pretty much anything high tech would be a plus for me. Hoverer “luxury-wise”, I’m not as interested in things like fancy interiors, for example I’d actually prefer cloth seats to leather.

So far, the Ford Focus has piqued my interest the most, however I’d really like to expand my search to include many different options. I also like the VW Golf & GTI, however that is more wishful thinking, and I’m not sure how economical they’d be, especially on maintenance.

So, any suggestions of cars I should be looking at? Any steers on other resources or websites I might want to take a look at? Any input would be appreciated.

2

I did a quick Google search and found this article which seemed like a good place to start.

Under small hatchbacks it went Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, Mazda3 in that order. The Focus was tied for #4, but all seemed quite reasonable.

I note the Focus is said to have “10 out of 10” on technology so that might be a real good choice for you.

I like your parameters for car ownership - quite reasonable.

3

That hasn’t been my experience. I am looking at a car too and the models I’m currently looking into are mid size sedans, mostly the Mitsubishi Galant and the Ford Fusion. Both of those cars lose $10,000 in value the first 2 years. A new one is about 23k, a 2011 model with 30-40k miles is about 13k.

Hondas and toyotas hold their value well. I think everything else still depreciates rapidly. Fords do not hold their value. IMO, and it is your decision, if you buy a focus I’d buy a 2011 instead of a new one. If you do that you can get a higher end model like the titanium for less than a new base model.

Go to cars.com or autotrader.com to check the prices between new and slightly used (2010-2012). I’d wager for most there is still a massive price gap.

If you are looking for a new car with good MPG and good maintenance I’d consider a toyota or honda instead. You can look into the Toyota yaris or Corolla, or the honda civic or insight.

The insight has really good mpg, and a new one is about 20k.

I have no idea how these cars handle in bad weather.

Go to carsurvey.org or msn auto to read owner reviews on the cars too. That will give you a heads up on what other owners think of the cars.

I don’t know a lot about it, but I’m sure there are aftermarket things you can put in your car to make it sync with your phone if you can’t find it on the model you want. But I really don’t know.

4

Yes, the price difference between “new” and “nearly new” is pretty minimal these days, although it remains to be seen if that’s just the lingering effects of the bad new car sales during the worst of the recession or if it’s going to be a more permanent state of affairs. If you’re buying something like a Honda or Toyota that’s going to hold its value pretty well anyways, new is currently a no-brainer. With something like the Focus, you might still be able to save enough on a used one to make it worth your while.

The car I’d add to your list is the Subaru Impreza. It used to be that if you bought a Subaru, you were sacrificing a bit of reliability and fuel economy for the truly excellent AWD system they have. Just over the last few years, though, both have majorly improved to the point that they’d be competitive with any car in their class and the great AWD is just icing on the cake.

For resources and such, Consumer Reports is a pretty good resource for stuff like reliability. It might be worth getting a subscription or seeing if you can get their current car guide from your library.

5

Hyundai or Ford. Mazdas are excellent but should be bought used because they don’t hold their value as well. Stay away from Toyota and Honda. They used to be good but have fallen way behind the Koreans and Americans. Last year’s brand new Honda Civic was so bad that they had to release another brand new version this year. Toyota has a lot of quality issues and has been skating on their reputation. They’ll get better again but have been in a low for about five years.

I’ve little knowledge of Subaru. I’ve always felt their technology was several years behind every one else but they’ve maintained a loyal following so they must be better than I thought. They seem to have taken the place of Volvo among upwardly mobile eggheads.

Stay away from Dodge. The Dart is sub-par and the company isn’t financially sound. VWs have electrical issues and cost more to insure and maintain.

I’d advise a Ford. If you really, really enjoy driving and can work a stick, then a Mazda would be more satisfactory.

6

I despise the boring driving appliances sold by Honda and Toyota these days, but I don’t think there’s any evidence whatsoever for an overall decline in quality from them. The edge they once had is certainly less than it once was, but that has more to do with other companies catching up, not them slipping. It’s not like the 80’s and 90’s when they were selling cars that were reliable and genuinely innovative, but if you want a trouble-free boring car they’re still the best you can get.

These days, I usually advise against them as used cars because IMHO the reliability advantage is no longer great enough to justify the price premium you pay for a used one, but that’s not really an issue if you’re buying new. To the contrary that’s a big selling point.

7

Given that you stated “Majority of my driving is local back and forth to work and around town, and I think I drive about 8K - 10K miles per year.” I need to ask:

Do you need to drive longer distances ever? and Do you have a place you could plug in over night?

If "no’ and “yes” then -

The Mitsubishi MiEV costs a net just a bit over $20K after tax credit (assuming you qualify for it) and goes about 62 miles between charges (less in the cold though). The Nissan Leaf gives a bit more range with a bit more car for a bit more money but still can be had for under $28K (again after tax credit if it applies). Depending on the state other rebates apply (IL gives an add’l 10% rebate back, up to $4K, for example).

They’d both appeal to your tech side but neither are for everyone. But you are not everyone and one might meet your needs.

8

Just did a similar car hunt 2 months ago. Drove the Chevy Cruze, Mazda 3, Ford Focus, and the Hyundai Elantra. Looked at a few others but didn’t drive due to the cheapy feel of the interior.

The Mazda drove well, but just wasn’t ergonomic for me - YMMV.

The Focus won the techie department, but wasn’t as comfy as the Hyundai or the Chevy. Also was annoyed by the combination of options packages - you can’t have a blue car without leather seats. :confused:

The Chevy and Hyundai were both significantly more comfortable, and felt roomier than the other cars in a similar size. Those were the 2 I liked the most.

Ended up going with the Hyundai partly because my previous car was also a Chevy, and was buggy, and also because they weren’t budging on the price at all, and I was able to get the Elantra with all the options I wanted out-the-door for under 20k.

For the past 2 months I’ve been really enjoying the car. Very comfortable, the bluetooth works excellent, and I’m actually getting very close to the mileage that was claimed on the sticker.

9

From my own very limited experience buying a new vehicle, it looks this way but isn’t.

The make and model I decided on had a range of set options/combinations, determined at the regional sales level (a big reason car-design websites ask for your zip code). I talked to several salesmen at multiple dealers, and all but one of them presented the ordained option spread.

The one salesman who didn’t decided early on that I knew exactly what I wanted and was willing to help me get it. He broke out the maker’s tech manual, and we went through all of the ‘X+Y+C-E’ options.

The hitch? It’s a custom order, and would have taken 6 weeks from the factory built to spec. As it was, the salesman found a single unit already in production that almost met my specifications. I ended up with a single CD player instead of a 6-disc changer, and just a limited-slip differential instead of a full Electronic Stability Control package. Every other detail was exactly as I wanted it.

The trade-off is that I had to wait two weeks for delivery of my truck. I could have settled on my wants/needs and bought a regionally spec’d vehicle on the spot. I could have custom ordered a truck and waited six weeks to get every exact bell I wanted (which I’d do now, but my daily driver was on death’s door). I split the difference and waited two weeks to get something really close to my ideal.

If you know what you want and look hard enough, you can, in fact, have a blue Focus without leather seats.

10

If you like your get-up-and-go and don’t need a great MPG, the turbo eco-boosts Ford’s got going in its various models is pretty fantastic. And I say this as a German car snob.

11

The little Mazda2 is mechanically and electrically very simple, and should see 250,000 miles with no trouble at all.

It’s a lot of fun to drive, seats four well, and is available in bright green, bright red, and bright blue.

12

I drive a Ford Focus, and I was thinking that all your requirements described my car perfectly. I also do pretty much short-distance driving to work, although I do an occasional 300-mile (round trip) drive to visit family, so I usually top out at about 12K miles per year. I’ve never had any problems with any part of the car in terms of needing repairs, and it handles pretty well in the snow (which is important for me as well). I usually get about 26 miles/gallon in city driving, and about 37 miles/gallon on the highway, but I drive a manual transmission (although I’m not sure if that matters much anymore for mileage).

So yeah, I definitely recommend the Focus.

13

I bought a Hyundai Elantra about six months ago. I was very impressed when I first tested it, and find it still very much to my liking.

14

I wouldn’t buy a Ford Focus. The automatic transmission is a fairly new dry clutch DSG type dealie that has so far proven to be quite problematic despite a number of software updates/TSBs from Ford. The manual transmission is all right but it’s only a 5 speed, compared to almost all of its competition (Elantra, Cruze, Dodge Dart)that uses 6 speeds.

That being said, by all accounts the new Focus ST which does come with a 6 speed is a better GTi than the VW GTi.

I wouldn’t really worry too much about the hatchback vs sedan thing for this segment. The way it works is that the hatchback versions of these cars are usually shorter in length than the sedans with the trunk, so the actual amount of storage space ends up being about the same, and the hatchback version only provides very marginal additional utility. I wouldn’t buy a car just because it was a hatch. The exception to this is the VW Jetta Sportwagon, which is actually a small station wagon and does offer significantly more room. Ford use to offer a station wagon variant of the Focus too, and I think the new Ford C-Max is the same idea but it’s not here yet I don’t think.

Here’s the current state of the art on new compacts:

Comfortable cruiser Chevy Cruze is the leader here, it use to the the Corolla but the current Corolla is ancient and due to be replaced in the next year or so. It’s adequately powerful, very roomy and very quite inside, gets excellent fuel economy especially with the manual trans. It usually ends up being the more expensive of the bunch though.

Lots of gadgets for the price Either Dodge Dart or Hyundai Elantra. The Dart for example can be had with lane departure assist, backup cross warning (when backing out of a space, the backup radar will tell you if there are any cars coming crosswise), heated steering wheel, a massive center LCD display and a fully configurable LCD instrument cluster. Same with the Hyundai which can be had with heated rear seats. Actually the 2 cars even share a lot of mechanical underpinnings (engine, transmission) too. The Hyundai also has a very long warranty.

Sporty driving Mazda 3. Drives great, actually surprisingly cheap with incentives. Interior and refinement are not as good as the others.

The Subaru Impreza is a consideration if you really want AWD, but note that only the automatic transmission (CVT) model gets comparable fuel economy to the others, because it uses a “part time” AWD system without a center differential that just stays FWD most of the time. The 6 speed manual transmission model is “full time” AWD with a center differential and a viscous coupling locker, but comes with a major penalty in fuel economy. Opinion varies on whether one system is superior to the other, but since none of the other cars offer AWD at all it’s not really much of a thing to debate over. In other repsects it’s similar to the Mazda3, drives pretty nice, shit interior. Japanese made Subarus (Impreza, Forester) also seem to have major problems with rust when dealing with road salt, which might be a problem where you live. I think it’s some kind of issue with the Japanese paint process they use, as American made Subarus (Legacy, Outback) seem to be problem free.

You can buy a VW Jetta if you want an engine with the fewest number of valves currently on the market. Other than that i don’t see why you would bother.

15

I say Honda Fit. Can be had for well under $20k (you don’t need anything the Honda Fit “sport” offers, especially for around town driving). And it will hold its resale value well, get good gas mileage, and eat a surprisingly large amount of stuff if you ever do decide to take a road trip or just visit Ikea.

16

Get a Jeep :smiley:

17

Toyota Corolla. I’ve had one for seven years now, and I think it fits all of your criteria. It wouldn’t be as much fun if it wasn’t a stickshift, though. I put snow tires on mine and drive it all winter long in Calgary without a problem, and haul stuff in it all the time. We’ve taken the Corolla on major road trips repeatedly. It’s good on gas, and repairs are easy and cheap since it’s one of the most common cars on the road. I’ve had no trouble with the accelerator sticking, but I’m not stupid enough to drive with my car mats stuck under the pedals.

When I bought the Corolla, the other contenders were the Hyundai Elantra and the Mazda whatever is similar to a Corolla. The Mazda seemed exactly the same as the Corolla, for a lot more money.

18

New Corolla.

19

Toyota Prius.

I’m on my second one, after nearly 300k miles on the first with no problems. It is amazingly roomy inside, and gets great mileage. I’ve hauled everything from toolboxes to bicycles to 10’ lengths of pipe and lumber in mine.

20

I love Hondas, as in Civics and my serious favorite, the CR-V. I will never love a car as much as this one for my price range.

I currently get about 23 MPG and I live in SoCal, so that’s really not bad. The best factor of all Japanese cars is the sight lines. Never a bad blind spot. Seriously. I remember test driving a Dodge Charger. Ugh. Unless you have Semi-truck side mirrors, I suggest never backing out in one of those things. Engine, great. Stereo, great. The interior seemed about as big as the blind spot too.

I’ve owned Mazdas, and loved them too, but ALL parts are expensive. For my Mazda 323, Pep Boys and other auto shops didn’t carry taillights, headlights, etc. So a whopping 26 bucks for a new taillight bulb is expected from an “authorized Mazda dealership.”

Others I’ve rented in snow conditions that impressed me were Chevy Cruze-- this has ALL the features you’d pay way extra for on a Honda. Also a Ford Focus. Not as many features, but they are small, big enough for buying enough IKEA stuff, and handle very well in inclement weather.

My suggestion, go test driving. Even on cars you may not think you can afford. You may find a pre-owned one you love enough that will last the ten years you’re planning on.