That’s top priority for us.
Our first two cars were beyond awful. I don’t want to inflict that on a kid who is just getting her first car.
I heartily endorse all the Dopers’ recommendations of Car Max-my experience with them, buying a used car for the first time as a woman newly on her own was excellent. When I needed a refund on the extended warranty a very few months later (because the car was totaled) all it took was one quick, pleasant phone call-no argument or pressure at all. They refunded every dollar and in fact I got the benefit of the doubt as to how many months to refund.
I used Consumer Reports to identify good used cars in my price range, specific makes and models that rated well for my priorities: safety, reliability and expected life spans. Then asked Car Max to find one for me. Painless, especially compared to what it too often usually is for a woman to buy a car.
The intervening 40 years of automotive progress has meant cars don’t become clunkers after 8 years anymore. It takes more like 20.
Unless your budget is total rock bottom, I think you’re mostly fearing the ghosts of car-buying’s past.
It’s been interesting seeing how many people in this thread have recommended CarMax, since before reading the thread they weren’t really on my radar, and at first I wondered if people really were talking about CARFAX (or possibly Carmex?) Then again, I haven’t been car-shopping since 2009.
To be clear, I would have also recommended both Carmex and CarFax, for their appropriate uses. Carmex has been my absolutely bedrock favorite lip balm since Texas ranch country college roommates introduced this Iowa prairie dweller to it. During my last 4 used car purchases I came to appreciate the “just the facts, ma’am” forthrightness of CarFax-it hasn’t done me wrong yet.
If I remember correctly - and it’s been a good 10 years or so - CarMax gave me the CARFAX for the car I was buying. So I used both. (And would again, in a similar scenario)
Looking it up on Car Complaints and Kelly Blue Book will provide you with valuable information before you see the car in person. Car complaints gives you the years to stay away from and Kelly gives you a ballpark estimate of the fair price.
Looking around that site a little, I can’t tell where they get their data from or exactly how they count it, but it kind of looks as though they simply count the number of complaints without accounting for the overall number of cars sold (you’d expect there to be more complaints about a car that more people own), and I can’t find info about where or how these complaints are registered, so it may not be an unbiased sample.
Well, both of our first cars were 5-6 years old at most. They were overachievers in terms of going straight to hell. That Fiat scarred me so badly that when the company started selling in the US again, I went on record to friends as saying “there are a lot of cars I’d only take as a gift. A Fiat, you could not PAY me to accept”.
I’ve owned 2 Chryslers. One was a Dodge Omni - replacing the Fiat. Says a lot about the Fiat that the Omni was an improvement. The other was a Caravan - which, to be fair, lasted us 10 years and 120K miles. But it had numerous very expensive repairs (the A/C in Chryslers of that era was known to be bad), and when every component of the electrical system started freaking out, we ditched it and got our first Honda CRV - which, 17+ years and 185K miles later, we still own. No more Chryslers. I still have a bad perception of GM vehicles - possibly unwarranted. I had an Equinox as a rental once and liked it (but long-term reliability would require some research). Fords, dunno. We looked at the Ford Escape for ourself back in 2020 and there were things we liked and did not like; we’d have concern over used models.
A friend is strongly urging a Subaru Forester. Our daughter will be a new driver, and in Vermont, which means she needs something that can, in theory, handle the snow.
Fiat and Chrysler are two of the “gotta be a practical joke” brands in the industry. Substantially nobody thinks they ever made, or do make now, good cars.
Lotta folks love their Subies. And yes, they’re pretty darn snow capable.
Yeah. It really is just that simple.
There may be other cars that would serve her needs well, but Subies in snow country are de rigueur for good reason.
And Subarus tend to be nigh unto bulletproof.
ETA: though it’s worth mentioning that true snow tires beat all in crappy winter driving conditions.
Next best (with some overlap) are tires with the three peak mountain snowflake symbol.
I see nobody as addressed this yet. Today’s digital odometers can either be quite difficult or laughably easy to tamper with, depending on the make and model. Odometer readings are calculated and stored in a computer, of course, so changing the odometer reading can be as easy as reprogramming the computer, which on some models can be done by Bubba Jr. in his backyard while others can only be done at the dealer. Some need to have the computer model replaced entirely.
Re: buying a car, my only piece of advice is to find a car with a strong service history, proven either by a Carfax report or a stack of receipts. For all routine maintenance I personally take my car to a place that reports to Carfax for this very reason – I want to have a proven paper trail showing all maintenance done with corresponding mileage available when/if I sell it. I keep all the receipts for everything, including fuel fill-ups, in a file. Overkill, perhaps, but if I am in the market for a new-to-me car, that’s the kind of records I would like to see.
When you have narrowed down your choices to just a handful of models, find the maintenance schedule for each one and have that ready when you look at the Carfax so you can ascertain if the maintenance, both scheduled and recommended, was done on time.
I’ve owned two Chryslers, the last of which was a PT Cruiser. I fell in love with the look, and convinced myself “they must have improved the quality since that lemon I had in the '80s.” It was great for about 5 years, and then the quality issues started to crop up, again and again. I’ll never buy another one.
And this, too. We had a Subaru Outback, which was primarily my wife’s car, and we loved it. The only reason we got rid of it was creeping age. We’ve agreed that, when we’re ready to get our next car, it’ll be a Subaru.
I’ve owned two Chryslers: a 1986 LeBaron and a 2003 (I think?) Town and Country. The LeBaron was the absolute biggest piece of shit I’ve ever owned. Nothing, but nothing worked right. It had moss growing in the inside of the windows, even in the heat of summer. I had it when my youngest was a toddler, I was dirt poor, and needed a reliable vehicle which it was absolutely not. It was the antithesis of reliable.
The Town and Country needed irregular but very expensive repairs including a full engine rebuild and extensive electrical work that cost more than the engine rebuild. For whatever it’s worth we did own it for ~8 years and put 150K miles on it. I sold it to someone who was planning on pulling the seats out, parking it behind his shop, and using it for storage. Probably the best use of it.
I’ve also owned a '91 Dodge Dakota and '90 Jeep Cherokee, and of the two the Dodge was the only one that didn’t need constant repairs – but I didn’t own it for very long.
I also will never own another Chrysler/Stellantis/WhateverItWillBeCalledTomorrow product.
Although honestly if I ever get the opportunity to buy a '58 Saratoga I’ll probably jump at it…
My first Chrysler was an '87 LeBaron coupe, which I bought used in '89. I had a lot of the same kinds of problems. Twice, one of the main computer chips which controlled the engine simply died while I was driving the car, shutting everything down. There was some unfindable water leak into the trunk. And, it had an electronic voice system to give status reports; when the temperature was below freezing, it would start telling me that “the hatchback is ajar” – it was a coupe, it had no rear hatch!
The moment I was no longer underwater on the auto loan I’d taken out to buy it, I got rid of it.
Chrysler: proof positive there is no car so hopeless that Americans cannot be persuaded to buy them in quantity.
As long as this has turned into a Chrysler-bashing thread…
My first car was an '87 Plymouth Horizon (essentially the same thing as a Dodge Omni). In many ways it was a good car for its time, but it had its issues, including the driver’s door handle coming off (from only normal use), the rear bumper falling off (AFAIK unprovoked), and several episodes of just refusing to run until I got under the hood with a spray can of carb & choke cleaner.
I had likely heard, at some point, that Fiat bought Chrysler or vice versa, they do appear to be owned by Stellantis this week.
Not a recommendation.
To be fair, the Caravan did work well (when it worked). Great acceleration when getting onto a highway. Good seating position - high enough that we could see well on the road, not so high we risked nosebleeds (unlike in the Ford Expedition we’ve rented a couple times). We could haul half the Girl Scout troop. We had plenty of room for luggage on family trips. But it began sounding its death knell when it nearly stranded us in Canada (hint: if you have AAA, CAA will come to help you out). The electrical problems that triggered that behavior were never fixed to my satisfaction, and we got rid of it 2 months later.
Fiat bought Chrysler in 2012, and became “FCA” (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles). In 2021, FCA merged with PSA Group (Peugot, and other brands); the merged company became Stellantis.
So if you make a large enough agglomeration of smaller failures, does that:
- Eventually create a critical mass of suck that implodes like a black hole sucking in all the suck around it and growing ever bigger and better at sucking?
OR - Eventually create a critical mass of suck that explodes like a supernova, spraying highly energetic suck on everything everywhere for miles, if not light-years, around?