Bossnass

I suddenly find myself in the market for a new (or newish) car. To be purchased in the next 10 days or so.

Around or below 25k Canadian (which is pretty much 25k USD, but our cars are arbitrarily more expensive)

Import sedans are on the table. Reliability and fuel economy are important. I'm not terribly concerned about performance, but I've eliminated the City Jetta, which I don't think is in the US, but is a markIV Jetta with a very slow 2.0 in it. Even money on standard or automatic transmission, but if we end up with a slower engine we'll want a 5-speed so we can rev high and move a little bit if we need to (tense left turns, etc).

A pretty even blend of city, semi-freeway, and highway driving.

We loved our dearly departed Jetta TDI. A replacement TDI isn't really an option outside of used, but a traditional engined Jetta will be test driven at least.

Civic is also at the top of the list, but they seem a bit high priced right now.

Mazda3s.
I'd like to pick up a Mitsubishi Lancer (non-evo family version).
Maybe a Nissan Senta?
We don't want a hatchback (Matrix), I don't know if Toyota makes a Sedan that I don't associate with cheap or grandparents.
Should I bother driving a Kia or a Hyundai?

Hands on experience with any new or recent years of any of the above is what I'm looking for. Thanks.

LazyBoy

Its hard to go wrong with a nice Honda Accord or Nissan Altima (would have said Maxima here 5 years ago, but the Altima is quite a nice car now IMHO). If you want a lil more zip, stick with the Mazda idea, almost everything they make now has a lil turbo on it lol.

Considered Audi by any chance?

-Will

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bobby

mazda3speed...great car.....a minicooper S.... great car

..........xoxoxoo

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Ilow

Non-WRX Subaru Impreza, good power, decent rear seat, pretty good storage esp. in the 5 door hatchback., good economy, good reliability, excellent in winter, good value.

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BadNick

My only "recent" experience is with our '07 RAV4/V6/leather int./JBL stereo which came in right at $30k out the door (we really like it a lot) and our '04 TSX.

I don't know if you like them, but both my wife and I really like our TSX a lot. According to the U.S. price info I just cut&pasted below in the U.S. we can get one near your target price, I don't know what premium you pay in Canada. We got our '04 for $25k but I don't need/want expensive toys like navigation/dvd, etc.
New '08 TSX: MSRP: $28,190-30,290; Invoice: $25,915-27,841

Shauk

Hyundai packs a lot of value in their cars for the price point now. They have the best warranty on the market at the moment as well. Ive had no problems with mine and I'm a delivery driver, I drive the hell out of my car. 600 miles a week (or possibly some weekends alone, depending) and it still runs very well at 85,000 miles

http://www.hyundaicanada.com/

I don't trust honda anymore, i've owned 2, both of them had the same problem with head gaskets having to repeatedly be replaced (2 times on the 1st one, 3 times on the 2nd)

I've never owned anything besides those 3 cars though. I have driven my ex's CRX and Ford Focus though, both of them were very unreliable, in ths shop a lot, lots of recalls on that focus (i know you didn't list it but I'm throwing it out there)


anyways, good luck, buying a new car is fun.

Bossnass

Cars are just more expensive up here.
Acura TSX MSRP (US) $28,190.00
Acura TSX MSRP (Canada) $ 36,200.00

The cost of a new Accord, Altima, Impreza, etc is out of the price range that we are willing to spend. We could somewhat easily spend another 10k, but we would rather buy a cheaper car and spend on other things. We are going out of savings and an expected insurance cheque and would rather not finance.

Unfortunately, suggesting that we could get a new car has been taken by my wife (who will be the primary driver) as will get a new car. We have decided on two required luxury options (AC - it gets warm here in the summer 30+ish C (90+ F)) , and seat heaters (it gets cool here in the winter -35ish C (-30ish F). So far all the used cars with both these options are also equipped with other expensive options that we don't want.

I've had a lot of good experiences with Honda- I've put 250,000 km on the civic that is now causing problems. But until yesterday I didn't have any problems with it for the last 10 years.

The only Hyundai I've been in was an Elantra. It was nice until we got on the highway, then it seemed like all the windows were about to rip open and the engine was about to blow through the glove box. But that was a couple years ago and the car was a couple years old then.

My excel spreadsheet puts Mitsubishi > VW > Hyundai for built in warranties. Honda, Mazda, Nissan are add-on warranties.


Edit- Actually it looks like the non-WRX impreza is possible.

Willravel

Hondas are very dependable and are very cheap to repair, at least here in the states. They're not amazingly fun and interesting, but there's a reason they're so popular. Same with Acura, Toyota, and Lexus. As someone who likes to save money, I no longer like to buy new cars. Yes, the warranties are fun, but the cost benefit dies when you realize that when you drive the car off the lot, it suddenly loses thousands of dollars of worth.

My mom asked me a similar question recently and I named off a bunch of 2005 and 2006 models. She looked at me like I was crazy, but you can get warranties and you'll still end up saving money. I've really been impressed with the Civic for the past 15 years or so. It's a solid car. If you get a 2005 Civic HX you'll end up shilling less than half your budget on something that'll probably last another 250k miles, and gets over 40 mpg if driven responsibly. That's better than most Prisusus... Priusi.. that's better than the Prius.

Bossnass

The HX was only ever made in a coupe; we are specifically looking for a sedan. It looks like they were never big in this market (Alberta, current pop~4M). Of the 415 2003-2006 civics, 3 of them are HX, and all of them are about 80% of our budget. Doesn't look like I can get a new one either, even if it had 4 doors.

Just test drove a 2007 Civic LX. The 08s are coming in shortly and it seems like they are trying to move the 07s.

Seemed a little less-peppy than I expected and a little claustrophobic. I'm not a terribly large person, but it seemed like the driving leg area wasn't suffcient; the left foot resting pad to the left of the clutch was too close, and the parking brake handle hit my right knee.

Nice and quiet at higher speeds though; felt like a more expensive care. Seemed pretty tight on the couple corners that I was able to find. Ok fit and finish, but apparently doesn't have heated seats as an option.

souzafone

What was wrong with the TDI that it didn't fit the bill? '09's available in the spring, used ones will drop in price as more become available. We have 3 MK4 VW's in the driveway now, I can tell you the 2.8 is pretty quick but not economical, and is also pretty high maintenance. You've ruled out the diesel, and you know 2.0 is SLOW. Maybe a Passat?

LazyBoy

You really can't beat a Honda for a daily driver on a budget

-Will

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Bossnass

There is nothing wrong with the TDI. Except that the 2007 and probably the 2008 didn't meet local passenger vehicle emissions standards, so there are none here. The demand for the used ones puts them at a price where we can get comparable cars new. I rather wish our old one wasn't stolen.

We test drove the Civic, Elantra, Corolla sport, Mazda3, City Jetta, Sentra, and lancer.

I just bought a lancer.

souzafone

As long as it's still with the Axis.