Another "girl needs a cheap but new economy car" thread (My Sister!)

@Cobol74

Ah, ok. Thanks for correcting me :)
 
I think it might be a struggle to find most of those cars for under 10 grand, in good shape anyways. I'd suggest hitting up Kelly Blue Book and imputing your criteria.
 
This still sounds a bit white good-ish. Nothing wrong with that.

From just a pure price standpoint, I know you can get the mighty Chevy Aveo brand new for right at $10,000. Downside: not a brilliant car. Upside: warranty so that she knows that she won't incur additional expenses for three years (more if she pays a bit more for an extended warranty).

I wouldn't chase anything but a new Focus unless you get a wild deal on it, mainly because you can get great deals on new ones that get you really close to $13,500 -- and you can get better financing if that matters (i.e., if you are making payments for 5 years, you'll find the difference between $9,500 and $13,500 will narrow significantly).

Perhaps look for a used Yaris -- but again, weigh the advantages of a new car (better financing, longer warranty).

If she's paying cash, perhaps looking for something less expensive -- that is, say, an older Focus for even less money would be worthwhile.

In short, I kinda feel like $10,000 is a bit of a "sucker hole." Consider going sharply under, or a bit over that, and there's a lot of things that make sense...but right at that particular pricepoint there's only a few good deals.

Steve
 
About the Mazda Protege, We have here infinite amounts of 323s like the one shown on the OPs pic and I've NEVER heard about a single one of them go so badly wrong it cannot move. On the drivers' car subject, never really tried driving one from obvious reasons...
 
Question: Is their any way to tell which suspension a Mini Cooper has? I''m reading that they were made with 3 or so different levels of stiffness. Anybody know the qualities of each (is standard too soft, and or is super sport ultra extreme mode too hard?) Thought we had some Mini enthusiasts, so i thought i'd ask!

heres the article that made me ask!

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...micro_machines/mini_cooper_first_drive_review
 
I think in terms of a balance between handling, space, image, and looks, I would go for the Fit (or wait for the new one). If you want something unique, you can't go wrong with an Insight.
 
I have driven the Focus, the Protege and the Fit on your list. I also driven the Suzuki Swift+ but as everyone says its basically a Daewoo and not something I'd consider buying. Personally my favourite of those three is the Protege its surprisingly good. Its probably best if you can get a manual Protege since I found the automatic sapped a lot of power from it. The Fit is IMO the best in its class, its only close competitor in my mind is the Yaris which is more economical and easy to take care of but much less fun(sadly its more fun than Toyota's whole lineup). As for the Focus, its not bad to drive but the older models don't have very good build quality or materials. The new 2008 model improves this but I'd still take the Mazda 3.
 
well, I think you should be looking at toyota vitz / yaris aswell.. very good and tough little car.. 1.5 one would be preferred.. although 1.0 is enough to get that little car moving fast enough.. and upto 160 - 170 kph!
 
Yeah, but most cars under 2L don't use a lot of fuel, not just Japanese. Are you saying that any Japanese car will use less fuel than any non-Japanese car of similar size? :)

I'd say go for the Focus.

Japanese cars usually are a little bit lighter. The Focus I drove in SA was also a sub 2 litre, but it felt much more of a solid/heavier car than a Corolla. Just like a 2litre Corolla will be more fuel efficient than say... a C200K or BMW 320i, simply because of less weight to drag around with a tiny 4 pot engine.

Thats if you can live with the crap material that they use for cars. I remember my Subaru was like made out of tin, I could dent the bootlid just by pressing it with my thumb. :D Didn't really bother me though, cos I personally engine driving a light, nimble car.
 
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