Buying An Economy 4-door Sedan. Best Bang for the Buck. Which car would you get?

Question

New or used. I've looked up quite a lot of cars thru the internet reading reviews, features and specs, pricing, and resale value. My family owns 2 Toyotas, A Mitsubishi Evo and a Honda. I have a Toyota Corolla and it's very reliable and a real gas-saver. It's time to upgrade to a newer model but I know there are many more competitors out there. On my list, I have Mazda 3, the New Lancer, Corolla, Civic, Sentra, even considering American cars like the Cobalt which I've driven for a week, and even Hyundais, and the VW which has the Jetta and Rabbit going around $15k. I would have chosen a Japanese car due to I'm more into it but I guess I would just go for the best over-all package for the lowest price. Suggestions welcome and appreciated.

Answer 1

Ok here is the deal. you said best bang for the buck. We deal in fleets, big fleets, over 500 units or better. The best bang for the buck in todays market is still the much critised Ford. Yea they break from time to but so do Rolls Royces and you don't have to take a home equity loan out to fix a ford either.
We recommend cars based on strictly cost per mile to operate. This includes, purchase, resale value, insurance cost, repair costs, crash repair costs, gas purchases, oil changes brakes etc. Every dime a fleet spends on a car is recorded. From a flat tire to wiper blades to washer fluid. the best Foreign bang for the buck is the Toyota line. The car line only not the suv's or the trucks. They are just a horror story. Again Im talking about late model stuff now cause cars and trucks change each year. 2002-2007 is what we deal with right now. The Ford taurus for many years was the fleet leader for many years for a good reason. It was simple reliable cost efficent basic transportation. Like its cousin the model T. The taurus did not say hey look at me im gold trimed decked out lexus or an infinity. It just gave people the best bang for the buck. The Ford focus is the same, as is the Fusion, the 500 the entire ford line from Suv to trucks will give you the best bang for your buck. The others can say what they want but when the car is finally used, done, in a ball 10 years later and you add up the numbers the Ford is the winner and has been for a while. Yea they break, so fricking what. when they do the parts are usually cheep and can be had anywhere. Break down in a bmw suv in Wyoming and see how many months your stuck there. We buy for fleets what they want, we olny recomend from our data. Some fleets don't want to look cheep. We then tell them go Toyota. The high resale value will usually make up for the high repair costs and the eveb higher crash repair costs. I can show you a 2006 Maxima that bumped another car at less the 5 mph with over 4000 in damage and had to be towed in. I can show you a Ford fusion that also bumped another car at 10 mph and has 1500 in damage and drove in. Each car has its good points and bad. Some ford motors and transmissions are just junk. We found out fast and avoid them. Some Jeep engines like the 4.0 have been around since ww2. Bottom line there are so many factors in car ownership you still have to drive it, you still have to like it. I still never forget seeing people go into a dealer and buy a 40G car cause it looks good and is a nice color. They never ask to drive it. You asked a best bang for the buck used.. 2000-2007 taurus. We have sales people driving them 60-70,000 miles a year in all kinds of weather. They are cheep to buy. i recently had a client buy 50 of them for 35G at an insurance auction to use as daily rentals. When our shop was done we made 30 cars out of them. I drive a mercury cause i like the extra bells a whistles and the plusher seats in that over the ford. I am beyond the stage in my life i need to impress anyone. Out of the cars you do mention. The Mazda 3 is a ford cousin.. good choise but more expensive the its ford counter part.. The lancer is a parts and service nightmare. I have waited 6 months for a stupid part under warranty with them and they just keep getting worse and worse. Corolla is a good choice as well again foreign cars cost more to fix. Civic before sentra for crash cost reasons. Colbat is a nice car I would rather see a saturn. Its the same car under the skin and Saturn dealers in general are better run. the hyundai agsin decent toss away car and their 100k warranty does not cover what breaks. They just want you to think it will so they can get ou back to the dealer to fix it, and break they do. VW should go back to the drawing board. They are broken and in the shop more then they are on the road.Usually for strange electrical problems. Like just shutting down while your going 70 in the center lane of a highway. We have so many Jetta that do that and VW claims they are not aware of a common issue and can't find out whats causing it. I finally had a service manager take one for a weeked. It happened to him but when they got it to the shop the car started and will not do it in the shop. This has been happening since the 1999 model year. Beware of low mileage Vw's there is a reason the mileage is low. Its not all that far from one end of the shop to the other. ..maybe I could get gold door handles....I hope my long winded answer helped you some how

Answer 2

I have a Toyota Matrix and I love it, great on gas, handles nice. I had a wreck (not my fault) and I was amazed at how well the front end held together on impact...could have been a lot worse, so I think the Matrix is a well made car. In addition, my brother's family drives Toyotas too, after doing a lot of research, says that most Toyotas are American made now.

Matrix is the Corolla hatchback and it is very very roomy, a nice option if you aren't in the mood for a Camry...but then again that is a nice upgrade from Corolla too. And Camry is available in hybrid...personally I have heard to wait until there are a few more hybrid-trained mechanics out there, and until they have the kinks worked out of this technology.

If you like the Matrix but get a better deal on the Vibe, go with that because part for part they are supposedly the same car.

Answer 3

Honda Civic easily is the best small car. If you need a bigger sedan, the Ford Fusion can be had for well below $20000 and so far looks promising. Ford does not have a long standing history of reliability and resale values, but this is one of their better efforts in some time. An Accord or Camry would be better overall choices, but will surely cost more. Consumer Reports just put out their yearly car buying guide (April 2007 magazine) and it is very informative and inexpensive.

Answer 4

Best bang for buck is to keep your current corolla. you already said it is very reliable and a real gas saver. If you want something nice and shiny, paint it and put in new upholestry. You already have a proven car. Keep your money in the bank, you never know what is going to happen around the corner. Drive the car into the ground, and you will still come out further ahead.

Answer 5

I vote for Toyota or Honda. Not so much Nissan. If you buy an american car, be SURE to buy the extended warranty plan, you'll probably need it. I did. I hate VW. I've heard nothing but bad from friends and family.

Answer 6

I would go for the Honda Civic. The Corolla is sooooooooooooooo old now. All other cars are just not as reliable.

Answer 7

why dont you look for a ford..(taurus,fusion)..its better than japaneses

....toyota , honda, nissan are very good...they have the best mechanic in the world but if you buy these cars you lose confort,performance and..style.....

so, about these above on the text....i preferer civic ...or also the sentra

but dont buy the lancer!
this is a car to who wanna race!,and not gas safe , confort,and mechanic...

Answer 8

If you're looking at the best bang for the buck, then that would be a fully loaded '08 Lancer GTS.

- It comes with 7 airbags standard (1 is a drivers side knee airbag),
- rockford fosgate sound system with 9 speakers (1 is a 10" sub),
- navigation system,
- 30 gb music server,
- dvd player,
- 6 months free sirius radio,
- FAST keyless system (no key is needed to unlock/lock doors or turn on the car. you never need to touch the remote or key at all to do any of that).
- The automatic transmission comes with steering column paddle shifters in case you want to drive in manual mode.
- Has auxilary jacks (audio/video jacks) to connect a video system to the navigation system to watch movies on it.
- Jack to plug your ipod into the sound system.
- 18" rims standard

All that for 20k, you can't beat that deal.

Answer 9

toyota

Answer 10

a t-rex