Trading in the old car

I'm planning on trading in my old 2001 Taurus for a new car. I'm looking for something with comparable or better mileage (28 MPG highway), with decent passenger and cargo space. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm currently leaning toward Honda or Toyota, though a new Ford Focus doesn't seem out of the question either.

Toyota Hybrid

Honda Fit. I test-drove one while helping a friend car shop a while ago and was very impressed.

If you're wanting comparable space, you have to go comparable size. The Ford Focus doesn't seem to fit that bill.

To get something comparable from Toyota or Honda, you'll be looking at a Camry or at an Accord. I have a Camry and an Accord, and I'll tell you that my much later model Accord isn't as large inside as my older Camry - and newer camry's are bigger.

You won't go wrong with a Camry. The 2.2L 5SFE is a better better engine than the newer 2.4L, I will tell you that.

Toyota all the way.

Love my Corolla 5-speed. Hate my girlfriend's Focus. They both have around the same amount of miles (just over 50k), but my Toyota seems to ride better, have tighter steering, better pick-up (though a stick helps there), gets better MPG (35ish highway) and doesn't feel nearly as "plasticy".

Though since they're both 2006s, it might be hard to compare to a brand new version of either.

I have no doubt that the Toyota will hold up better. My old Tacoma still felt pretty tight at 230,000.

How about a cockmobile? Might get a bit extra!

The Ford Fusion is comparable to your Taurus and also the Camry and Accord. If looks matter to you the Fusion wins hands down. Reliability from what I last read they are a toss up. My wife has an 08 Fusion that we are very happy with. Besides oil changes and other routine maintenance no issues.

Why are you getting rid of the Taurus though? Knowing that might help us make better recommendations.

Personally, I plan on keeping Black Betty (2000 Accord) until I have to pay someone to take the pieces away.

I'm mainly getting rid of it because it's old, and the transmission is due to fail in 30k miles. I've also been having more and more maintenance issues popping up, and rather expensive ones at that. For instance, today I just found out that the lower spring retainer on the right rear strut failed and put the spring into my tire - a $1000 bill. Last week, I just spent $800 on engine work. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice car for the most part, and I like it, but it's getting expensive to keep, and it's my only transportation to and from work that I need on a day to day basis. I need a vehicle I can count on working on that basis without having to worry about when the next thing is going to fail.

Well, if you're away from family and friends who can give you a ride, that's legitimate. IT is just about always cheaper to repair than to replace, though.

Also, I'm curious - where do you come up with the 30,000 mile of life left for the tranny?

Statistics on Ford vehicles. They tend to fail at about the 200k mile mark - probably designed that way.

You should get together with my brother. He was just tickled by the 17 year old Monte Carlo he got for $300. "Sure, I put $1,300 in parts into it, but do you know what I got for that?" "A $300 car that you paid $1,600 for? (not counting labor)"

A few days after this conversation he was driving his truck because the Monte was running funny and a week or two later I nearly missed a flight because he insisted on driving me to the airport in it and the fuel pump shit the bed 15 minutes from the airport.

He's also got my Mom's lemon minivan. I have no idea how much mom sunk into it but after the last round of repairs she said "I don't know why I didn't junk it." Instead she gave it to my brother at some point when none of the 28 or so cars he has parked in his yard were running. The last time I was home it was in the shop because...I forget. But it needed hundreds and hundreds of dollars of repairs. Of course my brother was going to do them, because "once they're done..."

Conversely my Mustang was in the shop once for a dashboard light (airbags?) that wasn't doing what it was supposed to. Apart from tires, routine maintenance, and the time it got clipped by a minivan during a blizzard, screwing up the back bumper, I've spent no money on it. Over 60,000 miles on it and I haven't even needed to replace the brakes.

I've easily sunk $2-3k in parts into my $9,000 Wrangler.

While I have some knowledge when it comes to turning wrenches, when it comes to anything newer than my '83 pickup, I find that I just can't deal with the complexity. And I also lack a place to work, let alone the kinds of equipment I would need to change out suspension and the like on my own, even for my old pickup that's otherwise a cinch to work on. I also don't have the time lately. In any case, since the car is technically my parents, and they've agreed to help my on the car payments, I am totally cool with the thought of driving a brand new or next to new car as a replacement.

This gibes with what I learned on a story last week. A kid bought an Explorer with 230,000 miles on it and when the transmission failed, he tried to blame a shop that changed the fluid (he claimed they screwed up the filter seal).

It turns out that prior to taking it to that place, he'd taken the vehicle to an actual transmission shop to have it looked at and they told him he had issues with the transmission. We went to that shop and the manager told us it sounded like the front seal failed and, at that point, the transmission is toast.

[wYT=" Sink your money in it, and there you are/The owner of a two thousand dollar thousand dollar car"]Lb4A4q4zYyM[/wYT]

Mazda6.

Anyone know whether Hyundai has a good reputation or not?

I'd stick 7 years or newer, and you're golden. They used to have timing belt problems. To put it mildly. In the same year range, you could easily get 100k+ out of Toyota or Hondas... and 40-60 out of Hyundais. Which is bad on interference engines.

They're almost exclusively chain driven timing systems now.

I never will forget the day it dawned on me that Hyundai and Kia were the only dealerships I'd ever seen in Memphis advertising financing in the service dept. :|

Timing belt + interference engine. That's what killed that fucking Neon.

Weird - I'm over 50 and have never traded in a car after a couple of years for something better. I drive what I have until I have to start getting things fixed (and because I'm a shit mechanic it costs me to pay people) then I give it away or sell it for scrap and buy another new car. If there's a gap between paying it off and buying a new on, that's even better. If I am making two car payments for a while, not so cool.

The one I'm looking at is a brand new Hyundai Elantra. My other top pick for new is a Honda Civic. I can't afford a new Camry or Accord, but fairly new used ones ('10-'11) are more reasonably priced, and the ones I looked at were still under manufacturer warranty due to low mileage. Of course, those all seem to be top picks for thieves, too.

I had a timing belt go out on my 97 Neon. With my 2005 Neon once it got to about 70K miles I took the car in and had it replaced - better on my terms than out in the middle of nowhere.

Test drove the 2013 Hyundai Elantra, a 2011 Toyota Camry, a 2011 Honda Accord, and a 2013 Honda Civic. I've pretty much decided against the Elantra, as compared to all the others, it ran rather loudly at a much higher RPM that makes me skeptical of the advertised MPGs. I tried it both with and without its ECO function turned on. The car seemed to struggle at interstate speed, both to get up to it and to maintain it. I'm somewhat torn between the other three.

The Civic has both a cool factor and MPGs going for it. It also drives very nicely, with a relatively smooth ride and good handling characteristics. However, it's somewhat small, especially since I'd be going from a Taurus to it.

The Camry and Accord are more comparable to the Taurus in terms of size, with the Camry having a slight edge in size. The downside to the Camry is that the cruise control set-up and shifter are kind of weird IMO, but I suppose I could get used to them. It currently has a bit over 40k miles on it. The console ergonomics were nice, and it had a nice smooth ride, too, though it was a little sluggish around turns. Kind of like the Taurus.

The Accord has 20k miles on it and costs more because of it - as much as the brand new Civic. Of course a brand new Accord is even more expensive anyway. The shifter and cruise control were more like those on the Taurus, and the handling was nice and tight, though the ride wasn't quite as smooth as the Camry. The main downside of this one is that while the console was a nice simple design (unlike a newer Ford), it seemed kind of far away from my reach.

The other drawback of the Camry and the Accord, aside from being used, is that both of them get less MPGs than the Civic, though both are still better than the Taurus in that department.

It's going to be kind of a tough decision.

Not really, the Camry is the superior vehicle.

For small car segment, none drive as well as the Mazda3, IMO. And it's being refreshed in a few months.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/07/24/2014-mazda3-officially-rated-at-30-41-mpg-priced-from-16-945/

Better still to not encorporate a fucking rubber timing belt into your engine design.

Anyone happen to have some recommendations on insurance?