Car buying advice

[Thomas Veil]

In a world of bland, cookie-cutter cars (yes, i'm looking at you too, Toyota and Honda), Chrysler has for years now had the best, most distinctive-looking lineup, to my mind. So it's feeling a bit surreal to read so many people panning the cars based on their looks. I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I'm kind of surprised by the overkill.

Anyway, to answer the OP: I'd take the Caliber.

 

[iJohnHenry]

Ahem, buy N.A. you say??

https://www.kiajobsingeorgia.com/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/video-search/m/22136383/kia-to-open-new-georgia-plant.htm

 

[Hrududu]

American cars last about 50K miles before needing new engines and transmissions. Japanese cars last around 300K miles before needing new engines or transmissions.

So basically you can buy 6 American cars or 1 Japanese car to get to 300K miles. What would you choose

50k miles before needing a new engine?? Japanese cars last 300k?? You're definitely talking outta your ass here pal, because thats the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Have you ever owned a car? ANY car that is properly maintained will last well over 150k miles on one engine. If you drive like hell, and don't do proper maintenance, even the best built motors will fail prematurely. I have driven GM cars that lasted well over 200k miles, and watch people drive Hondas and Toyotas that fell apart or rusted into nothing by the time they reached 120k. All this stuff about American cars not lasting as long is pure BS. Yes, the US made some pretty poor cars in the early 80's, but we've come a LONG way since then. Today American cars are just as reliable as anything you'll get out of Europe or Japan. Don't try and fill people's heads with false information if you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

 

[twoodcc]

i have never bought an automatic. so that should tell you my vote

 

[yg17]

50k miles before needing a new engine?? Japanese cars last 300k?? You're definitely talking outta your ass here pal, because thats the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Have you ever owned a car? ANY car that is properly maintained will last well over 150k miles on one engine. If you drive like hell, and don't do proper maintenance, even the best built motors will fail prematurely. I have driven GM cars that lasted well over 200k miles, and watch people drive Hondas and Toyotas that fell apart or rusted into nothing by the time they reached 120k. All this stuff about American cars not lasting as long is pure BS. Yes, the US made some pretty poor cars in the early 80's, but we've come a LONG way since then. Today American cars are just as reliable as anything you'll get out of Europe or Japan. Don't try and fill people's heads with false information if you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

No American car my family has ever owned has made it past 50,000 miles without needing some sort of major repair. My mom's 2004 Hyundai Sonata is coming up on 60,000 miles soon and it has never been in the shop except for regular maintenance. My dad recently traded in his Ford Focus because at just 80,000 miles, not because he wanted to upgrade, but because the car was barely running and the repair estimate was about 2 times what the car was worth, so he decided to get rid of that piece of ****.

Based off those experiences, I would never, ever consider an American car. And spending 3 weeks with a 2009 Pontiac G6 rental after I was in an accident didn't change my mind on that at all. If the G6 is the best GM can do, no wonder they're going down the toilet.

 

[quagmire]

No American car my family has ever owned has made it past 50,000 miles without needing some sort of major repair. My mom's 2004 Hyundai Sonata is coming up on 60,000 miles soon and it has never been in the shop except for regular maintenance. My dad recently traded in his Ford Focus because at just 80,000 miles, not because he wanted to upgrade, but because the car was barely running and the repair estimate was about 2 times what the car was worth, so he decided to get rid of that piece of ****.

Based off those experiences, I would never, ever consider an American car. And spending 3 weeks with a 2009 Pontiac G6 rental after I was in an accident didn't change my mind on that at all. If the G6 is the best GM can do, no wonder they're going down the toilet.

The G6 isn't, the CTS/-V is. . But, for mainstream vehicles the new Malibu is pretty good.

 

[neiltc13]

No American car my family has ever owned has made it past 50,000 miles without needing some sort of major repair. My mom's 2004 Hyundai Sonata is coming up on 60,000 miles soon and it has never been in the shop except for regular maintenance. My dad recently traded in his Ford Focus because at just 80,000 miles, not because he wanted to upgrade, but because the car was barely running and the repair estimate was about 2 times what the car was worth, so he decided to get rid of that piece of ****.

Based off those experiences, I would never, ever consider an American car. And spending 3 weeks with a 2009 Pontiac G6 rental after I was in an accident didn't change my mind on that at all. If the G6 is the best GM can do, no wonder they're going down the toilet.

Hyundai is not a Japanese company.

 

[waloshin]

Hyundai is not a Japanese company.

Yes, its from South Korea.

 

[yg17]

Hyundai is not a Japanese company.

I know that. I was just comparing American cars to their foreign competition

 

[waloshin]

How to buy a new foreign car... when

How to buy a new foreign car, when all you have is the domestic brand in your city? All we have is a Dodge, Ford, GM dealership. I would love to buy a foreign car , but the nearest dealerships are 2 hours away. How would maintenance get done, oil changes, wheel alignments, recalls?

Such as the Volkswagen Rabbit.

 

[neiltc13]

Well unless I want an Aston Martin or a Lotus, everything is foreign. I also don't live in a city, but there are dealers for Fiat, Ford, Vauxhall, Skoda, Saab, Renault, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, BMW, Toyota and Honda in my local area.

How I would get maintenance done is to take the car to a mechanic. You don't need someone working for the company that makes your car to service it, provided they are qualified.

The Office of Fair Trading made sure that all new cars sold no longer have clauses in their warranties saying that you must have it serviced at a dealer. See here for more.

 

[heehee]

Oil change and wheel alignments can be done at your local area, it won't void your warranty. Unless you buy a car with scheduled service included for 3-4 years, I don't see why you would want to go back to the dealership for service. A Honda dealership is 5 minutes from my house and I've never went back for service unless for warranty work.

 

[Sun Baked]

Yep local.

And VW, BMW, and Honda most likely popular enough in your area and will tend to have a local independent shop dedicated to the brands that are likely better than the dealer for normal repairs and maintenance.

Unless you live in a redneck backwoods where everyone drives big dual wheel trucks or tractors.

---

However if there isn't a independent shop for those durn foreign brands, owning one likely will be a big PIA. And sticking with something like a Ford Fusion wouldn't be too painful. Unless you really want a hatchback.

 

[ErikCLDR]

Honestly car that has to be serviced 2 hours away does not sound very convenient. European cars tend to be more sophisticated than American ones and some regular mechanics won't touch them. Oil changes, wheel alignments, and tires (although some cars do have special tire procedures such as the MKIII Range Rover) can be done anywhere. You should check over the warranties to see what service voids it though.

Imagine if you needed your car towed- it would be extremely expensive. If you drove it, you'd probably need to take a day off from work. Sounds very impractical to me.

 

[waloshin]

Well unless I want an Aston Martin or a Lotus, everything is foreign. I also don't live in a city, but there are dealers for Fiat, Ford, Vauxhall, Skoda, Saab, Renault, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, BMW, Toyota and Honda in my local area.

How I would get maintenance done is to take the car to a mechanic. You don't need someone working for the company that makes your car to service it, provided they are qualified.

The Office of Fair Trading made sure that all new cars sold no longer have clauses in their warranties saying that you must have it serviced at a dealer. See here for more.

So even warranty work such as if the starter went, it wouldn't void he warranty and I wouldn't have to pay for it o get done?

 

[mkrishnan]

Honestly car that has to be serviced 2 hours away does not sound very convenient.

And if you're (the OP, that is, with the clarification that the desired car is a Rabbit) in a place in the US or Canada where there is no Volkswagen dealership for two hours, that's really, really rural. I can't think of many places I've even been in the US that are that rural.

If you're going to buy one, because you really have your heart set on a VW, get an older used one (say, 3-6 years old), and ask around in advance at smaller / independent auto mechanics to see if they'll service it. That way, you won't need to actually go to a dealership (and there are at least some independents who deal with VW... often there's a cottage industry for people who want to live in the middle of nowhere, USA, and drive a European car anyway). Buying a new one sounds like a bad idea.

You might alternately seriously consider a car that was designed in Europe by one of the American automakers... right now, of those, the Saturn-rebranded Opel Astra is probably the most palatable.

 

[yg17]

And if you're (the OP, that is, with the clarification that the desired car is a Rabbit) in a place in the US or Canada where there is no Volkswagen dealership for two hours, that's really, really rural. I can't think of many places I've even been in the US that are that rural.

Rolla, Missouri. It's about 1.5-2 hours away from St. Louis, depending on how fast you drive. I lived in Rolla for 4 years while in college, for 3 of the years I had a Hyundai and for the last year I had a VW, and in both cases, the nearest dealer to me was in St. Louis. A Hyundai dealer eventually opened up in Jefferson City (about 75 minutes away) but the nearest VW dealer is still about 2 hours away.

I never found it to be much of an inconvenience for 2 reasons:
1) Neither car ever had a major problem that needed repair. The only problems I had was a power window motor in the Hyundai went out and the Sirius radio tuner in my VW went out, so these were not major problems and could wait until it was convenient for me to make the drive.
2) My parents still lived in St. Louis, so I could head up there Friday night after class, stay at their place, eat a real, home cooked meal and not the crap I cook, and take my car in on Saturday, enjoy some more real food Saturday night, and head back to Rolla Sunday night.

I don't know how difficult it would be to have your car towed to the dealer if something major went wrong (and it was under warranty). I'm sure there's a mileage limit to the free towing roadside assistance offers. Plus, having family up there helped, I was never waking up at 5 AM to make an 8 AM service appointment or anything like that.

Unless you live in a redneck backwoods where everyone drives big dual wheel trucks or tractors.

You just described about 98% of Rolla's population There was no shop in town that I would be willing to let fill the gas tank on my GTI, much less do any work on it. Maybe it's just me being picky...

 

[waloshin]

2008 volkswagen Jetta/ Rabbit vs Dodge Caliber SXT?

- What is the real world mileage of the VW Rabbit/Jetta (2.5L 5 cylinder / manual vs the 1.8L 5 speed Caliber?

 

[yg17]

2008 volkswagen Jetta/ Rabbit vs Dodge Caliber SXT?

- What is the real world mileage of the VW Rabbit/Jetta (2.5L 5 cylinder / manual vs the 1.8L 5 speed Caliber?

I have no idea on the Rabbit, but on my 2009 GTI manual, the EPA rating is 31 MPG highway and I tend to get around 34. The Rabbit may also be about 3 MPG higher than the EPA rating, but I have no idea for sure.

 

[ErikCLDR]

My dad owned Three chevy suburbans, he kept each one to about 160k miles. Our friends bought our last one (1999) and they have over 230k. Original engines, original trannys. No of them ever needed a major overhaul.

 

[waloshin]

* Lets debate this*

2008 VW Jetta/Rabit
VS
2008 Dodge Caliber

Buyback Jetta/Rabbit: 20,000 cdn 21/29 mpg
Buyback Caliber: 18,000 SXT 1.8L 5 Speed 29/35 mpg

- Interior Quality
- Gas mileage
- Ownership costs
- Reliability
(The Dodge Calibers engines should be fine as their world engines. (Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai)
- Looks

 

[Prof.]

American cars last about 50K miles before needing new engines and transmissions. Japanese cars last around 300K miles before needing new engines or transmissions.

So basically you can buy 6 American cars or 1 Japanese car to get to 300K miles. What would you choose

idk about that. My dads Chevy Suburban has 200,000 miles on it and still has the original trans and engine.

 

[mkrishnan]

(The Dodge Calibers engines should be fine as their world engines. (Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai)

In other words, at least one of those companies (i.e. Hyundai) can even loosely be described as competent in engineering? Mitsubishi is ideally suited for partnership with Chrysler -- they are as incompetent as Chrysler is.

But otherwise, I'd say that the Jetta wins on interior quality and looks. The Caliber probably wins on gas mileage in the real world as well as on paper, although one could certainly get the TDI Jetta (I want one, which makes me biased, however), in which case it would be a far better car in terms of fuel economy.

 

[yg17]

In other words, at least one of those companies (i.e. Hyundai) can even loosely be described as competent in engineering? Mitsubishi is ideally suited for partnership with Chrysler -- they are as incompetent as Chrysler is.

But otherwise, I'd say that the Jetta wins on interior quality and looks. The Caliber probably wins on gas mileage in the real world as well as on paper, although one could certainly get the TDI Jetta (I want one, which makes me biased, however), in which case it would be a far better car in terms of fuel economy.

Ditto on the interior quality. The interior on my GTI is top notch, and it's the same interior as the Jetta/Rabbit. I don't see how any car within the price range could beat it, and if everything I have heard about Chrysler interiors is true, then there's no way it would be nearly as good as the VW.

 

[brax.j]

2008 VW Jetta/Rabit
VS
2008 Dodge Caliber

Buyback Jetta/Rabbit: 20,000 cdn 21/29 mpg
Buyback Caliber: 18,000 SXT 1.8L 5 Speed 29/35 mpg

- Interior Quality
- Gas mileage
- Ownership costs
- Reliability
(The Dodge Calibers engines should be fine as their world engines. (Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai)
- Looks

I just bought a Jetta TDI for the gas milage and it is one of the nicest $25,000 and under cars I have seen. I also bought a Nissan GTR in Feb. and I think the Jetta's interior is on par if not nicer and I much prefer the Jetta's exterior looks. The GTR is much more fun to drive than Jetta but the Jetta is still quite enjoyable I know nothing about Caliber but from the pictures I just found of it the Jetta is far better looking.