Good first car

[Sun Baked]

I wouldn't buy an American car (new or used) unless you are looking at Corvette/Viper. My first car was an '87 Buick Skyhawk and I spent almost as much time driving it as I did fixing it. I know a few owners of more recent American cars and it seems like they haven't changed much until around mid-late 00s.

An older Honda/Toyota would be the best choice. I'd spend $4-5K on the car and keep $2K for repairs/insurance/gas.

My dad was the same way with Fords, but I picked up a Ranger, followed by a Crown Vic and they rarely needed any repairs.

My dad called them pieces of crap, funny thing was they were the only vehicles always running and available to drive when my parents fancy cars broke down with great regularly. And when something did tend to break, it usually took about 20k miles for the part to fail after it started going out.

The Crown Vics, Monte Carlo/Impala and the Malibu variants at Mercury and Buick shouldn't be too bad -- though rather bland on styling. Though Buick tended to do much better on the reliability surveys due to the lack of SUV models.

Personally I'd stick to the Impala and Crown Vic platforms and the companies spent the more time on reliability of those for the police cars ... so a Mercury or Buick on those platforms should easily get you another 100k miles on a 60-70k mile cheap car with low maintenance costs.

Plus the 7k would easily put you in a 2000+ or newer vehicle anyhow, with a mid to mid-late 00s easy to find.

 

[Crawn2003]

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2004 Black Chevy Monte Carlo SS like mine!!

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I wouldn't buy an American car (new or used) unless you are looking at Corvette/Viper. My first car was an '87 Buick Skyhawk and I spent almost as much time driving it as I did fixing it. I know a few owners of more recent American cars and it seems like they haven't changed much until around mid-late 00s.

An older Honda/Toyota would be the best choice. I'd spend $4-5K on the car and keep $2K for repairs/insurance/gas.

Tell you the truth American cars are not that bad. Since the late 90's early 2000's american cars reliability has been on par with the foreign counter parts. Now the image of the domestic cars being unreliable and breaking down all the time is from the crap they put out from mid 90's and before. That image stuck with them even though it is no longer accurate.

As for a car I would say choose used car made in the early 2000's. A car like a civic, Collara, Ford Focus, a Sentra with the 1.8L engine I know are all pretty good cars. Now do not get a Nissan with their 2.5L engine unless it is 2005 or later. It still has some design flaws in it but they at least put a fix for the worse of them. Now my car is a 2004 with that engine and I keep waiting for the butterfly screws to come out and damage the engine.


I do not recomend you get a sporty car at all. They tend to get the better of rookie drivers and can get out of control on them. My car I would not let a rookie driver use it as their car. While it is only a Nissan Sentra Spec V it still has a lot of power and some things that can screw with a rookie driver. It has more power then you would expect and while it handles great in the dry it sucks when it is wet out side.

 

[quagmire]

T

It has more power then you would expect and while it handles great in the dry it sucks when it is wet out side.

Isn't that more due to the tires being crap? I have a Saturn Aura XR and it has a 252 HP/251 lb.ft of torque( at a low 3200 RPM) 3.6 V6. So it is quite sporty( 0-60 in 5.9 seconds). The OEM tires( Goodyear Eagle LS2) were absolute crap. Dry they were fine, but once the road got wet from rain, snow, or ice they couldn't hold traction for their life. Even on a flat road in the rain with not that much throttle input( at the time I only pressed the gas hard enough where it shifted at 2,000 RPM which is grandma's pace ) and the tires still spun. Now I ditched the OEM's and went to Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons and they handled the wet conditions fine. They were much harder to break free and held the road in the corners much better in wet conditions. I have Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Positions on it now( POS F1's only lasted 8000 miles) and same story as the F1's in regards to grip in wet conditions.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Isn't that more due to the tires being crap? I have a Saturn Aura XR and it has a 252 HP/251 lb.ft of torque( at a low 3200 RPM) 3.6 V6. So it is quite sporty( 0-60 in 5.9 seconds). The OEM tires( Goodyear Eagle LS2) were absolute crap. Dry they were fine, but once the road got wet from rain, snow, or ice they couldn't hold traction for their life. Even on a flat road in the rain with not that much throttle input( at the time I only pressed the gas hard enough where it shifted at 2,000 RPM which is grandma's pace ) and the tires still spun. Now I ditched the OEM's and went to Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons and they handled the wet conditions fine. They were much harder to break free and held the road in the corners much better in wet conditions. I have Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Positions on it now( POS F1's only lasted 8000 miles) and same story as the F1's in regards to grip in wet conditions.

No the tires are not crap but it more that they are very wide and very little area to channel water and snow. The tires are summer tires.

Now the car in the dry handles great but in the wet it has hydro planning issues and in the snow well it pretty bad because no were to channel the snow to.

The problems I have are pretty common on any car that runs summer tires for me to get better wet weather traction I would have to give up some of that very sweet dry weather traction. Just it takes some experience to know how the car handles and to have a feel for it.

 

[SteveMobs]

Older mercedes diesel station wagon, that will be your first and last car, it will run forever if you take relatively good care of it.

 

[quagmire]

No the tires are not crap but it more that they are very wide and very little area to channel water and snow. The tires are summer tires.

Now the car in the dry handles great but in the wet it has hydro planning issues and in the snow well it pretty bad because no were to channel the snow to.

The problems I have are pretty common on any car that runs summer tires for me to get better wet weather traction I would have to give up some of that very sweet dry weather traction. Just it takes some experience to know how the car handles and to have a feel for it.

Ah, but even wet? My friend has a Pontiac G8 GT( lucky him) and it rides on Bridgestone Potenza RE050A's(OEM Summer tires). He says they handle the rain perfectly fine. Snow and temps below 45 F they get dicey, but they are fine in the rain.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Ah, but even wet? My friend has a Pontiac G8 GT( lucky him) and it rides on Bridgestone Potenza RE050A's(OEM Summer tires). He says they handle the rain perfectly fine. Snow and temps below 45 F they get dicey, but they are fine in the rain.

I think there is the problem I might run into. In the wet the tires can never get up to temperature because the water cools them off. Normally when it is wet around here it in the 50's. Heavy rain it sucks but it like driving threw puddles.

 

[RawBert]

A 1996 Honda civic coupe.

You can't go wrong with a Civic. The maintenance is minimal.

 

[StruckANerve]

How about a Truck? Find a late 90's Toyota Tacoma with a V6 and 4wd. You can't break these things if you tried and you can have lots of fun in the wilderness.

 

[Reventon]

You can't go wrong with a Civic. The maintenance is minimal.

I agree. They're good cars for the money and hold their value relatively well (if you plan on selling it after a few years).

 

[nick1516]

I got my first car for my 16th birthday in 2008, I got a BMW 2000 328i, I believe those are under $7000 for one in really good shape, but be careful about repairs, I had two windows break in mine that had to be fixed.

 

[quagmire]

How about a Truck? Find a late 90's Toyota Tacoma with a V6 and 4wd. You can't break these things if you tried and you can have lots of fun in the wilderness.

They just break themselves.

But, yeah frame rust is a major issue with that era of Tacoma's.

 

[brendu]

my first car was a 1985 VW Vanagon (the successor to the VW BUS) and it was the greatest car I have ever owned. I would give anything to get one in new condition. you can find some from the early 90's that are still in good condition and I would highly recommend looking into it... you would not regret it.

 

[Fezwick]

I'm partial to Jeeps so that's what I would get as a first vehicle. Big fan of the cherokees and grand cherokees.

 

[Disc Golfer]

You can't go wrong with a Civic. The maintenance is minimal.

Yup. 2 and 4 door, the 96-00 civics are some of the best cars honda has made.

 

[Jaro65]

I'm partial to Jeeps so that's what I would get as a first vehicle. Big fan of the cherokees and grand cherokees.

But are they any reliable? I had a couple of them a few years ago and there seemed to be small issues happening with them on and off. Nothing major, but still having to go to have them serviced was annoying.

 

[RITZFit]

But are they any reliable? I had a couple of them a few years ago and there seemed to be small issues happening with them on and off. Nothing major, but still having to go to have them serviced was annoying.

Most Jeeps I've encountered have been relatively reliable but I've seen some shoddy build quality here and there. We have a 95 Cherokee (bought new in 95). Its 4.0L I6 is BULLETPROOF, however, the car's body isn't so much. Apart from persistent leaks in the driver's area, cheap parts that have been breaking ever since we got it (cargo cover, trim, etc), the driver's door had to be REWELDED back on last year; the damn thing ripped its top hinge clean off...apparently its a common problem w/ XJ jeeps . Overall I gotta say its been a real trooper . anyway, I'd say a Honda Civic would be a good, cheap choice...can take a good beating and still keep chugging (good on gas too haha)

 

[Synchromesh]

Tell you the truth American cars are not that bad. Since the late 90's early 2000's american cars reliability has been on par with the foreign counter parts. Now the image of the domestic cars being unreliable and breaking down all the time is from the crap they put out from mid 90's and before. That image stuck with them even though it is no longer accurate.

My apologies but that's just not true. Case in point: I used to work with a guy who bought a '00 Chevy Venture brand new in 2000. I bought my current 2000 Acura Integra sedan used in 2005. In 2008-09 when I was working with him those cars were roughly the same age and my 'Teg had more miles on it, I don't remember the precise difference but it was somewhere around 20-30K more. We both took good care of our cars where he always went to dealer and I spit at dealers and either fixed stuff myself or went to my mechanic. He is also very aware of tickets and drives rather slowly and at speed limit most of the time. My car is sporty and I do drive it hard here and there. Did I mention mine is GS-R with 8100rpm redline?

So by the time we were carpooling together his car was completely falling apart with several things never working right to the point where the dealer couldn't fix them after several tries. Electrical stuff went bad all the time, other stuff went on occasion too. It got so bad that he would only drive it in town being afraid to be stranded away from home. My car, on the other hand, while isn't absolutely perfect has been quite reliable and so far I spent maybe $200-300 for a few things that weren't directly normal maintenance-related. It still has original shocks and clutch at 120K and going strong. (TTT)

So while our cars were roughly the same age, and mine has more mileage, his car is junk and I would drive mine to CA today without blinking twice. That's the difference between American and Japanese. I have quite a few more of those stories but you get the picture.

 

[Burnsey]

That pretty much does it for this thread.

 

[Jaro65]

That pretty much does it for this thread.

This is an SC400, right? I always liked these. The exhaust system may be just a tiny bit too much, but then again, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It looks great with those rims though and looks to be in a great shape. I really enjoy it when people take care of their equipment! And yours looks really sharp.

Though this would hardly justify as a good first car, right? This is like setting up a date between Barbarella and a teenager.

 

[StruckANerve]

They just break themselves.

But, yeah frame rust is a major issue with that era of Tacoma's.

That's a Tundra. And Toyota backs the trucks with a 15 year warranty/recall coverage if it happens. Engine wise the vehicles are amazing. A freind of mine has a 96 with 350,000 miles and he has never had to do a major repair on the motor.

 

[quagmire]

That's a Tundra. And Toyota backs the trucks with a 15 year warranty/recall coverage if it happens. Engine wise the vehicles are amazing. A freind of mine has a 96 with 350,000 miles and he has never had to do a major repair on the motor.

You sure?

That's a 1996 Tacoma. Side profile and turning signals look the same as my original picture.

But besides the point, Toyota did recall them, but just be weary if the OP does consider one. Take it to a trusted mechanic for him to inspect the frame.

Though I do not think the OP would need a truck anyway.

 

[BenEndeem]

A late '90s to early '00s luxury car probably be a good choice given the original post. The BMW and Lexus suggestions seem to be on the mark.

 

[wvuwhat]

My first car was an 03' Civic EX Coupe. Drove it to 100K (last Spring), lasted me through high school and college without a hiccup. Loved it so much I went ahead and got an 09' Accord EX Coupe. I will probably be driving a Honda for as long as possible. Extremely safe.
My Civic took a deer at 70MPH on the highway and I was able to drive home 80 miles. Took a t-bone at 20MPH from someone who ran a stop sign. And, finally, the straw that broke the camels back was a 65MPH impact from behind (an Explorer), while I was completely stopped at a stop light. So, yeah, it probably saved my life a few times.