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Older car for my mom.

Sutekidane

Sutekidane

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
936
2
My mom is looking to get an older car for herself. She's looking to get basic transportation to go to work, around town, etc.
Here are her preferences:
-Mostly wants a japanese import.
-HIGH reliability
-Good gas mileage
-Low maintenance
-Cheap (probably under $6,000)

He's looking at honda civics and toyota corollas right now. Any recommendations guys? She really doesn't want to be spending a whole lot of money on repairs. Also, how many miles is too many? is 100k+ ok on a 1998 Civic?

Thanks in advance! :-D
 
174,000 miles on my Tacoma SR5V6 4X4

Both your choices are great but it all depends on how well they were maintained.

At that mileage you may need to replace the timing belt if it was never done on schedule.

If you have to deal with snow, front wheel drive is better.

Just out of curiosity, I would contact both your local Honda and Toyota dealers
and ask them the cost for their major sceduled services above 60K miles.
 
I can recommend a Toyota Corolla for high reliability. A Camry would probably be high up there too. My Corolla has around 130K miles and it still works great. Just get it serviced regularly (every ___ miles) and it'll be fine, you don't have to do anything else to it.

I'm waiting for a nice used Yaris to come along. :D
 
Toyota Corolla
Nissan Pulsar
Peugeot 306
Ford Laser
Holden Astra
Honda Civic

The list goes on....
 
I personally have had horrible luck with Toyotas, especially Corollas. I'd recommend a Honda, hands down. In Japan, Toyota has the same reputation GM has here (not so good).

Also, personally, the Corollas sit very low to the ground, and I'm a big guy, so it is very very hard for me to get in and out of the car. I like cars where I don't have to move my seat all the way back before I get in.

The best way to find a good car for your mom is for her to test drive the car.
 
Hondas and Mercedes Benz

My wife drives a 198K Honda that is good. I drive a 84 MB 300 Diesel with 227K and my daughter drives a 83 240D with 200K miles. Those are all great cars. The MB are all good for 500K each before major troubles. Diesel is a little more than regular unleaded but the benefits are good. I get over 30MPG on the highway and my daughter does a little better than I do. The 240 has a smaller engine. If your mom lives in extremely cold weather the diesels could be annoying. Another benefit of diesel is opening the door to biodiesel and waste vegetable oil. But I don't think your mom would like the WVO route.
 
If you buy a car from around 1998, don't get a Corolla. There was a period where they weren't so hot, and I think 1998 (probably between 1994-1998 or so) was in that time range, while the Civics back then were fantastic.
 
extraextra said:
What are the American counterparts of these cars? (if you know) Except for Peugeot and Holden, we don't have those here at all.
Click to expand...

Well, Holden is an Aussie brand under the GM umbrella, the Astra is sold here under the Holden badge but I think it's originally an Opel or Vauxhall.

The Pulsar has been replaced by the Tiida here, it's basically Nissan's corolla-competitor. Same with the Laser, it's an old Ford model that was replaced here with the Focus a while back. They're both the same sort of size.

What Holdens do you have over there? I know we shipped the Monaro over there for you guys to butcher the styling and call it a Pontiac GTO :p
 
Any tips for looking at older cars? Like things we should look out for?

Also, some of the cars we've seen for sale (civics and corollas) have upwards of 150k miles... it just sounds like so much to me.
 
The list of what to look for is almost endless. You would do well to decide what kind of car you might want then look for the best model of that type. Low miles, no rust, written repair history, how many owners, how the car drives and handles and the list goes on. When you know what kind of car you want it is easier to know what to look for. When I decided I wanted a 300D MB it was easy to look for the lowest mileage car I could find that was no older than 1985 . Then I could narrow the process down quite a bit.
 
Sutekidane said:
Here are her preferences:
-Mostly wants a japanese import.
-HIGH reliability
-Good gas mileage
-Low maintenance
-Cheap (probably under $6,000)

He's looking at honda civics and toyota corollas right now. Any recommendations guys?
Click to expand...
I doubt you really mean import. You want a car that was manufactured for America by a Japanese owned company, like Honda or Toyota. I just thought that sounded a bit misleading. :) Sometimes the cars are made in Japan, but they're also made in the US and Canada too I've heard.

Honda is definitely one of the top picks, but I've found Toyota's to be better values. Honda's tend to have high resale values. I'd recommend a Corolla or Camry depending on how big she needs it.

Sutekidane said:
Any tips for looking at older cars? Like things we should look out for?

Also, some of the cars we've seen for sale (civics and corollas) have upwards of 150k miles... it just sounds like so much to me.
Click to expand...
150k+ sounds like too much to me as well. Try to shoot for under 100k, but you might have to settle for a little more for under $6k (I don't know what the car market is like in FL though). If it was well taken care of it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Buy from a dealer if possible, they will have performed any recall maintenance and made sure things are up to spec. Definitely run a CARFAX report on it (some dealers offer these free). Especially in Flordia, you'd probably want to watch out for cars that have been flooded out in hurricanes, etc.
 
Your mom would like one of these I'm sure. ;)

buick_lesabre_manu_4dr_05_014.jpg
 
Honda Civic Honda Civic Honda Civic.
Honda Accord. Honda Accord. Honda Accord.
Toyota Corolla. Maybe.
 
I would say a Kia Rio, since you can get them for cheap with 30-60k miles.

Also some of the new Daewoos (aka Chevy Aveos) due to the deals on the new cars.
 
Sun Baked said:
I would say a Kia Rio, since you can get them for cheap with 30-60k miles.
Click to expand...

I was thinking this too (or an older accent) since I love Korean cars, but I find that they don't hold up to a lot of abuse well. Lots of torn up Rios and Accents out there.
 
Sutekidane said:
I was thinking this too (or an older accent) since I love Korean cars, but I find that they don't hold up to a lot of abuse well. Lots of torn up Rios and Accents out there.
Click to expand...
But you can probably find a 3-4 year old Rio with 50-60k miles for 5-6k at a dealer.

Which generally means some vehicles that aren't too thrashed.
 
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