Another car buying thread (in spite of the others)

For us it was simply that the Accord "felt" better than the Camry. The Camry seemed to have a little more room, less eye appeal, a little larger trunk and a tighter turn radius. The Accord looked better, felt tighter in turns (was less sluggish), had more options and was cheaper.

So, yeah. It's just personal preference when you're talking about the best cars on the market.

From Consumer Reports:

 

Haven't really looked at any Hyundais, but checked out the Elantra online. The price comparison between that and a Civic don't seem to far apart, but that's also with the most basic model of Civic vs. the full spectrum of Elantra (http://www.cars.com/go/compare/modelCompare.jsp?myids=10584,10706)

Also, I'm not sure how this will change the price, but I'm looking for an automatic.

 

Get a CR subscription, or at least buy their new car pricing guide. You can't beat that information. They tell you everything from the base price to options prices to holdback cash (you NEED to know about that).

You WILL win at car buying with all the information they provide.

 

do yourself a favor and test drive an accord.

 

My extended family owns a Civic, an Accord and an Odyssey minivan.

Nary a complaint from any of the family members about their respective rides — all three owners love their cars.

 

I drove four different American cars before I finally gave it up and bought foreign. I bought myself a 2008 Nissan Sentra and my wife a 2009 Nissan Versa back in August. We both love our cars big-time. Good gas mileage, ride perfect and are great cars for what we need.

Never lease. Never pay close to what is plastered on the window. Don't let them try to explain to you their invoice price. It's all a bunch of crap. Don't tell the salesman how much you want your payments to be, don't tell them you have a down payment and never tell them how much you owe on your trade. Walk in and tell them to give you the absolute lowest price on their car, and the absolute highest price on yours. You may not even want to tell them you're trading anything in. You'll probably get a better price that way. Oh, and go to the dealership at the end of the month -- like the 28th-30th. Those jokers have to sell 10 cars a month, and if they've only sold seven or eight by the 28th, they get desperate, especially in this economy.

The Prius and the Civic are going to be the most expensive of the ones you listed. The Civic's probably the best choice, if you don't want to look at Nissans.

I don't know if you're a recent college graduate, but if you are, check into Nissan's college grad program. All you have to do is give them a copy of your degree and they give you an extra $500 rebate and Tier 1 financing through Nissan on top of that. I did it for my wife and she got 5.79 APR on a 60-month loan on a 2009 car. Her payments are under $300 a month for a car with 16K on the sticker.

 

Interest rates are usually higher on used cars than on new, which probably explains the 11 percent. You might've gotten into a new car for 8 or 9 percent.

 

I was just in your situation, BRoth. I was looking at all the same cars, too. Corolla's a great car, slightly better gas mileage and a tad cheaper than the Civic. So I had been looking around at Corollas until I found a really good deal on a used Prius. Shop online, shop in lots, shop EVERYWHERE and never tell them when you're looking to make a final decision. My bank got me a great financing (5%) for someone who has good (but little) credit built up. Don't remember who said it, but I echo the sentiments of buying one with a few thousand miles on it vs. buying new. You save a few thousand doing that.

 

As much as I hear about Consumer Reports, there's no substitute for a subscription to Car and Driver if you're serious about vehicles. CR does a lot of items, but C/D does only vehicles and no one does it better. And no, I don't work for Hachette Filipacchi.

To answer BRoth's post, welcome to the import world. I'll leave that at that before starting the inevitable domestic/import spitfest.

Let's see ... it's still a rule of thumb that among Honda, Toyota and Nissan, the consumer can't lose:
Honda Fit
Honda Civic
Nissan Versa
Nissan Sentra
Toyota Prius
Toyota Corolla

IMO, until the government starts offering better tax breaks, no hybrids - of course, many of you may disagree and understandably so. But I wouldn't consider a hybrid now, so no Prius.

I've never been in a Versa, but Nissan usually knows how to put a couple extra horsepower in its vehicles and usually wins the "fun to drive" category. Honda usually has the best ergonomics, and Toyota is as close to a mechanic's dream as it gets because it's nearly bulletproof and the manufacturer doesn't try to cram parts in overly tight spaces.

My final three would come down to the Corolla, Civic and Fit. The first two have been honed time and again for better than 25 years. The Fit gets in here because it has been a Car and Driver 10Best in each of the last two years and considering it's on the list over vehicles costing three, even four, times as much, that's remarkable.

From there, it's really a matter of personal preference. One model may do something for you that another fails to accomplish (welcome to humanity and our quirks). The Fit will be the tightest of the three without a doubt, but has been said to be roomy for the driver and will get the best gasoline mileage. The Corollas are as bulletproof as they come. The beauty of the Civic - if one chooses to see it - is it can be bought as a fuel-economy run champion, and Honda has some beefier versions with surprising power numbers that don't sacrifice that much gasoline mileage.

That's all I got. Good luck.

 

The Misses has an '01 Accord which I do a lot of driving with. I like it - especially the acceleration compared to my old Sable - but as weird as it might sound, I think I'd like to find something smaller, which is why I want to look into the Civic, Versa, etc.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I've spent some real QT on some car sites today and hopefully will be getting out soon to do some test drives. Please throw out other ideas as they come.

 

Buyer beware on the foreign autos.

Engine blew in my Japanese sedan. Mechanic I trust tried to find replacement engine. Told me it would cost more than $3,000.

"I could fix this for about half that if this was a Chevy," he told me.

So, yeah, the Japanese autos are more reliable, last a long time, etc. But when you do run into a major problem, be prepared to open your wallet.

 

Depends on where you go, podunk. I've never spent much on repairs for my (old) Nissan or my (current) Toyota. Not that, as you said, I've had to make too many. But when I do, it's always been at similar prices as I would have paid for American parts.