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Ok so my situation is like this: I want to spend between $5000-$7000. I would prefer not to go over this price because I will have a note if I do.

I need to able to drive the car out of town occasionally so I want it to be reliable, but I honestly don't even know where to begin searching or what cars I should consider focusing on.

Any advice?

My best friend's father owns a car shop, and she got a used car and later a new, shiny, white one.. She always liked the really s***** ones that had the facing seats in the back. I heard, they were to make student-priced and equipped cars, as well. I always wanted a Neon sports car, but lately I had wanted a Jaguar. I didn't have a car in college. I was going to use a bus, but it isn't that reliable. I don't really have anything.

Originally posted by chithappens
Ok so my situation is like this: I want to spend between $5000-$7000. I would prefer not to go over this price because I will have a note if I do.

I need to able to drive the car out of town occasionally so I want it to be reliable, but I honestly don't even know where to begin searching or what cars I should consider focusing on.

Any advice?

I'd like to buy a fuel cell motorcycle...but alas, they don't have one.

Instead, buy a nice motorcycle.

Here's a nice website with plenty of reviews on motorcycles. It even has many manufacturers to sift through if you'd like.

http://www.motorcycle.com/

I'd much rather read several reviews, customer and alike, on a product before I purchase it. So, I give you a thumbs up for starting this thread. It is always better to be safe than sorry. You don't want to shit out $1500 after only having your car for 3 years (assuming the warranty is out.)

You can never go wrong with a Honda Civic for cheap and reliable. My first car was an 02 Mazda Protege, which I think is in that price range now. Great little car.

Consumer Reports has a list of recommended used cars listed by price range.

Yeah, for 5-7K, a Civic would be the best bet. If not, Corolla, Sentra or an MX6 would also be other great buys.

Factor in the car's mpg, considering gas isn't going to drop by any substantial amount.

I definately avoid American for that price range, I'll also avoid German, unless you do decide go get into the 10K+ range

Well I spent three hours looking in car lots and was shocked to find that dealerships from the makers almost never had the price on the car. The salesman wanted me to walk around in the hot ass sun and come back to him so he could tell me the price on the car, but this happened in four lots! Cars apparently are not selling and so they decided not to put any prices up. But then peep this:

GM Stock falls to lowest since 1954

GM is not even introducing the 2009 SUVs because they have too many 2008s in stock.

Anyway I keep seeing Dodge's for cheap. A 2004 Dodge Sebring for $5950 and a 2002 Dodge Chrysler for $5950. A few Altimas (99, 2001) came up around $8000.

I like the idea of a Honda but in a dealership, they just cost way too much.

Originally posted by chithappens

GM is not even introducing the 2009 SUVs because they have too many 2008s in stock.


This makes me so happy