hello, me, my mum and dad are moving over to winnipeg and i was just wondering, being 18, what is the best car to get to be good in the winter and reliable but not over the top on price??

How much is "not over the top"?


What would you get in the UK? Driving in Canada is pretty much the same once the roads have been cleared. Spend your money on good winter tires and the vehicle doesnt really matter.

I drove a 4WD Subaru for years, but now its a Honda Civic, no traction control or stability, but with decent tires and common sense you still get aroung OK.

On a budget you are probably looking at cars 5+ years old, so I would plump for a Honda or Toyota over the domestic label products, but when they do go wrong the parts will cost you more. Dont discount all the domestics brands though, there are bargains to be had. We did pretty well with our old Mazda Protege...not sure if thats technically an import or a domestic (Ford own(ed) Mazda)

www.Canadiandriver.com offers pretty good used car reviews to familiarise yourself with whats out there and what likely problems they may have.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/usedcars

Obviously rear wheel drive with a lot of power (Mustang, Camaro etc) are going to cause problems, but most newer RWD vehicles (like the larger Chryslers, and german luxomobiles) have traction control to limit the worst effects in marginal traction....

Has to be this, can't you see your mom in this on Winnipeg roads?

Mazda3

i've got mazda 3, lovely car

Don't bash on the door...




All cars are good for the winter as long as you get a set of winter tires. There is no such thing as all season, It's really 3 season. Plus really snows tires. I would recommend that you get a Sunfire or Cavalier. Silly cheap to buy. millions of them on the road very easy and cheap to fix.

Those wheel trims (Incredible Hulk?) are just totally OTT.

I think you forgot the most important feature for a car in Canada......yep,you guessed it....a block heater

Seriously, you would recommend a Sunfire/Cavalier...they are cheap for a reason. Everybody I know who owns one is sheepish to admit it and never have anything good to say about them

The Mask innit (at least according to the link url )

Cavaliers tend to rust.

I wouldn't get a domestic car because the spares are cheap - I'd get a Japanese one that doesn't break down in the first place.

Mazdas are a little cheaper than Toyotas or Hondas, built in Japan and of good quality. The Mazda3 is based on the same platform as the Euro Ford Focus (Mark II) so drives really nicely too.

OH is thrilled to bits with hers...

Oh and what's really, really necessary is a remote starter for the winter months

In Southern part of Ontario is not necessary...AB,MB, Sas, perhaps


Oh they not great cars. But he is 18 and they are mixed bag in terms of reliability and they stupid cheap to find OK ones and it won't matter if he bashes a bit as this is first winter. The best years are 2003 onwards.

I would love to say buy a Toyota. But I would imagine he won't have that much cash in the first place and he would get Toyota with silly high millage. So for around 2200-3300 should be able to find an OK cav/sun with less than 100-150 clicks on the clock around 2001 upwards with plenty of service records, so as to make sure it it's not a Friday car.....I don't recommend used Honda because more than likely will be driven very hard and tend to be drive by young males at high speed.....Mazda Protege are good but again, the problem is you are going to be looking at 12-15 year old car now that's a lot of winters..I'm only go by what he said which was he wanted a silly cheap car. He gave no indication of budget...these cars are silly cheap....and they better than a scary Neon...

We arrived in February when the weather was quite bad and we had a PT Cruiser as a hire car, we then bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee which is 4x4, you don't necessarily need a 4x4 but it can be handy to have, but as long as you have good winter tyres any car will be sufficient. We found that the little PT Cruiser did it's job well for a fwd car. Just don't get rwd...we hired an Ikea van that was rwd and it was just plain scary in the snow, sliding everywhere...you don't really wanna have to weigh down the back end of your car everytime you head out in the snow.

There's a decent selection of affordable cars here, you'd definately be able to find something a good bit under $6k, I'm guessing you don't wanna spend anymore than that because then you're looking at financing which you probably won't be able to get straight away.

Domestic cars will be a good bit cheaper, as will their parts and part availability will be easier. Imports will be a little more expensive (as expected). For some reason 12 year old Volvo 850s (which we had back home) are selling around $7k!

Whatever you do before you come here get letters as proof of no claims/no accidents from your UK insurance companies and some of them won't touch you without this. Insurance is a little different here too, we were told that basically we could drive any car we wanted, V8's included and the insurance would be the same price, it only gets expensive when you start looking at full insurance covers.

To get an idea of prices and varieties of cars check Kijiji and Autotrader.ca, etc.

I don't think we can recommend a vehicle until we know what you drive in the UK.

Cavaliers are 10 a penny, can be done up as much or as little as you like, but you can't presume every 18 year old is a boy racer.

What would you like? I would recommend a half ton, extended cab 4wd GMC Sierra. Gets you and your mates in and you can plough through the rhubarb in winter (ahem don't get a brand new one if you're dong that!!!)

Stick a leveling kit on with a 2" lift, some decent rims, rocker panel kit, chrome handle trims etc (you really need a black one for it to look good!) and away you go chip it to get more power and better fuel economy too.

or there's the VW Beetle convertible in a nice pastel shade.

mmm the sort of person that drives those I would think is not afraid to show their feminine side (or have the phrase "yes dear" off to a tee when the missus suggests what the next car should be???)