Anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably priced European-sized car (i.e. not twenty feet long, as even my girlfriend's Buick feels big to me!) that is reliable and will handle crappy, snow-covered Saskatoon roads well?

Talking to people here and looking in 'consumer reports'-type magazines, so far I've been thinking of either a Honda Civic, Subara Impreza (non-turbo version), or just buying something really cheap and crap for a couple of years until I get used to driving here so I won't care too much if I break it . The Civic looks fine except it's not a hatchback and only front wheel drive, the Impreza is more expensive, but it's got AWD and a hatchback... on the other hand, it has a lot more fancy stuff to go wrong, burns more fuel, was redesigned this year and might have teething problems, and the reliability ratings seem lower than Honda. But having had someone almost slide into us a couple of weeks ago when their brakes locked up on the snow, AWD to help maneuver out of the way seems like a good thing to have and there don't seem to be many other cars which do.

In England my policy was that if all else failed I just bought a cheap, clapped-out Escort to drive for a year or two, but that doesn't really work when you want something that won't strand you in the middle of a snow-bank at -40 .

And yes, having read the discussions here I probably will put winter tires on it if I can afford a second set of wheels for the winter .

I've got a PT Cruiser that is doing great in the snow, has loads of luggage room and is fantastic on fuel and you can pick them up at pretty reasonable prices.

Mazda are doing 0% apr at the moment, I've got a Mazda 3 and love it.

Yeah, I noticed the PT Cruisers were pretty cheap; I've never been sure about the styling though... every time I see one I find it grows on me, but I'm not convinced I could drive one yet .

I've just been reading about the Suzuki SX4 hatchback, which also has 4WD and is smaller and significantly cheaper than the Subaru. I guess I'll be adding that one to the list of cars to try out.

How does it do on snowy roads? The Mazda 3 seemed to be one of the main competitors to the Civic and Impreza, but I haven't driven a Mazda since I learnt to drive in one years ago...

I had a Mazda 3GT (the hatch version) for a while over here and was very pleased with it. Fuel consumption wasn't as good as I'd expected (5spd manual), but I did drive it in erm a spirited fashion - it handles quite nicely and the build quality was good.

I didn't bother putting winter tires on as I was planning on changing it last Jan, so didn't want the expense. On the standard lowish profile tires it was lousy in snow, but I see plenty driving around day to day with winter tires on and they seem to cope perfectly well around the hills of Kamloops.

The Mazda is great, build quality is excellent and a full tank costs me $45 and lasts 2 weeks.
As long as you get a decent set of snow tyres you can pretty much go anywhere around here. I went up a snowy mountain road to our nearest ski resort last weekend and it was fine.

If you want a really basic Domestic car, do a search for a Chevrolet Aveo. My Wife has a 1.6 LT Saloon (Sedan) which is basically a badged up Suzuki Swift. It's got the basics, air con, ABS, CD Player etc and for $13,500 OTR we certainly cannot complain. $35 to fill up and does about 30 ish MPG.

AWD is nice, but not essential.

http://www.autonation.com

Check U.S Prices, very easy to buy there, Government has a course, all forms can be printed off web, we will be buying when we visit Florida.

Thanks for the suggestions; we went out test-driving today and now we're basically trying to decide between the Impreza and SX4. The Impreza was better on icy, snow-covered gravel roads, but the SX4 has more features for less money and still handled snow a lot better than the average FWD would... worth a look for anyone who wants a European-sized car that handles snow well and gets decent fuel economy.

If you're considering the Impreza, you should also add the Honda CR-V, a second hand quattro Audi A4 wagon, or a 4Motion VW Jetta or second hand Passat.

Loaded R32 4motion Golf. This thing would totally pwn the locals:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RARE-...QQcmdZViewItem

Loaded Passat 4motion wagon:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/05-PA...QQcmdZViewItem

This one might suck the juice a bit, but it would also rock your world.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VW-PA...QQcmdZViewItem

thanks,
Andrew

Yeah, my ex-landlord had a Passat that he really liked, but I don't think it was a four liter .

Volkswagen have really low reliability ratings in some of the reviews I looked at; I guess because the American cars are made in Mexico rather than Germany?

Only the New Beetle and Jetta are made in Mexico. The Passat, Golf, and everything else is made in Germany, Hungary, Spain, and South Africa.

The problem with reliability relates to a dark period in 1999-2001 where VW bought in a penny pinching bean counter to reduce the cost of manufacturing. For example, they used plastic window regulators which would cost like $2 to make instead of steel ones which may have cost $3. In the end, most of them broke, costing around $700 window repairs. They stopped doing that, but you're right, they still have a woeful reputation due to that period.

The bits which are most likely to break are not from Mexico, but parts suppliers from the Fatherland:

The window regulators affected all VW models all over the world. It's not clear where they were made, but it's certainly not Mexico. There's a silent 7 year recall program on these parts, and they should be replaced already.

1.8t Turbo engines had failed coil packs from Bosch. All of these should have been replaced under recall by now.

1.8t turbo engines have a bypass valve made from plastic. They replaced it with a OEM derived version of a Porsche valve. All of these should have been replaced by now as the previous valves are universally faulty.

In 2001, the year I had my New Beetle, the highest JD Power reliability rating car was the New Beetle, manufactured in Mexico. Everything else sucked more. With the modern A5 / B5 platforms, robots located in Germany or Mexico achieve the same quality welds and gaps as that's how they're programmed. The newest platforms are rarely touched by humans. The Golf / Jetta /Rabbit V is 95% robot built.

My advice with VW? Buy post 2005 and you should be fine. With the Golf V and beyond, they really understood why their marketshare was being decimated and they fixed the issue. However, folks' memories are long and distrustful. Only time will tell if they suck less in real life versus perception.

My 2007 Rabbit is just fine. My 2001 New Beetle was a lemon.

Still - look at the CR-V. We nearly bought that. It's a very nice compact sorta SUV with surprisingly good AWD for a soft roader. Drives like a car, great interior, doesn't suck too much juice and of course is a reliable Honda.

thanks,
Andrew

We have a 2001 CRV, we live in the Blue Mountains, the car has been extremely reliable, very fuel efficient, but for long trips, say 1,000km +, I find it a little uncomfortable, plus a little underpowered on steep hills.

The car has almost 200,000km on it, never had any work other than brakes and oil, not even a tune up, we will keep it as second car and probably buy a year old Acura or Lexus when we go to Florida.

Body still looks great, No Rust, I always put 4 blizzaks on in the winter on steel rims.

Not sure where you are, but Sam at Collingwood Honda is a straight shooter.

Toyota and Pontiac have a joint venture car (Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe). Although they've temporarily stopped making the AWD version, they're supposed to be bringing it back soon (you might be able to find a decent used 2006 model).

MPG is about 35 all around (best for any awd/4wd) and there's loads of cargo space.

I live on top of a hill and wanted a car that could get me up and down it no matter what the road conditions are... I ended up getting an awd Vibe and so far no winter road condition has stopped it - it got through last winter on all seasons too, no problem (although I feel much safer now with the studded winter tyres on it).