Back in England, my dad had a Corolla when we were kids. It ran forever and he only replaced it (with another Corolla) when my little brother drove it into a wall.

Over here, we have an '02 Tundra Limited. It's 4 door (well, two full doors and two half doors), 4.8l V8, cost under $10K and gets about 21mpg (averaged 50/50 city and highway). And it's a truck!

Bob, 10-12 grand should get you a 4 year old Subaru Legacy or Outback in sedan or wagon styles, with perforated leather heated and cooled seats, heated mirrors and wipers, 6 airbags, ABS, and AWD, with from 40-60k on the clock. The Legacy was redesigned for the 05 model year. Get a GT spec for all the toys.

ta for that...i'll keep my eyes peeled

still undecided if we're gonna bit the cardymobile for something else though yet.

So how many miles do you lot have on your motors before they go the scrappers merchant? Our last car was a Saab 9000 CS, that had 160K before we junked it as we'd skimmed the head gaskets a few times already and it needed a new set and a couple other bits and pieces that were going to cost more than the value of the motor and more than what we put down on our current car...still the best car I've ever had though, for a granny tank, it was awesome.

I think you can't go wrong with a Civic/Accord, or Toyota Camry. The Accord V6 can be had with leather seats, seat heaters, etc. You may be able to get those in a 4-cyl version also. They aren't as 'sexy' as the Germans, but - cheaper to buy and to repair; better fit/finish, more reliable. I took my last two Accords past 150k, then got an Acura and did the same. Boring; predictable; reliable; just what a car should be My only beef with the Japanese models is they don't offer the 'classic station wagon' like the Europeans do - with the possible exception of the Subaru.

A tree fell on our Honda last year - it was a 1990 Civic wagon with 190k on the clock. Other than a replacement gearbox at 150k, and the usual brakes, tires, and exhaust, I can't think of anything else that went wrong with the car. We bought a Subaru to replace it, a 2000 Impreza wagon with 65k. The AWD was welcome during the few snow days we had this January, but it adds extra weight so the brakes will wear out a bit sooner and the mileage is poor for a compact 21mpg versus 25mpg for the Civic. My father in law has a '95 Odyssey minivan, which in its then first iteration was basically a jacked up Accord wagon - a bit wheezy with the 4cyl, so I'd second Steerpike's suggestion and look for the V6 if you decided to try an Accord.

I don't know Bob, I'm thinking Minivan for you and the Mrs. Forget the zippy Saab, high fidelity stereo, heated seats and all that jazz....go for a Town and Country...fake wood grain down the sides, with room for the nipper's car seat in the back- and room for the next couple you'll be knocking out soon. DVD for the kiddys cartoons in the back...Cherios and cookie crumbs all over the back seat.


Welcome to Fatherhood

Both of our Civics lasted a really long time, also. I gave the first one away with a little over 300K on it....felt bad about selling it in case it decided to die right after I sold it. The other one had almost 200,000 and I did sell it the within 15 min. of putting a sign on it.

My daughter has a basic Corolla that's been good to her in HS and college. However, my son's Camry didn't fair so well....I have a feeling it was abused a bit before we bought it used. He had a nice Civic until last month when someone plowed into it while it was parked on the street by his house. He took the ins. and put it down on a newer Hyundai. We'll see how it does.

I agree. A friend of mine picked up a very nice Honda Odyssey (sp?) for under $11,000 from some rich folks that were trading up.

haha...aye, that's why I'm looking at possible estate cars or another saloon...minivans are scary, especially around here and the snow...perhaps when we get another little blighter to the fold

I actually thought my minivans did well in snow... FWD coupled with more clearance beneath the chassis, never had any issues.

Ice/snow slippery roads, you say? Toddler too? I'd say a mini 4x4 SUV of some sort would suit you. One of the the so-called "crossover" SUV's are very carlike, anyway. Why don't you like SUV's? I'd sooner have one than a minivan, thats for sure

If you must have a car for rough road conditions, I'd say that Dewey's comments about Subaru's are probably bang on for decent 4x4 capability.

Your 00 95 is in the transition years isn't it??... GM filthy fingers mucking around and turning them too utter poo. No harm to check if the tank was a recall issue. Rover had a huge one during the 90's and sorta kept it to a whisper. I got a free tank out of it.. saved myself $400+

the ones you saw for 8-10 asking, you could talk 'em down atleast 3k or so. Around here Slaabs are cheap and a cult demand b/c of the gas mileage etc. I've not had a prob with mine touch wood but I'd consider Toyota... they can take a thrashing.
just remembering that Top Gear they did with the Toyota p/u!

Hmmm...well you never know, I'll look at them too...it's just nearly everyone that I've seen driven in Mass has been hair raisingly scary stuff, especially so for Mass drivers so that's saying something

Just not keen on the idea of a SUV, especially petrol costs, maybe if it were a secondary motor, but we've only got the one car...
Aye, was a cusp when Saab moved to the dark side....saying that, they never fixed the SID computer display from borking on a regular basis till the '05 model.

Saabs are dirt cheap up in Maine too, fairly cheap down my way too with high specs, which is why we stuck with them when the 9000 went poo.

Still undecided about all this, we're checking a few places this weekend to see what's what...have till end of Sept to decide what we're doing anyway though.

Little SUV's not expensive to run though...Honda CRVs etc really have good gas miles. I'd say if you only have one car, it'd actually make even more sense for a family.

Hmm, yet another view that I am becoming more assimilated as time passes....