First car suggestions!

I just got my drivers license and I'm finally looking into investing in a good reliable car, don't we all want that? lol

I'm looking into a car where I'll be driving like at least 1 hour a day, to reduce commuting times through home and university.

I wanted something affordable at used condition, reliable, as in it would last longer, with good gas milleage.

I have about 8000 bucks to spend and I would much prefer a sedan.

I see a lot of students driving used Hondas. Call it a stereotype. But, there may be some truth to Hondas being reliable.

Get a Toyota.

A corolla

camry or corolla

Asian cars have pretty reliable engines.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan. Be aware of rust though, especially with older models.

Edit: ALWAYS TEST DRIVE. Make a hard brake to test the brakes. If the car shakes while braking in a straight line, it's a no-go. Test shifting gears (if manual) up and down. Listen to sounds of the engine and gears while shifting. If you hear sounds that are off (like ticking sound with engine in idle), don't bother.

If you buy from a garage or dealer, ask for a repair history. Ask when when the last time was when the timing belt has been changed if it has one. That's very important. If it snaps while you drive, you'll have a big chance that it breaks the engine leaving the car worthless. If it has a chain, then you're usually good as it will last a cars lifetime.

As I said before, check for rust. Very important because it can be very unsafe and costs alot to get something like that fixed. Check for oil leaks. etc etc

Lastly: Always bargain, especially with garages/dealers.

For your first car I would suggest a 4 cylinder. The 4 cylinder may not be able to accelerate like a muscle car, but once up to highway speeds, their fuel economy will be over 35 mpg for the good, newer year models. If you're driving in a lot of stop and go traffic, do not get a 6 cylinder. Horrible city mpg.

Reliable cars would be as others here have said: Asian cars are best. Can't go wrong with mid to late 2000's Toyota's, Honda's, Subaru's, and Hyundai's. With 8 Grand you can definitely get a decent used car. My top suggestions would be a Hyundai Elantra or Honda Civic. Civic's are more because they're an established name, while Hyundai's are probably the best bang for your buck. Civic may get an extra 3-5 miles per gallon over the Hyundai, but used ones are about 1-2 grand more than Hyundai so there's not much savings in the extra mpg... especially with low gas prices now.

It all depends on what you can find in your area. Watch websites like Autotrader and you'll eventually find something you like that's in your price range.

Now, the Asian cars will have tough engines, but like all cars they'll need new stuff as they get driven. As you drive a car, it will wear things like pumps, bearings, etc; plan for these things and budget accordingly. Also, check the cars tire tread before you buy it. If the tread looks low, then the tires are liking going to need to be replaced and tell the shyster salesman to drop the price a few hundred for that cost you're going to have to incur.

Don't think that you won't be spending hundreds each year on maintenance, because you will and it doesn't matter what car you buy. That stuff's inevitable.
Lastly, do not buy a Mini, Jeep, Fiat, or Smart cars. Their quality is very bad and their cars are consistently rated as the worst cars people can buy.

you can get a used Fiat just a couple years old for about $8K without too many miles on it

This is all good advise. I would add to check the millage as well. The lower the better, so if you are paying a bit more but getting a few thousand less miles on the clock, its worth it. In the UK Engines tend to need a lot of work when they hit the 100k mark so try to avoid anything near that amount. Also, check the tyres to make sure they are in good shape, if they are getting close to being worn out, check with the garage if they plan to put new ones on or ask for money off so you can get new tyres yourself. Also make sure you have an owner history if that is a thing in USA? In the UK cars get registered to the DVLA and thus you are best having all the documentation (well you need them legally so you have to have it, but its best to ask) as you can then be sure the car is not stolen. If there is anything similar to that in USA it is worth a check.

Basically go to somewhere you can be sure the car is fair game from (so no dodgy back area car places that have just opened which could be dealing in stolen cars) and maybe take somebody you trust who knows their stuff with you as well, an extra pair of eyes is good to have incase you miss anything about the car.

But best of all, good luck and congratulations on passing your test. Its a great thing to be able to just drive around to where you want when you want (obviously within reason).

^ Yeah, most car dealerships offer the Carfax history in the US now without asking for it. The big things to look for in it is if there have been any accidents, if not, then there's nothing majorly wrong with the car. After that it's the test drive. This is where if it's making any strange sounds or otherwise seems to be a little funny, get the dealer to fix that sh*t or negotiate a lower price.

You're not going to be able to catch everything that may be wrong with a recent used car purchase, but if something fails within 2 weeks I believe, that's so soon after the purchase that the dealer will have to repair it or pay for the repairs.

And lastly, yeah tires are the one thing you'll know immediately after looking at whether they need to be replaced. If so, and you're planning on keeping the car for several years, you're probably best negotiating a lower price and going to Sears and getting four tires, cause they have a nice rebate if you buy four tires through them.

No. Just... no.

A Honda with 100k miles on it is still a better buy than a Fiat with 10k

Used Honda or Hyundai. I would bring someone who is a competent mechanic. If you find a Honda or Hyundai that's well maintained those can be very reliable and can last you for a while.

Corolla, Civic, Camry, or Accord. Subaru will also last forever, but they tend to be more expensive. Diesel engines, from cars like Volvo or Volkswagen, tend to be quite efficient and will also run forever.

Infiniti g35s can be found for that price. Maybe an old acura tl.

Camry and Accords are bread and butter though, and cops will ignore you which is a plus. Anything Japanese would be cheap to fix and reliable.

Get something that's reliable, safe, inexpensive to own and maintain, front wheel drive (so you can drive in snow), and with a manual transmission.

A stick forces you to pay more attention, prevents you from using your phone while driving, and stick drivers are overall more skillful than automatic drivers.

One more thing: buy the car yourself. When I was 16, my parents laughed at me when I asked them to buy me a car. I didn't start driving until I was 19 and bought my own insurance policy, it took that long to save.

I may have resented it at the time but I appreciate that my parents forced me to use my own money. I was very careful with my first car since it was my money and drove it responsibly.

I drive a little 1999 Subaru Legacy to and from work. Car is freaking great. AWD, handles great in the snow, and I only need to fill up my tank once a month. Got it for $200 from one of my family's friends.

TC, I would look into a certified used vehicle from a car dealership.

RWD cars works just as well in snow. I used to be a owner of a Volvo 244 and my trick was to load the trunk with some bags of sand if I wasn't in the mood for drifting around the corners.

@kriggy: if your not a skilled driver, most road users arnt rear wheel drives are more difficult to control I the snow.

When we have snow or very icey roads me and my friend bet on how many bmw's we will see stuck trying to get up hills.

They can work well in snow if you know how to drive in snow with a RWD. But sometimes you get an unexpected stop and where a FWD could get moving again, an RWD might not. Extra weight over the rear wheels helps a lot. Trying to avoid a complete stop in uphills is another thing.

G35s have the rep of being a douchemobile though.

Just don't act the part! I think bimmers and audis are douchier, g35s are older now, so I guess those wannabe rich with douchey attitude are buying them. A stock sedan shouldn't give that vibe.

So you gonna let us test drive your car?

@Bikouchu35: Why would you want to drive my car? It's like driving a Sentra. ;)

Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.

Hondas and Toyotas still enjoy a reputation of being quite reliable. It's certainly earned and no less true today than it was previously (for the most part), but what's often overlooked is that a number of other manufacturers have since met them. Hyundai and Ford, for example, offer some very reliable vehicles. The primary difference is that the public perception has yet to catch up to that, so they can be had for a discount compared to their Honda and Toyota brethren (particularly on the used market).

TC, I generally cross reference a few charts when looking at used vehicles in a given class: reliability, TCO, and ability to hold their resale value are chief among them (you can throw in some others like MPGs or whatnot depending on your priorities). When looking at used cars, you usually want something that holds it's value LESS well than the competition (assuming all else being equal and you intend to drive it for a long time).

What kind of snow do you drive in? Because FWD vehicles are just as terrible in snow as RWD vehicles. At least here in Manitoba.

Everyone is suggesting a small foreign car, so I'll suggest the exact opposite: a Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, or Lincoln Town Car. They can be found cheap, and since the elderly own a lot of them, you can find ones with low miles that are in excellent shape and were really taken care of. They are extremely comfortable too. They get surprisingly good gas mileage for their size; I don't know what sort of mileage you are looking for, but I just averaged 24.3 MPG in my Town Car on a 2hr highway drive. Mixing city and highway, I get about 19. They're also very reliable. There is a reason police, cab, and limo services love them. I would get one that is a 2003 or newer, because the 03 model year received a number of updates that made them a lot nicer to drive. The steering in the older ones is pretty sloppy.

Smaller cars are usually better to learn on (and by learn, I mean develop skills beyond licensing standards).

I drove an '87 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and a '91 Buick Park Avenue when I first started out, and the size was definitely intimidating. Boats aren't the greatest cars to start on. Great money wise though (they are surprisingly good on gas, unless they have V8's).

@thehig1: lol. I was driving to an event at a high school near my house and there's a hill that leads up to it. Normally, you don't really notice the hill but on this particular day it was very snowy. Almost everyone got stuck on the hill, expect my family and I. We were one of the few people to have a 4x4 car. It was really funny wachting people trying to get up.

@willre00: Yeah it's funny to see.

Getting stuck can be avoided just takes some balls to not drive up hills really slow when it's icey.

My car is a Ford mondeo, hardly made for tough conditions but keep a little speed going up hills your fine.

Someone here mentioned Volvo, they're made in China now so I wouldn't get them. When I found that out I was a little surprised that Walmart wasn't selling them.

No they don't......hills need front wheel drive.

@horgen: I never had any problem with stopping uphill with a loaded trunk, just this one time when I was going to park by the side of the road up a very icy hill. I lost traction on all four tires, could not turn or change my velocity for a short while and had to make the best of the situation while sliding downhill. Luckily nobody was hurt and I didn't crash either.

Rally cars used to be RWD (at least the best ones, like the Lancia Stratos for example) before 4WD was invented, so yeah, you need to be able to handle the car a bit better than you would have to with a FWD car to get it going on ice and snow. But once it gets going it sure is awesome!