Suggestions for commuter car (short commute)

[johnd393]

Originally Posted by Brian_M

Gah, picking a Brand or a Model is a plan for disaster when shopping used on a budget. You can buy clapped out, POS Camry, Corolla and Civics that wouldn't be reliable enough to get you out of your driveway.... and Porsches that'll go a hundred thousand miles without needing more than consumables in that price range (I did just that with a Porsche, and then sold it for $2k more than I'd paid).

Shop for the single best vehicle. It can be any make or model, seriously. There are stunningly maintained examples of EVERY car and complete piles of trash of every make/model. I'm scared of the "common suggestions" precisely because they have the reputation of being an appliance. They don't tend to be cared for and little things that are $100 to correct when they start, turn into $1000+ jobs once ignored and that's when the vehicles end up being sold.

Look for one owner (maybe not too common in that price range), or at the very least the same owner for ~5 years. As close to full records as you can find will up your chances of finding something with verifiable maintenance. And find a good mechanic, you'll probably want to find 2 with one doing domestics and one asians, and ask them if they have customers who are looking to sell anything. You can get the FULL service records for the recent past that way, and often times those vehicles are priced better than things advertised.

The bottom line is you need to learn more about How to buy a used car than worry about a specific make or model. It's simply a different story when buying used.

This is the only post here that makes sense to me.

[AlaskaErik]

What year Leaf did you get?

[Mr_Geek]

Originally Posted by alaskaerik

what year leaf did you get?

2013