If you were gonna buy a used car...

[_honorentheos]

We had a Subaru Outback that we put 240,000 miles on. We traded it in for an Altima which we still own. I would recommend both cars. I miss the Outback, though, for it's light off-road ability and it got better gas mileage than the Altima. I've nothing but good to say about that car.

[_MeDotOrg]

A friend has a 1998 Toyota Camry with 197,000 miles. She beats it to death, never tunes in up, rarely changes the oil. The car just keeps on going. It echos my experience with a Corolla in the 80's: a car that refused to die. I knew a man who drove a Toyota Land Cruiser from Afghanistan to West Africa in the 1970's. He said he wouldn't attempt it in a Land Rover.

Toyotas are kind of boring transportation modules. But if you want reliability, get a Camry.

[_Always Changing]

Some times people trade in a car because of bad paint. Everything else may be in excellent condition, but they have to have something that LOOKS good. A real deal, especially if you live in an area where there is a lot of poverty and don't want to drive something flashy.

[_bcspace]

98 to 2002 Toyota Camry. Should be much less than $10,000, but you might have to pay a couple thou soon to repair some critical parts that have worn out. Struts too if they have never been replaced. Seems well worth it imho. I have one. I also have a much newer Camry. Have had a reasonable experience with a Chevy Venture. All the electronic accessories and light bulbs keep going out but the engine and transmission have been nothing but serviced for a quarter of a million miles. Needed eight seats a decade a ago and couldn't afford anything else at the time. Also had a reasonable experience with a Ford Taurus in the 90's until I had to replace the second transmission.

Now I could shell out for some high end German engineering but I don't think it's worth it. In general, stick with Toyota or Honda. American cars STILL, by and large, feel like (and often are) cheap plastic even after the famous 1980's Ted Koppel interview on the subject.

Oh, and for auto security, forget the trunk monkey, get MagnaVolt.

[_son of Ishmael]

A friend has a 1998 Toyota Camry with 197,000 miles. She beats it to death, never tunes in up, rarely changes the oil. The car just keeps on going. It echos my experience with a Corolla in the 80's: a car that refused to die. I knew a man who drove a Toyota Land Cruiser from Afghanistan to West Africa in the 1970's. He said he wouldn't attempt it in a Land Rover.

Toyotas are kind of boring transportation modules. But if you want reliability, get a Camry.

I have a Toyotay RAV4 I treat the same way and it just keeps on going. Every time I start thinking about buying something newer I check out the prices and end up just keeping it for "just one more year"

[_Quasimodo]

We had a Subaru Outback that we put 240,000 miles on. We traded it in for an Altima which we still own. I would recommend both cars. I miss the Outback, though, for it's light off-road ability and it got better gas mileage than the Altima. I've nothing but good to say about that car.

I was going to suggest looking at Subarus as well. One the highest on the list for reliability (boxer engine) and they come standard with the best all wheel drive system on the market. Something that could be very handy if you live near snowy mountains.