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Cars in the $10k-$14k range?

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I shopped around over the past few days and came to a few conclusions:

I did not care for the Civic at all, especially the DX with the 115hp engine. Put my foot on the gas and nothing happened. My Achieva might be falling apart, but it's got a peppy v6 3.1L and I'm not going to an underpowered engine at this point. The seat also hurt my back.

I also drove a Subaru Impreza, which I liked, but was out of my price range.

Sat in a Toyota Celica which was too small (my knees were touching the dash). Sat in a Matrix- not bad but I don't need such a big car. The Scion tC looked nice, but I also cannot afford it (I want one too).

Any opinions on the Hyundai Elantra GT?

I also have yet to test drive the Mazda3.

 
my biggest problem with buying a new Hyundai is that by the time you have it paid off it's going to be falling apart and only be worth around 1K. your better off leasing than going that route. what about a Honda Accord thats couple years old? or maybe a Mitsubishi Lancer.
 
ya for what it is it's a decent car but it's basicly a disposable. look at the resale values for an Accord and an Elantra, with the Accord haveing a starting price of only 3K more and after 3 years it's only going to lose a little in value but the Elantra will be worth less than half and it only gets worse every year after. Hyundais are good if you want a cheap car now but it's not going to be very good further down the road. my buddy just finished paying off his 2000 accent last month and the things already falling apart and it's only worth about 2k.
 
I don't care about the resale value. I'm going to drive it into the ground.

The Accent is crap and has a small engine.
 
the elentra GT is one of my favorite cars... the problem is their lower resale value than civic/corolla... the elentra is catching on tho, but buy a new elentra for $12k now, and you can't expect to get more than $8-9k next year...

i'd get a used elentra even though they are not that cheap. i'd go for a used forester (if you don't care for its looks... it's quite practical), a used 03'-current 2.5 altima (nice car but nothing special), a used 00'-03' maxima (like i said before), the mazda3 (like everyone else suggests), or a new corolla/matrix (the corolla is more powerful than the civic and the matrix/vibe is a hell lot more practical)... if you don't care if it's an american, an olds intrigue with a powerful 3.5L V6 can be had for around $10k

good luck. let us know the results from your test drives. my friend needs a car around that price range too.
 
Someone has a Mazda3 2.3L in my parking lot. I like the way it looks- probably my 2nd favorite in looks next to the Scion tC. I suppose if I could afford the 2.3L I'd probably just buy the Scion.

The Mazda3 i w/auto & A/C ends up costing the same as the Scion anyways. Ah well...
 
Originally posted by: Wag
Someone has a Mazda3 2.3L in my parking lot. I like the way it looks- probably my 2nd favorite in looks next to the Scion tC. I suppose if I could afford the 2.3L I'd probably just buy the Scion.

The Mazda3 i w/auto & A/C ends up costing the same as the Scion anyways. Ah well...
Click to expand...

I'm in the same situation in choosing between a Mazda3 and Scion. I think the Scion has the mazda beat. If you equip a 3s with the same options as the Scion has from the factory, the 3 is $2k more 🙁 But I would suggest going to test drive both. The Scion dealerships are real nice in the fact that they don't bug you when you're looking at the car, and they don't go with you on a test drive 😉

 
Are there Scion dealerships? I saw them at my local Toyota dealership.

I wonder how the tC drives in the snow? That kind of worries me. Also the fact that it has an unproven reliability record.
 
Originally posted by: Wag
Are there Scion dealerships? I saw them at my local Toyota dealership.

I wonder how the tC drives in the snow? That kind of worries me. Also the fact that it has an unproven reliability record.
Click to expand...

the scion tc has been on sale in japan in another guise for a while now. probably not 'unproven'

they're kinda boring looking in person. not as boring as an xa, tho.
 
Originally posted by: Wag
Are there Scion dealerships? I saw them at my local Toyota dealership.

I wonder how the tC drives in the snow? That kind of worries me. Also the fact that it has an unproven reliability record.
Click to expand...

All of the mechanical parts are toyota so I wouldn't be too worried about that. The motor is straight out of the camary. I live in Texas so I can't say how it would drive in snow. The nice thing is that ABS is standard unlike the ~$800 option in the Mazda.
 
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