What kind of car should I buy with 7K?

[Pocatello]

I totaled my car a few days a go (my dodge neon ). The insurance company is going to give me a $7K check for it. What's a used, good, reliable car I can buy?

 

[geno]

Looking for something sporty or practical?

 

[Pastore]

i would look @ a hyundia... they have awesome warranties, and are relatively cheap... can get a 98 w/ 20,000 miles for around 7k...

 

[Pocatello]

I'm thinking about getting something practical, propably a 4-door.

 

[RGN]

You could get a Porsche 944 for that...

 

[vi edit]

You could get a 98 Mazda protege with fairly low miles for that price.

 

[geno]

4 Door? What do you think about an Altima?

 

[Pocatello]

An Altima for 7K, how's that possible? Even for a used one, that is a good car.

 

[geno]

I'm looking around my area at cars.com and I'm seeing like a half dozen Altimas for under or around 7k

Check it out

one more

 

[KameLeon]

Yep, them Hyundai's will suit ya fine, matey...giddyup!

 

[max105]

yea altimas can easily be had for 7k...for fairly new ones too. as for a mazda, i would honestly not go that direction. My family owns a Mazda MPV. The dark car depreciated about $10,000 the first year we had it. Not only that, but the first few years we had it, we always had a bunch of annoying problems.... air filter, steering wheel....all kinds of stuff that you would normally see wear out after about a decade of service. the transmission also died at around 60,000 miles. My aunt had the same car we did, except her car died out on her around 50,000 miles. I've heard of some other problems with mazda's and would honestly avoid them if possible. Maybe their newer cars have fixed all these problems, but be WARNED!!

There's many good cars to be had for 7k, but it just depends on what you value more. You've got a a 4 door picked out so thats good. A corolla is a great car with a great reputational standing (i would personally pick the corolla over the altima). You can get a fairly new one too. But if you'd like to have more power, maybe a camry would be better. It just depends on what you'd like. There are many good cars to be found for $7,000, but you just have be patient and you have to KNOW EXACTLY what you want.

 

[Thegonagle]

An Altima is perfect if you like it, and has a lot more power than a 4 cyl Camry or a Corolla. Since you are used to the power of the Neon, you won't be missing much, except the potential problems of a Neon. OTOH, there's a big performance market for Neons if you like to work on cars.

 

[RGN]

Altima == underpowered

 

[max105]

I think the Toyota Camry (V6) and Honda Accord are safe bets ...obviously. But that's really if you just want the security, reliability, and trust. These cars aren't best sellers for nothing. Nissan makes quality cars too, and they were selling more than Hondas just until this year or last year I believe. But the best car really depends on your personality and what things you like in a car...luxury, performance, safety, reliabity, looks, etc. Lists can go on forever. We can only really give you pointers here and there, but the best car for you is the one that suits your needs the most. People have different tastes in cars, so don't get too hooked up with what other people (like me) say. We're just here to point you in some of the possible choices that are availible to you and try not to point you in the wrong way.

 

[UN1Xnut]

Late 80s and early 90s European.

My two most recent car purchases:
85 BMW 735i - $4300
90 Audi V8 Sedan Quattro - $6200

You can get many good cars down in this range. Do avoid American cars from 84-95. The only notable exception to this rule are the Chrysler K-car based models. Even the Corvette sucked in these years.

Another cheap/common find for that range would be a Ford Contour if you must have an American car.

If you want something that is just utterly reliable get a Volvo, Honda, Toyota, or Nissan.


-nut

 

[max105]

ohh....careful with Ford. I remember reading something about the Ford Taurus SHO (i think it was this model) that has a very unreliable engine.

if you want some quick info and specs on cars, you should go to a local bookstore or magazine stand and pick up a consumer's guide for used automobiles. Those magazines are a great place to start from. They will categorize the cars into different categories, and rate them with their pros and cons. A good place online would be carpoint or edmunds. Check those sites out, as they should give you more than enough info to narrow your search down to a few cars. Hope this helps.

 

[yakko]

VW

 

[thedarkwolf]

The main problem I hear about the sho is its clutch is weak. The regular older tauruses on the other hand has two fairly common and expensive problems blown head gaskets and weak transmissions. Saying to avoid all 84-95 domestics exept the k-car seems a bit extreme to me. There were many reliable cars made during those years there just happend to be a lot of unreliable ones made too. As long as you stick to V8 and rwd I think you would be pretty safe but since your last car was a neon you probably don't want a linclon town car .

 

[Deicide]

If you want a reasonably sporty 4 door thats reliable, try looking at an Audi. I just got a 93 90S, and it works great. You could probably find a 94-95 model for 7k, with lower miles. Just be sure to get one with standard trans., automatics sucked on those cards for those years.

 

[iamwiz82]

Un1x, so true about the american cars part. That was the time period when they released the 4 cyl mustang. What were they thinking?!?!

 

[UN1Xnut]

thedarkwolf:

I will have to agree with you on that. The only really good domestics for that era where the full-size V8 RWD ones. I usually do not bother to mention them because so few people seem interested. I personally really like this class of car, but I seem to be in the minority.

This is pretty obvious by my current/past car lineup:

90 Audi V8 Sedan Quattro
85 BMW 735i
92 Chevy Caprice 9C1 (yea, the real police package. complete with the "use OD in high speed persuit" sticker)
92 Mercury Grand Marque GS
88 Mercury Grand Marque GS
83 Olds Delta88 Royale Coupe

The Ford 4.6L and 5.0L (the old 302 w/ fuel injection) are amazingly reliable and the LT1/LS1 from GM is still impressive today. The Olds 307 V8 (the engine in basically every 80-90 GM V8) was amazing reliable. It had tons of cooling system problems, but outside of that a milage of 250K for that engine was not uncommon. My dad's Delta88 4dr has 215K miles and still going.

-nut

 

[psteng19]

Hyundai's are NO GOOD!!! except the new ones have that nice 100,000 mile warranty. I dunno how they gonna do it, since im seeing some 1997's bite the dust already (well, at least with significant problems). They gonna lose a lotta money offering such a high warranty on such cruddy cars.

There is no way u can get a decent, fairly new camry at that price. they are good cars, but they are also pricier.

 

[Total Refected Power]

REMOTE CONTROL.

 

[xraymongral]

The new, this year, Hyundais are good cars. They have been made for a couple years in Korea, so all the kinks worked out of them. Older one, suck for reliability.

I have a Ford Contour that is a real nice little car, for a practicle car. It has a 4 cyl. thats is a little less peppy than a Neon, but not by much, and is 100% better quality then the Neon. You can find them cheap, sometimes with the V6 engine.

Good luck.