Shopping for a car

If you're looking for something reliable and a little sporty looking, I'd look into a Toyota Camry. I've heard very good things about them and am looking into getting one myself.
Are you looking to buy a new car? How much are you looking to spend?

Welcome to A2K :-D

Everyone at school says to not get a camry because it's too "asian". I've been doing research and I think I want a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla but I don't know which one is better. I'm suppost to have a car before school starts and I plan on spending less than 13 thousand

Those two are great choices as well. Good luck and have fun :-D

Those are 2 great cars. They are durable and are cheap on the wallet when it comes to gas.
You should be able to find one used for alot less then 13,000.
In fact, for the most part, if they are 3-5 years old they tend to be in the 5-7,000 price range
They keep thier value well so when you go to college you can sell it for a good amount of money and / or trade it in for something new.

Dont worry too much about specs of a vehicle.
Just look for good gas mileage, something you LIKE and with in your parents price range.
My best advice, is to shop around for a week or so and see all the cars you can see.
Dont settle on the first car you see. For every ' good one ' you see, there are 3 or more waiting at another car lot. ;-)

YOu can save your parents some money by buying a used certified car that has been thoroughly inspected by the car dealer and retains the same warranty as a new one.

A car can lose over one thousand dollars by just driving a new car off the lot.

My wife has a 1994 Honda Accord that she's thinking of replacing with a used certified car.

when buying a used car what mileage would be good?

Average mileage on used cars are between 12-15K per year. For example, if it's two years old, between 24-30K is average. And like already pointed out, Hondas and Toyotas are very reliable.

And just from driving both, the Civic is more fun to drive compared to Corolla. Check out the Civic EX coupe 5-speed...learn to drive a stick if you can't, it's so much more fun.

The mileage on the used car usually determines the asking price, but the 12 to 15K per year is a good place to start. If the car is only two years old, but has 75K miles on it, you know the price should be much, much lower.

I have a used honda civic 2001 lx coupe. Make sure u get a certified used vehicle yes, u will pay like a few hundred more, but its well worth it coz u know that everything has been inspected. Dont forget to ask about a CARFAX report its free anyways.

I got my car with about 36K miles on it and is now 52K+ and is running great. Honda cars are reliable and I get about 30-35mpg city and 40+ highway. If you want to know anything else about the 7th generation civic (2001-2005) just go to 7thgencivic.com and im there under the same screen name, so look me up

Scrimp, your user-name is great. I should have thought of that one. It would fit me too.

Question to everyone: is it true that Hyundai is now better than it was several years ago? I have heard conflicting reports, but I want to save money. The Hyundai would fit in my wallet.

Yeahh, hyundai has gone through a complete makeover. Thanx for the compliment about my name haha. I read in a auto magazine that hyundai has surpassed toyota in some categories.

Hyundai is building factories here in the US b/c they're serious about revamping themselves

JD Power and Associates doesn't even mention Hyundai. It'll be interesting to see how they rank for 2005.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but JD actually ranked one of the Hyundais over the Toyota Corolla.

However, I don't think the initial quality rating means a damn thing. You can't really rate a car's reliability within the first few months of ownership.

Hi Slappy, I did a search on the JD Power's link, and couldn't find Hyundai mentioned. Maybe it was because of longer-term improvements by car companies rather than car-to-car comparisons.

I googled "JD initial quality Hyundai," and there's some links. Guess it didn't beat Toyota, but they're up on the top of the rankings now.

"Toyota continues in the Initial Quality Survey's top spot, with seven models receiving awards, the most of any corporation. Toyota is followed by American Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor America in a tie..."

I remember being in a Hyundai dealer earlier this year, and they had this newspaper article blown up on the wall...I could have sworn one of their models topped the Corolla, but maybe not.

Either way, Hyundai has made a very impressive jump in image, sales, and obviously quality. That can't be easy in the automotive industry.

Hyundai obviously earned their higher spot on the rankings with hard work and quality improvements, but they'll have to maintain that quality while competing with all the other car makers. Toyota and Lexus has been on the top spot for a few years now. It'll be interesting to see how other car makers take that away.