Another car suggestion thread, this time for 5 grand...
 

A close family member was just involved in a fairly serious car accident which rendered her Mazda Tribute as a total loss (fortunately, she will make it out ok).
She’s a fan of not having a car payment, so she’s interested in finding something that her check from the insurance company will cover. $5,000. As the family car nut, I’ve been asked to
help with her search.

Since we all love it when these topics come up, what say you?

Some parameters to consider after talking with her:
-Japanese (not a priority, but preferred)
-Appliance-like reliability (priority)
-Sedan, wagon or small SUV
-Automatic gearbox
-Safe
-Fuel efficient
-Sub 100K miles (not sure how realistic this is, condition trumps mileage imo).

I'll be watching this thread because that is more of a real world number in my car shopping market.

I would also like to start a pool, I say this thread will go 10 posts before someone suggest a $10K car. :p

I see you also get roped into this game? Every time someone in my extended family needs a car I'm the first one that they call for advice.

Your criteria look achievable, except for the sub-100k. I would throw out mileage concerns and focus on condition/maintenance and purchasing something of relatively decent quality. In my opinion mileage is nearly irrelevant with cheap used cars, two of my best ones had at/more than 200k. A few that come to mind for me:

Acura Integra sedan
Lexus EX - seem easy to find cheap despite being a Lexus
Honda Civic/Accord/CRV
Toyota Camry/Corolla/RAV4/Matrix
Pontiac Vibe - a Toyota Matrix with a Pontiac badge and lower price
Mazda Protege/Protege5 - seriously under-appreciated little sedan/wagon. I had a P5 and it was a great car.
Ford Focus - pretty decent cheap domestic car
Subaru Impreza/Legacy/Forester
Nissan Altima/Maxima

2 years I bought a 2002 Honda Accord coupe with 70,000 miles for $5000. It has been trouble free so far.

Bernie P

Subaru wagon.

I completely agree. That is her preference, but as most of us here agree, condition trumps mileage.

Great thoughts so far...

hmmmm..i do wonder why ;)

Mazda Tribute is a ford SUV with a pinto motor or v6 and fwd

very little from japan there

Have you tried autotrader.com?

Use advance search function you can put in your price and location and get a pretty good selection.

I have wasted many hours doing just that ;)

my FIL sold his car cheap..$2k. i almost fell down because it was in great shape. he sold it low..i'm still bummed. he never asked me. i think the clutch was going.

it was an Infinity G20. the older style..maybe 1998. my coworker has a 2000 and he said it is worth about $4k. cannot confirm, or deny.

but it is a great car that gets very little press. it stays under the radar, and seems to have pricing that reflects this.

so i vote Infinity G20.

I'll take 11 posts on the $10,000 car recommendation pool.

I just went through this with my mother with exactly the same situation and budget. I researched relentlessly and came up with a Ford Taurus as the best option. You can't quite get a Ford 500 for that price, but you can get a good Taurus from that era without much problem.

For $5,000 any of the better Japanese cars like a Camry will have lots of miles and be pretty beat up. A $5,000 Taurus is a much better value. The Taurus has an excellent safety record and amazingly is very reliable. Not much excitement, but reliable, safe, comfortable and within your budget.

On the other hand, what she really needs, though, is a five year old Toyota Camry. That's a $10,000 car, but much better for her needs.

My big challenge is filtering out the car guy in me. Because when someone asks me for advice my first instinct is to suggest the coolest/fastest/best car that has depreciated down to affordable levels. But when my little sister in law asks for cheap hatchback suggestions, a modified 944 Turbo probably isn't the best suggestion.;) I have trouble suggesting beige, even when beige is needed.

Life is too short for beige anyways.

On topic: relating to the Hondas/Acuras in the list. Cars fitting the price tag will be of a vintage where Honda's automatic transmissions were a bit, shall we say, garbage. I had an automatic Integra, driven other automatic Hondas... the slushboxes left much to be desired.

On the other hand, the 5-speed Integras are great.

YMMV

Most of my extended family understands the need for gas and occasional oil changes. The rest is rocket science. Beige is exactly what they need.

One of my younger sister in laws made the mistake of buying a Saab 9-3, against my recommendation. I got so tired of fixing that POS......

Yes, or an older Subaru Forester. Research head gasket issues and look for models with fewer issues there or proof of previous repair.

angela

All great suggestions everyone.
MRM, the Taurus actually crossed my mind for some reason, but she's had a couple in the past that both required transmission replacement.
Just spoke with her again tonight, and she's expressed a preference to sitting high up as she did in her Tribute. So I might be looking closer at Escapes/CR-Vs/ Forresters, etc.
Thanks again!

$5000 meeting all of those criteria is going to be tough

Does she need/prefer all wheel drive? Or would a front-drive CUV suffice?

In my opinion, she'd be better off with a car payment she can count on than repair payments that come up randomly, and sometimes in large amounts.
There is no such thing as a CUV that meets that criteria that will also have appliance-like reliability in the next couple years. They all have achilles heels.

Cute-utes have come a long way in 10-15 years. And a $5000 <100K mile Japanese cute-ute will be 10-15 years old. Easily.

man..how old does a Subaru forester need to be to get down to $5k.

we have one. i dont feel like i am riding high. at all. it is actually just like a regular sedan, looking out the windshield.

I just (this week) sold a 2004 Subaru Forester X 2.5 AWD that we built a new motor for (remachined crank/rods, new pistons, rebuilt heads, new bearings, new head bolts, new timing belt, water pump, hyd tensioner, idlers/rollers, etc), four new tires, new battery, and new front brakes/rotors.

It had 159K miles and I sold it for $4800

With under 100K miles, you'd be looking at a 1999-2001, and likely not with all the wear-item "clocks reset".

I buy a lot of these broken: Escape/Tributes with blown transmissions (some engines), Honda CRVs with blown transmissions, Toyota RAV4s with blown engines, Forester/Legacy-Outbacks with blown head gaskets or engines. The repairs are expensive, so I can buy them cheap. They sell like popcorn here in the snow belt.