Wow! 3 pages and I started this last night, talk about a strong community!
Well, I was going to go with the Golf until you said they are expensive to repair. Now I can't decide between the three:
1998 VW Golf, 1996/1998 Audi A4 Quattro, Jeep Wrangler
Here is why I want each car, and why I don't
Golf:
PRO: Safest of the bunch, maybe safer than a Volvo? Performance looks nice, VR6 has leather
CONS: Expensive maintnace (I don't know how true this is, I only heard it from you but I never got to look into it)
Jeep Wrangler:
PRO: Use for everything, bang it up, 4WD
CON: Not safe, expensive and most beat up.
Audi A4 Quattro:
PRO: AWD, safety is ok, performance is ok.
CON: I hear they break down alot, lots of high millage examples.
I want a new car that will not break down much. At the same time, I want something thats safe. So I guess this is what I'm looking at from most imporant to least:
Safety>Maintnace/Reliability>Performance
Now im confused
I'll talk to my uncle this weekend and see what hes got to say about these three cars when it comes to reliability/maintnace. He works on them all day. Performance I can test from test drives, and safety from
www.crashtest.com (Notice all the Porsches did best, something nice to know)