The fiance got into an accident. She's fine but insurance totaled out her car.

I've been scouring the internetz for a replacement for her. Cars are new to me so this experience is pretty weird.

I can't function with too wide of a scope so I've narrowed it down to another Honda Civic (hers was an '01) around '06 '07 (model change over the '05). The Blue Book on those seem to be within my loan budget of under $8500 and preferably under 115k miles.

There seems to be some Accords and Camrys out there around the same price but they get less gas mileage.
I test drove a Toyota Corolla S because she wanted to make sure I broadened my scope but it drove like a brick.

We test drove a Civic Hybrid but I do not trust that I won't have to replace the $2,500 battery within 6mo since the car would already be outside Honda's typical battery warranty period. The gas mileage difference isn't that huge between the non Hybrid model and no one can accurately say when the battery's conk out.

Definitely private seller.
Definitely a private seller that knows about Kelly Blue Book which some facepalmingly do not.
Automatic
4 Door

Any opinions or leads?

Will keep a look out for you. All of the above mentioned cars a good choices, just depends on rather she wants a small or larger car.

What year Corolla did you test drive? I have 2010 Corolla S and love it. With that being said, It's the first car I've ever owned and didn't look real hard at anything else.

Have you picked up an auto-trader book? I've found in the past that there are a lot of listings in the physical book over what's online.

Thanks Daniel.

The S was just an '05 so there's that. The Honda drove great comparatively.

Didn't think about the paper AT having more. Online they seem to have hardly anything.

She doesn't need a larger car. Only if the price was just better or it was easier found.

From personal experience (having put over 300K miles on a Civic), I am partial to the Honda's and their reliability and drive. I was always amazed at how well put together they felt on the road. On a related note, I have had good luck with the VW jetta's too. Something to consider.

I like the looks of Jetta's I had just heard a lot of chatter that they are not nearly as reliable and parts expensive.

Skatchkins wrote:I like the looks of Jetta's I had just heard a lot of chatter that they are not nearly as reliable and parts expensive.

Have also heard parts are expensive and expensive to maintain. Also, I know first hand they suck to work on which jacks up the labor costs if you dont' do the work yourself.

You both my be right. I was just going by user experience. I enjoyed driving them and they got good gas mileage... remember, this is the guy who owned two Jags, so cost of repairs is a relative thing. ;-)

I liked the Civics over the Accord (having owned both). The Accord was more cheaply put together (if you can believe that) and the Civic platform was/is tried and true.

Civic FTW. Plus, they are millions of them, parts are cheap, and labor is cheaper.

Mike, Linda and I have a 08' Camry Hybid that get on average 38-41mpg mixed driving. We have had it since new and have 115,000. All the worries about the hybrid batteries failing have pretty much been unfounded.

Ouch.

On a similar subject, can we vote to change the name of the car color name "Gold" or "Champagne" to "Sun City."

There's a lot of Hondas sitting at dealerships but that blows my budget way out of bounds.

I looked at two gas stations for Auto Traders this morn. When asked, they said, "Do they still make those anymore?"

I wish Passats got better mpg. I would drive this.
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/3553078848.html


Accords don't seem to be fairing well at all in that respect either.

Skatchkins wrote:

I looked at two gas stations for Auto Traders this morn. When asked, they said, "Do they still make those anymore?"

I had a hard time finding one as well.. I'll look around on this side of town for one.

I love the Passat. If i didn't need a tow rig, it was my next choice after I killed the Jag.

alanzona wrote:I love the Passat. If i didn't need a tow rig, it was my next choice after I killed the Jag.

Dang: http://www.edmunds.com/volkswagen/passat/2006/consumer-reviews.html
No Bueno

Well that sucks. God Bless the Interwebs, though.

Dang there a lot in Los Angeles. $89 plane ticket and $50 in gas to get back.
Looks like the Credit Union doesn't finance out-of-state PP.

We bought my brother's wife an accord from some body shop in hunnington beach. Almost went to San Diego for Reba's Acura but ended up finding one in Tucson. I guess CA is out with the credit union, but Tucson and flagstaff might be worth checking.

Going to the bank in a couple hours to secure a 09 Civic.