I'm looking to buy a new car. Most likely I'll go with a Skoda Fabia. Most importantly: what to look at while buying, for not to end up screwed later on.

2nd, what alternatives would I be suggested assuming my priorities are reliability, cost efficiency(for it to be cheap AND not to suck my cash later on), and well.. Performance. More or less.

I'm looking to buy something made in the 2006s-2007s. *assuming it's Fabia), and I estimate about 400k km

if you can't afford a card that new with less on the clock than 400k then shop older. Seriously, the last truely reliable cars were made in the late 90's, after that planned obsolescence took priority.

If reliability is your top priority then there's only one option: Mercedes W124. Seriously. Apart from commercial vehicles (buses and trucks), nothing can beat the W124 when it comes to reliability. Also, they're cheap to buy, old enough for spare parts to be easy to come by on the cheap, and the fastest variant of the W124 has 438hp so I believe you can find one with the performance you're comfortable paying for. However, they quit making it in 1996 so they're not exactly fashionable.

I've only heard of a couple of cars even surviving beyond 400k... I'm sure many exist, but they're not the norm, at least not in North America. Also, how would you even find an '06 or '07 with 400k?! Aside from work vehicles that get the shit beat out of them daily by employees.

Hondas and Toyotas are the only two car companies I've heard of making cars that last.

The cab company I work for generally uses Ford Crown Victorias, Chevy Luminas, Impalas and a very few Buicks. They generally have 200K to 400K miles on them, although they're not in great condition.

My dad also swears by Crown Vics. We had two of them while I was home. They did survive relatively well (compared to other American cars), but they did require some work along the way (but I think that's normal). Both of them had computer issues that required disabling the computer or paying special attention (i.e., accelerating out of control ). One time I pulled into a hardware store with a dirt driveway (in the country) and didn't realize the car was accelerating without me until the last second. I stopped just front of a car parked in front of me. Which would have been awesome if I planned it, but it was accidental (and the owner of the car in front of me was walking out of the store at that time and saw the whole thing[, though he couldn't have known it was accidental]). In any case, I doubt a Crown Vic is a viable option outside of North America. I doubt the quality of Luminas, Impalas, and Buicks; let alone the viability... I imagine they're used as cabs for their size and American build. I'm too drunk to remember the make or model of the cars predominantly used by our resident cab company (my software company lives on the same property as a cab company that our owner operated until recently). I'm inclined to say Hyundai, but I've never talked to anyone about the reason. I'm inclined to say price. Personally, I think Hyundai's are shit.

The Crown Vics we have also sometimes speed up somewhat on their own, accompanied by a howling noise, in which case it needs some sort of new idle control valve which costs about $80. I guess these valves don't last more than 200K. The ball joints get dry about 200K also, and the factory versions don't have grease zerks.

The problem in North America, at least in the northeast, isn't necessarily reliability, but rather the frame/body rotting out from us using salt on the roads in the winter.

Lately, they've been getting a lot better. At this point, I'd take a Kia or Hyundai over a Japanese or American built shitbox any day.

As long as you keep the undercarriage undercoated on a yearly basis the frame/body will be fine. My car is 15 years old (my family has owned it for the past ~6 years and driven it regularly all year 'round) and it's still solid all the way around. It had a couple of tiny little rust spots at the fenders, but I got that fixed this year (luckily, for free). You have to put money into the drivetrain or suspension long before your body or frame become a problem...

You're forgetting a little detail here: Models such as the Crown Victoria are US domestic models and they are very rare outside the Americas, meaning maintenance costs are sky-high due to sparsity of parts.

What comes to Toyotas, technically they're reliable. Idiot-proof. It's just they have always been made with such flimsy bodywork that while the engine lasts century, the body won't survive a decade without intrusive maintenance.

My car is 25 years old. An Opel Kadett E. Very little power, very little gadgets, very little reliability issues and very little maintenance costs. Last week I ordered a cam chain tensioner for my motorbike (it being a DOHC V2 it has two) and that one alone cost more than the maintenance costs of my Opel for the last year, in total.

A 2006-2008 car that drove 400 000km+ is an ex-taxi. A reason to be getting an ex-taxi(in Israel), is that that above mentioned 100% tax isn't fully paid by buying an ex-taxi, so that car I'll buy for these ~20k ILS will actually be bit closer to the cost.

Regarding Japanese cars- I'm not concerned about the chasis, as in dry Israeli climate it's barely an issue. Furthermore the air temperatures are fairly stable here- I'd estimate the variance from +5 to +35 in an average year, with 90% of time it being from 15+ (Celsius).

While buying an old car, what kind of damages should I be looking for? (it's highly likely the seller to try to hide any kind of damage, and I don't want to buy something not functional or damaged I'm not aware of).

Well basically, crash damage and neglected maintenance.

Poorly fitting body panels, sticky doors, suspicious kinks in the underbody. As for the maintenance, the best gauge is to listen how the engine sounds (listen for irregular rattles on idle, grinding and scrubbing noises) and smells (make sure the seller hasn't warmed the car up when you arrive). Sniff the exhaust for a hint of burnt oil when cold and fuel when warm (note that a cold gasoline engine may well produce fuel smell in the exhaust)), and how the suspension, brakes and steering feel (loud noises when driving over bumps, play in the steering, spongy brakes, etc.). Make sure the gears engage smoothly and under no circumstances a car made after the 70's should make any noise that varies in pitch with speed. Unless it's a race car.

In Honolulu the sea spray causes the body to rot slowly, and it could be all over the entire body. Plus the sun is a paint killer too all year round.
First the clear coat starts to flake, next the paint start peeling and finally the metal body starts rusting. This could happen to the roof of your car, like mine has it now. So far its only the clear coat.

Thanks.

Oh well.. I'll see it easily when I buy it

You don't take care of your paint?

Ooh, btw.. Bought it. It's an Ope Astra 2.0L Turbo Diesel 2002. It drove 343k km.

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Turbo FTW!

Diesel FTW!

A friend of mine has one of those. Good choice, robust old school technology.

make some Bio Diesel for it.

Thanks :]

A) Uh?
B) Ethanol is no cheaper than my standard fuel here

Append:
Having an own car is cool. Describing the obvious in details will I not, but I really enjoy the process of just driving, especially during the nights with empty roads. Also that car has the best engine I ever drove so far, and fastest acceleration speed :]

Append1:
Just week in to the driving, and I managed to forget the lights on. The batt is dead, I can't start the engine(yes I'm an idiot, though something tells me it's typical for new car owners).

The questions are: how bad is it for the battery(or how is it called)?
& how do I fix it?

There are three solutions to the 2nd question I could think of:
1. Replace the batt temporary, start the engine, put in the old batt while engine is running, leave it on to charge my old batt. (need a volunteer car owner)
2. Charge it with a charger(which I do not have), charge it via special cable from other's car.
3. Start it via the cable from another car.

Perhaps the only one suiting me is #1, since I've no cables & no chargers. Or perhaps there's something else?

It's definitely not good to discharge a battery all the way down, but it won't make it useless. If it's a manual transmission, and the battery still has enough power to run the computers and fuel pump, you could probably turn the ignition on, push it as fast as you can by pushing your shoulder against the open driver door frame (while steering) then jumping in, pushing in the clutch, putting it in second gear, and LET UP THE CLUTCH VERY QUICKLY so you don't just slow the car using the clutch for a brake. If the battery has enough juice to light the headlamps enough to read by, it probably has enough power.

[EDIT]

I've seen a car owner blow up his $400 engine computer by taking out the battery while it was running.

Hardly anybody does it, but it's supposed to be much safer to jump a car with cables by charging the dead car with the cables, then shutting off the donor car before attempting to start the dead car. Something to do with voltage spikes from the alternator when the car starts.

Nobody in your country has or sells jumper cables?

@Arthur: It's empty, literally. I thought about pushing it, but something tells me the theft protection won't let the engine start.

@ML: Erm. Somebody gotta have, and they're sure sold.. It's not like I've a friend nearby with it

Engine computers usually need at least 10 volts to run the spark management and fuel injection stuff, and the fuel pump needs enough electricity to achieve 40psi or so.

If there's a service station not too far off, you could remove the battery and carry it to this station to charge it for about the price of a fancy hamburger.

Yay for push starts! I used to drive a VW Scirocco and I had to do that shit all the time.

Starting a diesel demands a whole lotta juice. Especially cold starting (as in engine is at ambient temperature, below operating temperature, not necessarily in sub-zero temperatures).

First, for a cold engine, you need to glow it. The glow plugs are pretty much just electrical heaters inside the cylinders and starting a cold diesel without working glow plugs is impossible below +10C or so. Then you crank it. The compression is higher so the engine resists cranking more. Starters are much sturdier on diesels than gasoline engines of comparable size.

What you do (and how i've jumpstarted a lot of very modern diesels as well, including a Volkswagen Passat with a fully electronic DSG gearbox) is to drive the car with good battery close, attach the jumper cables to the dead battery, then the positive cable to the donor car and lastly the negative one. Then turn off lights and unnecessary electrical gadgets in both cars and rev up the donor car to around 3k rpm. Keep it revving for about(i use as a rule of thumb a cigarette's duration) 5 mins or so. Still keep the revs up in the donor car (i suppose you by now realise that in this, 'you' is a plural), start the car. Now don't let the engine stall for the next 15 minutes. Let it idle or drive around (i suppose you shouldn't be driving with the lights off though, depends on local law), but keep it running.

It is done, with a donor car.. After doing it I read in the manual of my car how to do it, we did let an error.. The minus of the plug should be attached to chassis of the car away from my dead batt. I didn't get it either anywhere, or somewhere specifically. But it's rather logical, so that my half dead batt sucks less power..

We also tried to start immediately, which didn't work.. Then I insisted on waiting for some 5 min and it started.. Then I drove around for some 30-40 minutes, while on a hill- checked that it can start itself easily, and drove home. Hopefully tomorrow it starts, and if it does- then further starts should be of no problem as batt will only charge more & more.

Sadly I only have one key of my car, and I couldn't leave the engine running while I'm away for an hour or more. Scary to leave the car open & running while I'm not nearby..

The reason they say that is because when you hook up the final connection, the difference in voltage could throw a spark, however tiny, that could ignite hydrogen gas (generated by electrolysis) escaping from the battery, causing it to explode and possibly splash acid in your eyes.

Hmm, then we did all correctly..
By the way, I wonder if I could just disconnect my batt(how is it called in English? :S, an accumulator?), start the engine with the cables from the donor, while the engine is running and generating electricity- connect my old batt, let it charge..

It's still called a battery, supposedly because the original series of acid filled cups reminded the inventors of a battering ram cannon thingee with several barrels.

If the dead battery is soaking up so much charge that the engine won't start immediately, it's OK, the "wasted" electricity is just charging the dead battery after all. Like I said before, you can damage computerized engine components by attaching/detaching stuff while it's running. Also, you don't want to let a car charge a totally dead battery by itself if you can help it, they've made alternators too wimpy to put out a full load for very long without overheating nowadays.

A'right, it's an epic fail. After driving for some 30 minutes, part of the time on purpose on high-rpm, after some 8 hours- it doesn't start.
The electronic runs though, I wonder if I can push-start it alone.. I weight ~62 kg though -.-

If the battery will start the car after 30 minutes of charging, but not after sitting 8 hours, there are two possibilities. One is that something in the car is still on and draining the juice, you can tell by removing the battery cable after shutting the car off, then the battery can't go dead while it sits. The other possibility is that the battery is so old, particles that have flaked off the plates inside have gotten so deep at the bottom of the battery they're shorting out the plates from the bottom, in that case you'll need a new battery.

It also could be starting a warm engine is easier. I was suggested to charge the battery at home, though I'll need a charger for it..

Append:
Here we go.. Too bad I overvolt it by 1 volt. (afaik it's charged with 14v, the laptop adapter provides 15).

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