Hey guys,

Anyway things have been working out, school's almost out of the way, and i need to get a car as my office is quite a distance from home. Let me warn you that i know next to nothing about cars, but I've done research, checked out autotrader.com and i bet this question has been asked before but i'd still like some input.
As this is my first car, I dont want to blow too much money on it, but i need something durable... so I'm willing to go up to $8000 CAD on it (with taxes and any certifications/etc needed), at least that's how much my dad wants me to spend on a car, and with insurance & gas & maintenance i really dont want to blow more than $500 on it monthly.

Right now i'm prefering Hyundais and Toyotas, I drive automatic only...so.... any tips/suggestions, things to look out for, favourite cars around that price range?

thanks

I like hyundais, they have really good reputations for reliability. I have a '99 honda civic I bought new in '99 that I really love. It has 85k miles on it now and the only thing I've done to it is change the oil and replace the tires. Oh, it did develop a loud muffler so I had that replaced too. I plan on driving it for 15 years or 150,000 miles, which ever comes first, so I have just over six years left.

If I were buying a new car I'd look into a volkswagon diesel jetta. I can get bio-diesel around here, so I could be super enviro friendly.

Edit: learn to drive a stick, it's easy and automatics can be a pain in the ass.

The only piece of advice I can give is that a hybrid won't start being cost effective until about 10 years after you purchase it.

Other than that I've never had a car... being 26 and all.

the smart car looks nice but it doesnt have much room

nice, hope you didn't get drunk alone though!

I'd go for a second hand Smart Roadster.

Since you live in north america where they don't import Peugeot, Citroën or any of the real fun cars, i'm just going to suggest to try out Ford Focus. One with the sport package if you can. It's the second most fun vehicle (on 4 wheels) I've ever driven. Just check the doors are in ok condition, the euro model had some assembly flaws that allowed for massive rapid corrosion.

Because of (U.S.) americans unreasonable hatred of anything french.

It used to be that Europe didn't have as strict exhaust emissions standards as the US. Iirc Germany didn't require catalytic converters until 2002 or something. That adds a lot of cost to the manufacture of a car. I don't know if it's still the case. So maybe that has something to do with it.

I think from the "energy efficiency" angle, you have to look at it collectively, not individually. My cutting 25% off my $40 electric bill does nothing for me, but when everybody starts doing that, the price will drop with lower demands. (And make it more feasible to be supported by renewable resources.) It's about a change of attitude that will affect the future.

But if you've only got $8000 to deal with, then your options are limited. You should never spend more on something that you can budget. So yeah, I'd look for a used compact car with an asking price of around $7000 that has been well maintained.

Euro I emission standards were imposed in 1992 and while they didn't specify the need for a catalyst, the limits implied it.

That is not the reason, however. The reason simply is that poor sales made PSA retreat from the US market in the late 80's, which is weird since the 405 was a massive hit worldwide.

Just because the car is discontinued doesn't mean you can't get parts for it.

Try all the radio presets, if they're rock or rap, move on, if they're classical music, snap it up!

Dodge and Chrysler are my preference, while Chevrolet, Pontiac, and GMC are also pretty good; Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi are my favorite Japanese manufacturers and I've heard extremely good things about Honda (reliability and fuel efficiency). I've also heard good things about Toyota. I've heard good things about Volkswagen as well, but personally don't like them.

I personally hate the entire Ford alliance of companies and especially hate Hyundai and Kia. Suzuki is another good example of junk.

I would recommend having a family member or friend experienced with cars look over anything you plan to buy. Every company has it's lemon so you'll want to avoid those at all costs.

I'm sure there are people on Allegro.cc that would be happy to comment on prospective cars so when you find something you're interested in you could start a new thread for a discussion on the specific car.

I hate those things... I saw one in town and one of the rear wheels was wobbling like a wagon-wheel... It's possible that the car had been in an accident, but it looked mint... Or maybe it was driven over some dirt... Personally, I'm not comfortable driving a car that takes more than 10 seconds to get to 60 MPH. According to the Wikipedia, it's failing miserably and all companies (including the original) are backing out.

Don't manufacturers have to produce parts for 10 years after a vehicle is discontinued? That may vary by country and company...