its vauxhall cavalier here

I agree about the Japanese cars. I currently have a Corolla, and I LOVE it.

Whatever you do, DON'T buy a CHEVY. Sorry, but I owned one (a Blazer) and my friend owned some car (don't remember her model), and we both spent a fortune in car repairs. I had my Blazer for 2 years, it was 7 years old when I got it, and I spent almost $8000 in car repairs in that 2 years. To compare, my parents had a Toyota, and it never needed any repairs (except for regular maintenance), and it was 10 years old.

Nissan's are good too, that's what my parents own now.

If you know someone with a subscription to Consumer Reports, ask them to borrow the annual car buying book. It'll break down for you the ups and downs of all models, including what you can expect to pay for repairs. The library might have a copy too.
Also, check out here and here.

[ 12-31-2003, 08:24 AM: Message edited by: harleyquinn ]

I've owned a couple Chevy's, they're not as bad a car as many make them out to be. As I said, the Grand Am didn't need a single repair in the 5 years (almost 100,000 miles) I owned it. My Z28 has had a transmission problem and an intake oil leak repaired since 96 (bought new). The transmission problem might have been due to the fact that the car has 200 more horsepower than what it started with [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Overall Chevy has been pretty good for me. My Subaru just went in for $1200.00 in engine repairs with only 60k on the odometer, and don't get me going on the Audi I owned (NIGHTMARE)... so it's not just Chevy that can have reliability issues. Damn cars... they're ALL a bloody waste of money ;) .

[ 12-31-2003, 09:17 AM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

I totally agree with that statement. I think it's rediculous that the "low end" cars are now over $10000 when you add in taxes, etc.

Thanks for your help even if it was just mostly telling me waht cars not to get.
Yeah i will also have to consider insurance etc.
But i would like a reasonably nice car that i wouldn't be ashamed of, but also echonomichal. Reliability isn't too much of an issue as there are somewhat of mechanichs in my family and i would like to learn more about cars myself, so long as it doesn't break down at bad times.

I feel the domestics (such as chevy) do get a bad rap. Cars these days are MUCH more reliable, and comparing a complex 4x4 vehicle (like the Jimmy) to a FWD passenger car (like the Corrolla) just isn't a fair comparison.

Look back even 20 years, and it was very common to scrap cars that were even 5 years old, let alone 7 or 8. Complaining about having to fix a 7 year-old car also is not very fair.

And just because one person you know has owned a car for 10 years without repairs, but only drives it 10,000km a year doesn't mean the car is any better than a 7 year old car that needs fixing at 200,000km. There are a lot of factors to consider here.

People these days suffer from what I call "the McDonalds mentality"...have it your way, right away. They have unrealistic expectations from their vehicles; they don't maintain them, abuse them, and then complain that the car breaks down.

A funny little anecdote...we had a customer in a while ago that had a shake at highway speed, I showed her the loose tierod ends and told her it would cost $120 + taxes to fix. Roughly $60 for parts, and another $60 for labour. Bear in mind, this is the person that decided to "give the car a treat and do an oil change this year", and has never spent anything on the car in the previous six years she owned it (and this car is a chevy, btw). She clutched her chest and staggered back "I CAN'T PAY THAT!".

A week later she was driving a brand new $35,000 car. :rolleyes:

Gotta love it. I'm getting ready to spend another $400 on my car (front-end brakes... the works), after spending a couple of hundred on other miscellaneous stuff that needed repairing.

Still, the car is paid off, and all that money is less than two car payments were... I'm still coming out ahead. And it's a 2000 model [img]smile.gif[/img]

EXACTLY!

If you have a car that's seven or eight years old, chances are it's paid off. If you have to spend $1000-2000 to fix it, that's two months payments on a $30,000 vehicle. Yet, there are people out there that would rather trade it and buy a brand new car than fix it. Go figure....

Get a AMC Pacer lol looks like an greenhouse hehe :D

haven't been on for ages,
anyway thanks heaps for your replies
still not ready to buy just yet but your advice is helpfull
thankyou