I don't know anything about engine compartment space, but my father just sent me his Consumer Reports Automobile Annual Issue last week. If you'd like, I could tell you what cars are the best in terms of reliability for different price ranges, hopefully saving you the problem of having to work on the engine.
Going off memory - the Geo Prism and the later Chevy Prism were both top cars in their respective categories (one was under $4,000, the other must have been 4-6K or 8K). Not sexy choices per se, but good cars. Of course, Hondas were up there as well.
|