What Car Should I Buy? - A Weekly Megathread

Posted by AutoModerator@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 26 comments

Any posts pertaining to car buying suggestions or advice belong in this weekly megathread; do not post car-choosing questions in the main queue. A fresh thread will be posted every Monday and posts auto sorted by new. A few other subreddits worth checking out that will help your car buying experience are /r/WhatCarShouldIBuy, /r/UsedCars and /r/AskCarSales. www.everydaydriver.com may also be helpful.

Make/Model-specific questions should be asked on Make/Model-specific subreddits. Check the AutosNetwork for a complete list of those subreddits. Also check out our community-sourced Ultimate car buying wiki.

For those posting:

Please use the following template in your post.

Location: (Specify your country or region)

Price range: (Minimum-Maximum in your local currency)

Lease or Buy:

New or used:

Type of vehicle: (Truck, Car, Sports Car, Sedan, Crossover, SUV, Racecar, Luxury etc.)

Must haves: (4x4, AWD, Fuel efficient, Navigation, Turbo, V8, V6, Trunk space, Smooth ride, Leather etc.)

Desired transmission (auto/manual, etc):

Intended use: (Daily Driver, Family Car, Weekend Car, Track Toy, Project Car, Work Truck, Off-roading etc.)

Vehicles you've already considered:

Is this your 1st vehicle:

Do you need a Warranty:

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: (fluids, alternator, battery, brake pads etc)

Can you do Major work on your own vehicle: (engine and transmission, timing belt/chains, body work, suspension etc )

Additional Notes:

For those providing suggestions: Facts are ideal in this thread, especially when trying to help out a new car buyer. Please help out buyers with sources and reasoning for your suggestions.

For those asking for help, be sure to thank those who take the time to offer you advice (especially those who lead you to a purchase.) A follow up thank you and the knowledge that their advice led to a purchase is a very warm fuzzy feeling.

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RuleOfSeventyTwo@reddit

Location: US/ Atlanta GA area

Price range: 25-40k

Lease or Buy: Buy

New or used: New or CPO

Type of vehicle: Small SUV/Hatchback

Must haves: Good to high fuel efficiency, reliable, comfortable for longer drives, AWD a plus,

Desired transmission (auto/manual, etc): Auto/CVT

Intended use: Main vehicle, lower annual miles (\~7k), 60% in-town, 40% highway. Plan to keep for 10+ years

Vehicles you've already considered: Rav4, Cr-V, Civic Hybrid,

Is this your 1st vehicle: No

Do you need a Warranty: Y

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: Oil, filters

Can you do Major work on your own vehicle: No

Additional Notes: This will replace our 9yr old Impreza as the road trip vehicle. We'll keep Impreza as 2nd vehicle. My 2014 Volt (the current around town car) is nearing end of life. I enjoy "instant torque" of electric/hybrid for around town so that is something I'd like to keep.

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PretendLength1710@reddit

rav4 hybrid no cap. instant torque similar to your volt and toyota reliability is legit for the long haul

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RuleOfSeventyTwo@reddit

"No cap" ?

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PretendLength1710@reddit

yeah man no cap means for real like no lie fr

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RuleOfSeventyTwo@reddit

Got it. Another trendy phrase I can toss out when I speak with other boomers like me!

vectaur@reddit

My kid will be driving in ~5ish years and I'm batting around a new vehicle that we'd eventually hand down. We have a 4th gen Outback as our current family vehicle, but it's aging, missing quite a few safety features I'd like for the kid to have, and it's a manual which I'm guessing she will not be excited about (despite my best efforts).

Ideally something hybrid or at least amazing on gas, and big enough to comfortably haul two adults + two teens + two dogs + luggage on road trips, but not so big that a teen driver would feel like it was a land yacht. This is in the US, looking <$40k new.

Icy_Possibility9631@reddit

I think a Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid would serve you well

FaZe_moose@reddit

Location: Northeast USA

Price range: $30,000 Max budget (preferably under)

New or used: New

Type of vehicle: Sedan/hatchback or SUV

Must haves: Fuel-efficient, practical trunk space, spacious interior, smooth ride (or somewhere in the middle of being able to push the car and cruising around the streets)

Desired transmission (auto/manual, etc): Automatic

Intended use: Daily driver and family car. Overall life commuter

Is this your 1st vehicle: Yes

Do you need a Warranty: No

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: Battery changes

Additional Notes: Contenders in my dock have been a Civic, Camry, and HR-V

EquipmentFull@reddit

Location: Texas

Price range: 15-25k

New or used: used or new

Type of vehicle: sedan, coupe

Must haves: decent mpg, decently reliable

Desired transmission (auto/manual, etc): auto

Intended use: Daily Driver

Vehicles you've already considered: none yet

Is this your 1st vehicle: no

Do you need a Warranty: no

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: No

Additional Notes: If you recommend a 2 seater car, could you also throw in a 4 seater car recommendation that would fit for me?

ax87zz@reddit

Location: Northeastern USA

Price range: 40-55k

New or used: used

Type of vehicle: sedan

Must haves: n/a

Vehicles you've already considered: RS3

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: yes

Can you do Major work on your own vehicle: no

Additional Notes: looking for a sedan similar to an RS3, id like something on the more reliable side

scycron@reddit

RS3 is about as reliable as it gets for German. You could go S3 for lower costs. Otherwise you would have to go Japanese like an Acura TLX Type-S

Gotcha pretty much what I was thinking. Although I’m considering looking into a Panamera

Panamera is a completely different car segment than the RS3. They are very large (2 feet longer) and tuned for comfort while the RS3 is a compact tuned for sport with a harsher ride. The panamera is also significantly more expensive to maintain and has worse resale. I would not recommend it based on your initial ask of a more reliable RS3.

Lumpy-Zombie-7747@reddit

In the UK, North England, £20-30k.

Choosing between an MX-5 RF (A Mazda Miata hard-top) and a Toyota GR86 and then upgrading that from stock. I have a girlfriend, but really don’t use more than 4 seats all the time. Currently have a mazda 3. Was thinking of the MX-5 as the UK has lots of nice curved roads which is meant to be where you get a lot of joy from the MX-5. The GR86 I feel could be a nice balance between practicality and fun with room for upgrades. I am not the best driver in the world and thought maybe the MX-5 could help me learn to be better, but then maybe I could handle the GR86?

DarkContractor@reddit

The Miata is way too small to do anything a daily driver would do. It's a great second car in my opinion.

leftlanespawncamper@reddit

I dailied a ZZW30 MR2. People daily motorcycles. You can easily daily an MX-5 if you want to, but it does require some compromises and you may occasionally need to rent something.

Both are great cars. If this is your only car I would go GR86. It's not really about having 4 seats but the storage space in the miata is really bad even for simple shopping.

It is my only car! I’m afraid you might be right. Doing a road trip around Scotland this Spring and already worried about having enough space in the back to survive a week on the road

No_Sheepherder3508@reddit

I am shopping around for a tacoma and looking at a 2023 with 20K miles Trd off road, and its comes out 45k after taxes. Is this reasonable or it it too much? I am a first time buyer and wasnt too sure if this is a good deal or not. This is from the toyota dealer and comes with 100k warranty

thats high bro. kbb fair price on a 23 trd offroad with 20k is like 35-37k. dealer prolly marking it up cause tacomas hold value but 45k after tax is wild for used. check autotempest or carvana see what others going for in your area

That's about 5k higher then what I see in my area. Try using an aggregator website like autotempest and search around or just pay the price.

BeginningHand3423@reddit

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Price range: under 20k

New or used: Used

Type of vehicle: Sedan/sports/hatchback

Must haves: Nice interior, good mileage/electric, 360 camera, not unsafe

Desired transmission Auto

Intended use: Daily

Vehicles you've already considered: any Tesla, Hyundai Elentra 2022, porsche panamera, porsche cayenne, Mustang Mach e

Is this your 1st vehicle: yes

none

swankypants020@reddit

Hi all, looking to get a daily driver in Baltimore MD as my first car after college. I've considered Hondas (from some research 2nd gens seem to be the best) but I am wondering if there is something newer that is just as reliable that'll fit in my price range, Honda or otherwise.

Location: Baltimore MD

Price range: up to 10k

Type of vehicle: compact or sedan

Must haves: good city mpg, decent trunk space

Desired transmission automatic

Intended use: Daily driver

Vehicles you've already considered: Honda CRV, Honda Fit, Honda Civic

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: Yes

Price range: <50k euros

Lease or Buy: lease is preferred

New or used: new, or used if it's worth it

Type of vehicle: Sedan or small SUV

Must haves: EV or PHEV, due to fuel prices in Europe. Must fit in a city setting physically

Desired transmission N/A

Vehicles you've already considered: Renault 4, Renault Megane, Tesla Model Y, BYD sealion 7

Do you need a Warranty: Yes

Can you do Major work on your own vehicle: Not in this setting