Best car to buy? Honda? Kia? Hyundai?

[BigusSchmuck]

A used 2006 Prius. Seriously, I put 40,000 miles on it and had to do minimal maitenance such as oil changes and transmission fluid flush. 75k and going strong. Enough said.

[spenoza]

I would be worried about remaining battery capacity in a 10 year old Prius. Most Priuses have a 10-year, 150,000 mile warranty on the battery, and those suckers are PRICEY to replace.

[bartre]

I would be worried about remaining battery capacity in a 10 year old Prius. Most Priuses have a 10-year, 150,000 mile warranty on the battery, and those suckers are PRICEY to replace.

I forget the year, but sometime in the mid 00s they changed the design.
Now you can simply replace the bad cells.
It's MUCH cheaper now.

[BigusSchmuck]

I would be worried about remaining battery capacity in a 10 year old Prius. Most Priuses have a 10-year, 150,000 mile warranty on the battery, and those suckers are PRICEY to replace.

From what I understand the batteries on these things have a relatively low failure rate. When I bought mine 2 years ago from the dealership, they told me they warrantied the battery at 150,000 miles. This article is a good read for buying used priuses. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1065557_buying-a-used-toyota-prius-heres-what-you-need-to-know/page-3

[spenoza]

Well, that sounds promising. Thanks for enlightening me. Now all we need is one that's all wheel drive for the bad weather parts of the country.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Probably gonna get a slightly used Honda Fit or a Kia Soul the way things are looking with the various suggestions from ya'll as well as from others I spoke to in person.  I just hope we don't get overly raped on turning in our Fiat.  I know they dropped the price on those, & we still owe plenty on it, so they'll have to roll it into our payment.  Trying to keep our payment low ofcoarse.  I think we both have great credit unless something changed recently.  Deffinitely want something that will run forever, since my wife's current job puts on some decent miles.  She said she wouldn't be opposed to a Yaris(which is what I'm driving) but it would have to be a 5 door & automatic(of which mine is a 3 door manual).  She had foot surgery that never fully healed, so it's got to be automatic for her sake.

[CPTRAVE]

Probably gonna get a slightly used Honda Fit or a Kia Soul the way things are looking with the various suggestions from ya'll as well as from others I spoke to in person.  I just hope we don't get overly raped on turning in our Fiat.  I know they dropped the price on those, & we still owe plenty on it, so they'll have to roll it into our payment.  Trying to keep our payment low ofcoarse.  I think we both have great credit unless something changed recently.  Deffinitely want something that will run forever, since my wife's current job puts on some decent miles.  She said she wouldn't be opposed to a Yaris(which is what I'm driving) but it would have to be a 5 door & automatic(of which mine is a 3 door manual).  She had foot surgery that never fully healed, so it's got to be automatic for her sake.

You should try to sell your fiat yourself, the dealership will Rape you on this. If you do decide to trade it in, make sure you do not get scammed, they may say "Well I can't lower the price to much on the new car because I am giving you this much for your car" (SCAM) You are actually doing two deals, selling your car to them and buying a new car from them.

[syphic]

I agree with Bigus, I have a Lexus CT200H basically a Prius with Lexus wrapping. Love the car. No issues so far. Also the day you need battery repairs, a lot of times its just one of the cells gone bad or the battery contacts need cleaning. Don't take it to the stealership when you get issues and are out of warranty. Im in Socal and there is a tech who comes to your place and diagnoses and repairs any hybrid battery problems  and the cost is way below taking it to the stealer who will want to replace the entire battery.

I also own a BMW Z4. 250, 000 miles and still going strong with only a couple of common repairs that didn't really cost much. Solid Engine. My Buddy is Korean and he says stay away from Korean cars.

[Flare65]

I work in field service and I'm on my third company car in almost 6 years with the company.  I average about 33-43K miles a year for work.  My company pays all gas, maintenance, insurance, tolls, and plate fees.  I do get to use the car for personal use and they cover all the gas.  I am taxed on my personal mileage, which I have to log into a website at the end of the month.

Here is what I've had so far an my impressions of each.  All were issued to me brand new with less than 5 miles on the ODO.

2011 Ford Taurus SEL.  Ride quality is phenomenal.  Best by ride quality out of all three cars I have had so far.  Feels like you are driving a CAR, not a go kart.  Very comfortable for long trips.  Titanic gas tank.  Trunk is huge, even before you fold down the rear seats.  Only issue in the 88K miles I had it was a rear brake caliber had seized up, which was fixed under warranty.  Overall fit and finish of the car feels solid.  Decent power out of the V6 engine.  I would love to try driving the SHO version of this car to see what the twin turbo feels like.

2013 Toyota Camery.  Nice car.  Feels like driving a go kart.  Ride quality is OK...but no where near as nice as the Taurus.  My company has mandated 4 cylinder cars for all techs now so this one didn't have the power of the V6.  Decent gas mileage.  Slightly better than the Taurus on the highway.  Absolutely zero mechanical issues in the 90K I had it.  I really liked the iPod hookup that the radio had and its easy to navigate your whole iPod without ever taking your hands off the steering wheel - kinda important to me as I listed to a ton of podcasts on the road!  Easy to park, back up.  Trunk size is OK.

2016 Toyota Rav4 XLE (my current company vehicle)
To me, this just feels like a Camery in a SUV skin.  Not very fast.  Upper 20's for MPG on the highway.  I had a powertrain malfunction the same day I drove it off the dealer lot.  Basically there was some issue with the All wheel drive and the car was stuck running in the 2wheel mode.  The dealership said they are used to seeing this issue with Rav4s with 60K or more, not one with 55 miles on the ODO.  They fixed it and it hasn't happened since.  I just turned over 19K on the car and I've had it since November of last year.  I like the sunroof, the power rear hatch function, and the All Wheel drive function in the winter  (only works up to 35mph).  Sadly, the radio controls for the iPod are nowhere near as nice as the Camery.  I find myself taking my hand of the wheel to fuss with the dash touch panel to find playlists and podcast while I drive.

I don't know anything about the Honda Fit so can't comment on it.

[ParanoiaDragon]

We tried a plethora of cars.  Can't remember em' all.  We first ended up on Saturday getting a 2013 Prius with 25k on it, but going up a major grade on the way home, it was choking.  My wife had the peddle to the metal, & it was barely staying at 60 mph.  Also, it took awhile to even get the gas mileage it promised it could do, which technically was 46 Highway/53 City. Still, the lack of power really killed it for us.  I wish going up that grade was part of the test drive.

Thankfully, they have a 5 day return policy, so we turned it in for a 2014 Altima with 43k on it for the same price.  So far so good, we're liking the car, & it went up that grade like a champ!  Decent gas mileage & really comfortable inside.  We'll probably stick with this one(4 days to return it).  Also, we had zero problems thus far with Car Max, it was stupidly easy, a lot better then a regular dealership.  Infact, I don't think I ever want to go to a regular dealership ever again!  Obviously it would be nice to cut out the middle man, but, I feel safer with warranty's & such, especially after the nightmare that was our Fiat!

[xelement5x]

A little late here I guess, but I will also say that TrueCar is a pretty solid service as well for comparing prices. 

[BigusSchmuck]

This is a good article on the costs of maintenance over the lifetime of a car.
http://priceonomics.com/which-cars-cost-the-most-and-least-to-maintain-as/

[Necromancer]

I wonder what there data is actually based upon.  I'm not going to say a Mustang, 328i, Explorer, or Grand Cherokee are particularly reliable cars, but how in the heck would you spend ~$25k in maintenance in 150k miles?

[SignOfZeta]

It's $300 for a trans oil service on my VW. I can't imagine how much it runs at the BMW dealership. Some of the upscale Mustangs are $100,000 + now so I'm sure they've invented extra expensive items for them too. Tires are $1500-2000 a set on some cars now and might only last 10,000 miles.

When you go to buy your car ask them for a print out of all OEM specified maintenance for the first 100,000 miles. Ask them what tires cost. Ask them how many services require a dealer.

[Necromancer]

The priciest Mustang is a GT350R at $68,660 with every available factory option; the only way you'd get to $100k is with aftermarket suppliers.  Either way, it's disingenuous to base such an article on a tiny percentage of models sold instead of the maintenance schedule and parts for 95% of models sold.