Daughter wants a fun car, dad wants something more practical.

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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Currently, she now uses the wife’s old 2009 Toyota RAV4 with 260,000 miles on it. I feel it has reached the end of its useful life. I have offered to go halvsies with my daughter to get her a better, more reliable vehicle. Under $20k, looking for suggestions of something that’s fun but still will do the job of safely, reliability commuting to her clinical rotations. Manual transmissions are an option.
 
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I’ve been down this road with my own two kids. And actually, my parents went down this road with me many years ago. What worked for all of us was finding a sporty “looking” car, with a very small engine. Lol.
For me, it was a 1979 Firebird that had a Buick V6 in it. Probably only had a little over 100 hp. Looked fantastic, but was slow as hell. For my son, it was a Dodge charger that had the smallest V6 in it. Sounded and looked like it was gonna squeal the tires, but couldn’t spin them on a snowy day. For my daughter, it was a mustang with a four-cylinder. What a dog that car was! Lol.
 
I forget the exact year, probably 2015-2017, you could get the Elantra GT with a 173 hp engine and a 6 spd manual.
Civic hatch also a good option.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Currently, she now uses the wife’s old 2009 Toyota RAV4 with 260,000 miles on it. I feel it has reached the end of its useful life. I have offered to go halvsies with my daughter to get her a better, more reliable vehicle. Under $20k, looking for suggestions of something that’s fun but still will do the job of safely, reliability commuting to her clinical rotations. Manual transmissions are an option.
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Funny you asked. I recently bought a used 2020 Chevy Spark LS from somebody desperate to get rid of it because he lost his license due to a medical condition. I couldn't pass up the deal. It has a continuous velocity variable transmission that is super smooth and gives me around 40 MPG on the freeway. I would get one with a cruise control, though. Otherwise, it's hard to keep a steady speed because it feels and sounds the same at 65 or 80. You can turn it on a dime and it even drives well in snow (so far). Fun to drive. Backup cam is standard, as is a lot of other tech. Plenty of headroom. Check it out. :)
 
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Morgan3820 said:
Currently, she now uses the wife’s old 2009 Toyota RAV4 with 260,000 miles on it. I feel it has reached the end of its useful life. I have offered to go halvsies with my daughter to get her a better, more reliable vehicle.
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What makes you suspect that? Just curious. Those are notorious for exceeding 300k miles easily. As far as finding a better, more reliable vehicle? I’m not sure how you could find anything more reliable than a RAV4.
 
I personally wouldn’t put my college age daughter in anything smaller than a mid-size sedan. Small cars and new drivers can be a deadly combination.

Used Accords and Camrys are everywhere and will be reliable. Our daughter is running a 7 year old 100,000mi Ford Fusion, it’s been solid so far.
 
RyanB said:
What makes you suspect that? Just curious. Those are notorious for exceeding 300k miles easily. As far as finding a better, more reliable vehicle? I’m not sure how you could find anything more reliable than a RAV4.
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Don’t listen to him… you’re right. It’s DONE. Where will you be disposing of it… Askin for a friend!

ANON
 
Bill said:
I’ve owned two VWs, models ten years apart. Both started coming from together at 50,000mi. Never again.
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Similar experience but the kicker was the service from two different dealerships. They should hand out bite rags when you walk (and you're going to *walk*) into the service department. And there's more, but I'll restrain myself.

Nauga,
the elephant
 
RyanB said:
What makes you suspect that? Just curious. Those are notorious for exceeding 300k miles easily. As far as finding a better, more reliable vehicle? I’m not sure how you could find anything more reliable than a RAV4.
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There's a difference between how long a vehicle will go and how long it will go with significant effort to keep it going (at least with the functions working), and that doesn't take into account interior showing significant signs of wear. Any of those can be good reasons for moving on.

The car I've owned that handled all of this the best was my 2003 Mercedes E55. We bought it with 190k, sold it around 230k. Put very little into it overall, but it had been dealer maintained by the previous owner and was basically all highway miles. Then the new owner had the harmonic damper/balancer come from together 2 days after buying it from me (he was cool about it, but just wanted to know if I knew any good parts suppliers).
 
If she doesn't need a ton of space, get a Ford Mustang. Plenty of those available used under $20K, with manual trans (if desired), and the EB 4-banger is no slouch with over 300HP. No reason one wouldnt last for 200K with proper maintenance.

Camaro is a competing option, but the blind spots/visibility is terrible compared to the Mustang, imo.
 
It's pretty hard to beat Nissan for bang for the buck. You can get a lot newer Sentra or Versa for the same price as a Civic or Corolla, and they're just as reliable.
 
Personal Experience:

Lincoln MKS (2010): FWD sedan with (just) enough handling and power to be fun. Very practical with a nice trunk and five seats. Uses the same (V6) engine as the Mustang, but keep on top of spark plugs or you'll have to pull the intake to change them and coils.

Taurus (1992): Lighter than the Lincoln, less powerful but still fun. However, if you go this route (which I doubt), don't let me within the same county or it will fall apart faster than you can say, "Fix or Repair Daily."

Miata (2016): The very definition of fun to drive. Limited usefulness with a small trunk and less than half the seats of the other two.

Crown Vic (/Town Car/Grand Marquis): I always enjoyed driving mine, but it's probably less sporty than she wants.

No Experience:

Veloster (Hyundai): These are available with manual or automatic, are very practical (hatchbacks), and the turbo models are plenty fun.

Civic: If the Miata is the definition of fun, this is the definition of reliability. Not bad drivers (according to what I've read), and again available in manual or automatic.
 
Personally I've owned several makes and models and there is no real difference in how reliable they are until you get to Luxury car levels. Sure there are bad ones occasionally but when it comes to main stream cars the perceived reliability would be at the bottom of my consideration list. A VW golf is a solid suggestion but if there was a main stream car brand that gave me pause it would be VW. Being in NC AWD isn't important but I would avoid RWD only unless she is a really competent driver. A Mazda 3 Turbo would probably be my suggestion. It will be a more reliable Golf that's well within budget.

If she wants an SUV, the Kia Soul was offered with a turbo engine that was pretty fun or the Hyundai Kona. The CX5 was offered with a 2.5 Turbo I believe as well.

Honestly though you could probably stretch the budget a little you can get a brand new Honda Civic Sport with a hatch and a manual for 27k which is probably the direction I would take. That or find a slightly used latest gen Acura Integra.
 
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nauga said:
Similar experience but the kicker was the service from two different dealerships. They should hand out bite rags when you walk (and you're going to *walk*) into the service department. And there's more, but I'll restrain myself.

Nauga,
the elephant
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Been there, done that, with VW. I replaced my last VW with a Honda about 2 weeks after the VW's final trip to the dealer service department. The service dept visit was a causal factor in abandoning the brand. I haven't looked back...
 
I'm on year #8 of my VW GTI. The only unscheduled maintenance item was a seeping water pump, which was covered by a warranty extension in the TSB.

I have no complaints about the dealer either. They've done almost all of my oil changes, mainly because they usually put out a coupon that's too good to pass up.

That said, my philosophy on vehicle reliability comes down a few things, some of which are:

1. Toyota has built ~300 million cars. They can't all be home runs.
2. Anecdotal evidence is just that.
3. I don't care if brand X cars are reliable. I care if *my* brand X car is reliable.
4. A less-than-reliable car will make me unhappy a few times a year. A car that doesn't drive the way I like will make me unhappy every day.
 
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What does she want? After all it will be her car. How about ask her what models she's interested in and we can give feedback on the exact model including up / down votes and horror stories regarding the model.
One thing I would avoid is any model with a CVT transmission.
 
Tough place to be in. When our daughter decided what she wanted did not intersect with what we provided, it was the point where we as parents asked not how we could help, but whether she wanted our help at all.

That led to a good conversation on boundaries.
 
FORANE said:
One thing I would avoid is any model with a CVT transmission.
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The CVT’s of today are not the same ones of the past. Honda and Toyota have just about perfected them and I like Toyota’s especially with the physical first gear that helps eliminate the strain from moving from a stop.

They get a bad rep from Renault’s failure with them, but I wouldn’t object to a CVT now.
 
Last year I spoke with a lady who ran a transmission shop for 40 years. She said the Nissan CVT was the worst one out there.
 
First question, what is her definition of fun? My eldest was driving a 9 year old Jeep, which had been repeatedly throwing the same check engine light, for an evaporative emissions relay. She doesn’t live with us, and doesn’t seem to want to take it to a local mechanic, instead wanting me to take care of it when she’s here . I’ve been doing that, but she’s not here enough to where I could get it to the same shop more than once. Every time it went to another shop, they would replace the same relay and a few later the check engine light would come back on. This happened once too often and my wife, who never liked the Jeep insisted it be replaced , so we went shopping.

Now, my idea of fun would be a Civic SI or a Toyota 86 , but hers was a Bronco Sport. With used car prices being what they are, we got her a 2023 demo. It came with 1.9 percent financing, which pretty much closed the price with a used one.

She’s thrilled, my wife is happy , and she now has a 10 year warranty and a maintenance contract.
 
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Morgan3820 said:
Currently, she now uses the wife’s old 2009 Toyota RAV4 with 260,000 miles on it. I feel it has reached the end of its useful life. I have offered to go halvsies with my daughter to get her a better, more reliable vehicle. Under $20k, looking for suggestions of something that’s fun but still will do the job of safely, reliability commuting to her clinical rotations. Manual transmissions are an option.
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Mazda sedan of any variety. Reliable, efficient and “zoom zoom” fun to drive. I bought a 10 year old 3 for my daughter with 60k miles for just under 10k. It will easily get through the college years and a while afterwards.

Edit: the six is bigger and up market from the three but still reasonable in price in my opinion. I would look at the Mazda six.
 
Go for the ultimate low key status symbol, a Tesla Model X with a yellow "student driver" sticker on it.

Or is that "learner driver"? Is our learners learning?
 
I think a used Nissan Leaf is the best value on the market today. Zero scheduled maintenance, easy charging at home, very smooth and quiet, adequate acceleration, and no gas expenses. An amazing machine.
 
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