Cheapest New Car For Comfort?

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: carock
My wife and I are 'Mericans, which means we could stand to miss a meal or two. The wife is complaining that our trusty Fiat 500 simply does not fit. I was wondering what new car we should look at if comfort and low operating costs for 150k miles were our top priorities. The VW Passat seemed pretty good with a lot of room and good gas mileage, but VW reliabilty has a poor track record. Any money we save in gas gets eaten by repair bills. The Toyota Prius isn't much wider than the Fiat, so it doesn't fit either. Anything else we should be looking at? What we need is a car with lots of room in the front seats, great gas mileage, and low maintenance.

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.

 

[Shrubitup]

Originally Posted By: edyvw

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.


Do you have any brand bias? Why should cars be more difficult to maintain than a Honda Civic? Cars are an appliance. If you want excitement go drive on a track.

 

[Shrubitup]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
I'd say Camry, Accord or perhaps an Impala (I've seen some interesting prices on these advertised around here lately.)


+4 now

 

[KCJeep]

He said "cheapest", that sinks most of the Japanese stuff.

A KIA, Chevrolet or Dodge would be the place to look IMO.

 

[SatinSilver]

15k for the cheapest Certified 2012 Camry at the local dealer here with 33k miles on it.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: carock
My wife and I are 'Mericans, which means we could stand to miss a meal or two. The wife is complaining that our trusty Fiat 500 simply does not fit. I was wondering what new car we should look at if comfort and low operating costs for 150k miles were our top priorities. The VW Passat seemed pretty good with a lot of room and good gas mileage, but VW reliabilty has a poor track record. Any money we save in gas gets eaten by repair bills. The Toyota Prius isn't much wider than the Fiat, so it doesn't fit either. Anything else we should be looking at? What we need is a car with lots of room in the front seats, great gas mileage, and low maintenance.

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.
The problem with taking a VW to 200k miles is it isn't going to matter what oil you use, everything else will start to fall apart

 

[Shrubitup]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
He said "cheapest", that sinks most of the Japanese stuff.

A KIA, Chevrolet or Dodge would be the place to look IMO.


They're around $20,500 here during either Memorial Day or Labor Day sales. That's the four cylinder "base-ish" model price for a 2015 Camry.

Accord about same price "on sale". Haven't searched prices on Impala but have rented them plenty and like how they drive.

 

[carock]

Originally Posted By: edyvw

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.


I have had five VW's over the years. My properly maintained 2000 VW TDI blew up at 77k. My 2005 Golf had a tranny go, then ate a valve before 130k. Not to mention all the electrical gremlins I had to chase down. VW won't win me back until they prove they build cars that can go the distance. You can only burn a loyal customer so many times before they give up on your brand.

 

[KitaCam]

Does "comfortable" mean "soft"....? If so, the 05-06 Camry (a good pair of years for the Camry) is the softest around...too soft for me...I upsized the wheels/tires from 15" to 17ers and that has firmed up the ride a lot...still comfortable...many of these cars in good can be had for $5-7k in good nick.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
He said "cheapest", that sinks most of the Japanese stuff.

A KIA, Chevrolet or Dodge would be the place to look IMO.


They're around $20,500 here during either Memorial Day or Labor Day sales. That's the four cylinder "base-ish" model price for a 2015 Camry.

Accord about same price "on sale". Haven't searched prices on Impala but have rented them plenty and like how they drive.


If you are going to get something "comfortable" new, you are going to be at least in the low 20's.
Like you said, the base Camry is going to be in the 20k-20.5K. Accords are about the same, although one dealer around here had the 4D LX stick for The Impala is in the 25K range for the 4 cylinder, although there was a leftover '14 in the new body style advertised the other day right at 20K ($19,999) because of the progressive rebate GM is using now.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: satinsilver
15k for the cheapest Certified 2012 Camry at the local dealer here with 33k miles on it.


I think he said cheapest new car. However for comfort, I sorta like the new Mercedes C300. Not the cheapest, but lots of creature comforts that only used to be available on the E class but since they redesigned it, has lots of the same options available. Kind of a mini S class car now, even the tail lights look similar. The words cheap and comfortable don't always go together. A new C class lease starts at $369 a month though and a CPO car comes with unlimited miles for 1 year and you can buy an extra 2 years for a total of 3 years unlimited miles.

 

[ExMachina]

Cheapest comfort would have to be a Hyundai or Kia (same company). Optima hard to beat on price for that.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: carock
My wife and I are 'Mericans, which means we could stand to miss a meal or two. The wife is complaining that our trusty Fiat 500 simply does not fit. I was wondering what new car we should look at if comfort and low operating costs for 150k miles were our top priorities. The VW Passat seemed pretty good with a lot of room and good gas mileage, but VW reliabilty has a poor track record. Any money we save in gas gets eaten by repair bills. The Toyota Prius isn't much wider than the Fiat, so it doesn't fit either. Anything else we should be looking at? What we need is a car with lots of room in the front seats, great gas mileage, and low maintenance.

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.
The problem with taking a VW to 200k miles is it isn't going to matter what oil you use, everything else will start to fall apart

Lol, wondering how I hit with several of them some 300K or more.
I am currently in Europe, visiting family. My brother has business with some 20 VW's (Skoda's) and some of them have more then 300K.
Skoda I am driving while here is 1.9 105hp PD engine with approx. 180K (miles). Not burning oil, only rotors, pads, timing belt was ever changed.
But then, not all of us maintain cars same. For those that want appliance, there is always Toyota.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
Originally Posted By: edyvw

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.


Do you have any brand bias? Why should cars be more difficult to maintain than a Honda Civic? Cars are an appliance. If you want excitement go drive on a track.

Cars are not appliance.
The fact that you are asking why Passat is more difficult to maintain then Civic is why VW or some other European manufacturers have "reliability" issues.
People who think all cars are created equally. That is the real problem with European cars, that are created for customers who do NOT want appliance, but actually THINK what is under the hood and how it works.
That is precisely proven recipe on the U.S. market for Japanese customers who figured out that average American driver does not THINK what is under the hood, how it operates and why it operates that way, as long as cup holder is big enough for huge soda.

 

[Shrubitup]

Originally Posted By: edyvw

Cars are not an appliance.


For shuttling kids to/fro and commuting to work they had better be an appliance. Exceeding speed limits on any public road is against the law.

I maintain my vehicles and like to do it. Occasionally I get bummed when I don't hafta wrench on my auto-appliances so that's when I focus my wrenching to my off road race motorcycle. Its intervals are obviously higher than my auto-appliances and that's OK. I own/use it for recreation and fun. It's all in the expectation the user has of the product.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
Originally Posted By: edyvw

Cars are not an appliance.


For shuttling kids to/fro and commuting to work they had better be an appliance. Exceeding speed limits on any public road is against the law.

I maintain my vehicles and like to do it. Occasionally I get bummed when I don't hafta wrench on my auto-appliances so that's when I focus my wrenching to my off road race motorcycle. Its intervals are obviously higher than my auto-appliances and that's OK. I own/use it for recreation and fun. It's all in the expectation the user has of the product.

Against the law is driving in the left lane, but people who drive appliances are the majority that do that, with or without kids!
I would rather put my kid in car like Passat then some Hyundai or KIA. My mother in law has Honda Pilot, one of the most favorite "appliances." I always wondered how Honda made such lousy brakes, since I think actually they had to work hard to come up with something like that. Brakes of course wrapped after 40K, they had several other expenses such as AC compressor etc. But hey, it is simple to maintain.

 

[supton]

Bah. I am going from "bending" the limit in my VW to toeing the line in my Toyotas. And I do not care. I need point a to point b. Boring car is easier to drive slower. And milk the mpg.

I used VW approved oil (505.01) yet my cam was worn at 314kmiles. And despite 10k OCI (VW specified) I still blew a turbo at 255k. And I'm not sure what would have prevented the flywheel from dying at 249k. Loved the car, but it was still well worn at 300k. Just like anything else. But with expensive repairs along the way.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: supton
Bah. I am going from "bending" the limit in my VW to toeing the line in my Toyotas. And I do not care. I need point a to point b. Boring car is easier to drive slower. And milk the mpg.

I used VW approved oil (505.01) yet my cam was worn at 314kmiles. And despite 10k OCI (VW specified) I still blew a turbo at 255k. And I'm not sure what would have prevented the flywheel from dying at 249k. Loved the car, but it was still well worn at 300k. Just like anything else. But with expensive repairs along the way.
Yup, not sure what I did wrong with my VW or when my aunt owned it what she did, other than being religiously maintained at the dealership. The transmission is shifting erratically, the flywheel had to be replaced at $1,800, it needs a camshaft that'll be over $1,000, it's had some electrical gremlins that haven't costed much yet since they disappeared, it kills CV boots all the time, and the rack and pinion is wearing out (has play in it).

But it has the original front brakes at 173k miles with 3/4 pad.

Great car, right?

 

[chrisri]

Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: carock
My wife and I are 'Mericans, which means we could stand to miss a meal or two. The wife is complaining that our trusty Fiat 500 simply does not fit. I was wondering what new car we should look at if comfort and low operating costs for 150k miles were our top priorities. The VW Passat seemed pretty good with a lot of room and good gas mileage, but VW reliabilty has a poor track record. Any money we save in gas gets eaten by repair bills. The Toyota Prius isn't much wider than the Fiat, so it doesn't fit either. Anything else we should be looking at? What we need is a car with lots of room in the front seats, great gas mileage, and low maintenance.

Aaaaaand who said Passat is not reliable?
If you maintain it like Honda Civic, yes it will break down.
If you do regular oil changes etc that is listed by VW (ad USE SPECIFIED OIL) you might as well hit 200K with no issue.

I'm with Eddy on this. Last summer I had opportunity to drive previous generation Civic and latest Seat Leon 1.2 TSI (Golf VI clone). Trust me, I'm not a VW guy, but that Leon was way better car in every way, better built, better to drive and more economical.

As for famous Japanese reliability, they are NOT in Europe as they are in NA. In Europe Japanese have inconvenience of, to be competitive, need to build economical, but also power dense engines. And while they mastered building naturally aspirated 2.4 inline four with 150-170 hp in NA, they are not nearly as good in designing and building common rail diesel or turbo petrols. Actually they lag behind, both in power and refinement.
In mu opinion VW (and other Euro car manufacturers) should offer simplified cars for NA market were people priorities are different when buying (and maintaining) vehicles.

 

[supton]

Turbos and cams and flywheels are routine maintenance? Where was that in the manual? I must have missed that page. Had I known that they needed to be replaced every 200k I would not complain. But it would have been nice to see that in the schedule.