By Martin Jansen, Owner of Jansen-PCINFO
Owning a car in the United States is expensive, no way around it. In NorthEast Wisconsin, you need reliable transportation, but public transportation is inadequate to take us everywhere we want to be in a reasonable time period.
That leaves us with owning a vehicle to get us from point A to point B. If that vehicle can transport us in relative comfort and is fun to drive, that is a bonus.
Car Costs
In addition to the initial money down expense of buying a used car costs include:
- Monthly lease or loan payments
- Maintenance
- Fuel or Electricity
- Insurance
Depending on how much the car is driven the expenses, especially maintenance and fuel can put a significant dent in anyone’s budget.
Reliability
When considering the purchase of a used car, I prefer to focus on a reliable brand or make. According to Consumer Reports, in general, Honda, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota have proven to be reliable brands. In addition the luxury brands of each manufacturer are also considered to be reliable such as Lexus, but maintenance costs on luxury brands are often higher.
Unfortunately traditional American brands such as Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford lag in reliability according to Consumer Reports.
European brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen rank slightly above American cars when looking at reliability. Asian brands such as Hyundai and KIA started out as less reliable, but quality is steadily improving.
Models
Certain models are exceptionally reliable over others in a car brand. Toyota Camry and RAV4, Honda Accord and CRV are proven to have long term reliability. In small cars, the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Subaru Crosstek and Mazda 3 are considered reliable. Toyota Avalon was the reliability winner in large cars, but has been replaced by the Toyota Crown.
Fun to Drive
I recently purchased a copy of Car and Driver’s new car review. Car and Driver likes to focus on the fun part of driving a vehicle. Most new small cars are underpowered according to Car and Driver, but they do like the new Toyota Prius AWD.
In general, however, they don’t like the practical fuel efficiency of most Toyota’s in favor of Honda’s which pack a little more horsepower under the hood. An American car, like the Chevrolet Trax, which is underpowered, is rated as a Car and Driver Top 10. The Trax, by the way, is manufactured in Korea.
Indeed American brands may be made in different countries composed from parts all over the world. And some “foreign” cars may be made in the United States by American workers.
Overall Car and Driver favors powerful cars and is not price or reliability sensitive.
Searching for a Used Car
When searching for a used car, start with a location close to you, the brand and model of car that you want and then set a price you are willing to pay. This can be done on many websites:
Let’s say our family was looking for a used car for my wife. She currently has a 2009 Honda Fit in a dark purple color that she loves. It’s small and has a convenient hatchback. She mostly drives around town, rarely taking it on the highway. Steering is very tight and the car accelerates quickly, but you feel every bump in the road.
A newer reliable used car would cost between 10 to 20 thousand dollars – prices have been up since the pandemic. The car would have to be another hatchback, a small SUV or car would work. My wife tells me that the Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 seem too big for her and sedans are out. That leaves us with several makes and models to consider:
- Honda Civic hatchback
- Honda HR-V
- Mazda 3 hatchback
- Subaru Impreza
- Subaru Crosstrek
- Toyota Corolla hatchback
- Toyota Corolla Cross
- Toyota Prius (hybrid)
And if I really wanted to consider all options I might explore the Chevrolet Bolt or Nissan Leaf which are electric vehicles. By the way, Wisconsin taxes EVs and hybrids alike for their lack of visiting gas stations enough and contributions to the road fund. For instance, I will pay $180 for relicensing my 2014 Toyota Prius this year.
Mileage
If a vehicle has over 100,000 miles it will not meet our threshold for reliability regardless of the age of the car. Yes, good makes and models have reported over 200,000 miles, but we don’t want a car that will cost us more in maintenance costs. The sweet spot for price and reliability would be between 60,000 and 80,000 miles.
With all that in mind we search our favorite website, Edmunds, which also gives reviews of the vehicles. I find the vehicles which meet my criteria and start listing their prices and URLs.
Test Drives
Now we start finding the cars and test driving them without committing to buy the vehicle despite any pressure from the sales persons. We then narrow down the choices to a few that my wife really likes.
Mechanical Inspection
Finally we make a quick appointment with mechanics that we trust to tell us if the car is worthy of purchase. Our final test drive will include a visit to the mechanic.
Conclusion
If all goes well my wife will have a car that is reliable and can be a joy to drive for years to come.