I'd love to have an old Jeep CJ7 for a beater.
You literally cannot get one for less than $4k though. No matter how rusty and tired.

BZZZZZT !!! Wrong , i see them and CJ5's around here for $2500 ish all the time

We just got an Audi A3 a few weeks ago. My wife tried the A4 and decided it was too big. I think the A3 is slightly smaller than the Subaru Impreza Outback Sport that it is replacing.

We drive in a lot of snowy, icy, blizzardy weather (all of that just this weekend), and it handles great - even better than the Subaru. It also gets fairly good gas mileage (~27 mpg, so far).

We haven't had it long enough to evaluate the reliability or maintenance costs.

Thanks guys. The windstar acts as our pick-up. Any pick-up truck would be too big for the second car -we need all the space (such as it is) inside the car for the odd occasion when all 5 of us need to ride in it.

Tony that's a lovely thing to share. Both our cars have been paid off for many years and we treat them the same. The Windstar also has snow shovel lines. :lol:

We just got the windstar back out of the shop, hurrah! and our friend lent us a Toyota truck from the Flintstone era :lol:

Yup. They are both a little tight for me. But not everyone is built like me, 6'6" and mostly torso.

I liked them otherwise. I had a Kia Rondo that I foolishly got rid of early this year. It was rock-solid reliable and cheap to repair (Honda parts or something?).

beest is 6'2" and mostly beestly...... the focus had great leg room for a small car... but if you got in the at 6'6" there maybe hope for him....

thanks

We love Leslie's Honda Fit. Actually *very* comfortable for both front seat occupants, and holds an amazing amount of crap for a car that small. Tiny engine, but cunningly geared, so it gets up and moves like a car needs to. Well worth investigating.

Cool, thanks -it's a hatchback, right?

Yes. 30 mpg average city/highway. The rear seats fold totally flat, and if you slide the front passenger seat forward and lay it down, you have nearly a full seven feet on that side of flat cargo space. If I didn't have a trailer to haul once in a while, I'd definitely consider one myself.

sounds really good -beest said his boss recommended it also. thanks, we will most definitely test drive.

Go to your local library and check out last April's Consumer Reports. They will tell you the good, bad, and the ugly of most cars available. Don't just look at the scores, though. Look at the text for each of the cars you're interested in.

If you have the money to spend, get a year's subscription to the online site. If you do some digging you can find out the dealers invoice figure for most models as well.

Go to your local library and check out last April's Consumer Reports. They will tell you the good, bad, and the ugly of most cars available. Don't just look at the scores, though. Look at the text for each of the cars you're interested in.

If you have the money to spend, get a year's subscription to the online site. Digging around on the site, I found the dealer's invoice price for the Honda Accord we wanted.

Beest sat in a Fiesta today and was impressed by the headroom, but apparently there is maybe only one manual avaialable in the whole of Michigan. They're phasing them out. *sigh*

dated but useful:

http://reviews.carreview.com/honda-f...ig-3s-little-3

Hey, if you can wait, Dodge is coming back out with the Dart!! :D

K Car, K Car, K Car!