Looking for a good reliable car for my 16 year old sister
 

Anybody know of a good "starter" car for sale?

Richard has a nice 87’ 911 coupe for sale. My wife tells everybody what a nice “chick car” her 87’ Carrera Targa is! :wink:

I would be the Best brother in the Universe if I got her that!!!!

I think she needs to learn on a nice economical automatic (boring) car first before joining the p-car crowd :)

Hrummph.....! :evil:

Blasphemy!

Jase.

Tiptronic.

or... "sportomatic" depending on budget. :lol:

Jase

Vu, what's your definition of reliable? I think p-cars are reliable. However, if you want it to run without periodic (and/or expensive) repairs, she should get a new or pretty new Honda Civic, whatever the budget can support. I'm not as wild about the other "starter" Japanese cars. Another choice is a VW Jetta or Golf, but I'm not experienced enough with them to know whether or not they're as reliable as a Civic. Miata's are nice, but somehow I think they're more finicky. I'm still shell-shocked from a Volvo we used to own back in the 1980's. Nice safe car but a b!tch to maintain. Other's said they like theirs so I guess I was just unlucky. I also vividly remember test driving a new small Chevy (forgot what model it was called) for Lu a number of years ago, and having the door handle and the shifter fall off when I grabbed them. So GM still scares me. I don't know diddly about Ford or Chrysler.

So Vu, does this help you any? :D

So here are the main criteria the car must fit:

-less than $10K
-safe
-fairly attractive for a teenger (no ford taurus or station wagon type vehicle)
-automatic
-not too expensive to insure

So far I've found an 1996 Infiniti G20 for $6500. As well as a Nissan Sentra SE-r for $9000.

Vu, there's a lot of 2000-2001 Civic's that you can buy for < $10k. Check www.cars.com

I'd shy away from the luxury or sport models...that way you can get her a lot newer (and most likely more reliable) and lower mileage car. Maybe even find one that's still under warranty.

My VW Jetta was a piece of trash, I would not reccomend any of the older VW's to anyone! I hear that the newer (2000 & up) VW's are a little better.

My opinion would be a Volvo the 740's and 850's are great cars. I love my 850, it has not given me any serious problems in 180,000 miles, I hear good things about BMW's, my roomate has a 325is that is a pretty cool car. I really like the old Mercedes 300D's.. I think Brian (944turbo) could chime in about how he likes his.

Jim.. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of Volvo did you have, and what was the problem with it?

~Eric