Subaru - Great car, AWD, inexpensive, good service. Once you go suby, you don't go back. Honda/Acura - Reliable cars with a bit more pizazz than Toyotas. Nissan/Infiniti - Been making a strong push these past years with great cars. Toyota/Lexus - GReat and reliable cars, but just too boring for me.
Doh, I didn't see that you already got your car. Toyotas are great vehicles, and extremely reliable. Enjoy your car!
#1 BMW They are the Best Cars I have ever driven and owned. I have owned just about every car make on the road.
That may not be a bad price. Depends on the version of the Corolla you got - I see there's an S, LE, CE, and XRS.
If your so interested, here is a 7 article report on the Car Industry from the Economist. http://www.economist.com/surveys/showsurvey.cfm?issue=20040904 I'm only half way through it so far but in a nutshell, The Japanese are kicking a** and GM & Ford are in big trouble. Also interesting to note that Toyota is valued higher than GM, Ford, VW & DaimlerChrysler ALL COMBINED.
I haven't read the article, but my guess would be that Toyota's sales outlook is glowing due to their strong footprint in largest growth market - China. And it appears their choice to sponsor the team w/ Yao was masterfully orchestrated...
A good buy??? You got a car for free and you want to know if it was a good buy? I've bought my first car at 15 and have bought everyone since then myself. Go cook your Aunt dinner, buy her some flowers, wash her car, change her oil, gas it up and then tell her how thankful you are. She bought you a car that will last you as long as you want it to if you take care of it. Congrats on the new ride. Thats one hell of an Aunt.
BMW Mercedes Audi (Lamburghini) I hate Chevies, and I hate Fords, even though I own a Lincoln Navigator (Ford) and a Trans Am (Chevy?) I started hating them afeter they started breaking down on me. Actually the Navigator has spring coils problems, and the TA is okay for a 1999 but the hustle of attracting cops that think I'm speading, and people driving little Hondas that want to race me at every other stop light, they think they have sport cars just because they got the big ass wings and the huge exausht that only makes noise. It gets annoying after four years of the same so my car of choice right now would be a BMW M5, not many people would wanna mess with that. I don't know why people want to mess with my TA though cuz i got 450 hp, which also gets annoying because its hard to just cruise around without making engine noise. M5 would be the best car for me right now.
Mann, ask your aunt if she will adopt me, my uncle bought me a 94 mercury tracer for 300 dollars, it had 140, 000 miles on it, and it stalled at stop signs, traffic lights, etc. It was automatic... O yea and I had to pay him half of it back
btw 14 g's for a fully loaded toyota seems a pretty good price. heck a 1997 corolla is going for 7-9 g's around here. so the resale value is also great.
It isn't fully loaded. It didn't come with leather (that's good to me though) and there were a few other options left off but it came with just about everything else.
I think JP Power, Edmunds and Consumer Reports give really good, fairly unbiased advice. Honda and Toyota would be my top two. One cavout though, their dealers are often the hardest to work with. Nissan and Mazda make fine products two, very good long term reliability on most makes, just not quite up with Honda and Toyota. That said, if the dealers are being more flexible (e.g., discounting a Maxima more than a V6 Accord or Camry, a V4 Altima more than the V4 Accord or Camry, Protege more than a Civic or Corolla, for instance), they might be worth it. I also doubt you will find better trucks than the Titan and Tundra. The other Japanese makes (Mitz, Suzuki, Izuzu) have much more spotty records and inconsistent products like American makes and European makes. Suburu kind has a niche market they are good at, but unless you need 4WD (snowy weather, terrible roads) why bother. Value wise I do agree not much beats aHyundai--very solid products and great prices. I wouldn't throw out domestics or European makes, but you are taking more reliability risks. You might be able to get a good discount (thousands off + zero loans) on domestics making them worthwhile (Actual cost after discounts to you for a new F-150 cheaper than a Titan or Tundra?)--but otherwise their is little reason to get them over Asian counterparts. Europeans makes can also be hard to get parts. But if you would rather have the performance (particularly handling) and finish, and don't mind taking on reliability and expense risks-sure look to them.
