So, I know it's been discussed many times on this board . . . but here it goes again: My 2001 New Beetle just died and my families Jimmy is on its last legs. We are looking at a small, economical cars that have class/style. Looking at Mini Cooper, VW GTI, and anything else out there . . . This car will need to last 10 years and start a family. You guys got any thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Is there some other fantastic car out there that I should be looking at? Thanks in advance!
Well, small usually means less expensive. Doesn't have to be small. We will probably transition the short lived SUV into another SUV or wagon . . . and we liked the smallness of the Beetle . . . so that's why i'm starting out looking at small.
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Get a Smart Car. We need more of them, because no one ever did anything bad to someone else while a Smart Car drove by.
I guess I can appreciate people trying to consume less with their vehicles, but aren't people who drive SmartCars in Houston just a little bit scared of getting crushed to death? I don't think I'd ever want my loved ones driving around in one of those in Houston.
Well, it isn't exactly dead. Just worth less than the repairs needed. Fuel pump. Water pump. Timing belt. The list goes on.
You can get crushed to death in any car if a semi truck hits you. I would be more worried about an SUV rolling over than I would be worried about getting crushed driving a SmartCar.
That's the rap and I agree with it. My wife's 2007 Jetta (Wolfsberg Ed) just had a serious computer issue. Luckily it was under warranty and they just replaced it. Crossing my fingers that it won't happen again.
Buy something like a Honda Civic or Fit or something similar if you can. Stay away from VW's - you're just rolling dice with those things. I know Mini Coopers had poor reliability a few years ago, but not sure about recently. They've had transmission issues back in the mid-2000's (?). How many miles did you have on your VW, btw?
I've had 2 mini coopers and they are great cars as long as you can pour money into them after the warranty is up. Both of mine had serious issues. The first needed 2 sets of throwing bearings and the second had a supermcharger water pump pulley fail and BMWNA tried to weasel out of repairing my blown engine. I finally got them to fix it than a week later after I got it back I started hearing the knocking of the throwing bearing in the tranny so I cut my loses and traded it in. Great fun cars to drive... Long term reliability no.
