Choosing new $20k car

[EL Pistoffo]

The time is near for the wife's car replacement. Her Toyota Sienna has nearly 200k miles. The need for a minivan has passed so a more economical DD is wanted. She drives like an old lady (cob webs under the accelerator pedal) and has no trendy car aspirations aside from a/c, auto trans and backup camera. The new car would see only 6-7k miles a yr and we'll keep it for 10-15 yrs.

So what I have in mind is a car around $20k or less. Good fuel economy but more importantly, reliability (spoiled by Toyota). The cars I have in mind at the moment are the Corolla iM, Civic EX and the Kia Soul Plus.

Toyota is my number 1 for reliability with Honda probably on par. The Kia is the unknown. It's said they have very good reliability these days, very close to Toyo and Honda.

Feature wise these vehicles have their pluses and minuses. It makes it hard to choose.

Civic EX: More power than Corolla. Better entertainment system. Lacks safety system which is standard on Corolla.

Corolla iM: Standard safety system, tight suspension, legendary reliability, weakest powerplant, good cargo space.

Soul: Good crash rating, good engine power 2.0l. Lots of features and cargo space. Best warranty. Reliability?

+ Civic hatchback: Another I like but turbo which I'm iffy on.

Insurance rates do matter, though we have clean records and are older folks.

Safety systems are nice but not critical for us. We are good attentive drivers and have survived, incident free, up till now with out them.

Any insight or guidance on our decision making process would be appreciated.

 

[mizzou]

i havent warmed up to kia. im very familiar with hondas and i just love their engineering. Cant go wrong with toyota. I have not warmed up to Kia yet.

Just get out there and look around! There are only so many in your area.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

i havent warmed up to kia. im very familiar with hondas and i just love their engineering. Cant go wrong with toyota. I have not warmed up to Kia yet.

Just get out there and look around! There are only so many in your area.

Yeah when most people hear the name Kia they think cheap crap as I often have. I lot of more recent owner reviews seem to be to the contrary. I'm not a brand loyalist as much as i am a good product and bang for buck loyalist.

 

[OlyAR15]

Why not have her test all 3 and choose the one that she likes best? Most cars these days are pretty reliable, but any manufacturer can still produce a lemon.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Why not have her test all 3 and choose the one that she likes best? Most cars these days are pretty reliable, but any manufacturer can still produce a lemon.

I was just thinking as much. Knowing her, she may like the Kia the most since it's the closest to the minivan ride, higher, roomier and boxier. If the Kia is of good reliability, buying one would save us a few grand.
I'd just like to get the input of recent owners.

 

[Zivic]

id opt for the honda > toyota > kia

my brother had an older corolla (8th gen) and I just can't shake the memory of it... so bad to drive.

two worst cars I have ever driven were that and a dodge caliber (with cvt trans). I know the new ones are probably much better and very reliable

 

[pauldun170]

Civic beats Corolla unless you are carting around tall folk. Corolla has more room for back seaters. Judging buy history, Corolla will have lower overall cost of ownership over 15 years but you will have to compare maintenance requirements on both. Honda beats Toyota on "impressions". Toyota interiors might appear cheaper than the Honda due to the materials used. However, after 15 years that "cheap interior" will feel as tight as it did when you bought it. Insurance might be cheaper on the Corolla.
Sister has a previous generation. Not my cup of tea but its a solid car. Despite what the "stats" say, it gets out of its own way.
Having said that Civic seems to be a no brainer.
For a non car person. Also consider how comfortable the seats are.

Hyundai\Kia - They are decent "10 year" cars BUT they don't seem to be as tight over the long run. As for the Kia, be careful which trim you choose. One engine has a timing belt, the other chain (extra maintenance costs).

Mazda3 might be worth checking out. I wish I could say good things about Mazda3's as they age but I can't. However, I haven't heard about any issues on their latest powertrain lineup.

 

[KIAman]

If she drives like a granny, no need to be concerned about power at all. Out of those choices, go with the Corolla. Although if you really care about long term 10-15 year worth of financially free reliability, a lot of KIA dealers now offer a 20 year 200,000 mile warranty, which is insane.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Are you sure you can't swing a Camry LE?

Toyota + no CVT = win, and it gets amazing mileage on the interstate.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Civic beats Corolla unless you are carting around tall folk. Corolla has more room for back seaters. Judging buy history, Corolla will have lower overall cost of ownership over 15 years but you will have to compare maintenance requirements on both. Honda beats Toyota on "impressions". Toyota interiors might appear cheaper than the Honda due to the materials used. However, after 15 years that "cheap interior" will feel as tight as it did when you bought it. Insurance might be cheaper on the Corolla.
Sister has a previous generation. Not my cup of tea but its a solid car. Despite what the "stats" say, it gets out of its own way.
Having said that Civic seems to be a no brainer.
For a non car person. Also consider how comfortable the seats are.

Hyundai\Kia - They are decent "10 year" cars BUT they don't seem to be as tight over the long run. As for the Kia, be careful which trim you choose. One engine has a timing belt, the other chain (extra maintenance costs).

Mazda3 might be worth checking out. I wish I could say good things about Mazda3's as they age but I can't. However, I haven't heard about any issues on their latest powertrain lineup.

I like the Civic hatchback the most because it seems to be the best all-around. It will be my 1st choice if they play nice with the price. 2nd pick would be Corolla. It's kind of bland but it checks all the marks for our needs. Though the Soul seems nice at first, it's long-term uncertainty has me a little worried.

I prefer timing chain over belt. They last till the end.

If she drives like a granny, no need to be concerned about power at all. Out of those choices, go with the Corolla. Although if you really care about long term 10-15 year worth of financially free reliability, a lot of KIA dealers now offer a 20 year 200,000 mile warranty, which is insane.

That's a crazy warranty, is it additional cost? I've heard you have to have the maintance done by Kia to maintain the Warranty. Is that true? I do all my own maintenance so if that's the case, they're off my list.

Are you sure you can't swing a Camry LE?

Toyota + no CVT = win, and it gets amazing mileage on the interstate.

I wish but it's to far over budget. It needs to be under $20k after haggling.

BTW, I think a hatchback is almost a necessity. There are certain times when she needs a large cargo area for large posterboards and the like. The sedan trunk would make things a lot more difficult.


Ultimately the wife will have a good say in the final pick. She's not in the least demanding and quite frugal. It was her idea to go with a very inexpensive vehicle since it's just a drive to nearby work car for the most part. She'd go for just about any vehicle. I'm the one who weighs out the pros and cons of each.

 

[heymrdj]

Toyota Yaris. Runs forever on ancient technology (still has a 4spd auto). Lacks all power, creaky and cheap. But dead reliable. Only downfall is the fact they don’t have idler pulleys so eventually you get the squeal of doom after about 50K Miles that requires a new belt. Good room in them though.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Toyota Yaris. Runs forever on ancient technology (still has a 4spd auto). Lacks all power, creaky and cheap. But dead reliable. Only downfall is the fact they don’t have idler pulleys so eventually you get the squeal of doom after about 50K Miles that requires a new belt. Good room in them though.

Not that I don't doubt you but that's probably too compact, even for the wife. LOL

 

[Herr Kutz]

I like the Civic hatchback the most because it seems to be the best all-around. It will be my 1st choice if they play nice with the price. 2nd pick would be Corolla. It's kind of bland but it checks all the marks for our needs. Though the Soul seems nice at first, it's long-term uncertainty has me a little worried.

I prefer timing chain over belt. They last till the end.

That's a crazy warranty, is it additional cost? I've heard you have to have the maintance done by Kia to maintain the Warranty. Is that true? I do all my own maintenance so if that's the case, they're off my list.



I wish but it's to far over budget. It needs to be under $20k after haggling.

BTW, I think a hatchback is almost a necessity. There are certain times when she needs a large cargo area for large posterboards and the like. The sedan trunk would make things a lot more difficult.


Ultimately the wife will have a good say in the final pick. She's not in the least demanding and quite frugal. It was her idea to go with a very inexpensive vehicle since it's just a drive to nearby work car for the most part. She'd go for just about any vehicle. I'm the one who weighs out the pros and cons of each.

Can the EX trim of the civic hatch be had below $20k after haggling?

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Hard to say. I was considering the LX trim. According to Trucar.com it'd be difficult with the EX but I don't take Truecar.com too seriously. With the right technique and the right timing I think it could be done granted you don't stack up the options on the EX.

 

[Noah Abrams]

Had a Civic for 12 years. Only repair it needed was an O2 sensor. Yup.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Buy a pre-leased Camry hybrid. Buying new is for people with $10k to set on fire - that's not you.

 

[manly]

Buy a pre-leased Camry hybrid. Buying new is for people with $10k to set on fire - that's not you.

Generally I agree with you but in his case, he wants to keep the car for at least 10 years. So whatever he buys is roughly going from $20k to $3k whether it's new or CPO. Sounds like a compact car is fine for his wife and a 1 owner vehicle is more likely to be reliable over the long haul, and cost less to operate in those final years of ownership. I detest new car depreciation myself but I don't think it greatly applies in this specific case.

 

[Saylick]

I bought a Honda Fit a few years back for $19K out the door. I'm like your wife in that I don't put more than 6-7K miles on it each year. So far, the reliability (or lack of it) hasn't been an issue and even though it only has 130 HP, the car itself is quite light at around 2800 lbs if my memory serves me right. There is plenty of zip for a compact hatchback. The best part is how much utility you get out of it. The back row of seats folds completely flat and I've taken a few long-distance backpacking trips with the car fully loaded. I've put around 16K miles on the car and I am averaging 36 MPG. With some finesse on the gas, I usually average in the low 40s when driving highway only. I'd recommend taking a look into a Honda Fit if you haven't.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Hard to say. I was considering the LX trim. According to Trucar.com it'd be difficult with the EX but I don't take Truecar.com too seriously. With the right technique and the right timing I think it could be done granted you don't stack up the options on the EX.

oh, I thought you were looking at the EX based on the first post.

 

[Kaido]

I leased two Kia Souls. Loved 'em. No major problems. The 2.0L is a great engine for that ride. Sitting up in a box design is really nice imo.

Although the new Honda Civics are amazing. They offer TACC with LSF on the new Honda Sensing systems. If you're not familiar, TACC is Traffic Aware Cruise Control, so as opposed to regular cruise control, it has a radar in the front of the car that keeps you a set distance away from the car ahead of you, so even if they slow down, you don't have to adjust your cruise control speed - the car will do it for you. It's a lifesaver if you do a lot of highway driving! LSF is a second-gen TACC feature, which stands for Low-Speed Follow. That means that TACC works in stop & go traffic. So if you're stuck in a traffic jam, the car will modulate the gas & brake for you, which is awesome. That feature alone puts the Civic ahead of the other cars in my book.

If neither of those look good, I can score you a great deal on a baby-poop-green Jeep Renegade

 

[ultimatebob]

I think that she needs a 2013 Ford Mustang GT. Nothing like a 5 liter V8 to fix someone's wimpy driving tendencies

Seriously, though... I'd go with the Honda Civic. The Corolla is just so devoid of personality, it's like you're driving a low budget rental car.

 

[bigboxes]

I think that she needs a 2013 Ford Mustang GT. Nothing like a 5 liter V8 to fix someone's wimpy driving tendencies

Seriously, though... I'd go with the Honda Civic. The Corolla is just so devoid of personality, it's like you're driving a low budget rental car.

Wait a minute. There's a reason that so many of us drive Toyota's. They're just so damn dependable. Comfortable to drive and easy to handle. Function over form. It is what it is.

 

[bigboxes]

And I love my Camry. Had a Chrysler 200 as a rental and thought that it was a trinket.

 

[Greenman]

The time is near for the wife's car replacement. Her Toyota Sienna has nearly 200k miles. The need for a minivan has passed so a more economical DD is wanted. She drives like an old lady (cob webs under the accelerator pedal) and has no trendy car aspirations aside from a/c, auto trans and backup camera. The new car would see only 6-7k miles a yr and we'll keep it for 10-15 yrs.

So what I have in mind is a car around $20k or less. Good fuel economy but more importantly, reliability (spoiled by Toyota). The cars I have in mind at the moment are the Corolla iM, Civic EX and the Kia Soul Plus.

Toyota is my number 1 for reliability with Honda probably on par. The Kia is the unknown. It's said they have very good reliability these days, very close to Toyo and Honda.

Feature wise these vehicles have their pluses and minuses. It makes it hard to choose.

Civic EX: More power than Corolla. Better entertainment system. Lacks safety system which is standard on Corolla.

Corolla iM: Standard safety system, tight suspension, legendary reliability, weakest powerplant, good cargo space.

Soul: Good crash rating, good engine power 2.0l. Lots of features and cargo space. Best warranty. Reliability?

+ Civic hatchback: Another I like but turbo which I'm iffy on.

Insurance rates do matter, though we have clean records and are older folks.

Safety systems are nice but not critical for us. We are good attentive drivers and have survived, incident free, up till now with out them.

Any insight or guidance on our decision making process would be appreciated.

I have the exact same set of conditions. The only difference is I'm shopping for a Ford. I've had such good luck with them that I have no desire to look at anything else. I'll probably end up getting her an Escape, I've seen several 2016 models loaded with less than 30k on the clock in the $16k range. Given the amount it gets used, it should last her 15 years.

 

[killster1]

Are you sure you can't swing a Camry LE?

Toyota + no CVT = win, and it gets amazing mileage on the interstate.

i think the CVT in the Honda is great. i really like the new Camry only based on the body paneling hahha but always liked toyota. I wonder what uses the car will have. maybe just two door needed?