Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the most reliable car that $3K will get my kid?

This.

I had the luxury of buying my father's last car, 1996 Chrysler Concorde......which my brother had received from my mother when she quit driving. It was 10 years old when my daughter got it, and it lasted her through 7 years of college (and three degrees).

Best of all........my brother, Idared, delivered it from Washington to Wisconsin!

Everything on that "loaded" car still worked when she traded it.

My vote would be for a 1998 - 2001 Infiniti I30. Bought one for my son when he started driving and what an awesome car it is. Very dependable, good power, good brakes, and good gas mileage plus it's easy to work on. Buying one with high milege would not bother me if it was well maintained. No timing belt to replace either.

Hey, it's no sin to bump a 4 year old thread if it's my own, right? I was combing through my posts looking for something else, & came across this. I figured 'twas at least worth an update.

He bought an '04 Taursus with the 12v Vulcan engine. He got about 15K out of it, before the broken y-pipe connector, various electrical gremlins, & a rusted-through cabin floor found him replacing it with the same year Corolla. He had to travel I-75 regular for his student teaching gig, & getting there in 1 piece seemed important.

The AC took a dump early on, & he was too broke to bother fixing it. Shocks & struts were toast, & it wallowed badly when cornering. The interior dome light fuse blew, which somehow stopped all windows from working. (It only took us a year of off-&-on looking to figure that one out.) Interior trim pieces regularly fell off like skin from a leper.

2 years prior, his brother bought an '05 Taurus with the same motor. He's since put roughly 65K miles on it, & gotten himself through an undergrad degree & 1 year of grad school. From 110K to 175 K, he's had a complete AC rebuild (encompassing 2 compressors), a starter, 2 IAC valves, and a coil pack. Naturally, he's chased vacuum leaks from day 1, and has also endured the interior trip leprosy. On the plus side, he's learning to use YouTube & TaurusClub.com to figure out gremlins.

At the time, for the $3K they had to spend, it was either a domestic car with 100K not the clock, or a Corolla/Civic with 200K on the clock. Having had 4 Corollas in the family over the years, that likely would have been a better route for both of them.

FC

Toyota Camry with the 4 banger, best car ever built period.

Bought my Ford Focus new in '09. Noisy and not the smoothest ride, but in 150,000 miles it hasn't given me a bit of trouble. Consumers Reports gave it high marks for reliability, in a 'used car' article a few years ago.

Good one!

Bought my kid a 1999 Toyota Camry with 200,000 miles on it a year ago for $1,200. Bought it from a co worker who had it for his daughter in college. Has a few squeaks and noises but it is very clean and the engine runs like a top. He is driving it until September when he leaves for the Air Force and we will sell it for what we paid with no problem. My experience with Hondas mirrors this.

Any old Toyota Tacoma you can find for $3000, you can't kill 'em!

4runner 99 or later with about 200k miles.

you buy a honda you're supporting those liberals in hollywood!

wait, I think I have my threads confused

You’re as likely going to find a Mercedes SLC for $3000.00 as you will a Tacoma that runs...

You can find the stick shift models for pretty cheap, as few folks seem to want them these days. Tough for kids to text and drive when they gotta shift....

+1

I have this one out back. I will let you have it for 2995.00 firm!!

Yep, we've had 3 of them in the family. All went over 200,000 with no major problems. Good, solid, dependable cars.

Something with a GM 3800 V6. Pontiac Olds. Buick. 1999-2004

Yep, Focus's are good little cars. Ours had 173,000 on it when we sold it 4 years ago. I still see the kid who bought it driving it around town.

The Vulcan blocks were strong - no oil usage. No water pump impeller issues on the 2 we've owned. But the plastic horseschidt all over the engine cracks & causes maddening air leaks - that stuff couldn't have cost more than $10 to upgrade to materials that would last for the long haul. Pulley bearings ought not to have to be replaced every 30K miles, either.

We were fortunate that the transmissions in both vehicles were rebuilt under warranty before we bought them.

The weak A/C systems & electrical BS shouldn't have still been going on in the 11th & 13th years of production. Falling trim moldings & headliners just scream, "cheapness". Having to remove the windshield cowling to replace the cabin air filter is outright stupidity.

I've not yet seen one survive road salt unless it was babied.

A Taurus can definitely be kept on the road for a long time, but it all too often takes way too much work to do so.

FC

Nothing survives road salt in upstate NY for long. Rare to see anything over 10 years old that isn't rusty unless it's been garaged in the winter or lived a good portion of it's life in another State. We had very few problems with our Taurus's beyond normal maintenance items.