Any suggestions on good used cars?

[Fuzzness 2]

Have you sold that Neon yet, Joel? You know that it has a ready and willing caretaker.....

nope not yet, but the price is down to $12500 CAD

but the car isn't mine anymore. i transferred it to my mother, she will take care of it now until it is sold.

[ChristinaM 0]

Well dayum!

If I win the lottery.... (I don't suppose you want $10 a week for ever!)

[PsychoKat 0]

Front Seal? $6000? Did you get KY with that?

There are only 2 "front seals" on a car: The automatic transmission front pump seal, and the engine front crank seal. A front crank seal is about $15, and takes about 4 hours to replace on a vehicle with a timing belt. 1 hour or less on a timing chain engine.

Front pump seal is also about $15, plus 10 hours labour to remove and reinstall the transmission. 10 hours labour @ $60/hour = $600.

I would be interested to know just what the hell they charged you $6000 for. A brand new engine - from Nissan - is only $3500 (for a V6.... Sentra engine would be around $2000), plus maybe $800 to install it.

Seriously....there is absolutely nothing on a 1995 Sentra that "should" cost $6000 to repair. In 1999, that would have been the value of the car.

Ok....just noticed you're in Canada.....

Still....that's what? $4500US? That's still way too much.

I see you took it to a "service station". That's why Nissan refused it. Warranty only allows repairs at Nissan dealerships. All car manufacturers are that way, and always have been. Why should they pay retail for warranty parts when they can make you go to the dealership and use their own parts which cost them very little.

I'd say the cost was very extreme, but also that your expectations are a little extreme. Warranty has always only applied to repairs made at the dealership, unless it's a 3rd party purchased warranty.

And yes....I worked at Nissan for 2 years, and am a certified Nissan tech, so I'm a little biased on this one.

A Nissan dealership in Missouri where my car broke down charged me that. When it blew the seal, I lost all my oil and threw a rod on the engine. The cost of repairs was 6000. Unfortunately since I was on vacation and recently divorced at that time after fixing the car out in the middle of nowhere I couldn't afford legal council to try to fight for me so I was on my own trying to get them to honor the warranty

I myself am in the US hubby is in canada

[ace13 0]

I would partially agree with the GM statement because I had bad luck with a Malibu I owned (and later totalled). But I now own a Pontiac Grand Am and have had very little issues with it. I really love the car and it drives well.

[TracyTN 237]

You can get a 'certified' used vehicle from most major manufacturers. I just got my Grand Prix as certified used. This is the third Grand Prix I've had - I love them.

Apparently I am in the minority with the American car thing.

[PlatyPius 5]

Front Seal? $6000? Did you get KY with that?

There are only 2 "front seals" on a car: The automatic transmission front pump seal, and the engine front crank seal. A front crank seal is about $15, and takes about 4 hours to replace on a vehicle with a timing belt. 1 hour or less on a timing chain engine.

Front pump seal is also about $15, plus 10 hours labour to remove and reinstall the transmission. 10 hours labour @ $60/hour = $600.

I would be interested to know just what the hell they charged you $6000 for. A brand new engine - from Nissan - is only $3500 (for a V6.... Sentra engine would be around $2000), plus maybe $800 to install it.

Seriously....there is absolutely nothing on a 1995 Sentra that "should" cost $6000 to repair. In 1999, that would have been the value of the car.

Ok....just noticed you're in Canada.....

Still....that's what? $4500US? That's still way too much.

I see you took it to a "service station". That's why Nissan refused it. Warranty only allows repairs at Nissan dealerships. All car manufacturers are that way, and always have been. Why should they pay retail for warranty parts when they can make you go to the dealership and use their own parts which cost them very little.

I'd say the cost was very extreme, but also that your expectations are a little extreme. Warranty has always only applied to repairs made at the dealership, unless it's a 3rd party purchased warranty.

And yes....I worked at Nissan for 2 years, and am a certified Nissan tech, so I'm a little biased on this one.

A Nissan dealership in Missouri where my car broke down charged me that. When it blew the seal, I lost all my oil and threw a rod on the engine. The cost of repairs was 6000. Unfortunately since I was on vacation and recently divorced at that time after fixing the car out in the middle of nowhere I couldn't afford legal council to try to fight for me so I was on my own trying to get them to honor the warranty

I myself am in the US hubby is in canada

Ah. I can pretty much give you Nissan's reasoning then....

A front seal blowing out is a small oil leak. For it to get to the point of throwing a rod, it would have to have been leaking for a while (about 200 miles if the seal were completely gone), would have caused the oil light to come on when oil pressure dropped, would have made the engine temperature gauge go up toward hot, and would have first been "ticking" and then "pounding" before the engine blew. They see it as "negligence", hence they refused to cover it under warranty.

Still......$6000 is WAY out of line. I replaced engines in Sentras at Hubler Nissan for about $3500 (new). A good used one from a salvage yard could be installed for a total of around $2000. I hate it when I hear of a dealership doing this kind of #######. Your warranty claim was denied because the dealership reported the failure as due to negligence. That is not something that would have normally been denied. Nissan had no other way to make that determination. It's part of the warrant process, and is entirely up to the dealer. In other words, they wanted to make money, knew that you were traveling with a child, and basically stuck it to you. Hubler Nissan always tried to help the customer out as much as they could, even if they were from out of town, which it seems this Nissan dealer didn't like doing.

Be mad at that dealer, not Nissan. Isn't even the same company now, anyway..... Nissan was bought by Peugot a few years ago. Yes, Nissan is now a French company, not a Japanese one.

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Be mad at that dealer, not Nissan. Isn't even the same company now, anyway..... Nissan was bought by Peugot a few years ago. Yes, Nissan is now a French company, not a Japanese one.

That is a good sign. Peugeot manufactures excellent cars and if their own production standards have any impact on Nissan's quality, then Nissan should make extremely reliable cars. It's sort of sad that you can't buy Peugeot over here...

[pax 1]

I'll echo everyone else who has said that you check out who REALLY makes the car—these days, the label doesn't mean much. I'm driving a Chevy Prizm that's all Toyota parts underneath; when I bought it, I was told it was basically a Toyota Corolla with a Chevy label slapped on. Almost 94000 miles now and I've had only routine problems that you'd expect to have after, say, 75000 miles (replaced the alternator and battery last year, replaced the muffler in January).

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Consumer Reports

CR Good Bets

The best of both worlds

These are models that have performed well in Consumer Reports road tests over the years and have proved to have several or more years of better-than-average Used Car Verdict. They are listed alphabetically.

Acura Integra

Acura MDX

Acura RL

Acura RSX

Acura TL

BMW Z3, Z4

Buick Regal

Chevrolet Prizm

Ford Crown Victoria

Ford Escort

Mustang (V8)

Honda Accord

Honda Civic

Honda Civic Hybrid

Honda CR-V

Honda Element

Honda Odyssey

Honda Pilot

Honda Prelude

Honda S2000

Infiniti FX35 (V6)

Infiniti G20

Infiniti G35

Infiniti I30, I35

Infiniti QX4

Lexus ES300, ES330

Lexus GS300/GS400, GS430

Lexus IS300

Lexus GX470

Lexus LS400, LS430

Lexus RX300, RX330

Lincoln Town Car

Mazda Millenia

Mazda MX-5 Miata

Mazda Protegé

Mercury Grand Marquis

Mitsubishi Galant

Nissan Altima

Nissan Maxima

Nissan Murano

Nissan Pathfinder

Pontiac Vibe

Subaru Forester

Subaru Impreza

Subaru Impreza

WRX, STi

Subaru Legacy

Subaru Outback

Toyota 4Runner

Toyota Avalon

Toyota Camry

Toyota Camry Solara

Toyota Celica

Toyota Corolla

Toyota Echo

Toyota Highlander

Toyota Land Cruiser

Toyota Matrix

Toyota Prius

Toyota RAV4

Toyota Sequoia

Toyota Sienna

Toyota Tundra

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CR Bad Bets

These models from the Used Cars to Avoid list have shown multiple years of much-worse-than-average Used Car Verdicts. They have regularly shown more problems than most models each production year.

BMW 7 Series

BMW X5 (V8)

Chevrolet Astro

Chevrolet Blazer

Chevrolet Express 1500

Chevrolet S-10 (4WD)

Chevrolet TrailBlazer

Chevrolet Venture

Chrysler Town & Country (AWD)

Dodge Grand Caravan (AWD)

GMC Envoy

GMC Jimmy

GMC Safari

GMC Savana 1500

GMC Sonoma (4WD)

Jaguar S-Type

Jaguar X-Type

Kia Sedona

Land Rover Discovery

Lincoln LS

Lincoln Navigator

Mercedes-Benz CLK

Mercedes-Benz E-Class (V8)

Oldsmobile Alero

Oldsmobile Bravada

Oldsmobile Silhouette

Pontiac Aztek

Pontiac Trans Sport/Montana

Saturn Vue (AWD)

Volkswagen Cabrio

Volkswagen Jetta

Volkswagen New Beetle

Volkswagen Passat Wagon (V6)

Volvo XC90

About these lists

The lists are compiled from overall reliability data covering 1998-2005 models with better-than-average or much-worse-than-average reliability. CR Good Bets and CR Bad Bets include only the models for which we have sufficient data for at least three model years. Models that were brand new in 2004 or 2005 do not appear. Problems with the engine, engine cooling, transmission, and drive system were weighted more heavily than other problems.

[m_and_m20 0]

Well, I was an auto mechanic for 11 years, so I can give the mechanic viewpoint. Ditto what has been said. lol.

Cars to consider:

Honda

Toyota

Subaru

Nissan

(older) Volvo

VW

Kia

(newer) Hyundai (old ones were #######)

Suzuki

Geo (GM, but not made by GM - made by Suzuki and others)

Cars to avoid at all costs:

ANYTHING by GM (including Hummers.)

BMW

Isuzu (GM)

Mitsubishi (Chrysler)

Undecided:

Ford

Chrysler (newer ones. Old ones are #######)

Mazda (Ford - used to have issues, but I think they're better now)

My husband is a mechanic too, but he would pretty much put all of your undecided cars into the bad list. He hates working on US cars. he has a toyota tundra 2003 that he loves and i have a 1996 lexus es330 that has over 165000 miles that hasnt failed me yet!

we've decided that we are toyota lovers all the way

[moondancer627 0]

Wow, thanks for all the advice. Stress is down a little , just needed to replace some hoses. The desert sun turned them into hard rubber. Not a pretty sight.

Anyway, I will be working way too much this summer and as my reward I am going to bank as much $$$ as I can, plus what Anton puts in, to get a good certified used Honda from 99-up.

I will sell him my CRX..

moondancer