General Forum

Hey guys, I'm looking to buy or lease a new car and I'm looking for something with good gas mileage and still looks nice.

Some of the ones I'm looking at are:

Dodge Dart
Ford Fiesta
Chevy Spark
Mazda3

Trying to stay at or below 20k.

Anyone have any thoughts? (I will be using this for long road trips twice a year)

This is a very easy question. Mazda3 hands down. It is one of the best compact cars you can buy, and aside from the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, none come close in a overall standpoint. Out of those three, this would also be the funnest to drive as Mazda's first aim is to focus on it's handling... With all that said, American cars are just not that great in any regards. They are cheap builds with horrible reliability.. Of course, there are some exceptions.. But if you had to ask me to pick one of the American cars out of those, it would have to be the Fiesta... Ford has done a decent job on a few of it's newer compact cars like the Fusion, Focus etc.

Basically if you're looking to buy a vehicle, buy a Japanese make in less you're looking for a heavy duty truck.

Also, if you buy Japanese, try to find on that was manufactured in Japan. You can tell that by the first number of the VIN starting with a J.

letter

I agree with alot of what surfer said, but what is your plans for the car, ie:daily driver(lots of KM's) or just just weekend driving. If you are going to put high km's i suggest a kia, great warraty, but the re-sale is close to zero, so you have to drive it into the ground. The new focus is nice, & good milage, but the price really starts to add up with some options. Ford has improved lots over the past few years (i am a little bias, i have a new F150-ecoboost), & i think recycle your ride is still on & if you are a cosco member addition discount.


If it it only a weekend car (low Km's) the then a lease is not a bad idea, especailly if you can write it off an a busniss expense. You get way more car for your money but you will never own it, so if you like to upgrade ever 2-3 years it is a good option. (never buy out lease)

ALso unsure where you live, but in Canada farmers or ranchers get the GST back, so if you have a faimly member or close friend that has a GST number, you just get a duplicate bill of sale with there name on it & they can claim the GST & you will get it back.

CJ

The car will mostly be used for when the whether isn't good and I can't ride my bike to work, as well as 2 trips a year totaling 4,000 miles. So I'd be lucky to hit 10k miles a year.