Expert: Sean Halliday - 12/2/2006

Question
Hi, thanks for volunteering. I'm a single mom on a budget trying to by a used car. I'm a bit nervous buying a car as a woman alone, but I bought my last car by myself OK. I have done a trillion hours of research and feel pretty confident about what I'm looking for, but I have a few questions. I'm using an equity loan to make my life more affordable. One thing I want is a car that gets excellent gas mileage. I've settled on Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla or a Scion xA. I haven't driven any of them yet. I would like to spend no more than $10,000 cash and my 2001 Hyundai Sonata with front end crash damage as a trade. I drive it everyday and it has 95,000 miles on it. I HATE this car with everything that has gone wrong on it. I don't want a payment so this will all paid upfront. I live in Jacksonville, FL 32225.

I've read up on all models I'm interestd in and the Civic seems the best gas mileage and do-able handling. I have no problem with a 1.7 lt engine, but again I haven't driven one yet.

OK, my main question is, is it OK to buy one of these cars with 80,000 miles on them? Seems they hold value to about 130 miles. I think my limit should be 60,000 miles on the car I buy. BUT, I found this ugly Civic with 82,000 miles on it- click the link...
http://www.atlasimports.com/autodetail.asp?StockNumber=992009
It is way below my price and has 20,000 more miles on it that I want.

What do you think? Will a Civic or Corolla with higher miles be a good car still? I drive ALOT with my teenage son, work and I go to school too. I need a car that can be driven alot for years.That ugly Civic would be the right price for sure, but will it still last awhile with that many miles?

Any help you can give me on these questions would be very appreciated!
Thanks,
Lisa

Answer
My opinion is dont buy this car.It looks like a cop puller.Sporty yes but who knows how its been driven.it looks like a race car.Also its an automatic.I would suggest a 5 speed honda civic as one of the best cars on the road.For low maintenance and easy to get parts for.Get yourself a plain civic with 70,000,or 80,000 miles and these cars run forever.You should easily get 200 000 miles out of the engine.