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Proposed Budget: 15-20k New or Used: Used Body Style: Sedan preferred, hatchback, wagon and coupe would all be acceptable though. How will you be using the car?: No wife, no kids, no pets. Rarely travel with more than 1 other person in the car but I do haul equipment for my job occasionally so some kind of back seat is preferred. My commute varies wildly, sometimes it is ~10mi roundtrip and other times I drive 200 miles in one day. I'm in rush hour traffic quite a bit. I also occasionally use my car as a mobile office, and am sometimes in it for 8 hours or so in a day parked in a parking lot so a comfortable passenger seat with a lot of foot room is nice. What aspects are most important to you? My current car is an '07 BMW 335i, 6MT. It's great and I love it but maintenance costs are starting to climb. It's going to need a new clutch in the next year or so, most likely, and that is $1800. It's also about 1-2k away from a service inspection. I just spent $2500 on it the last two weeks replacing ignition coils, head light control unit and passenger seat weight sensor, plus other incidentals. I'd like a car that doesn't cost quite so much to maintain but is still fun to drive. Since I spend so much time in my car I like it to be a nice place. I don't need navigation and I now see the strong downside of adaptive self leveling headlamps and other such high tech gizmos but an AUX input and bluetooth for my phone would be nice. Mainly I want something cheaper that won't look so incredibly out of place at a construction site but at the same time won't make me want to kill myself coming from a 335i. In the past two weeks I've driven a Jetta wagon and a 2014 Corolla as rentals and, while they seem like ok cars, they just make a bunch of noise and don't do anything if you stamp on the gas. Plus they roll like ships in a heavy sea compared to the BMW. I've owned a Subaru Legacy GT in the past and, if not for the current style cues, would be strongly considering going back to it. A WRX seems nice as well, although a little primitive. I love the look and idea of the BRZ but I don't know if it's big enough in the trunk to work for my needs. I'm not opposed to American cars but don't know of any that provide all the features I'm looking for (namely, drivability, some measure of power, fairly nice interior, reliability). I can't afford to be stranded or super late to a site - while my BMW has been expensive to maintain it has never actually failed to start, which I appreciate. I'm not married to the idea of sticking with a manual transmission but it would be nice. Mainly I want to know what other options exist now that I should test drive or whether it would be smarter to just stick it out through the next couple thousand in repairs and ride the car until it starts becoming actually unreliable.
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Feb 6, 2014 03:55
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 16:27 |
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Throatwarbler posted:Can you really get a Focus ST for $15-$20k? Not sure I would want to sit in one for 8 hours a day either. The G8 was in contention when I first picked up this 335i, don't know why I forgot it for this round, good idea. I was also looking at Infiniti G35/37s at that time as well - I'm guessing that as a similar luxury mark they'll have the same issue as my BMW of being expensive to maintain though? Interesting idea on the Focus ST - I had thought I would be stuck in pre-2011 for sure so if I could get a newer car than that a look, that would be tempting. I think I'll give the WRX another shot as well. Of course in a week maybe I'll have forgiven my car its transgressions!
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Feb 6, 2014 16:11
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