Age, mileage, condition and brand - Corolla vs forte

So I'm thinking it's time to retire the 98 Ram from daily driver duty for my son. Really, I'm tired of helping him work on it, and driving him to work the last 2 weeks has only reinforced that idea. 

The dealer he's working at has a 2008 Corolla (auto) with 122k miles for 7k. There's a 2015 forte at another location with a stick and 93k mile for $6k. 

There's sales manager at my sons dealer says the Corolla is in better shape thank the Kia, but also probably want to move the Corolla off their lot. 

I'm assuming the Corolla is like a cockroach and will be around long after many other vehicles have gone to the scrap yard, but paying $1k more for a car that 7 years older and has 25k more miles bugs me. 

My son is turning 21, and I'm thinking we could help with some of the cost and co-sign to help him start building credit. I want to make sure whatever we get will still be running  at  the end of the loan.

Of course I also stumbled across this, which I'm sure is a bad idea, but looks fun for the price:

Abarth

I have no specific dislike of the Kia.  I have not owned one.  I like the brand, but...

With the recent rise of Kia thefts I think insuring a Kia will be noticably more expensive that the equal Corolla 

In reply to John Welsh :

That's a great point. I hadn't thought about that, but now that you mention it I tried using the insurance discount program at work recently and liberty mutual wouldn't offer comprehensive coverage on our Sportage even though it's a push button start. 

Another insurance cost difference could be in just the time the cars are from - newer cars are much more expensive to fix with more airbags and hyper-expensive lights, and insurance companies charge more for putting all those costly parts at risk.

Apart from any potential insurance differences, they're both good commuter cars, the Kia having a stick is another advantage.

I agree that the Forte checks several boxes. HOWEVER, if it has the 2.0L engine it has direct injection (specialized maintenance required, which I bet it hasn't had) and IIRC those engines are in the bunch that suffer catastrophic failure. I believe the 1.8L engines are OK, but we really need Bobzilla to pick up the courtesy phone.

If your son needs to get to work reliably, day after day, I'd go with the Corolla.

Yeah.  Does the Kia have a new engine, yet?

Tough call. I drove a friends 2015 Forte for a month while they were away and liked it well enough. It had things no 2007 Corolla would have like heated seats and other modern amenities, as well as pretty good power.

I normally would go for the Corolla, but in this case I'd probably lean towards the Forte due to being newer and less miles. I don't know how many issues the engines have had though as I do t keep up on Kias. I'm sure Bobzilla will be in here any minute to give more info...

I think the best deals in used cars are non-sporty cars with manual trans.  So few potential buyers can lead to significant price discounts.  All the world wants an SUV with an automatic.  Sedans are dead and non-sporty sedans with a manual are even more dead.  

So, for Mid Mass, I pointed FB to vehicles with less than 100k and only manual trans with price less than $12k.  Then I sorted through the few that come up.  

'04 Scion xA w/ 64k @ $3.7k and the listing is 5 weeks old

'14 Focus w/80k @ $5.3k,  6 week old listing

'15 Fit w/102k @ $8k 4 day old...this will sell quickly because Honda

'17 Focus Sedan w/69k (or less) @ $8.9k  7 week old listing.  $7.6k worth of new engine after driven through standing water. Hydrolocked? Seller looks to be a dealer or at least a flipper.  I'm sure the work was done by the previous owner, likely as an insurance claim.  But still, a fresher engine but I'd offer thousands less than asking price.  

In modern cars, a manual trans usually means totally stripped.  Be sure to verify the existance of cruise control if that is is imporant to you because these stripped cars often forego the cruise control on the manual trans models.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Thank for the links. 

The '14 focus hatch looks interesting, and was treated to protect it from corrosion. 

The light could be the sensor on the battery cable, but a multimeter and scanner should be able to narrow it down. 
 

We picked up a 2007 Corolla auto a couple years ago just to have a spare car around.  It had close to 150k miles on it, and I believe we paid right at $5k.  My son nicknamed it the "Can o' Beans".  It's an appliance, but other than a couple maintenance items, it's been reliable as a hammer.  I've been driving it quite a bit lately, and rather enjoying it.

I vote Corolla. 

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

That the way we're leaning right now. 

I might be able to save a few bucks on something different or a different dealer, but I'm hopeful they wouldn't sell a sub par vehicle their own employee. 

So he got it up on a lift today and here are a couple highlights. Overall the body is pretty clean and the exhaust it new, but the suspension is crusty and the struts are leaking with torn boots and chewed up bump stops. 
 

Looking into the history, it appears to be an auction car and not a trade. 

That makes me wonder if it's really intended to get people on the lot to upsell, since it doesn't really fit in at an infinity dealer but is parked in the front row facing the street. 

So we've expanded the search and found a few interesting option, one that realistic and one that probably a bad idea, but looks fun. 
 

reality: 2014 Honda civic coupe for $10k. The CVT is an unknown to me, but I'm not sure if it's a concern since Honda.

and the bad idea: $9k

In reply to No Time :

Good night, the rust!  I'm glad I live in Va.  Even up in No. Va. the cars tend to be pretty rust-free.

I'd still get the corolla. My parents gifted their 2010 Corolla to my daughter and one cold icy day my daughter lost control of the car on the freeway and it careened off the highway, down a 100 foot embankment and rolled over and landed on its top when it reached the bottom of the embankment, all brush and bushes covered in snow. No airbags blew because there was no real impact before it rolled over and once she released the seat belt and got herself out of the car, she was ok. Since she was pregnant she had an ambulance take her to the hospital to get checked out. Her and the baby were fine. Anyway we got the car towed back to her house and there was not a single panel on the body that wasn't bent, but the integrity of the shell kept her safe. They build solid cars.   I was able to sell it a week later for $1500 as a good engine and transmission with a car attached. Oh yeah, also the engines and transmissions last forever.

In PA we took a corolla to 430+K miles. The only things that broke were a door handle, radio knob, and odometer. Go Corolla if you just want a car that doesn't die. That rust doesn't look bad for salted roads. 

honda cvt's are not exactly reliable. 

Corolla, other than the rot, will likely run forever. 

Forte, manual either means base stripper model with nothing or an SX 1.6T. stripper will be a gdi 2.0. It will pop eventually. 1.6T keep oil in it and clean the intake and it'll be fine. 

The site lists the Forte as a 1.8L, but that doesn't mean it's accurate. 

Its definitely not stripped down model, but not an SX either:

Forte listing

The Forte listing has a link to Carfax which says 1.8L and is likely accurate (from VIN)

Good: the car spent most it's life in Ft. myers Fl.

Bad: it took two hits while there 

In reply to John Welsh :

My son went though a period where he was changing bumpers more frequently than most people change oil, so rust free (ish) is more valuable than accident free. Of course that depends on the damage. 

I know the Toyota Corolla was also hit on the passenger side and at least the fender was replaced, so I'd call it a tie on the accidents. 

No Time said:

 

The site lists the Forte as a 1.8L, but that doesn't mean it's accurate. 

Its definitely not stripped down model, but not an SX either:

Forte listing

For Kia, that is a stripper model. No fogs, hubcaps, no backup camera and likely no cruise. Sedan would be the 1.8 most likely in those and those like to go bang too, but not as frequently. Those are at least MPI and not GDI So lack of maintenance isn't AS bad. I'd pull the cap and look into the cam cover at the valve train. lots of varnish it would be a hard no.

In your area:

2013 accent SE

2016 Koup SX

2018 Soul

Outside your area and has me watering at the mouth....

2015 Forte 5 SX

LOT of car for the money, 21 Forte

My son's coworker shared this listing with him. Apparently it's at the body shop for touch ups, so won't be available to look at until early next week. 

I gave him my card to place a deposit to hold it. Yeah, I lost my leverage, but I'm comfortable with the price if the underside is clean. 

Mazda 3i