What car: reality bites edition

I need advice. Short list of requirements for cut-to-the-chase guys. Bitching and moaning to follow.

-Under $8K. Much closer to $5K would be better.

-Big enough for 2 adults and 2 kids to travel in. Jetta size or larger.

-Bank vault safety

-Very easy to work on (few special tools needed, easy access, good internet forums, etc)

-Reliable

-Preferably available with a manual transmission

Now for my tooth gnashing brain dump: My wife's '99 V6 Passat has ~100K miles on it. This is our only daily driven car, since I walk to work. It's been dead reliable for 4 years and ~35K miles and it's great to drive. I've totally gotten my money back on this one, but it's starting to freak me out. I did the front suspension rebuild (8 control arms, 10 ball joints!) a couple years ago and almost all the parts need to be replaced again. It's leaking from the water pump, replaced 30K miles ago in '07. Three water hoses are starting to leak, too. The oil cooler is leaking both oil and coolant. The struts are nearing the end of their life. The tires need to be replaced in the spring. Lots of odds and ends seem to be cropping up after a busy summer of not paying the car any attention.

I got it in the "service position" yesterday (which is a fitting name in more than one way) and started to get close to the water pump. Then I stripped a bolt on the fan pulley and stopped. It needs the entire front end removed to get that bolt out. It's not undoable, just unpleasant. So, I buttoned it back up, poured a small bucket of beer and started to think.

I could sell it now for a couple thousand bucks. Or I could put $1500-$2000 in parts, plus maybe 20 hours of my time (scarce with a second kid born in July), into a car that'll then be worth $3K due to the rather scruffy nature of the body. At 11 years and 100K miles, it seems like bigger stuff is going to start to break and this $1500 is the tip of an iceberg. It's still on all the original pricey parts and I'm under no illusions about the B5's track record, in spite of how well things have gone so far.

I do my own repairs and the engine compartment on the car is the worst I've experienced. Nothing unbolts and goes back on without first removing a TON of other stuff. I look under the hood of my Miata and my E34 and wish to god the Passat didn't package things so tightly. But those cars are 20 years old and have 20 year old safety/emissions technology. My wife is not particularly skilled in intuiting what other drivers are thinking, so I'd rather she were in something modern with our 2 kids.

We're starting a second one in daycare means this is not the best time to pull much money out of savings, either.

So, what's safe, reliable, near $6K and easy to wrench on? What are the options? A Subaru? An Accord? Mazda 6? Maybe an E46 BMW 323i? Some sort of smaller SUV? Something Korean? Something American (newish Malibu?)? My experiences are so limited to 80's and 90's european stuff that I have no feel for how easy Japanese/American cars are to work on.

Maybe I should just lease a Fiesta or a Fit? Car payments suck, but it's one less thing to worry about... Doesn't seem like the financially wise decision, though.

Long rambling responses read and appreciated. I'm not used to treating cars as basic people movers.

Volvo (turbo)brick?

They're easy to work on, plenty of space in the engine bay and tough as old boots.

We had a 240DL back in the day. It was exceptionally tough and safe by 1980's standards, but I'd prefer stuff like LATCH mounts for child seats and side airbags for a wife probably more at risk of getting t-boned than anything else. Rigged or not, that video of the little japanese car exploding through the front of a 700 series (900?) was pretty dramatic.

How are newer volvos? All I ever hear from owners of late 90's/early '00's volvos are sad stories.

BMW E34 530i w/ manual trans

Pick one up for $2.5k, put $1.5k into it... all hoses, plugs, bushings, new shocks, decent radio, etc.

Use the $ in savings to go on a killer vacation.

Mazda 3 or a 6 wagon. Early 00's Subaru Impreza or Legacy wagon.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

^ This

I bought my E34 530i for challenge $$$, put about $1.5K in it and have put over 3K trouble free miles + an HPDE on it.

Even Mrs. Zero contemplating take it over

An E34, while VERY FAMILIAR is getting up there in years and miles for appliance reliability. :)

Mazda3's and 6's......how are they to work on? I've never popped the hood on a 6, but I remember the 3 looking tight.

LATCH and side airbags may make this one a bit more difficult. IMO, new Fiesta/Fit will cause problems with the current generation of convertible car seats while rear-facing. Here are my thoughts, roughly in order of preference:

Ford Focus - I own one with LATCH and side airbags as requested - it's a 4-door ST trim, manual trans. Paid inside your price range (closer to high end) for it from a dealer, but that was almost two years and 20k miles ago. Dead nuts reliable. Back seat will be tight with rear-facing convertible car seat - just put in an Evenflo Symphony and that went ok, but the wife and i are not tall people.

Subaru (take your pick, depending on pricing and availability)

Crown Vic? Fails on your manual trans requirement, excels at everything else

As to your Mazda question - my bro-in-law got a 2.3 Mazda3s hatch done right at the top of your price range earlier this year. It had high miles (90k plus). Essentially the Ford 2.3 Duratec drivetrain, all Focus comments apply.

In reply to paanta:

The V70 is fairly reliable. I'd avoid turbos and run from AWDs.
Look, your on a budget though right? get an Accord, Mazda6 or a Maxima maybe G20.
No to SUVs (dumb, numb), no to Subarus (ugly, low MPG), and no to E46s (nice but >$$ then the above, both upfront and long term). While they are both cool; w/ 2 kids and the associated stuff, you'll regret not having something bigger if you get a Fiesta or Fit. Plus leasing is for suckers or people w/ car allowances from work.

Camry. Fits all your needs except for a manual trans (which theoretically do exist). Buy a good one for four large, take the other 2 and buy a nice MR2 or Miata for your manual transmission fix.

Saab 9-5 wagon for some style????
Manual available.

Maxima

Putting your specs into E-Bay, the Chevy Aveo, VW Jetta and Mazda 6 seem to the be top three available options.

It sounds like you should buy Tom's Mercedes 300TE Wagon. It ticks all of your boxes except for the manual trans one. Rumor is it can also be had for quite a bit less than $5K.

I've driven it, and it does rock. (in a relaxed / sophisticated kind of way)

Im gonna vote for a Maxima here too. It's not the easiest thing in the WORLD to work on but that doesnt really matter if you never have to work on it.

For your situation, and trust me, I completely understand the childcare pain, I've got 3 little kids, my vote is Accord.

The Honda Fit was mentioned in this thread. My wife and I actually have a Honda Fit ourselves. Fantastic car, love it to death. But we also have a minivan to haul our 3 little ones around. We don't use the Fit much with the kids, unless we're just taking one or two. However, you mentioned Jetta size or bigger, so I vote Accord. Nearly indestructible, good safety, fits 4 easily, LATCH system (assuming you get something less than about 10 years old), fuel efficient, manual tranny readily available, large internet support base.

The Accord may not be the most "fun" choice, but from a logical transportation need, I think it would fit your needs perfectly.

What bolt stripped on the passat fan? is the allen head bolt that you have to go through the fan pulley to get to? Those are usually a pain. On a side note, it seems odd that the water pump only lasted 30k miles

I feel like a 2.0L mk4 jetta might fit your criteria. They're also a lot easier to work on than the v6 passats.

I picked up my 2004 Mazda 3 hatchback with 129k miles for very close to the low end of your budget. After 20k miles it hasn't had a single problem. Doesn't burn oil and runs like a champ. I find it amusing to drive for a FWD car. It has a manual transmission, 8 airbags, LATCH, ABS and Xenon headlights. For its size I believe it's a safe car, but it's still a smaller car.

My wife and I have been considering upgrading her car and have similar needs, although she prefers an automatic. Some of our leading candidates include a lot of ones already mentioned on this thread:

• BMW 5 series
• Nissan Maxima
• Crown Victoria
• Possibly a Honda CRV or Ford Escape / Mazda Tribute

If you're comfortable with the E34, why not look at early E39s? Should tick all the safety boxes, and the 528i (1997-2000) can be had easily in your price range. Might take a little while to find the right one, but they are out there.

1.8T Jetta wagon with 5 speed manual. Considering you've had an ok experience with a Passat (Audi), you'll probably love the simpler MK4 Jetta even more. The 1.8T is a fantastic motor and you can make 300whp with nothing more than a K04 turbo, injectors, and a tune!

if you wanted to go REAL cheap, the Saturn SL or SW series would fit the bill nicely. Perfect examples can be had for less than 2 grand, they are dead nuts reliable, filling up the tank is a joyful experience, they handle respectably, parts are cheap and plentiful. They aren't exactly ugly, but they aren't anything in particular to look at.

if you get a twin cam MAKE SURE IT IS A STICK. the auto blows chunks attached to an SL2. it shifts at about 2750, and the twin cam 1.9 can easily rev out to 6500.

Joe is right. Somebody (else) needs my Benz.

Although my wife just authorized me to keep it and add a Cherokee as the 4th car, so I'm no longer in a big hurry to sell it. I could see it going to a good home, however. Way less than $5k.

Built like a bank vault? This rig practically defines the expression.

In reply to paanta:

I'll chime in with the Mazda 3 hatchback or Mazda 6 wagon crowd. While I do love the old cars for a variety of reasons, with the kids involved it's just easier on my peace of mind to have a modern car with modern safety features like LATCH. One thing that always bothers me is that a 5 star rated car in 1993 might very well get a poor rating under the modern safety standards. I've not done my homework, though, so I can't say that with any factual confidence, just parental paranoia.

My only compliant with the 2005 Mazda 3 hatch I had was that with the rear facing car seat on the driver's side, it was a pain the the but to get the seat where I wanted it. If we didn't have to have the 6 year old on the passenger side for school drop off, it wouldn't have been an issue.

The gas mileage/practicality/fun factor ratios are pretty good, in the '3, too.

Yep, one of the allen heads. None of my tools could get it out. I knew it was suspect when I took it off a couple years ago, and ignored the little voice telling me to go buy a new one. No clue why the WP seal failed...I was pretty anal about torquing all those bolts to spec.

The 2.0l Mk4 is on my list, but as a pure appliance for the wife, I dunno. On the plus side, I've owned a lot of VW's and I did fleet operations for Zipcar's 30 or 40 Mk4's for a year, so I know those cars. On the minus side, there's a reason people get to know VWs.

I had an '02 Civic SI for 4 years, and it never broke (literally went to the dealer one time for a squeak in the clutch), but it seemed like it was designed with maintenance in mind. That makes an '00-'02 Accord with side airbags almost my default choice. They never struck me as being anywhere near as soul sucking as the Camry and they're way inside my price range and relatively easy to find. Anyone have experience working on on the V6 ones? Reasonable access to the back of the engine?

How's access to the back of the engine on the V6 Mazda6's?

Mazda 3 Mazda 6 Subaru Legacy Subaru Impreza BMW 530 BMW 330

3&6 for commonality Subaru's for safety (they are jap tanks) BMW's for a combination

IMVHO