Wife wants a new car, what do you think?

Here are the rules from the boss.....let me know TIA...

Sedan 4 door not white not korean Japanese ok leather seats (or leather like) Automatic (no manual) home connect 30mpg

Practical Spacious but not huge Reasonable purchase price Reasonable cost of maintenance Reliable Stereo - iPod Pre-Owned?

*. Can you afford the payments?

• Can you afford the higher insurance premiums (many, many people forget that one.)?

01-06 Camry 4cyl?

Miata?

4cyl Fusion?

Don't count out the Koreans, unless it is a religious thing like pork. Kia and Hyundai are making good cars these days. The Forte and Elantra rock out with their cox out, The new Sonata looks to be a VW beater...

I was trying to come up with a suggestion but I fell asleep reading the requirements.

Sounds like anything on the market will work. Have fun picking out your new washing machine.

Jetta TDI

John Brown wrote: Don't count out the Koreans, unless it is a religious thing like pork. Kia and Hyundai are making good cars these days. The Forte and Elantra rock out with their cox out, The new Sonata looks to be a VW beater...

This. I will also vote for the Acura TSX, though I suspect that "30 mpg" and "automatic transmission" are going to be mutually exclusive in nearly all cars you would actually want to drive.

Forte would be my bet. I may end up with one.

Probably a new fiesta/focus/fusion depending on your exact budget.

You didn't give a budget.

I just bought a 2009 Jetta for $14,000 with 35,000 miles on it. There's one for sale locally for $14,000 but it's a blue, automatic 2008 with 25,000 miles.

Dan

Budget 20-35k, thanks so far keep the input going....

Is this to be her car, primarily, with you the occasional driver? If so, what makes her happy will make you happy. In other words, if you order something with a bit agressive suspension/ride she finds a "little" annoying, you will be buying a car she'll be hating you for.

Could you please clarify as to what you mean by "home connect"?

home connect is the in car remote to open gate and garage door

That and the 30 mpg may be your sticking points. I recommend heading over to www.fueleconomy.gov With the advanced search feature (power search) there it will help you weed out the vehicles that do not make the MPG numbers. After that you can research elsewhere to see if they have this home connect feature.

When you say 30mpg is that city/hyw/or combined?
I see a hybrid in your future. Maybe a diesel. How about the BMW 3 series diesel?

Divorce would be cheaper.

plance1 wrote: Divorce would be cheaper.

I saw a sign in Alabama for a $200 divorce, that's less than most monthly car payments

There are so many answers to this it's not funny, buy yeah, price, where you live (awd, 4x4, fwd, rwd), and maybe a few other details are important...

automatic required ??? eeww maybe plance1 is on to something....

If you bought her some power tools she might forget about the new car. Win- win.

If she can bend on the "new" requirement, there are a lot of Prius' comming off leases these days. That meets her requirements quite well. My wife bought a clean, low-mile Certified Pre Owned (You want a warrentee with these things) for less than $18,000. It didn't have the leather. My wife decided she was okay without it. I suspect there are plently of upolstery (SP?) shops that would put in any leather you want in a two three year old car for way less than the price difference to a new one.

IF (and that's a big IF), the Fusion is the choise- shoot me a message.

But get the best car for your needs. You are making the hardest choice, since there are so many great cars in that market segment.

Sounds a lot like the 2.0/auto mazda3 i once had. I dont know if any of them have home connect, though.

Take a look at the new Sonata. It's not my cup of tea, but the wife likes her 2011 model. Direct injected turbo 4 makes some crazy amount of horsepower--274? The steering is kinda numb, and the auto tranny stays busy, but overall, it's a pretty nice package. Lots of bell and whistles for right around 25k for the Limited model. And oh yeah, in a mostly highway commute, she's getting right at 30 mpg..

Ah, scratch that. Do the right thing and buy American!

Requierments:

Sedan 4 door not white not korean Japanese ok leather seats (or leather like) Automatic (no manual) home connect 30mpg Practical Spacious but not huge Reasonable purchase price Reasonable cost of maintenance Reliable Stereo iPod Pre-Owned?

Current Car the she drives 1998 maxima se 5 speed location SoCal, no weather to speak of 18 mile round trip drive to work, all surface streets the maxima has been very good for 13 years change the oil, tires brakes, only 107k on the clock.