+1 here, a friend has a Sentra spec-v and he loves it - says it hardly gives him troubles at all.

 

Late 90's-early 2000's Golf/Jetta are fun to drive, well-finished cars. And lemons, like most VW's. Engines and chassis are durable (but expensive to fix when things are needed - as mentioned, on German cars even routine maintenance items usually involve buying a specialty tool). Engine electronics (ECU, injectors, and especially coils) are failure prone, but may be covered by a hidden warranty (not sure, I've heard of it), and chassis electronics - well, they're VW too; my guess is German engineers learned auto electrics at the hands of Lucas (Brits), using the text of Beowulf as a translation guide. If you look at them, make sure EVERYTHING works - all windows, switches, cruise, lights, fans - it rarely seems to be the case that non-working electrical on a VW is an easy fix. I doubt you'd find a good one in your price range, however. Prices tend to be inflated, if not as bad as Civics.

Early 2000's Protege are pretty fun, and reliable, cheap dd.

My wife's 99 Saturn SL2 is a surprisingly fun driver and gets great mileage too, parts cheap like borscht, not that I've replaced much besides the front struts and pads in 250,000kms. A little noisy (avoid pre-99's, they improved 99+ engine NVH issues), and some odd GM ergonomics - turn signal stalk stoopid-far from the wheel, pretty flat seats (fixed the drivers by taking it out, adding slices from a pool-noodle under the factory paddingfor extra thigh support and contouring - worked brilliant, $5 fix), interior fit & finish is better-than-norm for GM, but no one will confuse it for an Acura - and good samples can be found for $2000, or less. The upper right engine mount is prone to wearing out, which leads to noise, drivetrain slop, and is an easy, $30 fix.

 

dodge neons are work horses love mine esp with a 5spd

 

Any specific year/model for a good neons (obviously not looking for an srt4 model)?? Any good comments on the ford focus (4 doors)??

 

Focus' are a pretty solid car all the way around. I wouldn't buy a neon though. They have some pretty nasty problems like trans fluid coolers that split and end up mixing your coolant with the ATF. Not cool! I've seen this on more than one Neon, obviously all automatic cars.

 

My wife had a 1998 Neon. Within the first 4 years it had 2 head gaskets and 3 end seals replaced. The automatic transmission finally grenaded its self and the AC was always needing service.

Not only that, but the mileage really wasn't very good at all. A neon isn't a great choice.

It really wont matter what car you buy - as long as it's Japanese.

 

my daily driver is a 4dr auto 1996 civic
full gas tank gives u 300km within city no matter wat
super cheap on maintenance
i am planning to get a manual 1..... lets see.. i have to sell this 1 first but i am too use to of it its reliable

 

keep in mind that snow is about to ***
so small cars are not that great ....
i dont even know how my civic will perform in snow????

 

Small cars are awesome in the snow. Besides you guys are in Toronto, you don't know what winter is. I drove a 2002 corolla around in Bruce County winters. Just need a good set of snow tires and you are fine. Lots of ebrake sliding fun to be had!

 

oh i wana try e brake sliding this winter!!!!

 

Hello
I just want to thank you everyone that responded in this thread for all the inputs/opinions/ suggestions etc etc...
I have decided and purchased my next dd.

link below:

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehi...AdIdZ239696318

 

Wow that's a great buy!

 

That should be a pretty solid DD.

 

I closed the deal @ $2750.