My next will probably be a Volkswagen, but you never know. My son and I have been discussing sharing a car, but again....you never know. He's 20 and lives at home for the moment, and goes to work with Dad, and so doesn't hardly ever drive any more, and he's thinking of getting rid of his car. We could easily share, since my job is 3 blocks from my house and so I bike or walk when I can, and if the weather is bad, it's no problem at all calling them and asking if someone can come get me.

But yeah, a VW. Probably. I like your choices too.

More Toyotas. I love my Yaris. A lot. A Matrix offers more in terms of comfort and size, less in terms of gas efficiency. The Yaris is the most fuel efficient non-hybrid made. And I'm actually not such an enormous fan of hybrids - the jury is very much still out the life cycle analysis as to whether they save much energy overall. I think (as you've demonstrated) the best way to reduce impact is just to drive a lot less.

Anyway, thumbs up Yaris. Inexpensive, too, well made, and the interior component design is the best I have ever experienced in any kind of car.

I have a Civic and 'moonMan is going to be buying his own car (ah yes, becoming a good American two car family!) this winter and will probably be getting a Fit. My experience with the Honda has been that it's super reliable, so it's a good brand to stick with.

Mainly we want the Fit (I totally would buy one of my own if I could afford to!) because we want a car that's small, but not *too small.* We're going to be adding a carseat into the mix in March, so we really feel like we need a 4 door rather than a 2 door and the Fit is one of the smallest 4 doors right now.

We probably won't trade in my Civic until it dies. It's already 10 years old and has over 100,000 miles on it, but it's going strong and gets amazing gas mileage (34mpg!), even though I do covet something less "The World's Most Boring Car." (It's even silver. The most common color of the most common car in parking lots all across this great land of ours.)

Also, the Fit in Europe is called the Honda "Jazz" which is just plain awesome. I'd like driving a car that's called "Jazz" somewhere in the world.

We haven't started looking in earnest yet, but likely a Subaru Impreza hatchback. Something a whole lot less skittery in winter than the current 97 Prelude, in any case.

Oh a VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen is on the list also. I drove in one of those and fell in love with it.

I really want an Acura TL. I could do anything after '05. It could be possible; the used ones around here aren't that much more than the Accords. I suppose I could do an RL or whatever the Civic-equivalent is. I am almost 100% Honda-centric.

We rented a Toyota 4Runner once while the car was in the shop, and it was perfect except for the OMG BOUNCING on the road. Which is unfortunate; I like the look a lot better than the Highlander, which is built on less of a truck chassis than the 4Runner. A Honda Pilot might be nice.

Yes, we should get a smaller car, but I really love the V6 on my Accord, and we're pretty big people, and we live in Wisconsin, and we like to move stuff. (He's a drummer who is usually the person responsible for gig logistics.)

My 2000 Accord is inching up on 190k. It's now definitively our primary car, and we do a fair amount of weekend trips 3 or 4 hours away. Currently, his 2003ish Hyundai Sonata (which is quite a bit more banged up, missing letters and sticker-covered than mine) is in the shop getting its brakes replaced AGAIN. I would love to have told him to just get rid of it and we'd go down to one better car, but he works second shift in the boonies so we can't do that right now.

Hah! I don't spend any time thinking about "my next car." All my car-energy is spent thinking of ways to get rid of the one I have.

(If I go full-time and we move down here, we'll probably go back to a 1-car household (and three motorcycles!). If not, I hang on to my car for my winter job deicing planes at the airport while I look for work.)

Most of my cars have been Toyotas or Hondas.

I spent about three weeks driving a friend's Fit while I dealt with my car registration brouhaha. I like a lot of things about it - cute, pretty roomy, small, gas efficient - but there was one major thing I did not like: the ride. It was just...brittle, the kind of ride where you feel every pothole and bump in the road. Just wanted to throw that in there - others might not be that sensitive to it, but for me it was enough to make me glad I didn't buy one when I'd been out looking at the small cars. They do make a 4-door Yaris in both hatchback and sedan, if that's the only reason you were thinking Fit, gfm.

I love my Fit, it's pretty much the perfect car. And I have no idea what I'll get next since I drive about 5K a year so the '09 Fit will probably last until around '29 and who knows what will be available by then? Hopefully flying cars.

Although I'll almost certainly buy another hobby car before then to replace my current '73 Super Beetle. Maybe a Karmann Ghia or a Type II Fastback.

We haven't owned a car for as long as I have lived in NYC, so nearly 6 years. Our last was a Honda Civic and we will probably stick with Honda. Maybe an Accord. I owned an Accord before moving to the US and it was great.

I much prefer not owning one of the damned things at all. They always need something done to them right when you've managed to save up a bit of extra cash for something fun.

Last year I finally got rid of my elderly shabby car (about 140K miles and ran well, but the body was slowly falling apart). I bought new because I'm just not very knowledgeable about used, and I want to have this car a long time. My top choice was a Honda Fit (well, I wanted a hybrid but I can't afford one), but I couldn't find one in my area with automatic transmission. So I went with a Hyundai Elantra, and I've been super happy with it. Very reliable and with tons of safety features.

Anyway, thumbs up Yaris. Inexpensive, too, well made, and the interior component design is the best I have ever experienced in any kind of car.

Is the interior much different than the Matrix? I've driven a Matrix a few times when I was a Zipcar member in DC, and I was never impressed with the interiors. Especially not compared to the Hondas.

Anyway, after having no car for the last two and a half years, I'm really jonesing for the sporty car I had before.

More practically, I think the new Ford Fusions are really nice. And the new Subaru Impreza hatchback is a good sporty compromise.

I really love my 2000 VW Golf. It's been a great car, and I think the VWs are really well built - excellent "fit and finish" as they say. Sadly, for me, the dealer in town has a service department staffed with @#%@#$*ing jerks, so it'll be the last new one I buy while living here. But, this one's got 160,000kms and is running fine. It's getting older though, and some things aren't working anymore, but...for now, I keep on driving it!

Car choices are very limited due to my husband's size (6'8", or 204 cm). Currently we have a fully paid off Nissan Altima, which he barely fits into. I think our next vehicle, which we should get by the end of the year, will be a Ford Escape hybrid. With the generous proviso - IF he fits into it. We both like it, but he hasn't sat in it yet.
If my man had his way, he would buy a Ford F150 and get nine miles to the gallon. There's an expression about a dead body that I usually employ when he starts to talk excitedly about getting a pickup as our main source of transportation.

Miko: Yeah, I know about the Yaris 4door. I've just been much happier over all with Hondas over Toyotas. My parents have had Toyotas (a Camry and a Matrix) and they were good... but they both required way more maintenance than the Honda ever has. Could just be the individual cars, but there it is, my anti-Toyota bias.

It will be awhile before this comes up, but I'll probably look hard at feasibility of an electric car, and failing that, a hybrid.

I haven't thought about it much. I've got an 04 Outback Sport/Impreza Outback/Impreza Hatchback (as ROU and mullacc put it) with 98k miles on it that is paid off and still in great shape. I've only had to replace a wheel bearing in the time I've owned it and it's a fantastic combination of fun to drive without burning a ton of fuel/all-weather ass kicker/fold down the back seats, let a dog or two hop in through the hatch and go have fun car.

Plus, if things go according to plan and I wind up in Vet School, I'll *really* need it to last me ~6 more years and who knows what options will be around then?

Is the interior much different than the Matrix?

Yes, the interior is different from the Matrix. I don't like the Matrix' either. Here's the Matrix interior and here's the Yaris'. I like it much better than I liked the Fit interior, which had a lot of oddly placed, jumbly controls. The blue light was cool, though.

As you can see, being able to adjust the heat/cooling, sound, vents, etc without looking at them is a big deal for me - I do most of my driving on the highway and most of it solo, so those things make a difference.

Awesome things about the Yaris interior: gauges in the center take a little getting used to, but mean that your eyes have a much easier time staying focused on the road ahead. Dials are in a vertical row, making it easy to find the one you want without looking. Also, the big Fisher-Price-style clicking knobs are super easy to adjust without looking. There are two passenger side glove boxes, and on the driver's side, a secret sunglass compartment, coin and small-stuff holder, and sort of shelf for parking things. Two drink holders and a nice sized center console box. The shifter is sort of excitingly manual-looking even on the automatics. Vents and blowers are perfectly positioned. Great sound system too.

I couldn't be happier with the car.

Ha, grapefruitmoon, you and I are car twins; I too have the anonymous silver Civic sedan, with the boringness and dependability and excellent gas mileage, and I too lust after the Fit. But I've decided to drive the Civic into the ground, which could be a ways off (it's a 2004 and I only just hit the 50,000 mile mark; the car has needed zero repairs thus far, so I expect it to live a good while longer).

Actually, the only two things I mind about the Civic, apart from the fact that I can never find it in the parking lot amidst all the other anonymous silver sedans, are: 1) the trunk, although decently-sized, is not really much use for hauling stuff; and 2) dammitall, I really really want power windows. I went for the cheaper model with the hand-cranked windows, and it is SUCH a pain on those frequent occasions when the car has heated up in the sun, and I want to get it aired out fast (by driving a ways with all the windows down) but then would like to get them closed before I get on the freeway, without having to pull over and park and hand-crank each one. Gnar.

msali...Have you guys looked at Volkswagens? I know there's a difference between 6'8" and my 6'3" but I'd be tempted to guess that he might fit in my car alright. I have lots of headroom.

Honda Accord, three years old and bought when it was 14 months old and had 22K miles on the clock - a bargain with lots of bells and whistles. It's been entirely reliable so far. A relative has one too, and loves it, and I know several friends and relatives who have Jazzes and love them.

We previously had a Toyota Carina which had over 150,000 on the clock and was starting to go wrong with increasing frequency, but had served us well. My sister has had lots of problems with her Yaris, but I think she must just have a bad one, as I've never heard anything bad about them elsewhere.

kat: Oh man, I have power windows. I would hate living without those, especially since I have to control the window access of a toddler.

And yes, I would KILL to be able to fit a regulation stroller in my trunk. I can get an "umbrella" stroller in there, but the actual normal sized stroller? Nothing doing. That is going to seriously cramp my style when I have an infant who won't be able to sit up in an umbrella stroller.

Small car people - don't forget to check out the Nissan Versa. We have the hatchback and love it. It's quiet, solid, smooth, has great mileage, lots of room, etc. We looked at the Yaris but didn't like all the stuff moved to the centre. We would have loved to get the Matrix but the financing sucked.

Our next vehicle will be a small SUV type thing. We were going to get a Jeep Liberty or Patriot but, again, the financing sucked. The mileage is similar to smaller cars. We really miss camping and want to be able to tow a tent trailer and throw the float tubes in the back.

We'll trade the Versa in and remain a one car family. I don't work and the mister works from home three days a week, so one car works great.

No way am I anywhere near a car purchase for myself. But if I was, the Ford Fusion Hybrid would be on my radar.

I have an '02 Prius that I love. It's only got 38000 miles on it cuz I never go anywhere, but when the time comes I'll replace it w/ another Toyota hybrid. I'm curious about the new Honda hybrid that's built on what looks to me like the stretched frame of the old CRX, cuz the '91 CRX was, as I have said here before, simply the greatest car ever made anywhere ever. But I'm leery of Honda's hybrid technology and I'll bet the Toyota is cheaper, so we'll see.

We're on the cusp of beginning car shopping for another car for my wife. The loan on my used Golf will be paid-off in October. We'd love to get another new Nissan Maxima for my wife, as the two we've owned (including the one my wife is currently driving) both lived well past 300,000 miles. Unfortunately, Maximas have been priced far beyond our reach now.

We'll probably opt for a used car this time. We're unsure of what we'll look at though. My wife does a 60 mile one-way commute every day, so comfort would be a plus, as will gas mileage and, of course, dependability. Her office has a fleet of Honda Fits, and she seems to like those a lot. Right now, though, it's all up in the air.

It is interesting that there are only two mentions of American cars that I noticed above. There is no American car that I want.

I had a Camry wagon that I loved. We were ready to take a long road trip, and there was a very tiny noise that I decided to have checked out. Well this tiny noise was a transmission part, badly worn, and three different shops said to get rid of the car. . .that it needed a new tranny. (We bought it used, but all of the records were with it. . .I had it checked out by a mechanic who said buy it. . .it was only after coming through the records that I noticed one shop noted that the prev. owners had run the transmission dry and they recommended that this not be repeated)

So I quickly got a new 2001 large Saturn wagon, which has been pretty good, it a bit noisy to drive. It's paid off but I still get free oil changes due to the fact that the same company has a Toyota dealership in town so they honored the Saturn lifetime oil change.

My wife wants a small sedan, to which I always say, "But we are STATION WAGON PEOPLE!" We have owned several Fiat wagons (wife's family was in the Fiat business and we got hand-me-downs), a Subaru wagon, then the Camry wagon before the Saturn. We'll see who wins this argument.

We (my family growing up) were station wagon people once I was 7 or so. We had a Chevy Cavalier very briefly, which we replaced with a Subaru GL or whatever that station wagon was before they had the Legacy, which we replaced with an Accord wagon. When the Accord wagon wore out, they bought an Accord sedan.

My parents and I now drive essentially the same car, but mine is prettier and zippier. Thankfully, I have never needed to lay giant chunks of sod directly on its floor.

I have to say that having Hondas has really made me appreciate their good design. Before a year-long carless period, I owned a '93 Civic sedan, and I was constantly struck by how much more spacious it seemed than my friends' Saturns, etc. We could even flip down the back seats. I still think that the Honda trunks are quite generously sized even without the ability to fold down or pass through the back seats. In contrast, my friend's Nissan Xterra horrified me with its narrow back doors and lack of legroom.

Do you ever get grumpy that certain years of cars are so much better than others? I dated a guy whose '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee was pretty much perfect, but the new ones are so weird looking and the '99s are too old for me now. (Plus I don't generally trust American cars. Just don't.)

ACK. All of which was meant to say that station wagon people could be sedan people easily, but god forbid you turn into minivan people.

They will pry my Honda Civic from my dead hands. I love Civics. So I'd definitely wind up in one of those. (My first Civic, Prissy, took a fatal rearending on my way to work a year or two ago and was replaced with the bright shiny red Rosalie that has pimped wheels on it.)

What makes everyone titter at work is that Rosalie is actually about 3 years older than Prissy and has almost 150k on it. (I love used cars. Rosalie cost about $3k and my brother just swapped the front end from Prissy to replace the front end of Rosalie from where someone hit a deer.)

My family is known for driving cars into the ground and while Prissy was taken before her time (barely 100k!), I'd like to buy a brand new Civic at some point.

We are currently looking at new cars (exciting! first ever new car!) for my other half, although only because I can access a good deal through a salary sacrifice arrangement.

She likes the Honda Jazz, but it (and similar cars) are just a bit small for a family with three kids, so we're going up a size. Because of the way the salary sacrifice arrangement works, we would be using the new car almost all the time as our family car, rather than our current 'main' car, which is an aging Nissan Patrol. We'll be keeping the Nissan and getting rid of an equally aging Mitsubishi Lancer. At the moment, the front-runner is the Subaru Impreza hatch. She likes it because it looks sexy, I like it for that, plus the all-wheel-drive (I hate front-wheel-drive cars any bigger than a 'real' Mini), mostly because of the safety/handling advantages. I have the advantage of access to a fleet of work cars, so I've been able to drive quite a few different cars over the past couple of years and the Subaru has impressed me with its solid feeling and nice handling - not sure whether it's the all-wheel-drive, but they just feel so stuck to the road compared with similar cars. Plus, they have amazing resale value here, probably matched only by Honda. I enjoy driving (according to a letter I got the other day from Queensland Transport suggesting that I 'familiarise myself with the road rules', it seems I enjoy driving a little too fast) and I like the idea of a car that can be driven with spirit and still be safe. I hate the way front-wheel drive cars tug at the steering wheel when you put your foot down and it affects the confidence I have in the car, therefore my enjoyment in driving. To me, there's really no choice but the Subaru in this price/size range.

We have a few hybrids in the work fleet (Prius and Civic), but I'm not all that impressed with the economy and am very sceptical about the total cost of ownership. I think there is a lot of missing information about the actual life of and replacement cost of batteries.

None of the cars we are looking at would be my first choice, unfortunately. What I'd really like is a Falcon XR6. Actually, what I'd really like is a Falcon GT-P, but I'm trying to be a little bit realistic here ;-).

I love Civics.

I would have bought a Civic if you could buy a hatchback but they stopped selling them five years ago. The only choice that I had for a Honda Hatchback was the Fit.

A car is still one of those dreamy far-off things for me. I live in a European city with such a great public transit system for its size and location that I do not see myself needing a car. I can get by just great without one, and roads here aren't that great, and we've got winter, and I don't even know if I can get a car here and register it as a non-EU citizen.

And yet, I used to drive in the States, and I miss it, and part of me really wants a little city car to zip (buzz?) about in, but not necessarily very powerfully: something to get to a lake on a warm weekend, something to get a bunch of groceries home. Something cheap, with lots of extra parts. I am ashamed to say that I rarely consider safety, since everything I'm looking at is 10-20 years old.

This is a longer-term decision for me; the more stuff I buy the longer I feel I have to stay here, and though I love it here, I freak out once I get too much stuff.

Part of me, then, wants the cheap and cheerful delight of this Fiat 126p, but I worry I'd be flattened by a stiff breeze. Part of me wants something newer and safer, but c'mon, could you ignore that luggage rack and those awesome lights? I could also see myself behind the wheel of this slightly tricked-out mini-Popemobile thing, and hey, airbags! Or maybe this sexy beast, with the insane one-inch-wide instrument panel and cloth-top!

Maybe I just like looking at cars.

My husband is an engineer for Honda, so I am so happy to see all the Honda love!

I'm not even thinking about a new car right now. I got a low-end Benz on ebay for a steal and plan to drive it into the ground. But if I was going to get a new car, I would definitely get a Honda!

The Prius isn't really a small car, it's more of a midsize sedan. Ms. Jabberjaw just bought one, and it's nice, roomy, and way more lux-y inside than the Hondas and other Toyotas we test-drove.

I have a Mini Cooper S. It is AWESOME. If you go with the Clubman, get the Clubman S. The little S at the end makes it so much more fun to drive.

I drove a Civic for ten year before the Mini, and I don't think I'll ever go back to one.

My next car is going to be a Porsche. I'll settle for the 911 Carrerra, but, you know, with a family coming along in the future, I might consider a Panamera. Of course, my next car has always been and will always be a Porsche, meaning I'll probably never get one.

The day my 98 Saturn wagon with 173,000 miles on it that I have owned since it was new, that has only broken down maybe three times in all those years and in each case was really considerate about it, poor thing, bites the dust will be a very, very, very sad day indeed. Let us hope that it never occurs.

I'll take your old one.

I don't plan on buying a car anytime soon, but it pains me to say that when I do, it probably won't be a VW. (I say that currently owning 2 VWs and having owned 3 previously.) They've just gotten too big, expensive, and complicated. Our 2000 Beetle (aka the Y2K Bug) is starting to have flaky electrical issues (alarm going off after unlocking but before starting; remote beeps but won't lock unless I unlock w/ remote first). I live in fear of turbocharger failure in the Passat.

What I do lust for (and would buy tomorrow if it were available) is an Aptera. It's the 21st century dammit; that's what cars should look like now that we live in the future.

I just bought, like a few weeks ago, a 99 Subaru Forester after having a 95 Legacy with 170K+ miles on it [which I sold for cheep]. It's great. I'm an AWD nerd since I'm often on dirt roads, muddy roads and snowy roads. This car lets me sit up and see better than the Legacy did and isn't as much of a rusty shitbox. I only really bought it b/c a little old lady down the road was selling it. It has 70K miles on it. No rust. I was thinking about all sorts of cars but this one fell in my lap and I decided to keep it.

I loved my Honda Civic Hatchbacks (my first one saved my life when a doofus ran a red light and right into the driver side door; the second one was a lovely little workhorse). When Honda told me "nobody liked the hatchbacks", I ended up with a Toyota Matrix that I'm really fond of, but I have really disliked how Toyota has run its business in the past two years, including dealing with the revelations of their many many issues.

I like my mom's newish (4 months) Subaru Outback (especially in the big snowstorms last winter), but I hate the way she gets mail from them twice a week, surveys twice a month (phone, email, web), entreaties to provide her "Subaru story" and constant resetting of her "service provider" to the closest (crooked) dealer, and not to the one 1 mile further in the other direction that she prefers (and bought her car from). Plus, the glossy magazines about the Subaru way of life are obnoxious and so wasteful. I'm buying a car, not defining myself. Of course, neither of us are really joiners, so...

I need lots of carrying room (the Civic Hatchbacks were AWESOME for this), so my next vehicle might be a minivan so I can tote furniture and tents and display stuff in the back. The problem is that most minivans are ugly, have mediocre gas milage, and are a pain to park next to if you are driving a regular car. On the plus side, they're uncool, which appeals to me.

For me, the most likely will be a Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus (when the Euro version hits U.S. shores), a Kia Soul or perhaps the new Hyundai Accent when the next generation comes out... the preview pics look pretty sharp. I like hatches so basically a small hatch of some sort.

Mrs. Doohickie's 2003 Taurus just passed 130k on our trip up north this summer. She's starting to think about her next car. She likes Fords so it will most likely be another Taurus or a Fusion, or perhaps she'll get the Mustang she's been wanting for a while.

So I went with a Hyundai Elantra, and I've been super happy with it. Very reliable and with tons of safety features.
posted by JanetLand 12 August | 14:34

That's what I drive, too. My 2005 is just now coming off the 5-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty but still has a lot left on the 100,000 drivetrain warranty. It's been great and I love the comfort. It's just a little bigger than I really need.

I'd like to go carfree by the time my Civic dies, but if that happened soon I'd probably have to get another. The only car that interests me right now is the Nissan Leaf, which is what I'd get if all the stars aligned (the current car dies, the Leaf wait llst isn't super long, and I can afford it).