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the life of a newly married, single guy

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
so, i need a new car. smaller, cheaper, fuel efficient and bike friendly.
now that i got married i find that i have to drive more, and my current suv does something like 14mpg.
i also like features like heated leather seats, a sunroof, xenon headlights and stuff like that.

i already own 2 thule roof racks. so it´d be ideal if i could get a car with rails.

i remember rm was in love with the subaru wagons. now it seems the trend has moved to the vw wagons.

i have found a 2007 vw passat wagon for sale, for a very reasonable price. leather seats, sunroof, xenon. seems fairly good.
then i also saw a peugeot 307 feline (a small hatchbak not available in the US) which has the best interior i have seen in a car south of $50k


any other suggestions?? what are good, fuel efficient, non-diesel, bike friendly cars nowadays? availability is pretty much non-issue nowadays for asian/european cars. many american cars are not for sale around here (plus their gas mileage usually suck)
 
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ICEBALL585

Bacontard
Sep 8, 2009
6,803
2,041
.:585:.
Now that you're married you can offically buy a mini-van since you no longer have anyone to impress.


I have 2 mini-vans :eek:
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
so, i need a new car. smaller, cheaper, fuel efficient and bike friendly.
now that i got married i find that i have to drive more, and my current suv does something like 14mpg.
i also like features like heated leather seats, a sunroof, xenon headlights and stuff like that.

i already own 2 thule roof racks. so it´d be ideal if i could get a car with rails.

i remember rm was in love with the subaru wagons. now it seems the trend has moved to the vw wagons.

i have found a 2007 vw passat wagon for sale, for a very reasonable price. leather seats, sunroof, xenon. seems fairly good.
then i also saw a peugeot 307 feline (a small hatchbak not available in the US) which has the best interior i have seen in a car south of $50k


any other suggestions?? what are good, fuel efficient, non-diesel, bike friendly cars nowadays? availability is pretty much non-issue nowadays for asian/european cars. many american cars are not for sale around here (plus their gas mileage usually suck)
On one had I wonder why non diesel if you want good mpg?

Though if you go for passat I remember the previous model (so 2007 right?) had engines with issues. can't remember what it was but it took some time to repair even if it wasn't crazy expensive. It might be a coincidence if it was one car but the feet of cars for an entire company?

On the other hand you consider a peugot and even an 84 alfa spider will be more reliable than that.
 

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
On one had I wonder why non diesel if you want good mpg?
local diesel has high sulfur levels and low lubricity. it destroys common-rail engines.

Though if you go for passat I remember the previous model (so 2007 right?) had engines with issues. can't remember what it was but it took some time to repair even if it wasn't crazy expensive. It might be a coincidence if it was one car but the feet of cars for an entire company?

On the other hand you consider a peugot and even an 84 alfa spider will be more reliable than that.
i want something used. like 2004-2007.
i didnt know peugeots were unreliable. i was told it was the other way around. my idea is to keep the car for 2-3 years at most, before it goes over 60-70k miles.... so i estimate at most, i´d have to replace belts/filters and maybe a water pump or something like that.....
 

bean

Turbo Monkey
Feb 16, 2004
1,335
0
Boulder
Subaru vs VW

Most people I know buy Subaru because of reliability and AWD. I think their reliability is somewhat overstated. There seem to have been some pretty wide-spread problems with certain engines and transmission, but people will say it's just that engine or transmission and the rest of the cars were fine (even though both were put in cars over a number of years). I'm also not convinced that AWD is that big an advantage. It can be nice to have, but it's certainly not necessary. I drove a FWD Saab with performance snow tires (the ones that give up some snow and ice traction for better dry pavement performance) and never got stuck in some huge snowstorms here. AWD also comes with a fuel economy penalty. The 95% of the time that's not really helping, it's still sucking up more gas.

VW's biggest problem is reliability, and I think it's somewhat overstated as well. There certainly were years where there were problems, but I think those get blown a bit out of proportion, and I think they have gotten better over the last few years.

Some of the advantages of the Jetta Sportwagen for us compared to the Outback - much better fuel economy with the TDI, an arguably nicer interior, better acceleration, better handling, better ride, a better size, and it's more unique (maybe frivolous, but fully half of the houses on our street have a Subaru and we wanted something different).
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
local diesel has high sulfur levels and low lubricity. it destroys common-rail engines.



i want something used. like 2004-2007.
i didnt know peugeots were unreliable. i was told it was the other way around. my idea is to keep the car for 2-3 years at most, before it goes over 60-70k miles.... so i estimate at most, i´d have to replace belts/filters and maybe a water pump or something like that.....
The nice stripe of fake chrome on my friends corpo 407 went off after 2000km. There were more issues later but it shows how fast it goes to ****.


As for passat if it's petrol I'd read a bitbecause the b6 is a nice car if you a sucker for good interior. The diesels were the problematic ones for what I know. Supposedly VW petrol engines are very nice but I only rode a 1.6 on a Skoda that was overflowing with bikes so that's not really a test.
Not as good as peugot but really nice and everything works really well. Didn't like the pedal throw on the automatic version but you can get used to it.

btw. Is the ford mondeo available in Peru? Not sure about petrol engines but they are spacious and offer the best ride of the stock , no sport package saloons I've tried. The car is quite pleasurable to drive and contrary to Opel you really feel the car. Easy to ride long distances with too.
 

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
In the US Subaru has high resale value. That's all I know. Mine has 65k on the clock and has never has any issues, it's also fun to drive in the woods. I have the 2500cc with a 5 speed, I do very little city driving - and get about 25MPG at an average of 75 miles per hour on the hi way. I bought it new in 2007 and can see no reason to upgrade. This car and our Honda Accord have by been the lowest maintence cars I have ever owned.
 

armada

Monkey
Aug 27, 2010
196
0
dont buy the peugeot :D
i have the 307 break hdi and yesterday was the third time it was serviced this year...
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,031
7,550
year range? 8 years old at most.
price range? under $14k in peru. about under $11-12k in the US.
must have? good mpg. nicer interior.
$12k, nice interior, frugal… hmm. Have Volvo S40s come down to that price range in Peru? They're in that range here. I have a soft spot for the 2004.5+ gen. 5-speed manual + 2.4 n/a engine for frugality, and nice Swedish interior:

http://www.edmunds.com/volvo/s40/

 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,861
4,159
Copenhagen, Denmark
Good call Toshi I think that is a brilliant car and you can get in a wagon. I am a big Volvo fan and hope the new owners can bring back the brand from the rape Ford exposed it to.