Thread: Shopping for a "new" car. Seeking input/suggestions.

actually now that i think about it, you should buy a saab.

OK, OK.....I think I might have found a serious candidate if this thing is as nice as it's described and looks in the pics. I like the exterior design (by wagon standards), I like the interior, looks like plenty of cargo room, from digging around a bit, it appears to get almost exactly the same MPG as the GTP, it's an '04 so it's newer than my car, it has under 100k miles, and being a Florida car is a huge plus. Only thing is.....I'm a bit worried about what maintenance and repairs will cost on something like this.

2004 Volvo V40 773-865-9071

Off the top of my head I heard of rear brakes going through pads and rotors pretty fast, rear calipers seizing up and ac blower dying prematurely. Mattnadian should chip in more, I know he scours them internets for volvo porn.

OK, I think I might have a winner this time. It looks like with some shopping around, I can get a lower mileage '06ish Saturn Vue, and I think that covers everything I'm looking for.

It's obviously going to be newer than my car.
It would definitely have plenty of room.
It has a 250hp 3.5L DOHC Honda motor, so decent ability to get out of its own way.
Gets surprisingly good gas mileage given the weight and power output.
They're not great, but decent looking IMO (I've always kinda' liked them :hsugh: ).

Only thing I'm not sure on is overall reliability. I know I'll have to deal with the timing belt, and those are always fun, but anyone know of any issues outside of this?

J35A3. Not a bad engine. Timing belt every 90k miles, and awesome reliability as far as engine is concerned. As long as general maintenance, change the oil and nothing will ever go.

Honda transmissions commonly have torque converter issues at low rpm's that cause a shudder with low load 13-1500 rpm. To fix that is either a flush or replace the converter. This issue has been reported on the Vue, and that's about the only issue I know of.

I can live with that list. So glad they decided to drop those horrible CVT transmissions for '04 on up. I'd really like to find an '06 or '07 because I like the slight face lift and interior makeover they were given, but I don't know how realistic that is in my price range with under 100k miles/in good condition.