Poring over all the facts, figures, and opinions from dozens/hundreds of websites I’ve formed some opinions. Mine are no better than other experts or yours – they are just my opinions. Take them or leave them but here they are.
Cheap used cars have a place in every family’s stable of cars – your portfolio of cars if you will. Each car has a purpose – some are designed to run to the airport and wait in blistering heat for weeks while you vacation, some are designed as the first car of a new driver – it will be beat up and abused, some are more upscale and take the family on vacation long distances.
You must decide how this used car will serve your family. But, there are many guidelines that I can share with you that you may agree or disagree with but I firmly believe in them. I don’t want to insult anyone but I call them as I see them. Here we go…
Imports are better than domestics
When you pour over the data, the domestic manufacturers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) are an embarrassment to US pride – they are far, far, behind the imports. This is in many areas – cost, reliability, safety, resale value, you name an area and the domestics are in last place. Oh we are making some improvements but the imports seem to try much harder – we seem to go begging to our government for handouts.
Anyway that’s what the data supports and there are a few areas where that rule has problems but for the most part import used cars will be much more satisfactory to your family needs than domestic. If you have to buy a domestic used car for whatever reason I will point out the best of those too. There are some domestics, the lowest of the low that you just don’t want to touch with a 50′ pole. They are just horrible.
Lastly, the huge trouble Detroit has gotten itself into was accurately predicted by buyers for a generation – buying a domestic car in the next 5 years is going to be extremely risky – you’ve been warned.
I’m going to present a number of tables that represent the distillation of the internet – you can ignore them if you wish and spend hundreds of hours coming up with your own opinions.
Manufacturer Ranking
This is my opinion of the car manufactures for cars available in the USA. The order is VERY important! I recommend you start your searches from top to bottom and every time you go down one row of the table your overall satisfaction will drop.
| Recommend: |
| Porsche |
| Lexus |
| Acura |
| Infiniti |
| Honda |
| Subaru |
| Toyota |
| Nissan |
| Mazda |
| BMW |
| Scion |
| Caution: |
| Mercedes-Benz |
| Hyundai |
| Volkswagen |
| Volvo |
| KIA |
| Risky: |
| Saturn |
| Saab |
| Ford |
| Suzuki |
| Mitsubishi |
| GM |
| Land Rover |
| Chrysler |
As an American, it makes me almost cry that our car manufacturers rank so low in the list. I don’t really have a stake in this and I sure wish I could point to a US car with pride but sadly our cars come in dead last. If you have patriotic problems with that then buy American but don’t be surprised when what I say comes true.
My job is to advise you of reality, and that always means money. American cars are expensive to buy new, expensive to maintain, and cheap when you sell them. Throw in the troubles Detroit has, the abandonment of complete car lines, and my general advice is to buy an import.
Link to this page