if you have a mechanic

who will fix your shit

or do it yourself

that is the best way

Well not everyone has that

My friend has used warrantydirect and had no issues with making claims with them

including when he had to have his S4 transmission replaced

which is not a cheap job at all

the thing is, most modern cars are pretty reliable and most problems are pretty common to certain engines/models so you can actually pick extremely good reliable cars second hand

plus the older a car, the longer it's been around to show its faults

if I were buying a car right now, I'd probably be going for a lexus IS250

because they're reliable as hell and for the comfort they offer really cheap

and here's the thing - even if you don't get a third party warranty or anything, it's pretty easy to identify what kind of cars might incur costs which make them nearly irrepairable

second hand is the way to win if you want cheap motoring, from what I've seen the optimal point tends to be <17 years old, <150000 miles as a start point, obviously servicing records make this variable

anything <7 years old tends to be overpriced though, plus depreciation still hits a little too hard

Depends on how you value it.

Personally, I probably could have gotten something older and it would have been fine.

But I get a bit paranoid with this. Having family members who have had horrendous 3rd party warranty experiences doesn't help. So I went with something newer with the factory warranty

And on top of that made sure to get something that lacked any dealbreaking systemic problems.

Ie, no Shitsubishis, FCAs, avoided luxury cars period, no automatic Focus or Fiesta, etc.

it's weird

I've heard a lot of people in the US really dislike the focus

yet here they're brilliant

also, don't avoid luxury cars

lexus pretty much consistently rank #1 for reliability

I think over the last like 15 years lexus have never been below top 3 on consumer reports used car reliability and spent like 90% of the time at number 1

@LOGiK Because we *just* got the European manufactured Focus this generation.

North America had a different Focus prior to 2011

I'm pretty sure the MK1 was the same though

Eh, they were manufactured here though. And they were just another econo-shit-box lol

well, aside from the st and rs that's all the focus ever was

but the duratec he engine options were pretty fucking reliable

even the NA mk2 focus had those and I can't see what would have gone wrong with them

We didn't get the RS

so?

I think there were less than 4000 mk1 RS focuses made overall, they didn't really sell that well

the vast majority of them were sold in the UK, I dunno if they would have sold well in the US

idk, probably not. Ricey FWD sub-compacts only appeal to high school kids here

the thing is, if it had been sold in the us it would have been in the same price area as the mustang

hot hatches are successful in europe mostly because of fuel costs, in america that isn't such a concern so bigger engined cars are looked at as alternatives

Problem is, the few times a lexus needs fixing, it is expensive.

@LOGiKalso i am under 25 years old