Hey, whats a good recommendation for a cheap car in upper Michigan for my mom, because I can't find any nice Toyotas so I was wondering was are some other good recommendations for a small car? I was thinking of getting her an older Ford Taurus.
Ford Fusion's were pretty reliable.
An older AWD Honda CRV would be great in the snow.
@carlos
Hondas rust really badly in the snow, and my uncle had a CRV and it had problems with the AWD and he hated it for the snow. im looking at a RAV4 or maybe a 2000s Ford Fusion
Best cheap car that is reliable would be a Honda Civic.
Next best would be a Panther platform Ford, so Crown Vic, Lincoln Towncar, or Mercury Grand Marquis.
get an old GM car with a 3800 engine like 2004 buick or chevy impala those should be relatively cheap since they dont sell them anymore
@jebrim we had an 03 Chevy impala and it was the worst car we ever had, it rusted out in not even in 1 winter when id was the floorboards every week, and the rear struts broke and the transmission was burning up and the motor started to burn oil at 80k miles i will never buy another Chevy again we had 3 chevys all broke down under 100k miles its sad
i live in canada and i still see early 2000s GM cars... maybe u got a bad batch. look for ford fusion with the 3.5L then those had toyota trans in them. even volvo are good too like s60 (they have toyota trans too)
I would skip on the Chevy Impalas they are pretty much junk they had the worst automatic transmission ever made almost. I do like the S60 but I would stay away from them with higher miles like 130 150k miles
not all of them were bad specifically the 3800 engines are bulletproof, newer ones are garbage
Older Subaru foresters are great cars. They handle amazing in snow with a great awd system. Just be careful when buying them because once they hit around 115k-145k miles the head gaskets usually go bad. Try and look for one where that already happened and they had them replaced. I had an 08 forester that was great until the head gaskets went. I replaced them along with a bunch of other stuff like timing belt, water pump, etc... After that it worked great, I ended up selling for a profit when I moved. Anyway you could probably get one for 5k or less depending on its condition. Just look for one with new head gaskets.
Another cheap reliable car is the Honda civic. Do some research into the best model years for them.
You mentioned you can't find any cheap toyotas. I would keep looking or look in a different state nearby if you are willing to drive for a better deal. Toyotas are bomber, I have owned multiple of there SUVs and trucks. Never had any issues with any of them.
i cant travel far at all because of the bad weather and we don't have a vehicle to go out of state with
Ford Fusion would need to be late 2000's non-ecoboost for it to be reliable. I would consider the Ford Fusion which is a much better car.
2005-2013 Subaru Forester
Ford Fusion
2006 - 2008 Buick Lucerne with the 3800 V6 engine.
