Should I buy a Saab, Volvo, Honda or Toyota?
Must use a financially stable car, with as few repairs as possible over the years to come.
I have become disabled after a work accident, so it should preferably have automatic transmission, which is extremely rare in Denmark.
It should preferably be able to tow 2 tons in the towbar and preferably not much under it.
Honda, for example, has problems with their automatic transmission in any of their cars, but simply can not figure out which models I should avoid. This also applies to Saab, Volvo and Toyota, which I do not know enough about.
I simply can not afford to buy and install a new gearbox (can easily cost 10000 dollars in replacement at the workshop), so the car must be reliable and I can not myself make major repairs on the cars anymore.
We are taxed according to how far the car drives on the liter and if the car drives for example 10 km / L on diesel then it costs 2,544.23 dollars in tax per. year.
So it has to go really far on the liter too.
I am looking for a car in the years 2004 to before 2012 as the money is very small.
The only car I can find with automatic transmission and 2 tons in tow is a Ford Mondeo 2.0 Diesel 140 HP from 2010 for 5,830.54 dollars. 950.97 dollars in annual tax, 17.9 km / L, but I dare not buy a Ford because of the reputation. Scotty always talks about buying an Rav4, but it's way too expensive for me. Saab is relatively cheap to buy in 1.8 turbo and the annual fee is tolerable at 940 dollars. But is it stable and rarely breaks down?
Also adding @Dan to the discussion
Generally speaking, I would look for Toyota or Honda first, then Volvo second, and Saab not at all.
Nothing against Saab itself, but they don’t exist anymore, so repairs and parts might be expensive.
With the Toyota or Honda, they are not perfect, but they give you are higher chance or reliability. Depends on the year and model. If you have a specific Toyota or Honda model you are looking at, feel free to ask here. If there is a comparable model I the US, we may be able to give you the good and bad of that specific vehicle.
Volvo, I really don’t know too much about.
Despite the fact that I own 3 of them I would not recommend you buy a Saab due to the company being out of business for a decade now. Some parts may be hard to find, as well as mechanics who know how to work on the cars, though in Europe that may be less of a problem than in the U.S. (I sometimes order parts from overseas.) Also the best Saabs were the pre-GM models and the newest of those hail from 1998, with most being older. If you were going to look at a Saab in the age range you're looking for you might as well just buy an Opel. I don't think I'd try to tow two tons with one either.
In the U.S. the most reliable Volvos were the old rear-drive models. I don't know much about the newer ones aside from the company being owned by Geely in China.
So really if you want something reliable that's going to last a long time it's probably going to come down to the same answer that Scotty would give to people in the U.S. - Toyota or Honda, probably an SUV or truck for towing, being sure to stay away from models with known problems. Scotty has done videos on the ones not to buy and I think there's info in the site FAQ as well.
Thanks for the answers,
Should I look at the Ford Mondeo 2,0D 140 hp. Scotty like's Maxda and there have been a lot of Mazda parts in Ford?
Mazda by Scotty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR0kw019L1E&list=TLPQMDgxMDIwMjHoQ66GuhHa6w&index=2