Actually if you want long term reliablity and low maintenance then a used protege is a bad choice. I've known 3 people who had them and thy were a serious maintenance headache on par with most of the VWs I've known.
BTW, Edmunds review says that if considering a Scion versus the lower cost Toyota Yaris, skip the Yaris and go for the Scion. The Yaris apparently gets poor marks compared to the Scion because it feels rather cheaply made.
I'm on my second Toyota. The first was an 81 Tercel that got run into the ground after 12 years of use. The engine still turned over in the dead of winter when it was retired. It was the body rust that finally made the car unsafe to drive. The current car is a 93 Corolla that has well over 150k miles on the clock. In the end, the body rust is gonna be what stops this baby. Every three years or so I need to do $500-$1000 of maintenance mostly due to city driving wear & tear like shocks and brakes and exhaust parts rusting.
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BTW, Edmunds review says that if considering a Scion versus the lower cost Toyota Yaris, skip the Yaris and go for the Scion. The Yaris apparently gets poor marks compared to the Scion because it feels rather cheaply made.
I'm on my second Toyota. The first was an 81 Tercel that got run into the ground after 12 years of use. The engine still turned over in the dead of winter when it was retired. It was the body rust that finally made the car unsafe to drive. The current car is a 93 Corolla that has well over 150k miles on the clock. In the end, the body rust is gonna be what stops this baby. Every three years or so I need to do $500-$1000 of maintenance mostly due to city driving wear & tear like shocks and brakes and exhaust parts rusting.