What car should I buy?

[cos]

I meant my current car to be "temporary", then four and a half years passed. It's time: I'm not about to move, or change jobs, or spend half the summer away from home, or work on a big campaign in the next few months, so I can do stuff like find a car. What should I look at?

Whatever I get, I want to keep for a long time. At least 200k miles, maybe 300k or more. New or used is okay. I don't plan to resell for a long time.

It needs to basically work, and stay reliable as long as I maintain it regularly and fix things as soon as I know they need fixing.

I don't care if it looks cool or feels great to drive or any of those things, just reasonable.

I do want to be able to get up steep dirt roads in Vermont and the Berkshires and such places in bad weather. That doesn't necessarily mean all wheel drive. My previous car, a Saturn SL2 with front wheel drive and "traction control" (ability to have the two front wheels turn separately) was very good at it. My current car, a Saturn SL1 (less power) with front wheel drive and no traction control, is not good at it. I'd take a front wheel w/traction again.

And I want fuel efficiency, particularly on highways and country roads, which account for the majority of my driving. I've been getting 33-39mpg on those kinds of roads in my current Saturn, though it's not rated that high. I'd like something that good or better.

Edit: I'd also like to have as much space as a Saturn SL2/SL1, for people and for stuff. More space would be fine, but not needed. It'd be annoying to have to adjust to a car with less space.

Suggestions?

Comments

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

I went from a Saturn SL to a 2006 Scion xB recently. I'm happy with the switch! The xB has lots more room; particularly, the room for passengers in the back is awesome. We took it on a trip from Atlanta to and through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and it did fine on the mountain roads. It's a manual transmission and I'm getting about 30 mpg city. It's worth a test drive.

[cos]

and it did fine on the mountain roads

Hmm, but see ravenword's comment above, about her xB?

When you say "the mountain roads" do you mean paved roads, in decent weather?

I'm specifically talking about steep unpaved weird windy roads covered with snow. I've always had several friends who live on such roads.

[cutieperson]

i'm surprised by ravenword's comment. klingonlandlady, frobzwiththings and sensesurfer all have xB's and don't seem to have trouble with the kinds of roads you're talking about. including bringing them up the mountain road to The Abode...

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I own a Mazda Miata and haven't had any trouble bringing it up to The Abode, so despite the steepness, that road isn't that challenging to a car's ability to climb.

[cutieperson]

i think it depends a lot on the load.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Heh. The winter before we moved to GA, we tried taking our xB up a snow-covered paved road in Belmont, on a pretty big hill. The snow was still falling but it wasn't exactly a blizzard, just moderate snowfall with big flakes. We were doing okay until the car in front of us stopped. So then we stopped. And proceeded to slide slowly down to the bottom of the hill. Ended up going a different way home. (And as soon as we got to Newton, we reaped the benefits of their high property taxes -- the roads were already salted and snow-free, so no more problems.)

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Although, to be fair, other big and manly SUVs on that road were having the same problem, so it may have just been especially slippery.

[randomorbit.livejournal.com]

Snow tires, preferably studded, are indispensable for VT winters especially if back roads are a regular part of your driving. With snow tires most front wheel drive cars will do alright. Subarus I've driven have all been very nice. I drove a forester from Boston to Montpelier in a blizzard last winter, and it did extremely well, but all wheel drive has a price when it comes to gas mileage. A Subaru will get worse mileage than a similar sized car with similar engine displacement.

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

I never use this "word," but: LOL.

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

Paved roads in rain. I can't speak from experience about snow since I didn't have the xB the one time it snowed this year in Georgia. I can imagine it potentially not doing well with unplowed roads since it's so low to the ground.

If it helps, I believe it does have traction control, and it handles very well a weird curve on a paved road that my Saturn always used to slip on. So it might work....