Help me pick a new DD

I currently drive a 31 year old diesel Mercedes, which was fine for the first couple years I owned it, but is really pretty worn out, and I have lately been spending $300-$500 a month just fixing random stuff to keep it working (in the last couple weeks swaybar bushings, rear pads and rotors, transmission fluid/filter and fuel filters, etc) and I really don't want to do that anymore. I tried getting a 01 TDI Jetta to replace it, but that ended up costing about $1 per mile in maintenance for the couple thousand miles I drove it and showed no signs of slowing down, so I sold that one pretty quick. I have thought about getting a new car, and went and test drove a 1.0 ecoboost fiesta (didn't really like it), and a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Hyundai Veloster R spec, both of which were fun, but $22k seems like a lot of money, especially when my current job is really a contract/temporary position so although its quite likely that I would, I'm not 100% sure I would have continuous work until I paid off the loan.

I also went and drove an 04 Infiniti M45, and I loved it (and it wouldn't be too big a deal to afford one, although for a nice one I wouldn't have much left over for maintenance for a while), but they are 9+ years old now and I am not sure if there are any expensive surprises that could end up making it seem like a bad decision later.

I have also thought about getting a Infiniti Q45 (lots of them for sale pretty cheap), or an E46 BMW (I live in the bay area and they are everywhere here), but I am not sure about expensive surprised with those either. I really don't want a 4 cylinder automatic, or an extremely boring car (for example, manual Mazda 3 would be fine, automatic Corolla would not be) but other than that I'm not too picky. I usually like either small manual transmission cars that handle well, or big rwd automatics (other than american, unless someone can convince me a P71 would be a good idea). Any suggestions? I think I'm mostly just complaining because I can't make up my mind, but I thought I'd see what people here have to say.

A Mazda 3 is your best bet. Fun to drive and affordable to maintain. A GTI and a SVT Focus are other good small cars. For affordable RWD, an E30, Mustang GT and a Camaro/Trans AM are ok options. But the muscle cars will probably need Koni Yellows or Bilstein Sports immediately.

If you live in a rust belt, pass on the Mazda 3. They have factory installed rust from what I have seen.

I just spent 3 months looking for a car and every 3 I looked at had significant rust.

No more VWs for me lol. I do think a Mazda 3 might be fun, although I have never actually touched one, I see lots of them though. A focus would work, although my insurance would go up $600 a year over what the Mercedes costs me.

I live in the SF bay area, so most of the time rust isn't a big deal on anything 1990 or newer, and even most older cars only have minor rust. I even know someone who has a Mazda 3 who used to live in Ohio and the car still looks alright.

Miata.

Somebody had to say it.

I had actually kinda forgotten about miatas, as funny as that sounds. I really don't fit in them very well at all though. I did drive one once and it was fun, but I don't think I could stand it for more than short trips.

Some of the other cars that had caught my attention were Lexus gs300 or ls400, e39 BMW 5 series (not a 540 though) and the 4 door Acura accord sized thing (tl I think?).

Manual mazda 3. Fun to drive and wont fall apart

I have a manual Mazda 3 (2007). It's been a fun car. It's been reliable as well. I'm in Kansas City, and most I've seen around here seem rust free. It wouldn't really surprise me if that were not the case further north.

There are a few well known weak points (engine mounts, struts, sway bar end links). The engine mounts are easy to replace, though aftermarket items are more than I'm willing to spend.

It looks like one bad thing about the Mazda 3 is they are pretty expensive here, like more than an e46.

But really, how often do you have to replace those parts on the Mercedes? Going strictly on the brief examples you gave us, it all sounds like items that shouldn't need replacing for quite some time. It's your car and you know best, but it sounds like it has some life left in it yet.

I too love the first gen M45, but I also know very little about cost of ownership on one.

The problem with the Mercedes is that yes, those parts won't need replacing for quite some time, its just all the other stuff that also won't need replacing for quite some time after I fix it that's the problem. There isn't any one thing that's expensive and impossible to fix, its just that everything is about as worn out as you would expect for a car with 500k miles on it. The stuff I know it needs right now are tires, shocks (mainly just rear ones, which I could find used), rear CV boots (way bigger job than your normal FWD, and not cheap) and maybe CV joints or driveshaft support bearing, probably new injectors and rack damper bolt, and maybe lift pump, one of the door lock actuators is leaking and I think its making the transmission shift funny so that needs to be either blocked off or fixed, the heater and a/c both don't work, and it leaks a bit of oil (it holds 8 quarts and leaks maybe half a quart per tank of fuel), which I think is coming from the rear main seal, the drivers side sway bar bushing which is under the brake booster, etc. Does that give a better picture of it? Lol to be honest I bet if it didn't get driven long distances regularly it would probably stay running for years, but its getting kinda old and worn out to be good for driving to work everyday. I bought it when I was in college because I wanted a reliable car and it actually didn't need much of anything for several years, but now between me being more picky about broken stuff and it needing more work its not working out as well anymore.

The m45 is a really nice car, and there are actually quite a few of them around here, most of the ones for sale are at sketchy eastern European used car lots or at someone's house in a not so great neighborhood so idk about that. The one I drove was pretty nice, although it had only been driven about 20k miles in the last 5 years and the guy wanted almost $9k. There are a lot of q45s and ls400s that at least look nice for sale in this area too, but other than looking at them in the junkyard a few times and briefly riding in an ls430 I haven't had any experience with them.

If you want something "fun", not sure you'd enjoy the LS400. Bullet proof, yes. But fun to drive, not really. The Mazda 3 is a fun car. Look into a Civic Si. I also wouldn't rule out a 5 speed Accord coupe, they're more fun than you think.

Bulletproof is kinda fun in a different way too, the one bad part about that is it usually means really expensive parts when it finally comes time to replace stuff. Am I correct in thinking that BMWs are very fragile and maintenance intensive and I should avoid them? That has been my impression of them in general.

I just have to point out that this sentence would have me running from ever owning one of these beasts:

Travis_K wrote: one of the door lock actuators is leaking and I think its making the transmission shift funny

Did someone say Mazda 3?

I've been daily driving my 2012 Mazda 3 for nearly 3 years now. It has been a great car so far, and a decent appliance that's not soul sucking to drive. I've racked up 73k miles on it as of today.

If you can swing it, go for the 2012-13 models, especially the 5-door hatch (they look the best IMHO and they have bigger brakes). The 2010-13 models have a larger 2.5L MZR motor available with a 6-speed manual and the 2012-up cars can be had with the Skyactiv motors. The earlier cars are nice as well, however look for rust.

My car has had two issues so far:

-Driver's seat snapped a weld where the seat mounts to the track. It was easy to fix with a welder: just welded it back together. It is a common problem. Also, if the seat is clunking around, weld a metal washer in place instead of the push washer that they use from the factory.

-Transmission mount is toast. These were part of the Ford parts shared between the Focus, 3, and S40, and are prone to failure. Very common problem dating back to the 2003 models. I knew that before I bought the car, so it was expected.

Other than that, I've done oil changes, a tune up at 60k (basically spark plugs, air filter, and cabin air filter), tires, and brakes. Parts are cheap, and it is one of the easiest cars I have ever worked on.

I have not seen any rust yet on mine, aside from some weirdness on my door hinges.

I will have to look and see how much the newer ones sell for. I was looking at the 05-07 ones when I mentioned the high prices, most of them are pretty tired looking with a salvage title and/or a lot of miles, and are still $7500. I am still not sure how I feel about a car payment with a temporary job, but I will try to find a Mazda 3 to look at. Mazdas are actually not common at all in my area, I see them occasionally, but I think there are few enough Mazda dealers around that the average person would buy a Focus or Fiesta instead of a Mazda 2 or 3.

From everything I've heard bmw isn't too bad if you source your parts online, and there is a huge following so diy info is abundant. It would probably be better than the merc.

If I bought a beater that wasn't a truck or sports car it'd probably be a boring ass 4 cylinder camry, or an e36/46 or 6 cyl 5 series. I've always been afraid of bmws, but the guys on here are slowly changing my mind. I would just go into it knowing it will need a little more care than my old trucks.

Also heard good things about older non SVT focus hatches. Apparently certain engines had chains instead of belts, and the SVT suspension upgrade was like 250 new on amazon. It was springs and shocks. Hopefully someone can chime in with more info.

Do e46s have as many catalytic converter problems as e39s? I live in California so that can be an expensive problem. I haven't checked the insurance cost on a duratec focus, that is a possibility too, the svt is really expensive though. I guess part of why I don't know what to do ks that beaters aren't as cheap as they used to be, so idk whether to buy a $5-$6k car and spend money every month on maintenance, or whether the money would be better used on a down payment for a new car and have a car payment rather than repair bills lol.

P71s and other panther platform cars are reliable, parts are dirt cheap, and very simple to work on.

It sounds like you are shopping a lot of cars that I have been too lately (luxobarge sedans, ~10 years old) although quite frankly I am avoiding euro cars all together, focusing mostly on japanese or panther platform cars, OR at the other end of the spectrum a Mazda5.

I have been pretty wishy-washy about the whole thing, every couple days I want a different one. Over the weekend my wife told me to shut up already and just buy another Grand Marquis. We had a 99 and liked it a lot. Im leaning more towards an 03+ Crown Victoria LX Sport now though. Local CL had an 06 and 07 each with around 90k miles asking $6k and $7k respectively. Probably a bit high but at the right price I would not hesitate on a nice condition 90k mile panther car from a reliability standpoint. Im trying to find something closer to 50-70k miles though.

Lol yes I can certainly relate to the changing my mind every other day thing. I do like the idea of a Mazda 3, but newer Mazdas are uncommon here, and a lot of them are still $10k for an 05 with 100k miles.

How bad are the issues with blowing out spark plugs on p71s? I have always ignored them because of that.

Sounds like you want luxurious/fun.

Then again, if a $22k loan bugs you, poor mpg probably does as well.

So basically, you are a really difficult person to help :P Almost any brand new car will be "faster" than a older car, and you will not have to worry about E36 M3 breaking for the first 140k miles.

It sounds to me like you want luxury more than you want outright speed though. Get a clean 540i with the 6 speed

Lol as long as it can do 20 mpg+ I'm not too worried. The difference between that and a loan is you only have to buy gas if you drive a lot, a loan you have to pay no matter what. Fast is all relative, I have been driving a diesel Mercedes for 3 years so pretty much anything feels fast . I don't really care as much about the luxury features like power everything etc as that I have found I kinda like driving a big heavy car with an automatic for everyday driving on the freeway and around town versus a small light car with a manual. Both can be fun, but its easier to not be annoyed by traffic in a big car for some reason. I had asked about a 540i a while ago, and it sounded like they were a pretty terrible idea, especially the part that if it ever needs new cats its pretty much a parts or lemons car because new ones are $5k.

failboat wrote: P71s and other panther platform cars are reliable, parts are dirt cheap, and very simple to work on. It sounds like you are shopping a lot of cars that I have been too lately (luxobarge sedans, ~10 years old) although quite frankly I am avoiding euro cars all together, focusing mostly on japanese or panther platform cars, OR at the other end of the spectrum a Mazda5. I have been pretty wishy-washy about the whole thing, every couple days I want a different one. Over the weekend my wife told me to shut up already and just buy another Grand Marquis. We had a 99 and liked it a lot. Im leaning more towards an 03+ Crown Victoria LX Sport now though. Local CL had an 06 and 07 each with around 90k miles asking $6k and $7k respectively. Probably a bit high but at the right price I would not hesitate on a nice condition 90k mile panther car from a reliability standpoint. Im trying to find something closer to 50-70k miles though.

+1 this. This or the nicest 2000+ GM H-Body you can find will be much less than 10K, last you for years and be relatively cheap to fix when something does happen to go wrong. Truly the last of the big American cars in driving feel (even the FWD H-body does a good interstate float like the old Electras and Delta 88's)