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Foreign Cars

The Best Cars for Your Money

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What's the better buy: Charger or Camry?
What's the better buy: Charger or Camry?

If car buying was strictly a numbers game, deciding which car to buy would be much easier. Factors like purchase price, maintenance costs, resale value, performance numbers, and fuel economy would determine our car choices.

Most of us have a little thing called emotion fueling our car purchases, though, and the smartest choice might be eclipsed by our obsession with a certain model’s curvy exterior.

For those looking for the smartest car buys financially, the good folks at U.S. News and World Report Automotive have assembled a list of cars that are best buys over the long haul. The full list, along with their methodology, is here (Toyota/Lexus dominate, with eight of the 14 winners).

The best buys aren’t always best sellers or popular, though, so I’m comparing some of U.S. News’ choices with the Owner Favorites in the same categories on CarGurus.com and with the overall best sellers in each category.

Midsize sedan

Crossover

Hatchback/subcompact

Convertible/sports car

  • U.S. News & World Report Best Buy: Mazda Miata
  • CarGurus.com Owner Favorite: Ford Mustang
  • Best seller: Pontiac G6 (I didn’t believe it either, but you can double-check yourself here.)

Minivan

Full-size pickup

This is proof that sometimes the best buy is just plain boring. Putting the tag of “best buy” on a car is a pretty objective thing, because the guy looking for performance and fun is going to think a Dodge Charger is a heck of a better buy than a Toyota Camry!

What cars do you think were left off the “best buys” list?

-tgriffith

Three Superminis You Can’t Buy Here

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SEAT Ibiza Reference 2009dsc00007I love little cars. They generally are much more fun to drive, handle like go-karts, and get great mileage. They populate the entire world… except here in the U.S.A. We do get a few, but not much in the way of real choice, and the ones that end up on our shores are boxy, ugly, under-performing, or all three.

In Mexico I saw what they call superminis everywhere. Some of them, like this SEAT Ibiza (above, right), are really sharp and bigger inside than they look. SEAT (“say-at”) is a Spanish carmaker now owned by Volkswagen AG, like so much else—Porsche may be next—in the auto world. The Ibiza Reference, shown here, comes with a variety of engines, weighing in from 70-105 hp, gas or diesel. Higher-powered, sportier models are available, and they look to be popular in southern Mexico. Tell SEAT to bring us its cars here. They probably won’t, but you can complain about how little choice we have.

2007 Ford KaAnother sharp small car is the Ford Ka, built in Poland, Brazil, Argentina, and maybe someday in the U.S. An older version (probably 2007) is shown here, which is better looking than the new Ka that may come to these shores, according to Alan Mulally. (No, he didn’t say the older one was better looking.) Then it will have the Fiesta to compete with, so don’t hold your breath. If Ford did commit to a full lineup of small cars in the U.S., it could give Fiat/Chrysler and the Asians a real run for their money in 2011. The company’s global reach is surprising. More photos of the new Ka are here.

2009 VW CrossFoxI asked the owner of this VW CrossFox (right) if I could take pix of his car. “Seguramente” [certainly], he said, and I realized I could get by in Spanish with phrases like this and “Si, como no?” for almost everything. One of VW’s line of “city cars,” the Fox series launched a few years ago in Brazil and has spread through Latin America in many iterations. The CrossFox is not much of an off-roader, but is great for Mexican pavement (and the lack thereof), taking the country’s many speed bumps with aplomb. Ask VW why we can’t have this car.

What other foreign-made minis and superminis do you think should be made available to U.S. buyers?

—jgoods

How to Fix the Car-Buying Experience


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woman-car-keys
Like many of you, I’m a completely car-obsessed nut job.

I love almost everything about cars: I love driving them. I love reading about them. I love writing about them. I love criticizing them and praising them. Heck, I even love smelling them (2004 models and newer only, please).

Buying cars is perhaps the only thing that I don’t like, even though I’ve done it now 13 times in 12 years.

Last weekend I again began the process of car shopping to replace my wife’s 2002 Honda CR-V. Last night we finished the process and happily brought home a 2004 Lexus RX 330 with only 28,000 miles on the odometer. The days in between were a mix of delight, excitement, frustration, and torture. But I have a way to fix the process.

First, though, this Lexus is the first car my wife picked out herself, test drove herself, and took delivery of herself. Being the car nut that I am, I ALWAYS decided what cars we had and when we bought them. This time I was the casual observer – the friend who came along for advice, support, and negotiation know-how.

My wife is quite delighted that I hadn’t even driven an RX 330 before she did, which is a miracle, considering how many cars I’ve tested.

Lexus was the first brand we looked at and the last, with Mazda, Nissan, car-in-cartChevy, Volkswagen, Ford, and Cadillac in between. Negotiations started and stalled, we walked onto dealership lots and off them. It was during one of those walk-offs that a stroke of brilliance hit so hard I was nearly ready to go start my own dealership and change the way America buys cars. And it’s so simple it’s almost silly!

I want dealerships to negotiate whatever price they want for the trade-in vehicles they acquire. But, when a shopper comes in to look at that vehicle, the dealer has to show them what they paid for it and include a set mark-up that’s not negotiable, say 15 percent. The shopper then knows exactly what the car costs, the salesman knows exactly what his commission will be, and the dealership knows exactly how much profit it will make. It’d be like buying from Saturn, only better.  

Would you rather buy a car at a no-negotiation price, or do you like the back-and-forth experience?

-tgriffith

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The Best TV Cars Ever!


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Not long ago I chose my favorite movie cars of all time, and needless to say, not everyone agreed with my choices. Now I want to know about your favorite TV cars ever! First, though, here are my choices:

KITT: 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, “Knight Rider”

Forget the Mustang GT500 in the pitiful remake of the classic “Knight Rider” – the original KITT was cooler on so many levels!

The General Lee: 1969 Dodge Charger, “The Dukes of Hazzard”

General Lee

Remember how Luke and Bo would leap into the car right through its open windows? Or jump the car through barn walls? In this case, the car wasn’t just part of the show, it MADE the show!

1975 Pontiac Firebird, “The Rockford Files”

Jim Rockford lived in a trailer and drove a gold Firebird. Could he have solved his cases without the car? Maybe. But I don’t think as many people would have watched him do it!

Stair car, “Arrested Development”

Driving a portable staircase is plain funny, especially when it’s the family’s main mode of transportation. Here’s a nod to an under-appreciated classic!

Mach 5, “Speed Racer”

Hey, I never the said the cars on this list were all going to be real. The Mach 5 has been around since 1967, was the star of a recent movie, and was even put through a “road test” by Road & Track magazine. Zero to 60 in 0.6 seconds!

Which do you think are the best cars ever featured in a TV show?

-tgriffith

Small Car, Big Title: 2009 MINI John Cooper Works Performance Cabrio


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mini-jcw-open-rearMINI/BMW has announced the new JCW Convertible, one nifty car, though it will cost you $34,950 base. The standard MINI Cooper convertible, hardly plain old vanilla, had an MSRP of $24,550. What does that extra ten grand get you? With a 208-bhp turbo, the JCW should be a blast to drive (0-62 in 6.9 seconds), and it possesses an “outstandingly sporting character,” per the press release.

See it at the Geneva Auto Show March 5-15, or get one from your local dealer starting in April. Whether or not you can afford the price, we bet you’ll be tempted.

This new car has all the MINI virtues and more: a Sport button to press for more torque, plus better throttle (drive-by-wire in this car) and steering response; 17-inch alloys with run-flat tires; larger discs and Brembo brakes; and a host of options. Here are the ones for the JCW Hardtop; those for the convertible aren’t yet on the website, but may well be the same.

Neat as this car is, I still think it looks kind of lame with the top up—very much like the PT Cruiser, that is, bulky in back with blind spots.

But this baby ain’t no PT Cruiser. Beginning in 1947, the Cooper Car Company began producing those marvelous Cooper rear- and mid-engine F-1 cars that dominated racing for much of the ‘50s. (Short history here.) In the 1960s came the Classic Mini Cooper, one of the great rally cars of all time, and finally the MINI Cooper S versions, which BMW ownership of the JCW brand has only enhanced.

Of course, it’s overpriced. But would you buy it if you had the bread?

—jgoods