Opinions on a car from Tacoma owners

My wife is prego, and we are starting to look at cars. 4 door sedans... any opinions on reliablity and gas mileage and not too small. been thinking, Nissan Altima/Maxima, Toyota Camry/Corolla/matrix, Honda Accord... anyone have thoughts on these, it will have higher mileage to get a good deal. Will 4 cyl last longer than 6? Thanks

 

I have owned a 97 corolla auto, excellent car with 250,000 on it 0 problems except for being really slow, the new corollas are much peppier, but out of the list you said any one of those cars should do you fine. Personally i would go for an AWD matrix

 

You can't go wrong with a Nissan, Toyota, or Honda 4 cyl.!

 

we have an 05 camry, its nice and i have never needed to do anything on it other than oil changed, the wiper motor just went and we just got new tires, 80k + miles.

my buddy has an 05 maxima, and it needs something almost monthly.

get a toyota or a hyundai (great warrentee, more car for your money)

 

I would go with the 4cyl over a v6. Its a family sedan not a race car so power doesn't reallly matter. Plus it seems the Japanese have mastered the art of building 4 cylinders and you can't go wrong with them. I had a 4 cyl '97 accord 5spd before the tacoma. It had 210,000 miles on it when I sold it last year. Great car. I have owned 4 Accords over the years: a '91 (project car I rebult from the ground up), '94 (First car, totalled it when I was 18), '95 (parts car), and a '97 (drove it from 2003-2009).

 

Either a Corolla, Camry, or an Accord ...... all very relible .... do a little research and decide on what your needs and finances are.

 

From personal experience I can highly recommend the Honda Accord 4cyl. Very reliable, gets great gas mileage, holds its value, and is very easy to maintain.

 

Of those you listed, I'd go with the largest...the Accord. I'm assuming this is your first child? With kids one thing has always been the case for us...you always end up needing more space than you think you do. If you are planning on more kids, you might even go bigger.

We went from Accord to Mazda MPV, to Expedition. The smallest people in your family require the most stuff. I never thought we'd outgrow the mini van until we went on a trip to a lake-cabin and I had the van stuffed with more stuff on a cargo carrier on the roof. That's when I said we need bigger and got the Expedition EL.

 

honestly, i drove a corolla for three years before the tacoma, and it was an amazing car, but if i could do it all over again, i would have gotten a subaru or another similar all wheel drive vehicle, just for the snow up here in new england. other than that, the corolla, especially the newer ones, aren't as small as people make them out to be. the trunk is huge for what its worth, being a compact and all

 

When it comes to 4 door cars, Subaru gets my vote. Great cars, their AWD system is great and my family has had 4 outbacks so far and we traded in all of them running perfectly at 100,000+ miles.

 

Subarus are great...I had an Outback and one of the best cars I've ever owned. The new ones are good size, economical, and very safe.

 

Thanks for all the responses! I think nissan is out of the question, have heard more bad stories than good. I did actually find a subaru outback wagon, not the greatest looks ha but heard they are very reliable. Its a 2000 with 130k new tranny and new Radiator. That kind of worries me on the tranny and Rad. U subaru peops what do you think, they are asking $3,800 its very clean newer tires.

 

and he is also claiming 35-37 mpg's is that really accurate??

 

A vote here for Honda.

My wife is on her 2nd Accord...1st was a '98 now she drives a 2006. Awesome cars with good resale value and a super service dept in most dealerships. [not that you'll need it]

I also had an Acura MDX in '07...another awesome vehicle.

Matter of fact, I came close to buying a Ridgeline before I got my Tacoma. We are real big Honda peeps. But, in the end...the Ridgeline just wasn't "truck enough" for my liking.

My MIL had a Civic...I just sold it this year...a 1998 Civic Sedan, got 6 grand for it. Try that with a Chevy, Obama.

 

We had a 05 Nissan Altima, there were a couple problems with it. One major was a sensor was located too close to the exhaust and it'd cause it to cut out and die, while driving. TSB had them move the sensor higher up. Also the trunk space was a little tight, that's when we had only one kid. Have 2 now and the car of choice is Dodge Charger SRT-8...family sedan with balls and helluvalot of trunk space. Gas mileage is around 18mpg in the city. This is how I rationalized the Charger to the wife...say you drive 10k miles annually (since you have 2 cars) and car A. averages 15mpg and car B. averages 30 mpg. Car A would use 666 gallons a year and Car B would use 333. At $3 a gallon, Car A costs $2k a year in gas (rounded up), Car B costs $1k. That comes to $83 a month difference or $20 a week. So I told her if we cut out eating out just once a week, that money will offset the gas guzzler. We got the Charger. Since we drive the Taco more, it doesn't cost us as much and you can get a great deal on a used one. We paid $27k for a Plum Crazy limited edition fully loaded. So far its ran great, only problem was a cheap piece of plastic in the shifter mechanism needed to be replaced (TSB) but instead of TSB I put in a billet aluminum piece so it would never fail. Good luck and congrats on the kid.

 

Steer clear of Nissan unless engine/tranny replacement is your favorite pass time.
Otherwise Honda Toyota is good choice. Hundai too believe it or not.

Also handling a kid in small 4 door just plain sucks. If you want to make wife happy look for used minivan or new if you can afford it. She is going to be eternally thankful for you.

 

Thanks on the info and the kid!!

Anyone have an opinion on the Sube having a new tranny?

 

Subaru!!!

 

No way he gets that, maybe downhill with the wind to the back. Autotranny should be good so if they had to replace one that means somebody beat o n that car.Its manual tranny that constantly fails on Subarus.

 

Its an Auto. so do you know what to expect on gas mileage on those? And yeah I agree on the tranny, kinda makes me think it was driven hard