Car Shopping

[missauria]

I hate car shopping. However, after 195,000 miles, the socorro hailstorm, and getting clobbered in may, the prizm has about had it. I have my short list narrowed down to the toyota matrix, the pontiac vibe (same car, different label), the honda fit, and the VW golf. I anticipate buying next weekend. Does anyone have input about these vehicles and

Comments

[ravendisplayed]

I have a 2005 Matrix and love it. I was looking at a similar list (minus the Fit) when I was shopping and the Matrix won due to reliability statistics and cargo space. I've heard that the automatic-AWD version is a bit underpowered, but since I have the 2wd manual it hasn't been a problem.

[chamewco]

If I was looking for an actual car I would definitely look at the Matrix/Vibe. I've heard the VWs have some cranky maintenance issues and overall care of them tends to be more expensive. The Fit is a nice car. I'm a big tall guy and I fit well enough into it. With gas prices a friend of mine tried to get one and didn't have much in the way of luck outside of sitting on a waiting list.

[flainn]

Electrical on almost all VWs is supposedly a nightmare. Usually those issues are worked out already on an off-lease or a certified used one, but I'd be wary of looking at a FSBO used VW.

[flainn]

Oh, shoot. I meant to tell you I looked up both the Matrix and the Fit in Consumer Reports.

The Fit's only been made since 2007, so there's not much data (I was looking at the April 2007 issue). But it was good pretty much across the board.

The Matrix has been made since 2003, and it looked like it was good across the board since year 2005 (2003 and 2004 had some problems). 2005 and later seemed to only have "body hardware" issues.