Car to replace my destroyed Celica

[Shirow]

So, as some of you probably know from the chat room, I got involved in a pretty bad accident last week which resulted in my 2000 Toyota Celica getting written off. Luckily I walked out with just a few bumps but seeing my devastated Celica has made me want to get something a little tougher.

Now, bear in mind I can neither afford a new car nor the insurance to go along with it (but the current economy and easy access to credit (still) makes buying a nice car oh-so-tempting) but I still want a decent one.

So, here were my 'wants' and 'needs':

NEED:

Safe car (as safe as possible, within reason - if anyone had been in the passenger seat of my Celica they would be d-e-a-d.)
At least 20mpg city/25mpg highway (minimum)
Enough trunk space to haul around gear for work (few switches, routers etc)

WANTS:

Look as sexy as possible for as little $ as possible
Hatchback
2 door
Preferably manual transmission
Decent HP with a small engine (4 cylinder probably)

So, after going through all the available options and tossing many aside (too ricermobile, too ugly, too expensive) I have ended up at this:

http://www.volvocars.com/us/models/C30/Pages/default.aspx

It fits pretty much every need and want I have.. unfortunately, they only came out in 2008 so there are no used ones for sale around here and so I am stuck paying 22k+ for a new one.

I can't afford it. I really can't. Yet I am still talking myself into buying it.

Please help me:

A) Not buy it
B) Find something much cheaper to replace it

Been trying to do this myself for a week and failing miserably.

[Sylem X]

There's a chat room? where?

[creepster]

There's a chat room? where?

http://digitalgunfire.com/chat.php
or irc ... freenode ... #digitalgunfire

which rock do you live under not to have caught that info yet?
q=

[Lexus]

DONT DO IT SHIROW!!! DON! YOULL BE REGRETTING IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU ARE STUCK PAYING BACK THE LOANS YOU TOOK FOR GETTING THAT CAR!. YOULL BE A SLAVE OF THE SYSTEM FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR11111!!!!!

Did that help?

Meh, take a bike, its healthy, costs nothing.

And seriously, you dont want to get in debts and all. Sucks pretty hard if you got a nice car but are stuck paying all your money to those banks you loaned money from.


Also, there is no such thing as a 'safe'  car. I dont know the details of your accident, but really, if it was that bad Im pretty sure any car would have been wrecked. Unless you got a car that has a tank frame, there is no such thing as a indestructible car. Or something that comes even remotely close.

Oh, I think thats a good alternative btw. Get a tank as your new car, sure, costs a lot in fuel, but everyone will think you are the man XD

[Neural~Glitch]

That Volvo C30 is a nice ride, but I don't think you want to make $500 a month payments for five years on something like that.  That's overboard.  My general rule of thumb is find the best vehicle you can that meets your needs and wants for $10K or less.  Unfortunately, unless you want to spend a lot of your free time under the hood working on a used beater that you paid cash for, you will end up having to borrow money from a bank or credit union.  In my opinion, I would rather spend my free time having fun instead of working on a used car that has high miles and needs a lot of TLC.  I speak from experience.  If you buy a vehicle for say $10k and you put down $1000 or so, and your interest rate is 9.5% (which is about average these days) your payments will be about $200 - $250 a month.  That's not bad in opinion.  Depending on your monthly expenses, if you get laid off from your job, you still may be able to make the payments while on unemployment.  These are just some of the things I consider when purchasing a vehicle.  I recently bought a 2002 Nissan Xterra, 3.3L Supercharged version for 9,500 with less than 63,000 miles and a 3 Year Extended Warranty.  My payments are $241 a month.  Insurance is only $25 more per 6month premium than my 2000 Honda Civic.  The Xterra was something I always wanted, and finally decided to buy, but I know I can afford it even if I lose my job.  I don't commute to work though like I used to.  So, I figured I would buy something different.  I'm glad I did.  Well, good luck on your Auto shopping.  Hope things work out well for you.  Thanks again for Digital Gunfire!

[Jib]

Wow that C30 is nice.  I hate to say it but your not going to find another hatchback that is that cool.  Volvos are also some of the safest cars out there.  The only thing I can say is the ford focus is a decent car.  But like Neural~Glitch says watch out for the final cost, they get expensive.  Me personally I have never bought anything off a lot, craigslist and the classifieds always have the best deals.  But you usually have to wait a bit for something you want to be for sale, and you have to be flexible.

[koggen]

The C30 is pretty nice, but personally I think it's a little expensive and if you are tall, space is not so comfortable.

Glad you are ok, btw!

[Shirow]

Thanks koggen. I actually think the price is pretty good for the features really, at least in the USA..

[Freyjora]

I'd suggest the Subaru Outback with the Impreza body.

[thinkingthing]

Sorry to hear that. I love hatchbacks. Just be sure to do a lot research if you're looking at Rabbit/GTI/A3. All the yuppies I know, myself included, abandoned VW, mostly for Honda, due to truly epic reliability issues through most of the decade. Then again, yuppies aren't very good at maintaining cars, and these cars need maintaining.

Safest cars:
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

Strangely the Honda Fit is on the list. Nothing that small is safe, watch what happens if it gets rammed by an Accord. Actually Ford and Honda dominate the list... note how Chrysler doesn't have one freaking car on there.

Most reliable makes:
http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/Reliability.jpg

Once again, Chrysler brings up the rear, almost. Poor Saturn! :(

[Shirow]

Still pretty hot on the C30

[thinkingthing]

C30 is a nice car, no doubt. Strangely it's not a top IIS safety pick. C30 is the most reliable model from Volvo's average-reliability line. I guess that's not helping...

The selection of hatchbacks in the US still sucks. I ended up buying a Civic sedan after Matrix, Mazda3, & Rabbit hatches weren't peppy, safe, or reliable enough, respectively. Trek still fits in the back with the seats down & front wheel removed, just like the Golf I used to drive.

[Shirow]

Everywhere I look, it doesn't look like it's been rated yet (which can't be right.) IIHS doesn't even have stats listed on it right now though, just the C70.

I think I can probably assume it's fairly safe though :)

[thinkingthing]

That seems like a relatively safe assumption. Ford may have used Volvo's safety engineering to dominate last year's IIHS list. Too bad you need a car now. The 2010 Focus being imported into the US from Ford's European branch will be based on the same platform as the C30. By all accounts, the Euro Focus is just an awesome car, and would give a lot more bang per buck. It took a recession for Ford to give us the good Focus.

http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/volvo-c30-for-when-safety-is-paramount-781854.html

[Shirow]

Yeah, I used to live in the UK, I remember Ford being relatively popular over there (always somewhat inexplicably to me since no other US manufacturers even bother trying) and I've been watching the Focus gain popularity.

Still, snobbish as it might be, I'm not sure if I would want to drive around in a Ford (and yes, I know Volvo is now owned by Ford :p)

I'm probably going to go drive another couple of vehicles before I stick on the C30 (probably a Mazda3, maybe a WRX, not sure what else yet) but I think I like the Volvo the most on paper.