Thread: Buying a new (read slightly used) car

I did a dumb or brave thing on Friday last. I sold my wife's 2001 Ford Taurus without having another car for her in place. We can go a few weeks as a one car family before she decides that I am an idiot and get's upset. So the question is, what should I get her as a replacement vehicle.

These are my and more important, her requirements:
1) no hoopties
2) she is used to driving a larger sedan, so another large sedan or a SUV would work great
3) she will be driving our 7 year old around, so crash test rating is important
4) we want a reliable car/suv, one that won't be in the shop all the time, and when it is, does not cost an bundle to fix
5) we are looking at 2-3 years old, 30k-40k miles, off a one owner lease.
6) we are working with an auction buyer to cut out the dealer markup (anywhere from 2-5k), budget of app. 17K

My first thoughts were Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer, or the Acura TL.

Thoughts...

I don't know where you live, but my buddy just bought a truck from these people. He said their deals are so ridiculous, people from out of state buy from them all the time.

http://www.texasdirectauto.com/

I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Thanks for the link.

2007 Infiniti G35

All cars are reliable, all cars are unreliable, just depends on the maintenance history and on whether or not that particular car (not model) is a dud. I've had problems with my truck that others with the exact same truck haven't had problems with. So basically it's going to be somewhat of a gamble, the best you can do is choose any car that fits the rest of your requirements, then have a mechanic look at it, look into the history of the vehicle, and get a carfax, etc.