With a new car, you focus more on the safety features and resale value. When you purchase a used car, you want to be sure that you choose a reliable used car. You want to be sure that you won’t have to take your car to get it repaired in the first few months you own it. You want to be sure that you won’t break down on the side of the road. When you purchase a new car, you have a warranty. Most used cars don’t have this warranty. You’ll have to pay for any repairs out of your own pocket. This is why it’s especially important to do your research before you purchase a used car. You want to choose one of the most reliable used cars you can find.
Finding The Most Reliable Used Cars
It can be difficult to figure out what cars are considered the most reliable used cars. Sometimes, a car’s reliability will be affected by how well the previous owner took care of the car. For example, if they let the car go too long between oil changes, you may wind up with motor problems. Sometimes the oil level will go down too far if it’s been too many miles since the last time they changed the oil.
In some cases, you will have to choose an imported car to find the most reliable used cars. However, the domestic automakers have improved the quality of the cars they produce, so there are some domestic cars on the list of the most reliable used cars. Additionally, you can’t expect that the most expensive used cars will be the most reliable used cars. In some cases, the big SUVs have the most problems when they start to age.
Listing The Most Reliable Used Cars
The list of the most reliable used cars will vary according to what type of car you want. If you are looking for a small car, you would look at a different list than if you were looking for an SUV. No matter which type of vehicle you choose, it’s always a good idea to look at the ConsumerReports.org® website at http://www.consumerreports.org. Their website doesn’t go into a lot of detail on the list of most reliable used cars; however, you can find the yearly report that they release by doing a simple search on the Internet. You can find the 2009 list of the most reliable used cars on the Boston Globe travel blog website at http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2009/03/consumer_report.html.
The most reliable used cars in the small car category include cars such as the Honda Civic and the Pontiac Vibe. To decide which vehicle you want, you may want to check out the car’s fuel economy at http://www.fueleconomy.gov. This government website lists the EPA estimated gas mileage for both city and highway driving. Additionally, it will give an average fuel economy for the normal driving patterns. It calculates the average on 55% city driving and 45% highway driving.
Though the 2008 Honda Civic gets up to 36 mpg on the highway, the Pontiac Vibe gets the same gas mileage when driving in the city. If you aren’t going to be doing much highway driving, you may want to consider purchasing the Vibe because replacement parts tend to be less expensive for domestic cars. When all things are equal, you will want to make your choice based on more than just reliability and gas mileage.
The List Of Most Reliable Used Cars
According to the Consumer Reports® list of most reliable used cars, the most reliable used family size cars include Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, and Mercury Milan. The gasoline electric hybrid Toyota Prius makes the list of most reliable used cars as well. Unfortunately, the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan are the only domestic family size vehicles on this list, as the last three vehicles on the list are the Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, and Subaru Outback.
The Consumer Reports® list of most reliable used cars includes only one small size domestic vehicle, the Pontiac Vibe. The rest of the vehicles include several Toyotas, the Echo, Corolla, and Matrix. Mazda has two vehicles that made the list of most reliable used cars. These vehicles include the Mazda 3 and the Protégé. The Honda Civic was one of the more obvious choices for the list of most reliable used cars in the small car category. The last two imports on this list include the Subaru Impreza and the Scion xB.
There are fewer minivans on the Consumer Reports® list of most reliable used cars. This may be because there are fewer minivans produced each year, especially when compared to the list of cars and trucks or SUVs. The two minivans on the list of most reliable used cars are both imported vehicles. These vehicles are the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey.
Consumer Reports® even puts out a list of the most reliable SUVs when they release their list of most reliable used cars. Their list of most reliable used cars does not include any domestic SUVs, which many would consider odd as the domestic automakers focused on producing SUVs instead of improving the gas mileage for their smaller vehicles. The list of the most reliable SUVs is the longest section of the Consumer Reports® list of most reliable used cars.
The SUVs on the list of most reliable used cars include five Toyotas, the RAV4, the Highlander, the Land Cruiser, the 4Runner, and the Sequoia. Honda has two SUVs on the list as well, the Pilot and the CR-V. The Mitsubishi Outlander is the only Mitsubishi on the list of most reliable SUVs. Subaru has two on the list, the Forester and the Tribeca. The luxury vehicles on the list of most reliable used cars include the Lexus RX and the Lexus GX. The last vehicles on the list of most reliable used SUVs include the Hyundai Santa Fe, the Infinity FX35, and the Infinity QX4.
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