Anyone in the market for a midsize car? I was.

[3930dave]

I'm not too impressed with any Camry in the last 10 years or so. They just got kinda cheap in the details. The '13 Accord is an incredible car!

We owned an '09 Malibu that had a couple of issues. Aside from that the car is just too cramped for a family.

My own personal '95 Accord has 301k on it with all original struts, ball joints, tie rods and even clutch.

Impressive. But apparently you don't have the roads we do here. 300k miles on ball joints.... oh it is to dream !

If I ever ended up getting the money together to go race in Baja, I know I'd end up booting along thinking "Wow, we need to get these road builders to work up in Central Ontario, this is smoooothhhhh running !".

Rgds, D.

 

[Peacock]

Impressive. But apparently you don't have the roads we do here. 300k miles on ball joints.... oh it is to dream !

If I ever ended up getting the money together to go race in Baja, I know I'd end up booting along thinking "Wow, we need to get these road builders to work up in Central Ontario, this is smoooothhhhh running !".

Rgds, D.

Our roads are terrible!!

But not on par with yours I'm sure.

Honda builds a QUALITY joint. I'd put their front end parts up against any other in the industry. We still replace ball joints and tie rods on Ford and Dodge pickups every 30-90k.

 

[RollingsFarms]

Maybe she should have kept the Crown Victoria ?

No way Jose! Those were the 3 worst cars I've ever seen in my life. Nothing but absolute junk and all three had problems, but they were all different problems. Ford also treated her like crap on her third one and refused to buy it back even though it had been in the shop 13 times in the first year. They lost my business that day and I haven't messed with them or their crappy dealers since. They do make good trucks though ill give them that, I'd love to own one but I can't find a good Ford dealer and I sorta don't trust Ford when it comes to taking care of the customer. I'm buying Jap and German cars for her from here on out. I've learned my lesson with domestics.

 

[TripleR]

My family lean heavily towards Lexus, Audi, Toyota and the new Jeep Cherokee. My mother never bought a foreign car until I got her this Camry. I think I hit a homerun with her. The new Avalon has a LOT of the Lexus is350(I think that's the right model) in it.

I am looking at a Rav4 now as I am having trouble getting in my truck and I showed my wife the new Avalon, she liked it pretty well, but we keep our vehicles a minimum of ten years and hers is a 2007, so it will be a while. Yes the Avalon is like one of the Lexus models, but I don't remember which one.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I buy all by delivery trucks ( HINO ) which is Toyota. Oldest one is a 1995, haven't put a nickle in repairs, besides, tires, brakes, wipers, filters. My guys beat these truck up and haven't killed one yet.

 

[Bandit1047]

I have a Kia Optima and I am very pleased. It is made in Alabama in a state of the art plant.
The 5 year 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warrantee is why I bought it. After 5 years I will sell it and buy some other vehicle with a 5 yr. 60 again.
I had a Hyundai Azera that I loved and put no money in maintenance because of the 5 yr. 60,000 mile warrantee. I looked at the new Azera's but there are a few things I don't like, fuel mileage is one. No insentives on the Azera.

 

[RollingsFarms]

I have a Kia Optima and I am very pleased. It is made in Alabama in a state of the art plant.
The 5 year 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warrantee is why I bought it. After 5 years I will sell it and buy some other vehicle with a 5 yr. 60 again.
I had a Hyundai Azera that I loved and put no money in maintenance because of the 5 yr. 60,000 mile warrantee. I looked at the new Azera's but there are a few things I don't like, fuel mileage is one. No insentives on the Azera.

Did Kia/Hyundai do away with their 10 year 100,000 warranty?

 

[MBTRAC]

Interesting thread - seems similar opinions the world over:
- We're all almost spoilt for choice in the midsize sector
- Camry's have acheived almost legendary status & hard to beat on price & reliability
- Whilst Ford may have some good products, it's hard to buy these products in the knowledge with very few exceptions Ford Dealers are unable/unwilling to treat customers with anything but contempt
- The Koreans like Kia & Hyundai are increasingly making it on the shopping list with some good vehicles

IMO after looking at many vehicles in this size we always end up investing our $'s in Subaru's - being AWD helps the decision but the "clincher" is the 3yr/Unlimited mileage warranty; as relatively high mileage users ours are regularly traded/updated at c.2yrs with minimum 130,000kms (with the balance of c.12months warranty remaining they still bring good residuals).

 

[crazyal]

I had a GF that had a Hyundai Santa Fe. Nice vehicle but the metal was not made for salt. I had to fight with getting parts apart that normally you wouldn't need to on a 6 year old vehicle. Even things like the bearing plates on top of the struts had to be replaced because the steel rusted and unbonded the rubber. I will say parts are cheap. The tone ring (the ring that has notches in it for the ABS sensor) was pressed onto the front half shafts. When the shaft rusted and expanded it broke the tone ring. A new ring was $15, the whole half shaft (new not reman) was only $45. That's both cv joints, boots, and shaft for $45.

 

[dgl24087]

I've been looking at cars recently as well, the Accord keeps rising to the top of the list. I have 2 Honda dealerships close by. 1 gets rave reviews from people I know who've dealt with them, the other not so much. The highly rated one moves a lot of cars, and is a Honda only dealer. The other is part of a multiple make dealership (Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, and Chrysler/Dodge/Ram).