Looking for a new car

[Gone2]

Hey there, it has been some time since I have posted here. I have been chasing symptoms in what was a 43 mpg Sentra. It has left me broken down on the side of the road 13 times this year (thank God for AAA). Most recently it began "dumping" fuel somewhere in the engine as the FE went down to 28-30 while driving the same way as before. Tuesday, I pick my son up from daycare, and when I turn the key over, I hear a pop sizzle from under the hood. I open it to find almost all the wiring from the alternator, through the fuse block, to the battery, and the top of the battery shorted and burned. Long story short, the car is going to the scrap heap this next week. I now need to find another car. I am looking for something late 90's or maybe early 2000. Aside from the metro, what are good cars to look for? I prefer domestics as I can't stand foreign cars (especially Nissan). Thanks for the help and time to start modding again.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Geo Metros and Prizms are good "domestic" cars. The Prizm might be nicer, but the Metro will get better MPG if you can find one in decent shape.

[mcrews]

sorry to hear about the Sentra. How many miles were on it?

[roosterk0031]

Cobalt XFE, bad injector can cause fuel dump into crankcase, watch your oil(fuel) level, easy fix if caught early, junk engine if not. gas isn't much of a lube. Former owner of 2 Sentra's first was killed early in life by semi, second good to 195000 miles when I sold it to a friend.

[Gone2]

Originally Posted by mcrews

sorry to hear about the Sentra. How many miles were on it?

Roughly 245,000. I'm not sorry to see it go, it cost me the fuel savings in parts to keep it going. I am currently driving my Explorer (24 mpg) and spending maybe $20 more a month due to not buying parts. My wife is requesting a four door automatic, so I am kinda limited again of FE. I'm buying a hatchback/wagon this go around though. Are there any real good autos from the 90's around?

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by Sentraguy

Are there any real good autos from the 90's around?

I know you said you'd prefer domestic, but almost anything from Toyota or Honda is going to treat you right. Depending on how small you want to get and how much maintenance you want to do to (probably going to be looking at a 90,000-120,000 mile car), a Toyota Tercel is a pretty good car.
Domestic-wise, some years of Escorts are good, but you have to be picky.

Sorry for your bad news, hope you get something figured out soon.

~Matt

[Sporty Modder]

In my experiance domestic cars tend to be less expensive to repair than Japaniese cars, but they also tend to have the little things go bad or break. In all of my Udm cars the Ac went out @around 100k mi where as my jap cars went 200k + with the Ac still working. I have also noticed switches breaking more frequently in the Udm cars. I do have to say I have broken 2 door handles in my Toyotas and never in my american cars.

[Gone2]

So I got a crazy hair up my tail today and managed to wire in another wiring harness. Then I jumped the car and found a loose injector, thus the gas smell. I found out the alternator is bad bad and the battery may need to be replaced. I think for now I may fix the car, as economy cars here are way overpriced (but in this economy I think that is a nation wide thing). Thanks for all the information. I will keep it in mind if this thing breaks down again.

[2000mc]

better to figure out your next car when you're not in need of one right away. prism is a corolla anyway, so you could call it foreign or domestic depending on how you feel that day. never cared much for cavilers, which might be how i ended up with a saturn, i'd rather have a 4door SL now anyway, doesn't seem like they would be as aero, but still get the same mpg ratings as an SC.

[Gone2]

I just broke the wonderful news of fixing (partially) the car to my wife. Her response was scrap it anyway. So now I turn it over to the community for input. Do I scrap a car I know gets good mileage, even though it frequently breaks down, or do I scrap it and start over?