My girlfriend is planning to buy a used car and after reading this forum I've narrowed the choices down to these below. What she's looking for most is reliability and looks are somewhat important but a distant second. What would you recommend? What do you think of buying cars off ebay? Does the shipping kill you? What are the repair costs on a Volkswagen? Do they usually need a lot of work? Can you even get a decent car from this list for around $3,000?

Acura - Integra
Honda - Accord, Civic
Toyota - Camry, Corolla,
Nissan - Maxima
Volkswagen - Jetta, Bug, Rabbit, Cabrio, ???

Oh I think she prefers an automatic over a manual also.

I would narrow it between the civic,camry,and the maxima However if i was buying the car i would buy a camry

The Camry would be my choice as well

Put me down for a Maxima. I've got 220,000kms on mine and it runs like a charm. Never been in the shop except for fluid changes, tires and brakes. The Camry isn't bad but the VQ30DE engine in the Maxima (190hp, 205 lb-ft of torque) is even more fuel efficient than the old 2.2L 4-cylinder (135hp, 145 lb Ft of torque) Toyota use to put in the Camry.

VW parts are expensive.

Yeah maybe by 3 or 4 mpg i imagine it wouldnt be that much better. My old 92 before i sold it had about 356K and the only thing that failed was the master cylinder but the original owner told me it was going bad anyway so 100 bucks later i got a rebuilt master cylinder w/lifetime warranty. Nissan well i'm not too sure about the older maximas never really paid attention to them but i'd give it a shot. like Hofmeister said Vw parts are too expensive,i bet acuras are also. Sister had a 94 i think honda accord and my only complaint was the interior it fell apart way to quickly. Even before that she had a civic it was also a 94 and it was good but felt awfully weak especially with the a/c on and here in south texas you need that a/c,but otherwise it was a damn good car. But the toyota was better in my opinion. But when you go to a used car dealership take a good look at the cars ask questions and pay close attention to the test drives just because they said it's good doesnt mean it is who knows what the previous owners did to it lol.

thanks for the advice guys!

get the maxima, or the camry. plenty of space, safer, not a tin can.

id say a maxima, because those are cooler.

a $3000 Maxima is likely to be in pretty lousy shape