Have less that $15,000 to spend, which car would be the best choice?

[Chase Galbraith]

Hey Guys,

So I am looking to buy a second hand car as my first car.
The car that I am going to be buying will be used for travelling to university every day and going to the surf so the car will have to be big enough to hold a surfboard. I have been looking around on the online sites and have found a couple of cars that I am interested in although all of them are completely different they are:

Audi A4 Avant B5 (2000-2002)
Jeep Cherokee (2002 =>)
Nissan X-Trail (2002-2005)

My favourite of this obviously being the Audi, but I have heard some reviews saying that they are ridiculously expensive to service, how much more would the Audi cost to service? Seeming’s the fuel consumption is much lower for the Audi than the two 4wd's (around about 3 litres less per hundred) would the amount of savings on the fuel out weight the cost to service? If you have experience with any of these cars please let me know it would help a lot in me deciding.

Any help would be greatly appreciated; if you have any other car suggestions please suggest I am open for options.

Thanks heaps guys

[danielsatur]

An old car has no warranty, the parts, service, and your time is very valuable.
If you got good credit and a driving record, it's worth putting a little down a buying and new car for the insurance.

[Chase Galbraith]

I would love to be able to buy a new car, its just that I havnt been able to work lately and wont be able to for a while as Uni has become quite time consuming. What would be your best opinion out of the cars I am currently looking at? Thanks heaps for your help

[danielsatur]

We bought our daughter a retired 2000 FBI Taurus with a blue blocker sticker 4-years ago it now has 240k miles, it's still running good.

There's also a graveyard of parts for these cars.

I know it's not a dream car, but she nevers get pulled over, and people will move out of her way.

[Shpuker]

Originally Posted by Chase Galbraith

Hey Guys,

So I am looking to buy a second hand car as my first car.
The car that I am going to be buying will be used for travelling to university every day and going to the surf so the car will have to be big enough to hold a surfboard. I have been looking around on the online sites and have found a couple of cars that I am interested in although all of them are completely different they are:

Audi A4 Avant B5 (2000-2002)
Jeep Cherokee (2002 =>)
Nissan X-Trail (2002-2005)

My favourite of this obviously being the Audi, but I have heard some reviews saying that they are ridiculously expensive to service, how much more would the Audi cost to service? Seeming’s the fuel consumption is much lower for the Audi than the two 4wd's (around about 3 litres less per hundred) would the amount of savings on the fuel out weight the cost to service? If you have experience with any of these cars please let me know it would help a lot in me deciding.

Any help would be greatly appreciated; if you have any other car suggestions please suggest I am open for options.

Thanks heaps guys

Always a wise choice for a first car lol

Basically think up what a normal car would cost (like the Cherokee (or whats called the Liberty here in the states) for example) and double it.

smaller engine + less weight + fFWD rather than AWD adds up to much better fuel economy.

Add up how much fuel you'd use doing your usual commuting per year, then hit up an Audi specific forum and find a member with the car (or similar) to the one your looking at and ask them about recent services.

Anyways, the A4 tends to be a decently reliable car, probably be a bit more fun to drive than the SUV alternatives you've got thought up to, but maintenance is a pain and premium fuel is required

The Liberty over here isn't really good or bad as far as reliability, and it has some good off-road abilities, but like you mentioned, gas mileage is worse and then on top of that it probably won't be as fun to drive (daily driving wise). Though you can do some pretty fun light off-roading in the stock Liberty/Cherokee, thats more of a personal preference deal though

And we don't get the X-Trail Nissan in the states, so I have absolutely no idea how they are. lol