Maximum PC

I just bought myself a Nissan Titan, and love it! Of course the gas milage is not up in the 30s haha. I had a ford escape previous to it and felt quite comfortable driving it, I'm about 6'2". New escapes are supposed to have some pretty good numbers.

Wow, tall order and you'll get lots of various suggestions. I'd try to narrow down your wants and desires in vehicles such as cargo space, # of occupants, maintainence is a consideration, any other preferences that you may have, new or used (year range), and price range would be great.

From the mileage spec, you're likely looking at a small to mid-sized car and possibly a small truck or SUV. The Escape is a good suggestion. I'd check out the following sites and any more that you feel comfortable to look at for advice:

#1 - http://www.Edmunds.com - cool thing that I just found on the site: http://www.edmunds.com/car-match/
http://www.cars.com
http://autos.~LINK BROKEN BY MANAGEMENT~
http://autos.yahoo.com
http://www.kbb.com
http://www.caranddriver.com
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com
http://www.motortrend.com

Obviously, there are tons out there, so look at them all and see what you like. I prefer the first 5 sites or so.

For car recommendations, I'd go with a Hyundai Elantra or Sonata (the turbo would make it a bit more fun), Honda Accord or Civic or Insight, Toyota Prius or Corolla or Camry, VW makes some compelling vehicles, and on and on.

I love BMWs, but they're expensive for a new one, I'd love to get a MINI Countryman, If you have a while to wait and have a bit of deep pockets, the Tesla Model S is compelling as well. If I had to get a car right now that I could relatively afford, I'd likely go with the Sonata 2.0 Turbo.

Sonata:


Mini Countryman S (turbo):

I drive this.


A 2011 Chevy Malibu. We paid cash. It was $19,700 but with tax and license it was $21,500.
Things I like about the Malibu, love the bluetooth hookup for your cell phones to the stereo. You get a call and it comes in on the stereo speakers, you hit a button on the steering wheel to answer and respond via microphones in the dash board. You can do this with multiple phones.
Love the roominess of the interior. Love the fold-down back seats. You can put 9 foot long stuff in and still close the trunk.
Love the six speed auto trany.
I have a four-banger (also available in V-6) and since it's heavier than the very-light cars it only gets 18 or 19 in stop and go city driving. Gets 24 or 25 with cruise-control on the open road.
If they still have any 2011s left you might be able to get a good end-of-the-year discount, especially by Sept., Oct., Nov. and later.
You're not going to find a car weighing 4400 pounds (like this one) that gets more than 30 MPG. I'm guessing 3,000+ pound cars get 30+ MPG; 2000+ pound cars get 40 MPG.
At least on G.M. cars it is easy to find the gross weight, just open the drivers door and you'll see a sticker toward the bottom with the vehicle weight plus front wheel weight and rear wheel weight, etc.

One thing I can tell you not to do is get a Toyota Prius. There are new super-batteries on the market. The Nickel Metal-Hydride batteries in the Toyota Prius are the old junk batteries, not the new super-batteries. The Toyota Prius ALWAYS runs on a gasoline engine. It's only electric from a dead stop, starts the first few feet on the electric motors. If you want to read about the train-wreck in progress that is the Toyota Prius go the one of the super-battery websites, A-123.com. These NiMH batteries are so lousy that they waste most of the energy recovered when braking. And out on the highway doing non-stop driving your dragging around a thousand pounds worth of junk that just reduces you mileage. The new super-battery version that ALWAYS runs on batteries will cost more but is a more rational vehicle. The Prius was a good stepping-stone to electric but with the advent of the new super and semi-super batteries its time has past.

My wife & I both have a Prius. Mines for work. I hate the brakes, they did not fix them but made them worse after the fallout. However, I can drive for up to 1 mile on EV only in the city. Yes, 27 MPH. Less at 37 which is the fastest I can go in EV. I get about 45MPG so you can say whatever you want about it but the mileage is hard to argue with. FWIW I hate Toyota, it just fit what I wanted for work. The problem is people who don't own them don't understand them, therefor they bash them.

When the lease is up (2 years) I don't know what I'll get. Maybe a Focus, the new ones are very nice. Maybe a V8 Mustang to compliment my Trans Am. I drive less than 10 miles a day on average and I am addicted to V8 power. Maybe a Volt. Who knows.

What I can tell you IS DON'T LEASE! Leasing is good for business and bad for personal reasons unless you just can't afford a new car, and then you should just get a used one. My Prius is leased at 275 a month (for work) 3 years, 12K miles a year. $0 down. Over the life I'll pay 16$ in interest. Go figure. My company can write off the lease cost which is why I lease. It's better than the depreciation of a new car.

I'd stick with your truck. IMHO. Now if you have the big $$$ I'd hold out for a Tesla!

I drive a Honda Accord. I moved up to it from a Civic because the wife wanted a little better ride quality.

We lost about 10 MPG in the transition, but I still maintain just over 30 MPG (4 cylinder version.) I keep my foot out of the pedal most of the time. Easy starts and coast to stops. Most of my driving is trips of 10 miles or longer with some occasional town driving.

One thing I've noticed about gas mileage: Starting about November each year, my MPG goes down and stays down through around April. My theory is the additives to prevent fuel line freeze up in the Midwest are to blame. I'm sure some of it is idling while I clear windows, but that usually doesn't hit until December.

Back to the Accord, we bought one a couple of years old. The Civic, which we bought new, convinced me that was a safe proposition because it was so reliable. My wife said Clark Howard of Headline News fame recently changed his tune about buying new cars. He said the time has never been better due to the deals and incentives being offered by the car companies. He and many other financial advisers almost always recommend buying something at least a year to 3 years old. So much of the depreciation happens as soon as you drive off the lot. I like the idea of knowing for sure how the car has been driven and maintained throughout it's life, but wasn't willing to pay the premium for the privilege this time.

CAVEAT EMPTOR: One owner doesn't necessarily mean one driver. If Hertz Rent-A-Car owned a car, they might have been the sole owner. They say nothing parties like a rental. :-/ Get a CarFax.

Lastly, Hondas hold their value very well. After 2 years of driving my used 2007 Accord, we were recently offered within 2 grand of what we paid for it by the dealership that sold it to us. I'm sure the hope was that we would buy a new one as part of the bargain. The market for used cars has been especially strong in this economy. Most people who might have bought a new car are holding on to the old one and fixing it up instead in these uncertain times.

lots of good opinions out there. you'll find lovers and haters for all cars. For something that you'll keep for a great deal of time, I'd definitely not take the issue lightly. Start by considering ALL options, all brands & models. Figure out what's most important to you and vehicles that meet those qualifications. Test drive everything, get car review places opinions (they know what they're talking about, but they can be biased towards more sporty vehicles), and get actual owner's opinions as well as previous owner's opinions (why they didn't buy that car again). There is no perfect method for purchasing a car, but I would recommend keeping your options as open as possible to start with.

Some other decent vehicles are the Mazda 3 and 6, pretty much anything Subaru, Mitsubishi makes some pretty decent cars and they currently have very attractive prices as well as styling, a Buick or two, Chrystlers, Ford Focus and Fusion and Taurus (I'd get the SHO), the Nissan Altima and Leaf and Sentra and maybe Versa, Saabs, Scions, and Suzuki Kizashi and SX4.

Mazda 6:


Subaru Impreza WRX (wait for the 2012s):


Used - 2001-'03 BMW 530:

I have a 2008 Ford Focus coupe. Can't talk about the sedans, but it's a good small car. I'm a fairly big guy and don't have any issues getting in or out. The seat is comfortable enough, and you can get it as loaded as you want. I don't have SYNC on mine, but my sister has it in her Fusion and it's pretty cool. On he highway, with cruse control set at 75, I can easily get 38-45 MPG. In city driving I have a heavy foot so I only get about 25-28 MPG. Also mine is a stick (I like them better).

Mine looks almost identical to this one

You can still find the 2011 which will be similar to mine or wait for the 2012's which will be completely different and no coupe option

About Leasing. I am an ex-finance manager for a Ford dealership and I'll tell you a few misconceptions about Cars and finance. 1 The lease is sold as a WIN WIN situation. This is true if you buy into the fact you will always have a car payment, but you shouldn't buy into that. A lease is a win for the finance company and a huge win for the dealership because of the return on investment on that vehicle and a loss for you because you have paid a premium to use a vehicle and though they are a depreciating asset you can get some equity out of them if they are paid for in Full. So, my rule, don't believe you will always have a car payment. If you have a payment now, Pay off the loan asap, even $20 extra each month really helps to pay down the principle. After the loan is payed off, continue to put that car payment into a savings account until you can afford to pay cash for a car. if you put 300/month into an interest accruing account it will grow faster than you would think. Instead of having 6-15% going to finance you can grow your investment 1-2% a month.

So, DO NOT LEASE!

Hey RacerAC, your post got me thinking about the new high performance cars.
One neat feature for the newest high performance engines is fuel injection straight into the combustion chamber just before the piston comes to Top-Dead-Center.
Most gasoline fuel injectors inject the fuel-air mixture into the intake manifold near each cylinder right as the intake valve opens. Thus the falling piston sucks in the gas-air mist into the cylinder and as the piston comes up it compresses it.
The new high performance method of injecting the fuel mist straight into the cylinder under high pressure just before ignition has a couple of advantages. First, there is no possibility of pre-ignition of the fuel before the piston has reached the top of its movement. Second, none of the fuel-air mist condenses back into larger droplets as the piston first goes down then comes up. In this new method the particles of gasoline in the fuel-air mix stay at the exact right micro-droplet size surrounded by air molecules. Neat stuff for high end engines.

Though I think since diesel engine ignite the fuel through compression instead of electric spark they have been injecting fuel at near T.D.C. for about 80 years.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov - I found this as a useful site to just compare all of the EPA fuel economies with cars and trucks. There are some real world user entered mileages in there too, but you have to take that with a grain of salt.

My parents bought a used 2008 Prius and get 50+ mpg with it, they both are extremely happy with it. My dad likes it because it has a bit of torque and he can punch it off the line and surprise some people. I have ridden in it and there is quite a bit of room in the front, I can't speak for the back seats as I didn't sit in them .

I also have a friend 6'5" who bought a Scion xb, yes it's a box on wheels, but he claims to get decent fuel mileage and says there is more than enough leg room in it for him.

I have a Volvo s60 and i must say im very pleased with it

here are a couple of pictures i took after I washed and waxed it before summer!






I would defiantly check volvo out if I was you!
and it fits a big man easily!!
http://www.volvocars.com/us/all-cars/vo ... fault.aspx

I just found out that Mercedes on there high end cars are using a General Motors transmission, highly praised and super awarded, super transmission. While it's still under patent it's just easier to buy the best passenger car transmission in the world from G.M.

And the Fero-fluid shock absorbers (fero, like in ferrous - meaning iron), with a small amount of voltage to a coil of wire around the fluid chamber in the shock the computer can stiffen the shock or make it loose and floppy. This change happens within 2 milliseconds in response to down facing sonar sensors on the front bumper. They're on all the very high end cars - the $80,000 to $110,000 Corvettes, the $100,000+ Mercedes and BMWs, the high-end Cadilliacs. All of the non-General Motors companies pay patent royalties to G.M. for these shock absorbers.

not bad for cell phone pictures in my opinion lol

that is my current ride, and my old one in the background.

the Toyota Tundra has amazing leg room. I'm 6'1 and usually have to fret with the seats to get even near comfortable. This truck, I am not even near the end of the space. The seats adjust up/down back/forth and recline. All of it MANUALLY, not an electric do dad in the seat at all. I picked it up used with 50,000 miles on the clock, its a 2006 model. The newer tundra are a lot LARGER now. You can expect between 17/28 mpg city/highway with this model and the V6 4.0 liter. They have an optional V8 also, and I hear it actually gets close to the same if not better mileage as its not working as hard to move the truck.

It has BETTER payload than the F150 in the background. Its rated at 3/4 of a ton for payload, and not sure of the tow capacity but its surely pretty high as well. Came stock with a reese hitch and electric trailer brakes for towing, so I'm confident it would do ok. The back seats on this one, its a Access cab model, they also have a double cab that has full size doors on it, well the back seats have plenty of room for my teens back there and we have all loaded up and done at least a 30 mile one way trip with no complaints.

I traded in a 2002 Mitsubishi Galant V6 on this truck. The mitsubishi was ok, but honestly it always felt "Cheap" on the interior of it. The parts just never really fit rite. Lots of rough edges and what looked like it was pieced together out of parts from other stuff. Ironically, the Tundra, has more leg room than the 4 door car did!
Over all I have to say, as pick up trucks go, I really like the Tundra's.
I paid 10K for it used from a local Dodge dealer, it was a trade in. Kelly Blue Book puts the value at 17K as it sits, they retain their value, and have a reputation for being 300,000 mile vehicles.

I did look at a lot of cars as well. I had it narrowed down to one if I was going to get another car. It was the 2011 Kia Optima. Awesome car, base sticker price of 19,000. TONS of standard equipment, and in my opinion soon to be one of the cars that quickly becomes the new "it" car. Completely redesigned and unbelievable space and toys inside it for the 19k you pay for it. I may still buy one in a year or two after its not "new" and somebody else paid the depreciation on it. New cars are a racket, you loose 10,000 dollars in "value" as soon as you put a tag on it. That is just not rite. The new kia's offer 10 years and 100,000 miles on the warranty. So it's as good as it gets there. And it gets 34 mpg! ON gas, not hybrid or unobtainium.