In need of buying a new car?

My 2003 Pontiac Sunfire has died on me and I'm in need of a new car. I'm not very knowledgeable regarding cars so I'm just wondering what type of car I should be looking for. I'm not looking for anything nice, just a poor college student that needs a car to get me from place to place.

I also have a 35-40 mile commute to work that is mostly highway so something that has good MPG HWY is a must.

I have a budget of $4000 max, I know I'm most likely not going to get anything awesome and will probably be replacing it within 2 years or so but that's all i need. I'm currently looking at some Toyota Camrys and some Honda's, are there any other types of cars that I should be looking into?

You seem to be looking in the right place. Toyota's and Honda's are the most reliable and affordable cars on the road. Look at the Honda Civic and Accord and Toyota Camry and Corolla, they have been known to be extremely reliable. Not to mention they are built like tanks so you won't need to worry about them dying on you.

What I recommend is buying a car with 50-100K miles, under 10 years old, and with meticulous service history.

Hope you find a good car!

You know when people talk about MPG they always look at Honda and Toyota first, but since the mid 90's Chevy actually has better fuel mileage than Toyota or Honda for the same size cars.

I had a '90 Lumina with a V-6, had good power and got me 32 mpg on hwy and 28 around town.

It may sound silly, but Lincoln builds a good MPG highway car. I know, a big car like that shouldn't get good gas mileage, but my '89 Lincoln Town Car had a 302 in it and true it got lousy mileage around town, expect 18 mpg but on highway I got 32 mpg with it too. And talk about a sweet ride.

So, don't think you have to stick with Toyota or Honda to get good highway mileage. And don't think that only Toyota or Honda are dependable cars. My Lumina had 280,000 miles on it when the computer went out. I couldn't find a used one and a new one was $600, I didn't think the car was worth that much so I gave it away. The man I gave it to put a new computer in it and drove it to work for at least a year. I moved after that and don't know how long he drove it.

And don't worry too much about mileage on the car. Ask where the car was used. A car with a lot of highway miles will be much better than a car with half the miles but used in the city.

Highway miles don't hurt a car. Stops and starts, and waiting a red lights can destroy a car much, much quicker.

T & H are prob the best.

Don't' buy anything w/o reading CR.
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http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/about
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http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/how-w%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%A6
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"Consumer Reports is a nonprofit, expert, independent organization" that tests a wide range of products and services in detail and publishes the results in a monthly mag avail @ many bookstores and website; fee for full access.
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