Great running, decent mileageHondas and Toyotas all day long on Craigslist for your price range. Might have to drive a bit to find the best deal, but they're all over on Craigslist. Check it out.

www.craigslist.org

 

I have to say Honda, I have owned a honda ever since I started driving. They are easy and cheap to maintain and they are a all around safe car. Excellent on gas. I had my first child 3 month ago and I looked around the same as you are and in the end got a honda.

 

mid to late 90's toyotas and honda ar your best bet, if not then a late 90's Lumina, century, grand prix would be ideal...the 3.8's are near bulletproof.

i have a 1998 Buick Regal GS Supercharged. 116k. loaded, leather, sunroof, power everything, factory CD. alloys, $2800.

 

^ Your sellin it? I've looked at those since I had my old Regal a few years ago.

 

this will make everybody laugh but if it saftey you are after try volvo .. man they are fun cars i have owned 3 of them and loved all of them plus they are 4 cly and soem are even turboed .. easy to work on and safe a hell i seen one that went head on with a semi and everybody in the car walked away truck driver had to be air lifted out .. and if you want soemthing you can tinker on this is the car .. boost upgrades.. turbo upgrades and bettergas milage than a civic and you can kick his rice *** ! thas why i got mine i live in rice heaven outhere in az .. but that is my 02. !

 

i had on 05 mazda 3i it was sweet roomy bigger than a civic and avg gas mpg was 31 that was street and hwy it was a good car i hardly used it so i sold it but i do miss it and on consumer report it was one of there top picks and what ever you decide go japanese they last longer

 

An early to mid '90's Accord would be perfect for you. They're really dependable. If you check craigslist in your area, I think you'll be able to find one in your price range. It'll probably be around (or a little over) $2,500 though, especially with working A/C. Or maybe get a Civic. Even a hatch would be fine. Take it from me, you don't really need a 4 door car. We sold our saturn and picked up a lumina when our first daughter was born, and it was only marginally convenient for the first year (when you have to carry the car seat with you). After that, having four doors doesn't matter at all IMO, unless you have more kids right away (not recommended-lol). Most two door carsprovide more than enough access to get a baby seat into the back seat through the passenger side (which is the best place to put the baby anyway, at least for better visibility). Either way, GET A HONDA!!! You'll thank me later.

 

Save yourself some hassle and stay away from the American cars. A 10 year old Toyota is more reliable than the average brand new American car. In that price range, you want to make sure that what you get is going to hold up. Anybody that feels like giving me the whole American car story and telling me I'm wrong can save it. You may very well have one of the few well-built American cars. Great, I don't care. The numbers don't lie. Buy a camry and call it a day. You'll never have to think about it again. An older 4-runner might be in your range, those are sweet. Or stick with Honda and pick up a Civic, you can't go wrong with that. An older Accord would be in your range and those are some of the most problem-free cars ever. Nice thing about Hondas and Toyotas is that mileage doesn't really matter, so you can get a newer model with high miles and not have to worry about it. The mileage will bring the price down, but really the car is just getting broken in. There's a dealer here that has an original Camry that they purposly didn't do any maintenance on (just oil changes) and it has over 500,000 miles and runs great. I didn't believe it until I saw it. Anyway, good luck. Hope you find something good.

 

Look into a Lamborgini Murcielago or an Aston Martin DB9. Those both have air conditioning.

 

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