I see you're a wise man RCR with that astute comment!

 

Your exactly right. For those that don't realize what F4Isvt is saying, do some research on where the money actually goes when you buy a car. You may be surprised at what you find.

 

Hense the sarcasm...I was J/K

Yeah, she actualy got pissed when I brought up the I idea of selling off some of my toys to afford the car. I do see my riding time being crunched in the future thou.

 

Like VooDoo said, stay away from the 2-door cars with a baby. We had a 95 T-Bird when my son was born. It had a huge back seat but after bumping my head a bunch of times and bumping his car seat around on everything (door frame, quarter panel, front seat), I got my wife a Taurus wagon (2001). That was a nice car but had too may problems after it was out of warranty.

I realize that it is probably way out of your budget, but we traded the Taurus on a 2005 Pacifica (Chrysler), and absolutely love it! I would recommend one to anyone looking for a family vehicle (not technically a car).

 

Here's a Beemer that's in my range...not sure if it would be a good choice though?
http://greenbay.craigslist.org/car/422071689.html

And a Grand Prix that I asked info about
http://greenbay.craigslist.org/car/424412070.html

 

I would stick with honda/toyota. I have a 95 4door accord 170k...runs like a champ,great on gas,cheap to insure. The wife has an 03 328i with 60k and is always having electrical/sensor problems sucks gas, and pays a large insurance bill.

 

Look into some late 90s hondas or acuras. You cant beat them! My first car was a Ford Probe GT, got it for around your budget. Man, was that thing a piece of crap, well it wasnt after another extra $1500 to fix the mechanical issues. THen, I got a 92 Acura Integra, now that thing was sweet, never had an issue whatsoever. However, being a dumbass, I thought I wanted something that looked newer, went for a 2000 Mustang. What a stupid idea, it was in the shop every other week. Now, it back to a Honda.

Another thought, my dad has a Honda that is getting ready to turn 300,000 miles in the next month or two. Never an issue with it, other than the normal things that need to be done, as the miles rack up!

Hope this helps a little bit!

 

Okay, I've been lookin everywhere for the imports and the only ones that I find are out of my budget. So I have found some Ford Torasses.
They are a '96 wagon and a '97 sedan.
My question...the are both 3.0L engines, is that a good/bad thing? My old mans '96 was a 24 or 32 valve engine that was diffrent than these so I'm winding off the path of getting a car that was just like his, he never put any money into his and he gave it to my sister with over 200k on it!

 

The early- to mid-'90s Tauruses had notoriously bad auto transmissions. If you can find one with the manual, that would be sweet. I guess I thought you were looking for newer cars and can't believe I didn't think of Jettas. Try looking for the last couple years of MkIII Jettas, they should be right in your price range for the '95-'98 model years. The 2.0 is a bulletproof motor unless you run it through several feet of standing water.

 

How about a nice Family Truckster?