SummerGirl

Having 3 sons who have all got their licenses within the last 4 years, I have a ton of recent experience in this area. Plus, after putting 450k on my Escalade that I had for 14 years, I needed a car too. I'm well over the million mile club and onto 2 million. I have purchased 5 used cars in the last 6 years. For me, I'm looking for low miles (under 35k), clean title, something reliable that will get them through their college years until they get good paychecks to buy what they really want. The Rav4, highlander, pilot and crv are too big/pricey for that. I went with the Chevy Trax... 1.4L inline turbo engines, no CV trans, perfect little cars with an AWD option. Look at the carfax that the first oil change was at <6k miles with consistent maintenance. For me living in a very rural, dirt roads back country area with lots of snow/ice, I want them in AWD. Except one son really wanted better gas mileage, so I got a Cruze... same engine, no AWD but he's living in LA area, so I guess that's ok. They've been good. As far as issues, keep an eye on the water pump and just replace it, and spark plugs/ignition coil asap unless it's already been done. Might as well do the coolant reservoir too. Hyundai's and Kia's aren't too bad either if you really want to stay cheap. I'd avoid Mitsubishi and Nissan, they will be all over your searches for that price range and have crap CV transmissions. For myself, in 2017 I needed 7 seats, something practical but a little nice to hold all the fam/friends so I went with the Hyundai Santa Fe Limited. It was nice for 5 years until it blew a head gasket after only 150k miles. Good timing though because used cars were going for top dollar and since all the kids had their own car, I didn't have to be held back by 7 seats. A good friend of mine who owns a dealership and knows I just want something I can drive forever said get an Acura and call it good, which led me to a bunch of research on the Honda Crv's. I got me a beautiful (used of course) AWD touring and already put 30k miles on it. Can't beat Honda. After saying all that, if I was to buy another kid car, I'd just go right to a Honda HRV. Like the CRV just smaller and cheaper and you're getting the Honda quality and efficiency. And they come in AWD option if that's important to you.