Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Small, cheap car with a big backseat?

I would be leery of a used VW/Audi product. VW went through a dark period for reliability a few years back, and have only recently begun to emerge (some will argue that they still have too many problems).

I like the others' suggestion of a Honda Element, but they have only been out for a couple of years so it might be hard to find one for under $10k. You could check out a Toyota RAV-4, Honda CR-V, or Subaru Forester. Those are all generally very reliable, roomy little SUV's that have plenty of room in the back that have been on the market for long enough to find some good deals. My father-in-law has a 2000 Toyota RAV-4 with somewhere around 130k miles and it still seems pretty well screwed together. It's needed oil changes, new tires once, a new battery, and a couple of mufflers, and that's it. It's never burned a drop of oil or otherwise had any problems. I've had personal experiences with several Subaru products (and old Legacy, '00 Forester, '05 Outback, '05 WRX) and they've all been pretty amazing as far as reliability goes, thus my recommendation for them. Subarus are generally very safe but also quite fun-to-drive vehicles that are darn near unstoppable in the snow, if that's a concern. They hold their resale value pretty well, but not quite to the extent on Honda, so I bet you could find a nice deal on a lightly used Outback or Forester from just a couple of years ago.

If you get a Ford Escape, watch out for transmission problems. When I owned a Mazda Tribue (same thing) from 03-05, I spent time on various owner forums. There were a lot of complaints related to transmission and brake problems. I have no idea if it's been fixed in later years, so please research it rather than just taking my word for it.

FWIW, I bought a brand new '03 Mazda Tribute (same thing as an Escape) in early 2003, and it was on its third transmission when I traded it in at 24k miles back in '05. The first one was replaced at about 8k miles, and the second one started making noises and was repalced again at about 20k miles. Otherwise, it was a pretty nice vehicle. My only other complaint was the very SUV-like gas mileage that about 14 city / 20 highway mpg (V6, AWD).