Lookin for a reliable family hauler $9000 or less

So my family of three is in the market for a new daily driver. This would be driven daily 20 to30 miles and prefferibly gets 25-30 mpg. wed be looking to get one from a car dealer to get financed for up to 9000 with 1000 down. we are lookin for a 4dr hatchback with up to 75000 miles or less. any thoughts/ ideas on a reliable, low/inexpensive maintenance car in this price range.my lady would be driving this car around and transporting our 2 year old. we have been looking at subaru foresters, but they all seem to have pretty high miles in our price range.i liked the forester because i hear wrx parts bolt on, however reliability trumps performance in what we are looking for. id love some suggestions. any cars to stay away from?

Lots of good choices in that range. Impreza 2.5RS wagons, Ford Focus (maybe even an SVT if you look hard enough), Mazda Protege 5, Suzuki Aerio, and the Hyundai Accent are all pretty good. I'd take the Protege first though, great car!

Do not finance at the dealership.
Contact many local banks (or better yet credit unions) and let them know that you would like to shop for a car. They will run your credit and get you pre-approved and you will know at what interest rate.
Find a car you like. Agree on a price. Contact your bank and have them send the money to the dealership.

You can get a loan at a dealership but keep this in mind...
The dealership is not required to give you the lowest interest rate that you qualify for, they only have to give the interest rate that you are willing to accept. They make a big commision on the overcharged interest rate. The dealership will play on your ignorance of the situation and your ignorance of what type of rate you really qualify for.

See your bank first and get financed there. The dealership may then tell you that they too can get that rate from another source. Often these other sources have hidden fees (so the dealership can get a cut.) Stick with financing that you find yourself.

wow thx guys definitley gonna go to the local banks before i even walk into the dealer. that way i can know the lowest rate i can get for sure. i didnt even think about doin that. thanks for the heads up. we have a 91 galant that is leaking from the oilpan/transmission/powersteering. ive made sure it stays full of fluids, but with 190 000 miles its all wore out and gonna die soon.

You should be able to get a Mazda 3 hatch for less than $10k in your mileage range no problem.

I have a 2004 hatch 2.3 5-speed. I commute on 55-65 mph roads and have had tanks between 30-33 mpg. Around town driving is closer to 25mpg.

We have two two-year-olds and we have made several weekend trips with the car. I wish the cargo area was a bit bigger (not quite wide enough for golf clubs or bigger strollers), but I think it's comparable to other cars in the class.

I bought mine with 130k on it from the original owner. The only non-maintenance work done was a idler pulley assembly that went out at 120k. Maintenance is very low on these cars, especially since they have timing chains and not belts. Passenger motor mounts are a bad design and fail early and often - so watch for that. A very easy fix, but annoying still.

All 3 hatchbacks come with the larger (2.3L) motor and the upper trim package. Mine has the TPMS package which also includes Xenon headlights. I drove Focii and the 3 and the 3 has a much nicer interior IMO.

Financing becomes pretty unfavorable after the car is 6 years old or has more than 100k miles. Once that old, the good rates will only let you finance it for 2 yrs, max.

If you must finance, your interest rate will be lower if you can find something newer that you can afford.
Try to avoid former rental cars if possible. The low end rental cars get beat on pretty bad.
A car that I recommend and that is near your requirements is a 2006 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan or Mazda 6. Tons of these went into rental service and it has driven down the resale a lot. So as to be sure to not get a former rental, I only recommend one with a manual transmission. Rental companies do not get car with stick shifts but you will still get all the depreciation working for you.
Head over to www.autotrader.com
Use there advanced search options and specify manual trans only. You will likely find many with less than 50k miles listed for about $10.9k. Fusion/Milans share the same platform and drivetain with Mazda 6's. The 2.3L is the same found in the Mazda 6 and the Mazda 3. Reliable and return 30 mpg easily.

Aside from Carfax (which is not perfect) here are some easy signs that the car was a rental.
1. If the car is one year old and has 20 - 30k miles it was a typical, worked hard, rental car.
2. If the car is less than 1 year old and has less than 20k miles it is likely a rental car that got into an accident. The rental companies do not fix cars, they sell them damaged at auction. They get bought by body shops that fix and sell them.

the non wrx imprezas wagons or sedan would be cool, but they are a bit out of the pricerange unless it has lots of miles. are their NA motors in the impreza the same as the forester with the headgasket problem?

what did subaru do to fix the problem in the 05 models? theres a black 05 impreza for $11,000 with 57000 miles listed at a used car dealer on autotrader that looks really sweet.

I believe it is only the DOHC 2.5 that has the head gasket issue. All the 2002 and up NA imprezas have a SOHC 2.5 that's quite reliable.

thx wonko

I did not realize the Focus SVT came in a 5 door. they are pretty sweet.

About $7500 should get you the nicest SVT Focus out there. (They're great cars by the way.)

About a year ago I sold a very nice, unmolested '03 3-door with about 45k miles for $7000. The 5-doors seem to be a little harder to find and command a bit of a premium.

The Kia Spectra 5 should be in your price range. My 01 Sephia has over 170k and I have only had to replace the timing belt, alt and the half shafts. I really can't complain.

i just bought an 06 dodge magnum 2.7 in that price range (way cheaper, actually) with 76k miles on it, its huge inside, rides great, has abs and stability control and maybe even emergency brake assist (not sure), and im averaging JUST over 25mpg with it.

And go ahead and ask some shops what they've seen more of:

Dodge magnums, or: imprezas, focii, accents, proteges, aerios etc.

You might be surprised..