02 Lincoln's I believe have transmission issues. Any 95-99 northstars stay away from. Most Dodge neons and Ford focus are ticking time bombs. Cars for the 1980's with over 80K are very iffy if not taken well care of.
Now my 01 Toyota Corolla just will not die. It's at 164K now. The timing chain is built to last the lifetime of the engine. I would go for something Japanese in spirit. Toyota, Nissan or Honda. Even thou I'm not sure what it is but Hoosier's seem to love them Pontiac Grand Am's and Grand Prix.
Best of luck in your search. Do plenty of research before you buy.
Something else to think about but maybe think about leasing a new car.
Any GM with a 3800 V6 is a good pick. We looked for something from Honda or Toyota to replace the Explorer we bought when the kid got his license. Gas mileage sucked and the boy ended up driving a lot more miles than we thought he would. Couldn't find anything decent. Everyone with a ragged out Accord or Camry thought it was made of gold. Ended up with a 99 Acura TL with low miles and a just replaced timing belt for under 3K. Guess people didn't get them memo that it's just a high dollar Honda.
What isn't to like about a Grand Am? This is my old one, lots of many fun miles with it
It was a love hate relationship, but I do miss that car. Had some fun with the exhaust on that car as well.
What's not to love is the 3400's lower intake manifold leak. Endemic issue / design flaw. No recall.
At least in a Grand Am, fixing it wasn't a bad job. Try it in a mini-van, that sucked.
let me guess - you had to do the job from the inside under the dash?
-J-
Sounds like you got a great starter car for the youngster!
You guys all crack me up saying that "These cars will last until 180k, 200k" My Ford truck I just sold had 337k on it, my wifes last car (Volvo S60) we sold with 270k on it. We just got her a lincoln Aviator with 110k on it and that is low miles to me LOL Take good care of any gas car and it will run you 500k, diesel should be well worth a good million miles.
Hmmm....not 100% sure on that one. Some makes/models are just prone to issues that will put it down for the count even when they are taken care of.
That being said, I do agree that MOST vehicles can easily exceed your mileage expectations if they're well cared for...hell, my '94 Dodge 1500 is about to roll over on 349K
Aand a toll booth reacquainted me with the anachronistic magic of real live roll-up windows.
I never had an issue with my Grand Am LIM gasket. Although I was told it was corrected sometime around '02-'03 and mine was an '04.
...I think it was '04. I bought a used motor from an '03 for our mini-van. It only had 10K miles, but I took it apart and put the new and improved gasket in it before installing the motor. It never failed on me after that. Of course the head gasket failed at 70K, but that is far less common.
Most that is correct, not to say every one. How is the interior on your dodge? That was something that I always hated about those 90's dodges, you could have everything on the inside fall out before you would even need to change the oil If only they would have build the interiors as well as the motors
I never had an issue with my Grand Am LIM gasket. Although I was told it was corrected sometime around '02-'03 and mine was an '04.