Sometimes brand loyalty really sucks....
can she check with ferd???
She is. She's checking with all the manufacturers. She has no brand loyalty ( which I view as a good thing). She's very open minded and is shopping all the cars. Price isn't the main criteria, either. Dependability, cost of ownership, mpg's, repair costs, etc. all matter to her, and I love it. Unfortunately, the Dart ranks pretty low when compared to many of the other brands. I believe she only considered it because of me.
As much as I hate to agree that the dart is probably a good one to run away from ......is it possible to give American pride one last shot.
My adoptive family buys nothing but Ford and the newer cars are pretty good. They have a bunch of Taurus cars ranging from 2003-2011 with 200+K miles and never had any big issues with them.
I don't know about the smaller car lines but if the bigger cars are a reflection, then it shouldn't be too bad
In the 90's and early 2000's we had a few Saturns, mostly because my son worked thee and gave me great prices on them. I've heard all the BS about them and how crappy they were from all the MoPar, Chevy, and Ford gear heads, and even from the Honda, toyota and Nissan crowds. The fact is, the three Saturns we had, (two Sc2 Coupes, and one Ion 3) were excellent cars. Exceptionally reliable, great economy, and and never a break down ( other than a bad battery) in our ownership history.
All three were purchased new, two of them we sold off, one at 330,000 miles on the original engine and drive train with ZERO mechanical repairs, and another we sold at 292,000 miles, again with no major repairs other than replacing the A/C compressor. The 3rd one we still have, it's a 2006 Ion 3. Presently the car has about 60,000 miles on it, and my daughter owns it. It has absolutely no issues, either, and except for not having leather seats, the car is loaded.
She plans to keep it even after buying a new car. She lives about 5 hours from here, and besides normal maintenance and insurance, the car doesn't cost her anything. I told here it would be a good idea to have a second car available, to her, especially one that runs so well and is that reliable.
The 2006 Ion is a 4 door, fwd, 4 cylinder, she's looking for a 2 door model. After she decides on a car, I told her that I would give her the trade in value of the Saturn to use as, or to add to her down payment on the new car, so she could afford to keep both cars.