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Clearly, unless you need AWD you should mainly be looking at Toyotas and Hondas.
If you need AWD--Subarus.
As for used police cars, one thing to keep in mind is that the miles on the clock tell you very little. They never turn those things off, so 88,000 miles on the road could be the equivalent of two or three times that with the engine running.
True, but maintenance is good and a detective CV is not run like a trooper CV.
Why all the hatred on the Contour guys I owned one, and it was a good car that never let me down. It was not perfect by any means, but not a POS either. Here is the review I wrote on my Contour 3 years ago....
Grab a copy of Consumer Reports annual auto issue, current or in the last few years at the library. Their data from hundreds of thousands of car owners surveyed per year will give you a better overall assessment of reliability.
I'd like to second this recommendation. Note that the ratings of used cars are from people who own them today. In other words, the ratings of an 01 Taurus are from survey respondents who are driving an 01 Taurus today. You will find some vehicle makes and models from 00 have better reliability records than other vehicle makes and models from 05 or 06. If reliability is important to you, that is something to consider.
Any model that has a good reputation for going 150k or more and that has been taken care of. Stay away for the very complicated cars because they cost more to maintain.
Any model that has a good reputation for going 150k or more and that has been taken care of. Stay away for the very complicated cars because they cost more to maintain.
My complaint with the Contour/Mystique has to do with a bunch of little things that seemed to go wrong with them. A friend had a Countour SVT, purchased new, and had numerous little problems with it, not the drivetrain per se.
Another friend had a Mystique that was given to him (starving grad student car) and he spent more on it than he would have if he had purchased a car. With that one, the door locks would perpetually stop functioning, and I don't mean just the power locks -- something would happen in the door and the only way to get out was to open the door from the outside, not unlike a child lock. That worked fine for a while, until the front windows went out, and then he had to climb in from the back until he could get that problem fixed. IIRC, it had something to do with freezing temps, since I knew someone with a Ranger that had the same problem. It also had numerous rattles, trim pieces were falling off, etc. and I don't know that it had been abused previously. It looked fine from the outside, and it ran, but I don't know about the durability of the interior components.
I had them, at times, as rental cars, and they weren't the worst, but I always thought they were mediocre in terms of performance. And, there was something about the driving position that I did not like.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
I'm gonna give you some straight talk on the Ford Taurus. Great car other than the transmission. V-6 engine very reliable but transmissions usually go at about 125,000 miles. Just rebuild the transmission and keep driving. Engine should be good for over 200,000 miles easy.
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I owned one, and it was a good car that never let me down. It was not perfect by any means, but not a POS either. Here is the review I wrote on my Contour 3 years ago....
