i currently drive a 97 maxima, and i'm generally satisfied with everything about it except its reliability and ease of maintenance. i didn't realize it until after the purchase but there's a large amount of parts which makes maintenance more cumbersome and more frequent than i'd like it to be. eg my front suspension has an excess of little parts/rubber bushings which translates to a lot of points of failure - it's just a matter of time before something fails due to age, or an oil leak i don't know about. afaik my dad's camry has a very simple suspension, and it actually rides better than my maxima with control arms/sway bar links/etc. one thing about the camry though is that i definitely notice that it's lighter and has a weaker engine. in that sense i do like my car - but i can live without it if i have to. aside from that, there are a handful of other things that can/have gone wrong that wouldn't necessarily be an issue on other cars. my most recent issue has been trouble starting, and it's the 3rd or 4th time it's happened in 2 years, with completely different symptoms and causes each time

i basically just need a car that gets me to school and back, so i really don't think it's worth it to hang on to a car that keeps giving me trouble. another thing is that i do everything myself, with the exception of visiting a local store to get something bench tested - i'm not experienced or anything, so it would be nice to have a car that is a little more forgiving.

anyways what makes/models are relatively cheap and not difficult to maintain? toyotas/hondas come to mind but i'd like to build up a list of options - preferably non-granny mobile options. if it makes a difference, i live in hawaii and in terms of price range - i'm looking for a replacement around that same age that suits me better, not necessarily an upgrade

This post was edited by Reverence on Apr 1 2013 04:10am

Any older car is gonna give you some sort of trouble. In terms of reliability and affordability obviously something like a Civic comes to mind, but it'll be the same situation that you experienced with your dad's Camry.
How many miles are on the Maxima? What kind of budget are you working with?

^^ how much money are you looking to spend?? i spend 1600 on my 99 olds lss the only thing ive had to do in the last few years is change out the water pump. the car when i bought it had 198k miles on it. it now has 232k. but my heat doesnt work now lol. whats the budget?

obviously go gree, get a tesla.

somewhere around 3k, but it's not set in stone - and afaik cars around here are a bit pricier than on the continental US. the maxima is currently at 108k

yeah problems pop up with any car, but that wasn't my concern. it's the fact that in comparison to something like the carmy, my car is technically better but more difficult to work with since its suspension is more complex, it has a larger engine, an engin*** packed full of parts, etc. i just don't feel like the extra trouble it brings is worth it

i know there's a tradeoff between cars with a fuller experience, and cars that you could fix blindfolded - ideally i'd get a reliable car that is in the somewhere in the middle ground

Most systems on cars work in the same manner and have just as many parts that can get messed up/go bad. Your Maxima is a lot simpler than you may think. If you think that fewer parts is easier, which in my opinion it's not, then you need to be looking at older cars. The newer the car, the more stuff they cram in there.

This post was edited by OEM on Apr 1 2013 06:13pm

toyota aristo is the obvious choice here.

Camry

no no no no, needs 2jz.

2jz swapped Camry.