Overhaulin'

I need help deciding on a car purchase?

We have a 1994 Ford Taurus and it has over 200k miles on it, a million oil leaks which was priced to fix around $500.00 for all new tubing. The heat only works from the window vents, it has rust everywhere, the windshield has a huge crack in it, the engine belts are ready to bust, etc. With a new baby, this obviously isn't reliable and we need something better. I've been looking on Vehix and found a 2004 Kia Spectra with 86,000 miles, leftover warranty, no bumps or bruises, etc. for $5765.00. We test drove it, but decided to shop around a little more but we haven't been able to find anything within our budget. I looked today to see if that car was sold yet and it hasn't been, but I noticed they lowered the price from the $5765.00 to $5313.00.. which is around our price range. We would rather not go over $5500.00, if possible. I've read great reviews, but also bad reviews about Kia's. I know that the depreciation is horrible, but we're not worried so much about that. We just want a reliable car that we won't have to put in a ton of money for like the car we own at the moment. Any help is appreciated.

Public Comments

1. Ok here are a few owners of this vehicle reviews. http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/kia/spectra/2004/ I would say in this tough economic time you could get it for under 5000. Check this site out http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=452296464 I run a company that specialized in automobile purchase.
2. I have noticed that a lot of people are getting rid of there spectra's, so I'm not sure I would buy them. I search craigslist.com for cars, you get everything under a price range you set, and you can set a min. so that you don't get the junk people are trying to sell, I'm looking at a bmw I found for 1700 and those run forever! the Germans know how to build cars :)
3. i don't think kia is a reliable brand or is worth that much.. for about the same price you can get a Nissan Sentra and it will last a lot longer.