Though it's been said, I second the Ford focus.

Don't know why your any sort of keen to buy a new vehicle for your offspring. I would recommend a used vehicle that still has a few years of warranty left.

 

Paul I agree with some of the others about purchasing a good used small car for your children to use. I looked around and purchased a good used Nissan Sentra with just under 80,000 km on it for my oldest daughter when she was co-oping in Montreal. That car was awesome, she drove it across Canada when she attended UBC. After owning it for a couple of years we sold it for $500 less then we paid for it and the only maintenance we did was regular service. She now owns a Nissan and lives in England and it has been trouble free for the last 3 years.
My younger daughter got a high mileage well used Toyata Camry which she put over 100,000 kms on after she got it. We only paid $1500 for that car. She has owned Hondas ever since and loves them

 

^+1
We bought a used Civic for our daughter when she went to school.
She's been out of school for over 2 years and the Civic is still going strong.
Zero $ on repairs. It has never let her down.

 

Hi all,
I'm not ruling out a used vehicle.
I'm looking for opinions on todays econoboxes and more importantly, why you would choose one in particular. There are so many good new ones to choose from over the past couple years. It's very hard to get out and test them all. Although that would be fun.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Fit. Didn't it 'clean-up' in its class for a while?

Thx again.

 

I know I didn't mention the Fit because I only suggested vehicles that I would drive. (that's how I chose cars for my children) It is too small ( I prefer a bit more car around me), not popular, and besides it being butt-ugly.

 

I tend to agree about it being butt-ugly but the newer gen kids seem to 'dig it'.
Plus, the civic isn't what I would call a looker either, lol
Especially after staring at a G in the driveway for the past 3.5 years.

 

The honda fit has pretty decent room...If anything long term reliability and even buying used I would buy honda or toyota.