I really loved my Lexus RX 300. Held band equipment for son from middle school to graduate schoo for son. It took son and fraternity brother on a road trip to Cleveland one summer. I almost didn’t want to give it up.
When I knew it was finally time to change, I went to Lexus dealer intent on getting a convertible. No one came out from the showroom so we walked over to BMW. I feel in love with a BMW convertible I am very happy with it. If we had a 4 car garage I would want a BMW i3 as my second car. H has BMW X 1- he’s happy.
@travelnut Our recall notice arrived today, too. My dealer gave us a heads up and said that it would be coming.
Now I feel like test driving these recommended cars. If I fall in love with one of them I will have to go back to the how did you pay for your car thread.
We had two Mazdas that we drove FOREVER. An MPV van which eventually literally died in our driveway and a Tribute which we drove and D1 drove forever - we ended up trading it in with well over 100,000 miles and I still see it in town being driven 3 years later by a high school student (I can tell it’s ours due to a spot on the bumper where a guy backed into me! )
That said, I now have a Subaru Forester - though I haven’t had it long, I LOVE it and hope to be a “rest of my life” Subaru owner.
Acura Integra
Subaru Outback
Toyota Sienna
Love my Volvo XC90. Really like my Subaru Legacy Wagon (before outback was made). My H likes his Honda CrossTour. I have had 2 Hondas, a Mazda, and a Toyota that I can recall. Only one I HATED was my Toyota mini van. The transmission basically fell out when I was driving on the highway. (I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I was driving 70 and then lost all power with no warning. We are lucky we were not injured.).
My husband has only purchased Hondas since about 1995. He loves them and swears by them.
My almost 16 year old Toyota Land Cruiser has cost me $2000 in unscheduled repairs. I am not including the cost of replacing tires, brakes, and batteries, or the 90,000 mile tune-up.
I spent 18 months trying to decide on a replacement for it, and bought another Land Cruiser. I do not like the spoiler thing on the back of the ‘new’ model but am otherwise thrilled with the car. It is not a practical or economical purchase, but I love it.
The only reason I bought a new car was that I needed a car for the newly licensed teenage driver.
Subarus keep catching my eye. I think I would look at them if I ever need to replace my boys’ car.
@CT1417 - Let your kids drive the Cruiser, and get a fun car for yourself.
We are on our third Honda Accord and have loved them all.
I love my Lexus ES330. My next car will definitely be another Lexus.
S hates his Suburu Outback. I think it’s a 2004.
My H does not like his parents Camry. They buy a new one every two years and H hasn’t liked any of them.
We buy used. And over the years these cars have been overall very good.
2006 Acura MDX ( excellent car that a mechanic destroyed last year)
2012 Infinity G37 (haven’t had that long)
2004 Volvo S60 (just sold this one)
2007 Cadillac CTS (hand me down from grandparents-has been very reliable)
My H insisted on buying a 2008 Mercedes wagon. Ugh. I am not a fan.
Love our Chevy Spark. It is little and has had almost no maintenance issues. But to be fair-- it has almost no miles on it (<18K in 3 years)
@oldfort – I now have two of the same vehicle, 13 years apart. Perhaps if the first one ever dies, I will give them my ‘new’ car, but as of now, it is a bit too luxurious to hand down to them. Land Cruiser added all the bells and whistles that I never knew I could not live without. (Although I still have not used the wine cooler in the center console. I store the EZ Pass there.)
My H had an Audi and a BMW. He is very hard on cars so impossible to say if the car was at fault or the driver, but very expensive repairs required.
@txstella – a friend has had fantastic luck with her MDX so after ten years, bought a new one for herself and handed the old one down to the teens.
Emilybee, we checked out the new Lexus models. Boy some of them are so ugly!!!
There are 2 Lexus dealerships here in my neck of the woods. If you go to one of them, you will come out convinced that all Lexus dealers are pretentious a-holes. If you hit the other, it is a totally different experience.
We found repairs on the BMW, Mercedes, and Volvos to be considerably more expensive AND more frequent than either the Honda or Toyota. They were also more expensive to repair and needed repairs more often than the American cars. Most of them were used vehicles.
Love my Honda Pilot and my Odyssey before that. My cousin purchased the newest model Pilot but hated the buttons which have apparently taken the place of the usual gear shift!
BB, I won’t be buying a brand new one. Probably a 2013 or 14 when the time comes. I really like the sports car but it’s just not practical as we often go out with other couples, plus we have two dogs.
Another Honda/Toyota/Lexus family here. Will be thinking about a new car soon (when they every replace the cracked dashboard that they refuse to call a recall , but rather a “cosmetic enhancement”. Ahem…) But I hate the new grills on the Lexus. U-G-L-Y
“But I hate the new grills on the Lexus. U-G-L-Y”
Exactly!!! Mr. B said it was “the largest insect trap” he had seen. 
Imagine detailing that after a long summer road trip!!!
We’re still driving our 2002 Corolla and 1999 Windstar. We’ve kept both in good repair and have not had any problems with either. We are retiring at the end of this year and will replace both cars with a single car, a hybrid of some sort. Haven’t decided yet. Hubby wants to use my ESPP money for a Tesla. ROFLMAO.
I miss our first car, a tiny shiny 1980 Honda Prelude with a little sunroof. That was my favorite car of all time.
We’ve been really happy with a number of different cars. We buy new, but we keep them until they basically fall apart. Most recently, extremely happy with the Toyota Prius, Ford F-150, Porsche Cayman, and Subaru Outback. All have completely different purposes, but if I was to get one car that did it all, it would be a Subaru Outback, they are awesome!