In your opinion, what is the best all around car?

For me, given the terrain, the 57 miles of unpaved roads and the severe snow and ice issues during the winter, I need the Subaru Forester with its raised body and AWD. I can bull my way down a long, curved driveway with 8 ” of unplowed snow on it, if necessary.

I won’t be able to drive up the driveway to get home, but that’s another issue.

I’m not a car expert, but I would be satisfied with a V-6 Accord. I’ve driven 4 cylinders – V-8s, and the V-6 seems moderate. Not too weak and not too strong.

All around? Definitely the little pea.

An oldtimer; the Citroen DS.
And in case of kids and a Golden Retriever: the Break.

All around? I’d say the old AMC Eagles. the size of a car, all wheel drive, raised body. Could drive on paved and unpaved roads, probably do some minor off-roading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Eagle

But… I would still take what I have now over anything else.

In my totally unbiased opinion… ~

The Mustang. I own a lovely 1966 V8

No idea, but I’ve never been disappointed by one of my Honda Civics.

Do you intend to keep it for a long time? Do you want reliability and low cost? Then I would go for a 2002 to 2007 GM car with a 3800 engine. You will get 30 mpg and the low maintenance costs will make you smile.

If cost, weather, and storage space was not important I’d take @mrentropy ‘s ride any day!
Nice! Some day you need to post pictures!

@LuckyGuy If Facebook still had that “everyone” friendly link I could post the pictures.

In all honesty, I think the Challenger is a great all around car. It’s got plenty of room on the inside, has nice amenities, tons of trunk space, a usable rear seat, and (for the SRT, anyway) gobs of horsepower and acceleration powers.

So, you can still take the kids grocery shopping and be a ‘red light’ racer all the way home.

46 Willys Jeep cj2. You can go just about anywhere with one of them, they are easy to work on, and if you get stuck you and 3 buddies can lift it up and move it.

@mrentropy I’ll bet it gets decent mileage too.
Hey, when you get a chance, can you check your service guide for me? Is it like a Honda that needs to have the timing chain/belt replaced at 100,000 miles so you don’t totally destroy the engine if it breaks? Honda owners are always shocked at the cost.

Never a fan before but I’m really liking the 2012 Honda CRV. It’s not as cumbersome as minivan, isn’t a gas pig SUV and can easily fit garage sale finds in the hatch.

@LuckyGuy The timing belts have never cost me much. Are you thinking of the labor costs for those who can’t do it themselves?

I too have never been disappointed by my Hondas. I’ve had a Civic, a CR-V, and a Pilot.

Extremely reliable, great in New England winter weather, they last forever, and have a good resale value.

I traded in a beat 1994 Honda Civic with well over 200K miles on it…in 2008 – and the Honda dealer gave me $500 trade-in! I was astonished. I expected to get nothing.

@SavoirFaire Yes the belts are cheap. It is the labor and all the other things they find that need to be replaced.
@cprevite Honestly, what did the timing belt change cost you? What else did the dealer have to replace at the same time? wheel bearings, etc..?

@LuckyGuy If I can remember I’ll check. I wouldn’t be surprised; I think most engines have a serpentine belt that does bad things if it goes.

As far as gas mileage on the Challenger goes, I get around 14MPG around the small streets and 25MPG on the highway. But you’re not going to get good gas mileage when you’re doing 5.0 second 0–60s at every stop light. The R/T and 6 cylinder probably do a bit better.

I gotta say I love my dad’s 08/09 (i forget the year) F-250. He did a little fiddling and can easily get a nice 25–28 mpg on the highway.

BMW M3.

In the “new economy car with great MPG” category, it’s a toss-up between the Fiat 500 and Hyundai Veloster.

The best car I ever owned was a 1982 Subaru GL Hatchback.
Before I bought the car, I was in Lake Tahoe, and noticed everyone up there drove Subarus. They needed dependable cars that could drive well in snow.

@filmfann: Amen, brother.

Any vehicle made by Toyota or Honda. 300,000 miles on my Toyota, without any repairs, convinced me that these two automobiles are the best out there.

My mechanic also agrees.

I like my ‘85 Corolla for the same reasons I loved my ‘87 Corolla that I had years ago. They are cheap (I paid $500 for my first one, and $300 for my current one), easy to fix/maintain, reliable as all hell, can handle abuse/neglect without complaint, and handle pretty damn well, even in the snow and ice. I’ve only had two cars last more than six months without either major repairs required or just dying, and those are them. “Bonnie” has ~240k on her right now; she didn’t see many miles for the first 24 years of her life.

I have had two Civics, one of them a 4WD wagon. Both had troubles with the ignition system that required repair, and then died due to bad timing belts. Turns out, the old D-series engines eat timing belts twice as fast as Honda claims. They get good MPG, but can’t handle New England winters all that well.

I had a Subaru Legacy. Great car at first, but expensive to maintain, more expensive to fix, and surprisingly not much better in the snow than my Corolla. The older ones were better, but like VW, they kind of dropped the ball in the mid-90s.

The old 2nd-gen VW Golfs are decent if you like tail-happy little corner-carvers with no floorboards, but they rust from the bottom up and thus are not well-suited for anywhere where they salt the roads. 3rd-gen and newer just suck unless you like electrical issues.

@mrentropy The White Zombie manages ~1.8 second 0–60 runs with no gas at all :p