RogerMcAllen

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I am currently rolling in a used Mazda Protege 5. My dad is 6'3" and doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Besides, you can never go wrong with the wagon.

red96jeep

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cant go wrong with a nice jeep, it covers the reliability and comfort pretty well but about the gas mileage...., what i'm using right now for my DD is an 02 vw jetta i got for 10k, but i wouldn't recommend it. parts and labor are $$$$$$. if i were you i'd go with a cobalt by chevy, a ford focus, nice little town goers, or as said before a civic. i think a cobalt looks the best and there realiabilty is right up there with the best of them, not sure on prices tho.

Saccharomyces

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Texas too. That was a bit of a shock. It wasn't in the thousands but as I recall it was quite a few hundred $$.

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Joe C

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If you're not affected by mileage on a car, look for an early 2000's lexus ES/IS/GS. Great reliability and comfortable as hell. You can easily find one within that range as well. Highway my lexus gets 24-26mpg.

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keelanfish

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I like using New Cars, Used Cars, Car Reviews and Pricing - Edmunds.com to research car purchases. I took the liberty of posting a few links below to cars I would suggest based on your post. I've owned Hondas, Toyotas and now Subarus and they are all great cars. I love my WRX (I wouldn't want it if I was 6'-4" though) and my wife loves her Forester. My dad has a 1995 Toyota Avalon that has 500,000 miles on it and is still going strong with only routine maintenance (tires, brakes, oil, filters, timing belt, fluids, etc.). That car seems to be bullet proof and is very roomy. Based on my quick research, it seems like for Japanese imports that the 2002 model year fits into your price range.

2002 Honda Accord Pricing and Information

2002 Toyota Camry Pricing and Information

2002 Subaru Legacy Pricing and Information

2002 Subaru Forester Pricing and Information

Bernie Brewer

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I have news for you, though you ought to know this by now. Your Ford has more foreign-made parts in it than domestic-made. Just buy a car-it doesn't matter any more.

To the OP- whatever you wind up buying, make sure you have
it checked out thoroughly buy a trustworthy mechanic. Check the Carfax report, and see what Consumer Reports and Kelly's Blue Book have to say about the car before you buy. And don't fall in love with a certain car. It's just a car- something to get you from A to B and back again. Good luck.

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Dadrick

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I love my '99 New Beetle TDI. I'm 6'7" and never had a car with so much head room (it's the arched roof line, and seats that adjust up/down). They aren't currently being made so you'd have to find a used one. VW just reintroduced the TDI in the Jetta after a 2 year sabitical, to modify the engine for the new fuel formula.

It is very economical. The diesel engine with the 5-spd tranny gets me 45 daily and 50 highway mpg. Diesel is a bit more expensive but well worth the extra mpg. Besides it's fun to get looks from the big-rig drivers when I pull into up to fuel island. If I can ever find a reliable steady source for waste vegetable oil I will convert to bio-diesel.

As far as reliablity, I have 230K miles on it and can see it easily doing that many more, and I am not gentle with my cars. I have nick-name it Timex "takes a licking and keeps on ticking". I have hit 4-deer and been through a couple of corn fields and many construction sites nothing seems to phase it.

Best of luck - the first car always holds a special place in your heart.

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Aleforge

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I will second Bernie here, my Dad and Grandpa LOVE Yukon's, they buy a new ones every other year. And they go around dissing everyone who buys anything "non American", until one employee here who bought a civic showed them at least his "Honda" was built in the US giving jobs to auto workers unlike my grandpas Yukon. (Mexico) That shut him up real quick.

Not even gonna touch the "parts" issue but that's also VERY true.

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GilaMinumBeer

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Hondas are assembled in America. And they import their parts just like the Macro motor co's.

Furthermore, Hondas are typically more "off the shelf" than most of the domestics. that equates to less expensive repairs since the parts are shared across multiple model vehicles.

Evan

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Forget the American/import thing. best bet is find a car in your price range, do a littel searching on the internet for common problems/issues. i've owned both import/american and no car has been perfect and i say the worse i've owened was a 1989 Chevy Beretta GT...but i was 16 (in 1998 so it was 9 years old) and i always felt the need to jsut floor it at every stop sign/light and just being a typical dumb 16 year old. but since then, i've had a toyota truck, chevy cobalt and now i drive a Ford mustang and just got a steal on a very used Chevy S10. i think its all about finding the deal, doing some checking online on that car in question (carfax) and i'd say most cars have their own forums and you can usually do a search and see what kind of problems pop up for that car.