My first car was a 1990 Chevrolet Corsica. It was a great car considering it was 20 years old with little problems at the time I crashed into a tree that fell onto the road one late frozen night on a country back road.

My dad is a Ford fan (so am I), and I got a 2001 Taurus with 160,000 and drove it to 220,000 with zero problems and sold it still running, but with a weak engine.

Got a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu LT 4 cylinder (130,000) cuz it reminded me of the Corsica, and it has a good owner history besides an accident. The dealer lied to me and it has been in an accident. It was t-boned and the frame was bent back to shape and painted. I've had it for 5 months now and it keeps getting mild problems. First an 02 sensor, then brake light switch, then it needed a new radiator because it was leaking transmission fluid from the cooling compartment, and now I think the starter might be getting weak. Is this a bad car? Am I going to be replacing something new every 2 months?

I miss my Taurus

 

reliability wise they are ok cars. The current generation on Malibu's, 2007 and up are great.

My used car buying experiences have been the same as yours. Once you get past the first few repairs, I think it will be ok.


I have an 06 Taurus with 80 000miles. I have had to replace the a/c compressor clutch, idler and tensioner pulleys, 1 tie rod, front impact sensor, broken wiring in the doors in addition to all the regular maintenance. I consider it a very reliable car. My point is, repair is part of car ownership.

As long as the engine and transmission live long, anything else is small stuff imo.