Cars for Smart People – How to Find the Best Car

Buying a car can be really stressful, what are some good cars for smart people? Using the 6 tips we came up with in part 1, we will show you how to find the best car. Remember the tips are:

1. Never buy a new car
2. Don’t buy cars expecting to sell them later
3. Buy a car based on reliability
4. Never buy the remodel year
5. Take your time when buying a car
6. Do your research when buying a car

According to the manufacturer quality index ratings given by dashboard-light, three of the top five car brands are owned by Toyota: Lexus, Scion, and of course Toyota. Remember in tip number one in the last post that luxury cars lose roughly half their value in the first three years, so don’t buy a luxury or expensive car. So that rules out Lexus, Hummer, Porsche, Mercedes, and Infiniti–unless you’re getting something that’s more than 15 years old. A used Lexus is basically the same as its Toyota equivalent.

Honda is number 8 on the list, and the only brand that’s not a Toyota or a luxury car. And every brand below it is rated at 50% or worse. This isn’t to say that all of the vehicles from a highly rated brand are good or all vehicles from a poorly rated brand are trash. This is just an average. For example Ford has a quality rating of 28%, but the current F-150s are very reliable – 95%.

Step 1 Find a Car Maker

As an example of how to decide on a car to buy let’s look at Honda. Its overall quality rating is a 60% so good, but not super great. Dashboard-light then gives you ratings for individual car models. The Accord gets a 52%, the Civic gets a 71% and the CR-V gets a 78%. There are other models of course, but let’s say you’re looking for a sedan, and since 71% is better than 52%, you opt for the Civic. It’s also smaller, cheaper, and gets better fuel economy.

After selecting the Honda Civic, it’ll send you to a page with the last several model generations. From these pictures below you can see that in the early 90’s the Civic wasn’t very reliable, but over the last 30 years it has continued to get better. The 2012-2019 model generation has a reliability score of 94%! (I wish I could have done that well in college.) The rate of powertrain defects is currently less than 5%, well below the industry average.

Step 2 Check Model Year

Armed with this information we then head over to Consumer Reports. On the Honda Civic page they have every model from 2000 to present along with their price, reliability verdict, and owner satisfaction. In the 2006-2011 generation CR reports that 2006 and 2008 had a reliability verdict of 3/5 whereas 2007 and 2009-2011 had a reliability verdict of 4/5. The 2006 model has 15 safety recalls whereas the 2011 model only has 9. This matches up with tip number 4: Never buy a remodel year. Wait until it’s been iterated upon and improved.

The next generation is 2012-2015. Consumer Reports has a reliability verdict of 5/5 for all of these. Then there is the 2016-2020 generation 2016 has a 2/5, 2017-19 has a 3/5, and 2020 has a 5/5 reliability. This, again, is understandable given that 2016 was the remodel year. This highlights one of the issues with buying a new car. Even if the last several years are great quality that doesn’t means that the next year will be good. The 2016 Civic is an illustration of this.

So in conclusion, after we followed all the steps, we’ve narrowed our search down to the 2012-2015 Honda Civic. All 4 of these years have a 5/5 reliability verdict and less than 3 safety recalls. Usually I recommend staying away from the remodel year, but the 2012 Civic seems great if you want it a little cheaper. The next step is to search through Honda-dedicated forums or maintenance issue forums to get a fuller picture of what you’re buying.

Using these steps, here are a few other cars I’ve found that are good.

• Toyota Corolla – Pretty much any year except the 2019 model. Also don’t get the hatchback. Hatchbacks are great, but the Corolla hatchback is still too new.
• Toyota Camry – Pretty much any year. Starting in 2018 they switched from a 6-speed automatic to an 8-speed and there were some issues with that, so you might want to stick to a pre-2018 model.
• Toyota Yaris 2007-2020 except 2009 ($5,050 – $18,175) – The Yaris was discontinued after 2020 because Toyota sold more Corollas in a month than they did Yaris’s in a year, but they’ll keep making parts for decades to come and now that it’s discontinued, used ones will be cheaper.
• Toyota Sienna 2010-2016 ($6,975 – $17,700) – Even with Toyota’s superior quality, they haven’t made a great minivan since 2016.
• Honda Odyssey 2016 ($17,650) – For being the go-to minivan for families, most model years are actually quite unreliable. You’re probably better off with a Toyota Sienna.
• Honda Civic 2012-2015 ($7,675 – $13,350)
• Honda Fit 2009-2013 ($6,450 – $9,375). 2017-2019 ($14,900 – $16,875)
• Honda Accord 2009-2017 ($7,275 – $18,450)
• Mazda 3 2012-2018 $7,725 – $16,225)
• Mazda 6 2014-2019 ($10,400 – $22,475)
• Nissan Leaf 2013-2017, 2019 ($5,325 – $9,600, $18,725) – The Leaf is a special case because it is electric. Dashboard-light http://www.dashboard-light.com/vehicles/Nissan_Leaf.html gives Nissan an overall quality rating of 27%, but gives the Leaf a 100% reliability rating and CR mostly gives it a 5/5. Because it is electric there are no engine or transmission issues that normal cars face. It has its own set of problems like the battery needing replacing, but as far as reliability the Leaf is in a class by itself. CR states that it is much more reliable than any other electric car. You’ll notice the drastic change in price between 2019 and 2017. Electric cars are like luxury cars in that a huge amount of depreciation happens in the first few years. This is because Li-Ion batteries are getting exponentially cheaper to produce. I’m seriously considering getting one for my next car because my commute is about 30 miles round trip and at 3.5 cents/mile the Leaf is about three times cheaper than my current car which gets ~30 miles per gallon.

These are a few good quality cars I’ve identified, but of course just taking my recommendations at face value would violate tip number 6. Do you own research folks! This is not an exhaustive list nor are you automatically an idiot for buying an unreliable or new car. Maybe you really want to get a Audi. They’re not cheap or reliable, but if you do your research, find a good year, and know what you’re getting yourself into, that’s what makes someone a smart car buyer.

What do you think? How much research did you guys put into buying your vehicles? Did it pay off? Let us know in the comments below.