VW TDi, I have a 96' Passat just went 800 miles on my last tank of fuel. Has 178k on it, my sister is driving a Jetta TDi with 230K. I don't understand the Prius fascination. I get 42mpg no matter how hard I run it. Doug

Common sense here, but worth stating:
Make sure you spend a little pre-purchase time in the car, doing what you so. I am on the phone a LOT in the car. (In my case, when I test drive a car--I always make a few phone calls to different people, with headset and without; including folks that are hard of hearing.) My last Pontiac Grand Prix 3.8 was a blast to drive as it was tuned, lowered, and had some aftermarket exhaust. The only problem is it was tiring to drive, and it was LOUD. My current Buick Regal 3.8 is a great driver; quiet, comfy, and plush. Also, the smaller the motor, the higher it winds. That's why I feel the GM 3.8L is a great setup as you can pull 30MPG on the highway, and it doesn't sound like a kicked-over beehive when getting up to speed.

I was appalled when I saw it. Design team should be fired.

I am hoping to pick up one of these in the next month or so. 38mpg on the highway gas, 18inch wheels, sport suspension, etc....not the focus of old
http://blog.healyford.ca/images/2012_Ford_Focus.jpg

When gas prices went up a couple of years ago, I kept my 2001 Excursion, and bought a new VW Jetta Tdi Sportwagen. I have about 50k on it and it runs hard. A way more solid car than anything else in its class. The exhaust "afterburner" steals some of the mileage, but I still get over 40. With the improvements in the Tdi, there is no way that you can tell it is a diesel. No rattlin' and no smoke. I would definitely buy another one. Mine has the automatic. I am not a car guy at all and bought it about 6 months before they came out without even driving it.

And the new ones have a ****ty interior thats cheaper with hard plastic everywhere... the previous gens had much nicer materials and fit/finish... I don't know wtf VW was thinking on the new model, every review has complained about how cheap the interior is now.

Scored an '02 Impala 128k Nice, clean car.

Do a transmission flush on it unless you know it's been done recently; and good luck with it.

The bad part about that, is a flush can actually cause the tranny to be replaced at that mileage depending on how it was driven, flush can knock loose any junk thats actually holding it together. Thats why people think a flush will jack the transmission no matter what, when in fact it was already on it's way out (even if shifting fine) b/c of the buildup holding it together.

I would just drain and replace the fluid with high quality stuff verse a machine flush. The transmissions are weak on these cars past 100k miles.

Interesting you say this, that's exactly what me dealer told me when I went in to have mine flushed in my Avalanche with 130k miles on it. They said unless I knew that it had been flushed on a regular bases in the past don't mess with it because of just what you said.