Hey all, so I'm shopping for a new car because 07 Honda Accord was totaled. I got some awesome suggestions from you all already about cars to replace it with and found I really like the Honda Fit. My problem is that I really prefer manual - there are very few options in my area to choose from. I drove both the manual and automatic and just really prefer to drive a manual, and in the long run, my understanding is that manuals are lower cost to maintain. I'm not a car afficionado, but I do change my own oil/rotate my own tires kinda thing, so what I don't know is how to decide between a lower priced car with higher miles or a higher priced car with lower miles.
Here is what I am replacing: 07 Honda Accord manual with 59k miles - been driving it since college and expected to drive it til the wheels fell off 10ish years from now, but which point I figured a greener option would hopefully be common and I could replace it with an environmentally friendly car. The settlement from insurance was $8100, which includes a chunk to cover taxes on buying a new car.
Of the ones available in my area, there are a couple with low mileage - 30k-70k that are listed between $9000-10,500. Then there are a few that have 130-160k miles and are listed more in the $4000-7000 range.
Whatever I do end up with, I would plan to drive til it fell apart (or another distracted high schooler has to live down the infamy of running into multiple teachers right outside the school). The mustachian side of me would rather go for the lower priced car and leverage a bump to my savings, but my family is pushing toward the lower mileage cars that I would have to pay extra for now, but would theoretically last longer (extra that as a single teacher who just started a business on the side I would really rather not pay).
What would you do?