Nissan Altima vs. Hyudai Elantra...convince parents?

Question

Ok, so I am a teen and my parents are going to buy me a car and they want to buy me a 1999 Nissan Altima, 72,000 mi. for $4500 obo------and I really don't want it, but I really want a 2000 Hyudai Elantra, 62,600 mi. for $3995---How do I convince my parents that the Hyudai is better? I need facts, MPG, reliability, safety rating...they think Hyudai's are crappy cars but I really want it so I need evidence that an Elantra is a good car. Please help? Sources would help MUCHO.

Answer 1

I've owned a Hyundai and trust me, your parents are right.  Not only is it going to be harder to find parts for the Hyundai, but quality of that vehicle is not as good, not to mention the resale/trade in value on it sucks,.  But, if you really want to convince your parents, come up with the money and pay for it yourself.  either way, they're paying for a car for you dude, how can you hate that?  As far as gas mileage goes, there are probably more after market parts for the Nissan that will help with that.

Answer 2

The Hyundai is a crappy car compared to a Nissan Altima. It has the KA24DE engine which has 150hp and in 240SXs it has been modified up past 1000hp (which proves its reliability). The Hyundai only has 140hp and gets only an acceptable rating on the IIHS frontal offset crash test. I can't find the Altima's crash info but Nissan's are known for being relatively safe. Among the Japanese sports cars of the 90s the Nissan 300ZX was considered safer than the Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Toyota Supra, etc.

I drive a 1994 Nissan Maxima GXE and it would cost your parents about $1-3K to get one with 120K miles. Maximas are the flagship of the Nissan line up and it's got a 160hp V6 engine (the first V6 mass produced in japan) with an enormous 182ft/lbs of torque. The engine is known to stay in one piece in excess of 1500hp (the GTP-ZX race cars have dynoed that high). The Maxima probably has more features than either of your more expensive newer cars since it is classified as near luxury despite it being Nissan's "four door sports car"

If you think the reliability is bad think again. If you buy any of these three cars you are likely going to need to change the fuel filter, timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, (possibly) spark plug wires, etc. Just because that stuff is supposed to go every 60K miles or less and not alot of people replace them until they break.