Hello all,

Nice to meet you. This is my first post, and I'm trying to make a car decision. I'm just starting my first job at Los Alamos National Lab next week. It's in the Rockies in New Mexico which has some really scenic drives, so I'd like to get a fun, small car that is also relatively cheap. This will also be my first car (before I used my parents Corolla), and I have to pay for it, so I'm trying to keep the price under $20k. I'm trying to decide between the Honda Civic, Crossfire Coupe, Scion TC, and Hyundai Tiburon. I don't think I will need 4 seats, so a 2-seater will also work for me.

I've test driven all of these; I didn't really like the Honda Civic, and the Scion had a little less headroom, but it was fine. Anyway, I had a couple questions regarding the Crossfire Coupe.

First, is it a good deal? (I'm looking at a used manual 2004 one from carmax that is about $13.5k with 26k miles on it.) That's a bit below all the others which will probably be about 17k. But I'd like to know the costs of owning and maintaining one... will I end up paying a lot down the road? What about insurance? How does it compare with the tiburon, which I feel is the most similiar of the four?

Second, is it reliable? Los Alamos is a really small town and it doesn't have any car dealers whatsoever, so if it breaks down and I can't drive it the 50 miles to Santa Fe, I'm in big trouble. I'm not looking for perfection; I'm just wondering if it's prone to problems (especially the manual 2004 version.)

Is it convenient? I've looked at the trunk of the Crossfire Limited, and it was tiny.. Is the Coupe any better? I just want to be able to fit ski equipment in it... (Would 6' skis fit in it at all? Is there anywhere I could put the skis in the car?)

Fourth, does it drive ok in snow? It sometimes snows a lot in the mountains. I don't need the best traction or anything, but in comparison to the other 3 cars, can it drive as well in snow?


Do you have any other thoughts/pros/cons for getting the Crossfire Coupe over .. say the Scion? Since this will be my only car, I'm a bit concerned about convenience and trunk size...

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben