If comfort and low NVH were the crieria.

What would you guys buy?
I've got around $23k to spend and a second hand car.

Top priority for this one is comfort, so quiet, smooth ride, good for touring.

Don't want a land barge it still needs to have a bit of punch to it and go around corners but cars with a good NVH score are the first choice.

I was thinking maybe a Subaru Liberty or one of the smaller Mercedes.

Any other suggestions?

Mike

4th Gen. Liberty wagon not 3l 6 cyl. too thirsty ? Gen. 5 too fat!

What about Toyota Avalon/Aurion?

Aurions are great if you can find a good, well looked after one. Use to service a lot of them when I was still on the tools. Just be aware that they had some issues in the earlier models in regards to how they were put together. One thing I did notice with the top of the range models with the woodgrain dashes was that they squeak around the dashes. Dash rattles are not uncommon across the range with them either. So make sure you have a really good listen when you test drive.

Other than that I had a few reports of minor flare between first and second gears. Toyota was still trying to sort that out when I changed careers 2 years ago.

Avalons are getting old and very hard to find in good nick. However as far as driving back to back I always felt that the Avalons are more comfortable and felt better put together. Apart from the typical engine oil leak problems the 3.0 V6 engines had, they were very reliable

Toyota Rukus

Cannot afford a Rukus but drove one. Looks different.

Thanks for info guys, test driving an Avalon tomorrow.

Please not an Avalon.....

I bought a Dualis brand new for $23k. Nice car handles ok for a bigger car, nice and smooth and not too bad on fuel. It ain't no rocketship but the 2lt goes ok. good family car.

Test drove the Avalon today.
Only 74,000k's on it. Immaculate inside.

Very, very bland and the dash dates it, only radio I've seen with both a cassette and cd player.

Very smooth tranny, lots of go, no rattles. Huge boot.

Try a maxima, Silky smooth engine and a great highway car. Plenty of go when you need it and very comfy.

turbo diesel, anything new will do they own on the milage and go pretty hard as well

We do too much short stop/start runs. Not diesels forte.

+1 You'll soon get tired of that..

"Please not an Avalon....."

mazda 6 mps, sporty but very comfy ride, awd, sedan so quite a bit of room, plenty of go but with room to expand with a flash tune

It was as bland as a brown paper bag but what it did it did well.
Had not thought of a Mazda 6. Might go check some of them out.