Bull_Winkle wrote:
The best car for a triathlete would be a reliable car because a unreliable car will steal your triathlon gear and race entry money in order to feed repairs and expensive maintnence. Toyota and Honda are super reliable and easy-cheap to service, so I would put those brands high on my list of potental cars to own.
European cars are expensive to service and can turn into money pits once the factory warranty runs out.
VW, Audi can be very trouble prone and a pain to service. Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, Porshche are very expensive to service and reliablity is a crap shoot with the odds staked up against you. Unless you have really deep pockets, I would avoid Euro cars, espesially used ones.
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I own a 2001 SVT Mustang cobra convertible and while the reliability with American cars can be crap shoot, I've come out as a winner with this car. Plus, because it's a Ford, it's cheap and easy to service so it's been a good car and it can haul 2 bikes and related tri gear with ease.
FYI, my family has owned six VW's over past 12 years (3 drivers). Currently own a 2012 Passat, 2008 Passat, and 2009 Jetta. We keep buying because they are high-quality German engineering, are fun to drive, get great gas mileage and, unlike your comment, have been very reliable with virtually zero unusual costs except for routine maintenance. Over the last 10 years, VW has greatly improved their reliability....you may be thinking of their 1980's, early 90's products. The newer Passat TDI is a fantastic car for high mileage drivers. The Jetta and Passat wagons are great drivers and bike haulers. Again, just an fyi.
PS......nice "Stang"