I like the idea of going to a dealership. To be honest, I don't want to have to dig through private ads to find the ones I can trust.

edit: I have less faith in my neighbors than Andi does.

We bought our car from Hertz, who states upfront they don't haggle (but the prices are lower than a dealership). The Corolla we bought was less than Kelly Blue Book price for its condition and age/mileage. It was a really easy process, and I'd do it again.

That said, we did a lot of research ahead of time on what makes/models/years were ranked highest (Consumer Reports is definitely your friend). Once we narrowed it down to make/model/year (and/or mileage), then we searched on Cars.com to see who in the area might have what we were looking for in our price range. Hertz was consistently the lowest price.

When we bought the Corolla, it had been 12 years since I had bought a car, and back then I didn't know that Hertz and Enterprise sold some of their fleet when it hit a certain mileage. (Or maybe they didn't, back in 2004.) So I was dubious about whether we could trust a car bought from a rental company.

The last piece of research we did was to look for information on whether you really can trust a car from a rental company as much as you could trust a car from a dealer (IOW, nothing is perfect, but would cars from Hertz be secretly fucked up?). The general consensus we found was that they're just as reputable as dealers.

In the end, I've driven Toyotas for 20 years, so I decided I could trust a used Toyota from Hertz as much as I could from a dealer. And so far, so good. I *really* liked the fact that they stated upfront they don't haggle. Their only hard sell was on an extended warranty (which we didn't purchase). And that was honestly more of a medium sell than a hard sell, so it was fine.

I've just signed up for Consumer Reports. Imprezas look to be right in my price range.

Sophia, I have always been fortunate to have friends with cars willing to go car shopping with me when I was starting in a carless state or one time I bought a car from another college student at the end of the school year (who was selling his car to buy a plane ticket to go further than the car was safe to drive; I had a mechanic who owed me a favor, got the car fixed up nicely within my budget).

edit: I have less faith in my neighbors than Andi does.

This is definitely a case of "trust but verify".

Sheryl, FWIW, we switched Rose at 21 months from her longtime daycare to the one we'd been on the waitlist for, and I had a lot of your same concerns: She's been there for so long! All the teachers there love her and know her so well! How will she handle it?

And she was totally fine. She adjusted quickly and the new daycare was a huge improvement (which was why we'd been on their waitlist in the first place). We ended up being really glad that we moved her when we did.

meara, I hope the massage helps.

Burrell, I hope whatever treatment you land on, does the job for you. (I can say that the cortisone shot the vet gave Harvey for his spinal problem a couple years ago was like magic for him, if you end up going with the injection, may it be as effective for you.)

sarameg, I dunno quite what to say about your work situation, how about "May the Force be with you."

So I feel like Last Pass is discriminating against me as a single person! I tried to set up the two-factor verification and they insist on my having a second phone they can text with a security code.

That's bullshit, Jesse!

I mean, right? I get why they want an alternate way to get in touch, but a cellphone plus multiple email addresses should be enough, IMO.

On the other hand, I may be able to figure out how to use DUO for this because I already have it for work.

My experience with cars has been:

Subaru GL - Mixed, lots of valve problems, but it was Subaru's first overhead cam engine and they hadn't gotten it quite right yet. CV boots seemed to tear a lot which was annoying.

Honda Civic - Had two that were pretty old when I got them and they did fine. We have one now and aside from bluetooth issues (fixed under warranty) it has been trouble free, but it's only a year old.

Saturn SL - Pretty solid car. Had it for 120,000 miles.

Ford Escort - Inherited one that was in bad shape already and we didn't keep long. Had a 95 Station Wagon that was great while I had it, but got totaled pretty quickly by a Mustang that ran a red light.

Ford Tempo - Bought this for super cheap and with a lot of miles, but it held up okay.

Chevy S10 - Inherited this old rusty truck with existing problems and didn't keep it real long. Not fair to evaluate S10s from it.

Mercury Villager - Pretty good vehicle that held up well and we got for an amazingly low price since the dealer mis-priced it. (Didn't get the price it was marked at, but still got it for much less than it was worth). Same thing as a Nissan Quest.

Ford Taurus - Did not hold up especially well. Not terrible, but not great.

Ford Windstar - Those damn anti-lock brakes. Aside from the anti-lock brakes it was fine. Never had to pay much to get them fixed though since we bought it with an extended warranty. Getting a used Windstar with extended warranty cost much less than getting a used Toyota or Honda minivan though.

Nissan Sentra - Hasn't held up great.

Ford Focus - It's been a rock. Got it with 95,000 miles, now has 212,000 miles and has never broken down. Had to fix the climate control, but otherwise it's just been replacing wear items. It's a 2007 though and the current ones are a completely different car.