Uh...I drive a "rare" LS460. Justified?

 

I stand corrected!

 

LS430 is a great vehicle, but its old, its got a cassette player and no iphone integration. You will start to despise it within 6 months or so. Your commuter car is the one that is going to be driven the most, you're going to spend a lot of time in it with 80 mile commute, so keep that in mind. With a 10k budget, you can use the money to spend on a lease of a modern vehicle that will cost you nothing in repair or maintenance and have all the modern amenities.

 

With the 10k you are going to buy a "beater", just drive the LS and get a really nice NB Mazda Miata.

That is a car that will put a smile on your face every time you drive it. The big plus is that if you buy one right, it shouldn't cost you anything in terms of maintenance for the first year or two.

 

Been down that road too. Had an '06 Miata for fun. It is an amazing car as long as you are driving locally with the top down. On the highway with the top up the drone of the engine will make you want to poke your eardrums out. As long as he drives his LS on long distances and his Miata locally he will be fine.

 

I advise a camry, corolla, civic or accord.

 

......or a Mazda3 if you want a little more sport in the chassis/steering.

 

Try and look for a Altima V6 sedan. Still good on gas, not firm of a drive and most have leather navi backup camera. Should find a 2007-2012 in that ballpark

 

Lately, Consumer Reports has not recommended the Altima due to reliability issues.

 

Agreed. I wouldn't trust a Nissan farther than you can push it. When they get past 100k miles, the CVT transmission likes to fail. Depending on model, you can expect transmission failure way before 100k miles(Xterra, Pathfinder, Frontier).

Their quality has taken a nose dive since Renault bought a share in the company 10-15 years ago. Under the hood they use a bunch of cheap junk parts that don't last.