I have been looking for a used car and have chosen the Accent after reading that it is a very popular car that depreciates in value very fast! Looking at the local classifieds confirmed this, in my area it seems like there is a cheap used accent listed every 10 minutes: Petites annonces Grand Montréal gratuites - acheter, vendre, animaux, autos, immobilier - Kijiji

So with all these options available, I wanted to get some advice on which year, how many odometer miles, and what features to look for?

I am looking for a model with automatic transmission, air conditioning, cruise control, and power doors.

I love performance tuning my 2-stroke scooter and would enjoy doing mods like that on a car, but from what I've read it doesn't seem like there are any mods worth doing on these cars and I already have an engine to waste money on if that turns out to be the case I will definitely want to do as much maintenance/repair by myself as I can in order to learn something.

I live downtown near work so I won't need the car for commuting and will mainly be using it to do errands around the city and plan to drive 500km (each way) on the highway a few times a year to visit family.

I've been keeping an eye out for 2005 models with low mileage after reading this on wikipedia:
I ordered an OBDII device and was planning to go check out some cars once I receive it.

Any advice? Common problems to look out for? Years/models/features to avoid? How old is too old?

Thanks in advance!

 

I bought my '13 based on the fact that my step-dad bought a new 2001 in late 2000 and until the day he passed away in 2009 it ran like a top. Never had an issue and the only time it was at the dealer for anything other than normal maintenance was once for a recall.

Got 34+ MPG and I always thought the acceleration and handling were very good for a sub-compact car.

You're right about the lousy resale. When he passed, my mom had me put it up for sale. The thing was near mint and very low mileage for an eight year old car and we had it listed for $2500 forever and finally took an offer of $2100 for it. A nursing student bought it and she got a hell of a deal IMO...