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Researching autos in the $10,000 to $15,000 range

We want to start by plugging our two favorite car evaluation outfits, Consumer Reports and Edmunds.com. We say "our" favorites but we should note that millions of people seem to agree with us. We also want to put in a special plug in for the Edmunds Top 10 lists, a great place to start your car research.

Now, down to business. We'll start with used cars (as the new cars in this price range can be too small or too stripped down for some consumers' tastes).

• For a full list of Consumer Reports' Best Used Cars Under $15,000, you can use this link to Yahoo Autos. We can't rip off copyright materials, but we can tell you some highlights in a quick summary:

-- The trick on lists like these is to look for the overlooked models -- the cars that scored surprisingly well in original CR ratings. In our sweet spot ($10,000 to $12,000) think about the 96 Isuzu Oasis, 01 Mazda Protege or 95 Nissan Pathfinder. In the under $10,000 category, the experts at Consumer Reports suggest a 97 Subaru Legacy or any Chevrolet Prizm earlier than 2000.

-- All the stellar new cars from Honda and Toyota take years to drop into this price range. If you're looking for a Camry or a Rav4 under $10,000, it'll be a 96 model or earlier. In terms of luxury models, a Lexus ES300 needs to be 12 years old to drop into the $12,000 to $15,000 price range; for an Infiniti, think 97 or earlier. And here's one amazing fact from their 07 report -- you'll have fewer reported problems with a 98 Lexus than a 06 Mercedes.

Again, we strongly encourage anyone thinking of buying a car to check out the Consumer Reports New Car Buying Kit.

• When it comes to Edmunds, look for their Editors Most Wanted lists. They are broken down by price, and they do a list every year, so you know the drill -- look for the best cars from a few years back and then see if they've dropped into your price range.

From the 2005 list, for instance, the Edmunds' nods in the under $15,000 category went to the Mazda3, the Honda Civic and the Scion XB. The Kelley Blue Book has the Mazda3 listed as low as $14,500 and the Scion as low as $13,700.

When it comes to trucks, you have to go back a few years. The Edmunds most wanted truck for 2003 was a Dodge Dakota, and Kelley prices it at $9,300 to $13,000 nowadadays.

Two other Web sites of note have recently published recommendations on the best used cars in this price range.

AOL Autos lists these "best bets" in used cars and trucks: 97-02 Honda Civic, 97-02 Camry,97-02 Ford Crown Victoria, 97-02 Lexus ES300,97-02 Mazda Miata, 97-02 Honda CR-V, 99-02 Nissan Pathfinder, 99-02 Honda Odyssey, 98-03 Toyota Tacoma and the 97-02 Ford F-150.

Cars.com just published a Top 10 for $10,000 list, and they looked only at cars from 02 onward. Their list included the 05 Ford Focus, 03 Ford Taurus, 03 Mazda Protege, 03 Mercury Sable, 02 Buick LeSabre, 02 Chevrolet Impala, 02 Ford Windstar, 02 Honda Accord, 02 Honda Civic, and the 02 Oldsmobile Aurora.

The experts at cars.com didn't rate any trucks or SUVs because of below-average crash safety ratings and price considerations, but they put in special plugs for three vehicles -- the 02 Honda CR-V, the O3 Subaru Forester and the 05 Chevrolet Colorado.

Please continue reading about the best autos around $10,000 or $15,000. > > >