how on earth a mechanic can tell that the head gasket is going to blow in a year is well beyond me.. and i don't know how many cars i've owned over the years that people thought wouldn't even make it to the corner, yet alone a year, but wtf do they know?? must of the times the cars lasted much longer then either of us thought it would..
not to knock, but i'm not huge on american made cars today, unless of course you buy a high end car like a corvette or a nice mustang or camaro, but i don't think i'd really drop money on much else us car wise, not including trucks, although i'd never drive a truck personally..
i'm talking japanese cars here.. great for a first time buyer as they usually will last years and years so long as you don't beat them too badly and change the oil regularly, plus they're pretty cheap to run and fix being they tend to get pretty good gas mileage.. also, manuals tend to last longer than auto's, and are way cheaper to replace a burnt out clutch than a complete new automatic tranny ime..
just my $.02 of course..
