Best Cars For Bad Credit Car Loans

Cars are lasting longer than ever -- and that's good news for you

We do a lot of research on the best cars for people with a bad credit history in an effort to help our customers make the best possible decision. What follows includes some of the best advice we've found recently.

One of the top places for car research is Consumer Reports, and you can find the Best and Worst Used cars at Yahoo Autos. We also like the price-range-specific recommendations at Auto Loan Central. Remember, banks like bad credit car loans in the $7,000 to $12,000 range because that's a loan that translates into a manageable monthly payment for most folks.

Another excellent site for researching the best cars for bad credit customers is Edmunds.com. You can find their most recent (2007) Used Car Best Bets here. The listings cover a lot of ground and they use a lot of criteria, but here's one example -- their discussion of the Ford Crown Victoria: "Ever wonder why police departments and taxi companies use these "old tech" V8, rear-wheel drive sedans? Because they're basically bullet-proof."

We also like the work done at:

• www.autos.com, where more than 100 experts rank every vehicle on the market based on safety, acceleration, cargo space, performance and more.

• autos.msn.com, where the Reliability Ratings are a must read.

• And the research section at cars.com. It's just plain packed.