Interesting fact - Diesel is MORE expensive in the US. Yesterday I drove past a gas station selling gas (petrol) at $2.35 per gallon and diesel for $2.73 per gallon. If diesel were cheaper here I would drive one.
Diesels can be more expensive, especially if you have to live with US and EU emissions standards that require urea injection to meet requirements. You may not have that issue, though.
Stay away from the Euro brands. Stick with Japanese or Korean.
My middle son owns a 2010 Mazda-3…no rust so far.
I wonder if we can offer any help at all. @bug-slayer lives in Latvia, and he admits that his monthly pay is low. I’m sure he isn’t the only one with a low annual salary there. I’m beginning to think that much of the quality we expect in the West is not available to poor countries like Latvia. Lower grade steels that are not as corrosion resistant and less expensive, lower quality paints might be the norm. It’s hard to tell from this distance. Mazda would be out of business here if they sold cars that rusted out that quickly in the USA. If that is the case, we can’t help. I have no idea whether auto companies produce ersatz cars in poor markets, but it could make sense.
With sincere apologies, I confess to being totally ignorant of Lithuania. Is there a significant difference between the availability of parts and/or maintenance between the brands?
Lithuania has a lot of hi-tech start ups. And a lot of good tech stuff comes from there. Since I’m located in Silicon Valley most of the time, I have opportunities to travel there on business, Vilnius, but for some reason this travel idea always happens in the middle of winter. Summer in Lithuania? Maybe. But flying to Lithuania in the dead of winter? So far I haven’t been convinced.
BTW, I think the OP’s choice is a good one.
I agree, I just saw an opportunity to perhaps learn something new.
I wonder if it depends on where the car is actually assembled to have a different rust prevention treatment than those in the US? Don’t know. Are the sales taxes as incredibly high there as they are in other parts of Europe? If so don’t forget to figure in all the “out the door” costs.