You can usually find a mazda 3/6, where finding a Toyota or a Honda that isnt totally clapped out and hammered tends to be difficult.
Best Used Commuter Car?
- Thread starter AdmiralYoda
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You can usually find a mazda 3/6, where finding a Toyota or a Honda that isnt totally clapped out and hammered tends to be difficult.
I wanted to say if you can locate a used Ford Fusion in an S or SE package with ONLY the 2.5L natural aspirated engine, this combo is very robust and can easily go 300K. Do not look at the ecoboosts. They are not reliable.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
I absolutely take BMW to ski, which is 50-60 days a season. Only with kiss I take Sequoia.
Going through curves etc. Why would I want anything but stick shift? Same goes when I go to work, interstate etc. It is not only about stick shift, but whole vehicle appeal.
I will take a rest when I die.
I might have a 100 mile round trip commute in a few years. My plan was to go find the cheapest new Corolla in the color we like. Only 100 percent requirement is cruise. Next step drive it to eternity.. probably retirement. 10 years that’ll be 260k. No sense to mess with used.
I agree the 2001 to 2005 Honda Civics are not recommended - I had bad experiences with two of them: Manual transmission synchros wear out and the automatic transmission has internal filter screens that plug up and cause long shifts when cold. Both issues get worse over time until a good running car is undrivable and expensive to fix.
The 2005 to 2010 Civic OTOH are great and much nicer to drive.
I’ll say it, 30 k miles a year on a 20 year old car in the northeast?? Used cars over 15 years old are mostly beat to shi. so expect to look at a lot of cars before you find a good one. Throwing it into that sort of duty will expose lots of things that need to be fixed so plan on spending a lot of free time working on it, in addition to the inevitable breakdowns. I don’t know how much you want to spend but I would look into new compact cars (civic/corolla) for something like this. Everybody knows some dude who’s driving around in grandma’s old Camry that he bought for $2000 6 years ago and thinks “I should do that” but he’s not driving around the northeast 30k miles a year.
I think if you had to stick with the Camry 2.4L 2AZ-FE, the Gen 5.5 2005-2006 refresh would most likely be the best route. Far lower reported headbolt issues with the refresh, not updated to the 0W20 2.4, and came with a 5 speed auto instead. It's not hard for me to get 35mpg at 60MPH with my 05 2.4L.
Gen 6 Camrys started the downfall with interior quality as well.
A used first gen Bolt can be had even cheaper, as low as (I have seen in fb groups) 9k if buyer qualifies for pos rebate. A lot of them also got brand new batteries recently due to recall…
Agreed, a Bolt with a new or nearly new battery should make for a pretty good commuter car.
Isn't it strange that GM made Volts quite attractive and then Bolts a bit dump looking. Why not make Volt bodies with either a Hybrid or an EV power train. That's above my pay grade I guess.
Agree they are not best looking, I personally like 2023+ Bolt and Bolt Euv(own 23 EUV)much more. BTW I used to have 2014 Volt. Sold it somewhere around 102k miles on the clock. It had minimal battery degradation, even after battery overheat incident (one of radiators got punctured on the road trip). Reason for sale— it developed a Freon leak behind dashboard(some apparently had weak, defective crips on ac tubing, and people started having them leaking around 85-130k miles). No AC in TX is a big no no, especially when it helps to chill battery. I did not feel like shelling out 3500+ for repairs, plus once someone takes apart whole dashboard, that is a big risk they will damage some clips, trim and you will be plagued with creeks and rattles. Otherwise it was a great car. Didn’t have any major problems with it. Charge port got messed up during big thunderstorm power surge (was replaced by dealer as it was covered under 8y 100k warranty).
90% highway, generally travelling at 65-75mph. Usually not much traffic unless there is an accident. Near my home it is about 3 miles of lazy backroads until the highway, at work is about 3 miles of in-town roads with a bit of traffic and a few stop lights.
Just looking to cut the miles down on my 2021 GMC Canyon. If it were snowy or whatever I'd just take the Canyon. Not really looking to save too much on gas either as the GMC Canyon gets 25mpg unless it is cold out.
I'm more focused on reliability since this vehicle would likely have 150-200k on it if I go this route. Prefer mid-sized so it doesn't ride like a go-kart. Prefer a four cylinder and manual trans for simplicity. Leaning towards a 2003-2013 Honda Accord or 2001-2011 Toyota Camry.
I know the Honda K24 engine is the king of the hill for reliability and isn't known to be a sludge motor. Not so sure about the Toyota 2AZ-FE.
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For Accord- best years would be 2006-2013. You can also find Acura TSX with manual, same model years. Mazda 6 would be another option that can be found with manual (2003-2013), However v6 in those are more problematic than 4 cyl.
I have an '07 Accord 5MT with the k24 that just turned 203k. While I love the car, and as someone mentioned earlier, would never want to get rid if it, I might have some pause if I had a long highway commute I was going to have to make every day.
In my stripped down LX model at least, there is a lot of road/wind noise that comes into the cabin, especially on the highway or over rough surfaces. With my snow tires it is even worse. It can sometimes be difficult to have a conversation with a passenger, and I find the noise can start to weigh on you after a while. My daughter claims she can't hear any of the conversation between my wife and I in the front while she is seated in the back on the highway.
That said, the car has been extremely reliable, averages around 28mpg with mostly around town driving, and for a little 4cyl is a lot of fun to drive with the 5 speed, but I would consider quality tires a must if I was going to spend a lot of time on the highway in the car.
In my stripped down LX model at least, there is a lot of road/wind noise that comes into the cabin, especially on the highway or over rough surfaces. With my snow tires it is even worse. It can sometimes be difficult to have a conversation with a passenger, and I find the noise can start to weigh on you after a while. My daughter claims she can't hear any of the conversation between my wife and I in the front while she is seated in the back on the highway.
That said, the car has been extremely reliable, averages around 28mpg with mostly around town driving, and for a little 4cyl is a lot of fun to drive with the 5 speed, but I would consider quality tires a must if I was going to spend a lot of time on the highway in the car.
The Corolla in my sig isn't my first choice for long highway runs (that would be the MGM), but it has broken the 40 MPG barrier more than once due to it's crazy high highway gearing (for a Japanese econobox). 176K, burns no oil, just got the new clutch, flywheel, RMS, axle seals, etc. in-ready for another 175K!
Sedans have higher fuel economy requirements and stiffer crash requirements than “whatever the Bolt is” thus have less of an impact on fleet efficiency .
If GM could have predicted the pandemic it’s likely they would not have cancelled the Volt due to the massive increase in demand for PHEVs in 2020.
I will always say not continuing the Volt a normal 5-6 model years was an immense error.
The so called plant was never even fully shut down so it’s just a waste of money canceling it in 2019
You need to spend $4k-$5k to get what you want with luck. Even then will have issues to address. I picked up 13 Acura RDX had to drop $1000 to fix it up/pass safety inspection with inexpensive mechanic labor.
I would personally purchase something quiet as my daughters 2013 Acura ILX I also use (fancy Civic that seems to share dash with RDX) is a bit noisy
I do 100 mi RT commute easy highway daily every other week.
As the son of a mechanic I do my own work, I enjoy it and it's one of my hobbies. I've brought more vehicles back to life that should have been left dead than I can remember. This time I don't want a basket case or a beater.
I 100% expect to have to go through the vehicle and replace worn parts and perform maintenance on whatever I might end up getting. I'm not expecting to buy a ready-to-go driver for $2-3k. I just want the best chance of success by selecting a vehicle known for its reliability.
The tricky part is going to be finding one that isn't rusted out. Hopefully grandma's car that has been kept in the garage its whole life!
Here's a thread about my $3000 Prius that I got for a similar situation, although it was more for saving gas than keeping miles off our good cars. https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/i-bought-a-2010-prius-for-3000.374617/
I think this is basically the price range that you are after. The Prius isn't a great highway cruiser, but it's OK I suppose. I think hybrids really shine in traffic jams; you get to inch along on smooth electric power without wasting so much gas idling.
I think we are getting close to 40k miles on it, but it didn't get driven much over January because my wife preferred our Pilot for bad weather. And I've been driving the Accord hybrid for most local family travel.
I think, in order to get what you want, you'll need to find a car with a problem that you are suited to overcome. Ideally, one that's been well taken care of, but this problem popped up. You are more likely to find a good deal on something that's not Honda or Toyota, IMO.
I think this is basically the price range that you are after. The Prius isn't a great highway cruiser, but it's OK I suppose. I think hybrids really shine in traffic jams; you get to inch along on smooth electric power without wasting so much gas idling.
I think we are getting close to 40k miles on it, but it didn't get driven much over January because my wife preferred our Pilot for bad weather. And I've been driving the Accord hybrid for most local family travel.
I think, in order to get what you want, you'll need to find a car with a problem that you are suited to overcome. Ideally, one that's been well taken care of, but this problem popped up. You are more likely to find a good deal on something that's not Honda or Toyota, IMO.
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