I'm a courier and have a route from Jackson, MS to Gulfport, MS and back. It's right at 357 miles from my house back to it. As of now it is 6 days a week, I'm trying to get this down to 5 days a week as I am tired and need a lot of sleep and have no time to take care of things around the house.
My Saturn has taken me over 160k miles with only leaving me stranded once in all that time, I am very happy with it and after taking the passenger seat out it fits all the boxes for my route that I have to deliver. If I wasn't wanting a new(to me) car I would change the timing chain, fix the oil burning issue (600mi/qt) and change out the clutch while I'm in there. All those things are too much for me to do as I'm only a shade-tree kind of guy.
Right now, I'm getting between 30-33mpg on the Saturn with the timing chain being stretched.... I was getting 40mpg burning a quart/3000mi in its heyday! Maybe I should look at another Saturn, but I'm just tired of it. It's been a great car but I just want a different one now.
I'm looking for a used car with about 100k that I can put 200k on. Minimal breakdowns and good fuel economy are what I'm after while being big enough to hold 8 or so totes.
I'd like to stick with Chevrolet, but all I see is Cobalts and they still aren't old enough to be in my price range. There is a XFE on eBay for about $6k that looks great for what I'm needing. I just thought the Focus would be dependable as I don't want to get left down the coast at 3 a.m.
I could also get a S10 and put a lockable tonneau cover on it.
A guy at work has a Prius, but I have to have a manual transmission.
!!!!! thanks again fellas !!!!