Looking for a commuter car that is fuel efficient, reliable, and low priced.

[PF52]

I've got an even better one... Chevy Cruze diesel with a 5 speed.

I wanted one of those. But they came and went before I had a chance to get one (and/or before I had the funds).

 

[thastinger]

Hi - I'm looking for suggestions for an ultra low priced, fuel efficient, reliable commuter car with perhaps 120k miles that could handle a 150 mile roundtrip daily commute of easy highway driving with the cruise control set to whatever the speed limit is for 3 days a week commute.

I was thinking about late 1990's / early 2000's Toyota Corolla / Camry or Honda Civic / Accord vehicles which could be hidden gems with a lot of reliability left in them.

Would anyone know what are the good years / reliable engine choices for them (and also the ones to avoid). I don' t want the years that have issues with chronic oil burning / sludge or bad transmissions.

Also, would anyone know what year would be too old where part's availability would be a serious problem?

My goal would be to keep the car for 5+ years, and take the car to very high mileage with good maintenance (5k/6 month OCI, 3 OCI with HPL EC 30 to gradually clean out the engine), 4 gradual "do it yourself" transmission fluid drain/fills to restore the health of the transmission, etc.

Mazda 5, can seat 6, side doors slide back, 28-30MPG highway and a bulletproof drivetrain.

 

[CKN]

Having my first born soon, it’s gonna be a son. What do you think would be a good strong name?

Have you considered Marauder or Corolla?

"Interceptor"

 

[Bill7]

Pontiac Vibe. Corrolla/Matrix twin but much cheaper. Extreamly reliable, cheap parts, anyone can work on it and great gas mileage. no one would steal it

Pontiac Vibe - So you mean it was made by Toyota for Pontiac.

 

[ATex7239]

"Interceptor"

Girl: Tiara (Crown) Victoria (Vic)

 

[Bill7]

I highly recommended the Honda Fit ( except anyone who has to deal with lots of snow ).

Lots of room, very fuel efficient and reliable.

I like the Honda Fit, but only drawback is for it's small size / engine, it only gets around 30-35 MPG. It would have been nice if Honda had managed to have it get 40+ MPG. Perhaps it has to do with the transmission gear ratios causing engine to rev too high for better acceleration at the expense of fuel economy.

 

[Bill7]

Buy a $1000 motorhome and just live in the park and ride for those three days.

Yes, I did that a few times in my Honda Odyssey when I had to work late and then go into the office the next day.
It didn't make sense to drive all the way home and then come back the next morning.
I slept in the back by the rear hatch with the 3rd row seats down.

But it would make sense to have a smaller commuter car for less gasoline costs.

 

[Bill7]

Actually he replied to my comment in one of his posts explaining his reasons for not wanting one or why it wouldn’t work for him. Which is great, I did not further post reasons why the OP should purchase one.

However, you decided to be ignorant and mock my recommendation. I then proceeded to reply to you, stating, that at that point (the OPs aforementioned post), based upon the OPs initial requirements, why I recommended what I did.

At the end of the day, I don’t have a horse in this race. I just don’t appreciate ignorant comments when I think we’re all here just making conversation and truly no one’s answer or post is that far out.

Thanks Redhat for your Corvette C5 suggestion.

My home is in an area where you can park a Corvette in your driveway, or a motor home, or a Lamborghini, and not have to worry about any crime. The C5 Corvette is something I would love to get, once I retire, to drive around and enjoy.

But as a commuter car, leaving that at a bus station "park and ride" might invite a theft, or graffiti, or a keying scratching of a side of it, etc,
or someone sitting in it (if it's a convertible), etc. The "park and ride" is the kind of parking lot that you want to park a non descript kind of vehicle that no one would pay attention to. I live in 2 worlds: [1] Home neighborhood: Zero crime, then I commute to a big city and see the other extreme.

 

[Bill7]

Mazda 5, can seat 6, side doors slide back, 28-30MPG highway and a bulletproof drivetrain.

Thanks thastinger - Mazda is a brand many people don't think of when they think of Japanese cars, could be a hidden gem., I'll take a look at the Masda 5.

 

[Bill7]

Girl: Tiara (Crown) Victoria (Vic)

I like the Crown Victoria - So many small Taxi companies in small towns use them exclusively, and many have over 400,000 miles.
Ford is really good at building large reliable vehicles. The only drawback would be the gas mileage, as some of those Crown Vics might only have the 3 speed automatics paired with a V-8, which would use a lot of gas at highway speeds potentially.

 

[PF52]

My home is in an area where you can park a Corvette in your driveway, or a motor home, or a Lamborghini, and not have to worry about any crime. The C5 Corvette is something I would love to get, once I retire, to drive around and enjoy.

But as a commuter car, leaving that at a bus station "park and ride" might invite a theft, or graffiti, or a keying scratching of a side of it, etc,
or someone sitting in it (if it's a convertible), etc. The "park and ride" is the kind of parking lot that you want to park a non descript kind of vehicle that no one would pay attention to. I live in 2 worlds: [1] Home neighborhood: Zero crime, then I commute to a big city and see the other extreme.

But it might be tough to steal the cat from it..... Don't you need a real low-profile jack to get under it?

Never mind.... The meth heads would probably just damage the bodywork trying to ram a regular jack under it!

 

[StumblingElk]

Fiesta with a manual transmission or a corolla/camry from the non problematic years.
Or a manual civic

Biggest thing here is the condition of individual car

 

[redhat]

Thanks Redhat for your Corvette C5 suggestion.

My home is in an area where you can park a Corvette in your driveway, or a motor home, or a Lamborghini, and not have to worry about any crime. The C5 Corvette is something I would love to get, once I retire, to drive around and enjoy.

But as a commuter car, leaving that at a bus station "park and ride" might invite a theft, or graffiti, or a keying scratching of a side of it, etc,
or someone sitting in it (if it's a convertible), etc. The "park and ride" is the kind of parking lot that you want to park a non descript kind of vehicle that no one would pay attention to. I live in 2 worlds: [1] Home neighborhood: Zero crime, then I commute to a big city and see the other extreme.

You’re welcome and I totally get your requirements.

I was looking up cars yesterday AM and was thinking outside of the box.

Definitely something that “blends into obscurity” is best for parking and leaving it. Last thing you wanna do is worry about it or come back to it after a long days work and find something dumb happened.

How long is your planned commute going to be? Maybe you already said that and I missed it?

 

[redhat]

I like the Crown Victoria - So many small Taxi companies in small towns use them exclusively, and many have over 400,000 miles.
Ford is really good at building large reliable vehicles. The only drawback would be the gas mileage, as some of those Crown Vics might only have the 3 speed automatics paired with a V-8, which would use a lot of gas at highway speeds potentially.

Any panther car (Town Car, Crown Vic, Grand Marquis) from 90s on up should have either an AOD or variants of Fords 4R transmission… (I don’t remember all the 4Rs). All of which 4 speed.

Now is that enough to get superbly better MPG… no. But it helps. On the highway a panther body probably does decent. Maybe 26-28?

 

[ATex7239]

How about an old garbage truck? Nobody would ever wanna steal a garbage truck. Diesels get good MPG. Super reliable. No frills. You can run 15W40. Maybe get a manual transmission. Check all the boxes, right?

 

[LubeDaddy]

What about a USPS delivery truck? They’re super reliable and have plenty of room in the back. Since it’s right hand drive, you wouldn’t have the temptation to go through fast food drive thrus as it wouldn’t be easy to pay/get the food on the left side. That’s the only car that has helath benefits too!

 

[Bill7]

You’re welcome and I totally get your requirements.

I was looking up cars yesterday AM and was thinking outside of the box.

Definitely something that “blends into obscurity” is best for parking and leaving it. Last thing you wanna do is worry about it or come back to it after a long days work and find something dumb happened.

How long is your planned commute going to be? Maybe you already said that and I missed it?

It's 75 mile drive each way from my home to the park and ride.

 

[redhat]

It's 75 mile drive each way from my home to the park and ride, then I take a bus at the park and ride for another 90 minutes to the city.
It's a long commute, but I'm tolerating it.

That is a haul…. Is that 5 days a week?

 

[PF52]

How about an old police car? They practically give them away at auctions. It'll have cop shocks, cop tires and cop suspension, and if you get a model made before catalytic converters it'll run good on regular gas.

 

[mattwithcats]

2000, 2001, or 2002 Saturn SL2 or SW2, with manual transmission…

Pull the .730 5th gear out, replace with economy .605 ratio…
Drops RPM’s by 1000…

Then put 205/60R15 tires on…

Saturn’s are getting hard to find, unfortunately…