What is the single best vehicle to buy if you're a tightwad?

[supton]

Nobody wants single cab pickups.

I’ve tried to talk myself into one, but it’d bother me every time I drove to work: SOP for me is to put my laptop into my backpack, with a thermos of coffee, and some other notebooks. Lunch goes into a different bag, which sometimes has other junk. So every day I open the rear door on my car to toss those things in. 4 door vehicles might not have the cool factor, but they are way more useful.

Manual trans is nice… until traffic. I lived with mine for years, could go back to it, but always hated backing a trailer up with one. Now that I have a driveway that goes uphill, I’d be chewing on my fingernails. Both my Tundra and my Camry, back small or large trailer up my driveway, same response, you could smell the excess heat being shed by the cooler.

But there are times I do miss…

 

[supton]

I'd go with a Saturn, the common one (sl1?). Cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to fix, not many fatal flaws.

Don’t they have parts availability woes now? I recall looking at them like 10 years ago, and you couldn’t get the downpipe for the front exhaust manifold, nor control arms. Looked at an S that had the control arms welded up due to rust holes, and the downpipe was whatever could be hammered into place.

 

[supton]

Don't say Toyota Corolla...

Definitely not Corolla. Insurance is more expensive than a Camry. Which would be my vote….

My 99 was a freakin’ tank, would still have (totaled). My 11 was less so but still pretty solid. Our 21, eh, hard to say, have another 8 years before I’ll know.

The 99 was rated for 2k towing. Put on a trailer hitch and keep up with the half ton trucks. [Yeah right! but a small 4x8 utility trailer is cheap and will move quite a bit of stuff.]

*

The elephant in the room is that there are no cheap vehicles anymore. The cheap ones are the ones people “need” to get rid of because they have problems. And those problems are not cheap to repair. Oh sure you can find diamonds in the rough, but nothing like what you could a few years ago. To be a true tightwad means looking at long term costs too, and I think today that means spending more up front, knowing that you might not be able to buy a decent beater that you can get a few years. Where the sweet spot is now I’m not sure.

Being a real tightwad means paying cash so you can skimp on both collision insurance and registration costs. Going for a car instead of a truck—but cars aren’t made anymore, it’s a dwindling market. The vehicles not made during the Great Recession is crimping the market on cheap used rides, made worse by our move to SUV’s and trucks (guzzle more gas).

I haven’t wrapped my head around this new paradigm. Buy new and hope for 20 years? Pay a crazy $15-20k for a 10 year old car with 150-200k on the clock? Gamble on a $5k vehicle?

 

[skyactiv]

If your not a reliability worry wort and can diagnose and repair cars yourself, a new Jetta S with a manual transmission is a good cheap car that supposedly gets the best real world fuel economy of any non-hybrid gas car. Plus it’s not loud on the freeway like a Corolla. I once owned a 2021 Corolla Hybrid so I know.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I’ve tried to talk myself into one, but it’d bother me every time I drove to work: SOP for me is to put my laptop into my backpack, with a thermos of coffee, and some other notebooks. Lunch goes into a different bag, which sometimes has other junk. So every day I open the rear door on my car to toss those things in. 4 door vehicles might not have the cool factor, but they are way more useful.

Manual trans is nice… until traffic. I lived with mine for years, could go back to it, but always hated backing a trailer up with one. Now that I have a driveway that goes uphill, I’d be chewing on my fingernails. Both my Tundra and my Camry, back small or large trailer up my driveway, same response, you could smell the excess heat being shed by the cooler.

But there are times I do miss…

I agree. My first 4 vehicles were single cab / manual F-150's. My 5th was a single cab auto. I now have a quad Frontier. I think I could go back to a manual trans, but not the single cab, too convenient to throw stuff in the back seat.

 

[Pablo]

Nobody wants single cab pickups.. and nobody, at all, wants a manual transmission.

ahahhahahaahaha

Pablo Slowly raises hand.....

 

[Pablo]

Kia with a blown engine. Get it to dealer for free engine. Cheap!

 

[PF52]

C4 or C5 Corvette.... C5s probably haven't reached bargain-basement prices yet but the C4 probably already has, and desirable models are starting to go up in price.

 

[mrsilv04]

I guess it wasn't mentioned if the vehicle was to be new or used:

Used - A minivan. Nothing beats a used minivan. They're reasonably good on gas, not too difficult to park, they can do it all, and won't break the bank to either buy or maintain, and insurance should be reasonable. Here's a good example:

One owner, no accidents, low miles, with maintenance records, $13,000: https://www.thomascdj.com/used-Highland-2013-Chrysler-Town++Country-Touring-2C4RC1BG6DR810484

 

[Pablo]

I guess it wasn't mentioned if the vehicle was to be new or used:

Used - A minivan. Nothing beats a used minivan. They're reasonably good on gas, not too difficult to park, they can do it all, and won't break the bank to either buy or maintain, and insurance should be reasonable. Here's a good example:

One owner, no accidents, low miles, with maintenance records, $13,000: https://www.thomascdj.com/used-Highland-2013-Chrysler-Town++Country-Touring-2C4RC1BG6DR810484

As long as it's not an Ody. Arm and two legs!! We sold our fairly hard used, latte and vomit filled, cracked plastic, nasty alloy wheeled 2066 Ody for crazy amount of $

 

[buster]

Base civic with 2.0L or Camry with 2.5L.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I don't think a true tightwad will be willing to pay what a good one is worth. Ranger/B2300 is going to appeal to the cheapskate.

And get the 2.3 liter 4 banger.

 

[IndyIan]

Minivan or pick up truck. Yeah you’re trading some fuel economy off but in return you gain a metric crap ton of utility and ease of use with either option.

“Just get a small trailer and pull it behind this little car when you need it!” Great, now I have another thing I have to pay to register yearly, it’s yet another thing I don’t have time to maintain, and I have to find a place to store when I’m not using it.

I guess we are lucky here, once you plate a small trailer its good to go, and I suspect many people just put the plate on the new trailer from the old one...
I pretty much do all the things with my Focus wagon and a small trailer. 50 mile commuter DD with 35mpg, keeps my bike inside all day for an after work trail ride, hauls 3 or 4 skiers and all our stuff for a weekend, carries long stuff from home depot on the roof racks, or the trailer hauls the ATV or dirt bikes or snowmobile or camping stuff or ~1000lbs of fire wood or a ton of gravel or does the dump run.
It's even kind of fun to throw around the autocross course, and is great for hauling cones to set up and take down the course!

The Focus is turning 19 in May with no major repairs, except for a rusted out front subframe and other rust issues, which I should've been more proactive with... I think the clutch is original too, anyways, if you can do some part swapping yourself, 2005+ Foci with the mtx seems to have a good engine and transmission and the wagon has got a usable 35 cuft in the back like the a CRV/RAV4 for things like washers, dryers, big dog crates, etc..

 

[Hermann]

A 4 cyl Toyota pick up.

The 2009 Xtra-Cab Tacoma 5-speed 2WD I owned was uber thrifty. Even the original tires lasted until 66K Miles with no wear bars showing. The only real maintenance I did was a coolant exchange at 50K. The dealer had a special for $40. That's it. They really don't make this configuration new anymore. It was my car/truck that was easy to get in and out of.

 

[SupremePossum]

Altima with a missing front bumper and a temp tag, completely disposable if you cause an accident

 

[DirectRejection]

Don't say Toyota Corolla...

Corolla Cross.
Don't ask me how I know.

 

[Hermann]

Altima with a missing front bumper and a temp tag, completely disposable if you cause an accident

Saw two different Altima's yesterday in a short span of time. One had no front bumper, the other no rear bumper.

 

[JustTrynaHelp]

Don't say Toyota Corolla...

For a tight wad? It's the car that you currently own. With the caveat that it's not completely rusted out or totaled an accident.

It's always more expensive to buy something else than to stick with what you have.

 

[dumkid]

I'm kinda a tight wad

I would get an onion (white mirage hatchback manual transmission)

 

[cedarpangolin]

Don't say Toyota Corolla...

But that is the answer…

I’d second it with a Subaru Impreza or Crosstrek, AWD and many top notch features and ease of maintenance for an unrivaled price point.