Yeah good point, all the Prius taxis I've been in seem to have spaceship mileage on them, get driven the gas as an on/off switch, have decent interiors still, and they drivers all say they rarely replace a battery pack or anything before 300k miles.
What is the single best vehicle to buy if you're a tightwad?
- Thread starter macarose
- Start date
True, although I need a trailer hitch on my next car. I regret getting my Corolla due to this--I don't trust it to tow even a small 4x8 trailer. Next vehicle needs that and the ability to move a mobility scooter.
But I think I'm moving out of the tightwad category. That's probably my problem, I'm diverging from the OP's intent.
My 1992 Sentra SER was nearly unkillable during the 15 years I owned it and, to this day, is perhaps the car I have the fondest memories of.
We've had a couple of those vintage (B13 and B14) Sentra's in my extended family, both with the 1.6 base engine and 5sp manuals. One went to the wrecker with >300k miles after being rear-ended. Over it's life, it had a water pump, front crank seal and an alternator in addition to regular maintenance items. The other is still on the road, also pushing 300k miles. It's had an alternator, upper timing chain guides, a clutch, and CV shafts both sides. Oh, and a half dozen clutch cables between the two. Neither burned burned any oil.
Cheap to buy then plenty of repairs 100k+. My wife’s aunt has owned 6 purchased for under $10k with 100k and all have problems galore. She is a bit of hoarder just buys them because they get pretty dirty fast.
Once they die around 160k-200k she leaves on her property to store stuff.
You can get good miles out of a Chrysler minivan if you change the oil and transmission fluid regularly, and don't buy one from the cracked head years
The 3.6 V6 continues to have issues with cracked heads, no?
That was just a couple of years, first year woes. Many got replaced under warranty, thus leaving it questionable just how many are still in the wild with this potential issue.
Want to say, their biggest issues are lifter failures (which may take out the camshaft?) and oil coolers. The oil filter screws into the oil cooler and overtightening can crack, causing a substantial leak. [They might crack regardless of gorilla tightening, not sure.]
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1995 Geo Prizm Lsi
What's the corolla struggle with? Power or handling a trailer? I used my Focus to move lots of small trailers and it did great.
No idea, never tried. It does feel a bit high geared taking off--remember, this is the single speed CVT, no launch gear, I didn't get the 2.0 with that CVT. Other countries don't seem to list a towing capacity for this transmission, which kinda puts a damper on things.
My biggest holdback? I looked at how to install the hitch, then got up underneath to look at the "frame rails" (you know, the folded metal used to make the unibody structure). Looked awfully thin. Only 4 bolts to retain the hitch, and not spread far apart. It did not look like the sort of thing I could stand on. I realize 200lb of tongue weight isn't much, but... one can easily hit that when poorly loaded and/or just walking around the car (like when you step on the trailer when there is a load in the trailer).
I just didn't think there was enough metal back there to meet "my" level of trust. I've tossed hitches on prior Camry's and a Jetta, had zero thought about how well done they were. This just didn't seem like a good idea.
The hitch manufacturer runs the numbers to see if it will hold up or not, and I would think they are very conservative.
I was getting a couple haybales loaded on long landscape trailer behind my 03 Tracker and the elderly farmer lifted up the front of his 8000lb tractor by accident while loading the front bale... I think I saw light under one of the front tires of the Tracker as it was probably between 3-4000lbs of tongue weight? Put a little bow in the trailer tongue, but we looked everything over for cracks or other more serious bends in the hitch or frame, saw none, and carried on. That was a 2" class 2 or 3 for either 350lb or 600lb tongue weight.
The class 1 hitch on the Focus has a bit of flex in it with 1000-1100lbs and a good amount of tongue weight but they are all designed for huge impacts like from bottoming out on a bad rail crossing.
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You may well be right. I'm still apprehensive about it, just seems very light in the rear.
Regarding tightwads, "It's the stingy person who spends the most"
DR650.
Patman
Staff member
I have had good luck by buying 5 year old Civics. Did that first in 2011, paid half of the price of a new one and drove it for ten years and spent next to nothing in repairs. In 2021 I bought my 2016 Civic, also for half the price of a new one and have already added another 106,000 km to it and it has cost me nothing in repairs and averages over 45 MPG to boot!
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Id get anything with the 350 small block, best motor ever made.
Has anyone suggested a Toyota Corolla...
