Posted on 04/03/2013 7:28:28 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
...that gets decent gas milage and is reliable. Any Suggestions?
We’ve got an ‘08 Ford Focus. About 35 MPG and haven’t had any real issues except changing the battery once and tires once.
It was pretty cheap new and still does great. Supposedly the new focuses are higher MPG but haven’t really checked them out. It’s also AMERICAN.
Toyota is what I have. Best cars on the market and they get great gas mileage and last forever.
That being said, our 2001 Chrysler 300m just turned over 180k and my wife just got back to central KY from a drive to northern Minnesota and it did great, except we had to replace the “radiator cap”.
Oh, and I have to reglue the foam surrounds on the speakers in the doors every year or so now.
Toyota Camry, Honda Civic. I can’t recommend any Chrysler or GM product and don’t know about Fords.
Get a 1980 to 1985 used Mercedes Benz diesel sedan. Good mileage, runs great should be inexpensive (44,000 to $6,000) and if in good condition, looks great. And if you have the will, you can make your own bio-diesel for less than a dollar a gallon.
A friend of mine used to sell several different brands of german cars. His line was this: Audi’s are amazing cars but don’t buy one with over 70k miles on it without a really good warranty because it will cost a fortune to fix.
Honda Civic - safe, well-made, reliable, low operating costs and 40+ mpg. on the highway. You can lease one for 3 years/12,000 mi. per year for under $100 a month. At 40 miles round trip per day, that’s about 880 miles a month based on 22 working days, which will keep you under the limit. Or, you can buy one for short money down and about $18K total.
I love Toyota zombies.
They’ll have a $1500 repair and come home from the shop and say “yeah it’s an extremely reliable car, it just has high mileage.” Heck they’ll even say it in their mechanic’s accent.
Get yourself a nice well-maintained inline 6 Jaguar near 100,000 miles for the same price. When you get that $1500 bill you’ll say “ahhh, but it’s a small price to pay...”
I did some research on the newer Ford Focus becuse it is one of the ones I’m seriously looking at. Apparently the technology behind the transaxle is so sophisticated that BMW owners are buying the same basic design as an after market performance enhancer. It’s considered the next best thing to all wheel drive.
You cannot go wrong with a Corolla or a Civic. My personal preference is Corolla because there are more of them on the road than any other single model of vehicle. You should be able to get one of either that is less than ten years old with less than 100,000 miles for well under $10,000. They’re 200,000 mile vehicles, at least, if they are cared for properly. Garaging helps a lot. Only buy one that has been garaged all its life.
We buy used Ford Taurus for our techs. We have several that are close to 4000,000. That get regular oil chgs, standard maintenance, tires etc., but that’s it. My partner loves Toyotas, but he is impressed at the service we get from the Taurus. I drive a Ford Ranger with more than 200,000 on it. Only time it has been in the shop is for a radiator problem (and it was kind enough to give me ample warning).
If you have any mechanical desires left, check out under the hood. You can actually work on this car. Oil change, breeze.
I remember a guy that had to replace the transmission in his Mercedes three times and he STILL claimed it was a great car.
I live in central Kentucky. They have major offices and factories located in the Georgetown area and a Toyotami plant near my home (where they manufacture spare parts for out of production models).
I consider Toyota an American brand.
IMHO...
Used MB E320 blutec diesel about 5 years old; you can find these with about 100k miles on them for about $15k to $20k. With that mileage, they’re just broken in.
35mpg highway, 25mpg city, should last 10-20 years (hundreds of thousands of miles) if maintenance is done.
The FRS is exactly the car I’m looking at. Except it is actually a Scion. And I understand the main difference between it and the subaru is that the subaru is all wheel drive.
BTW, my 122 mile commute is mostly all two lane twisties, where I pass maybe one car every three or four miles. It is a motorcyclists paradise as well as a huge blast in any car that handles well. Coupled with the fact that my wife and I are empty nesters, this car may just be it for us.
But I’m worried about owning something that would be a temptation for others to steal, and cops to ticket. In my scion or Chrisler, I do 69 in a 55 ahd have for the 19 months I’ve lived here. I pass cops using moving radar and they never bother with me. I suspect they would with the FRS.
Forty miles isn’t that much. In Iowa, front wheel drive is sufficient. I wouldn’t recommend rear-drive only. Anticipate $5 to $6 per gallon gas.
Higher end new? BMW 328ix; 30+mpg highway, plenty speedy. Lexus ES Hybrid; 40 mpg highway, too smooth!
New middle-of-the-road? Ford Fusion. Any of the best-selling mainstream family sedans are actually great.
Then there’s
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/12/monday-mileage-champion-the-year-in-review/
...approximately two-thirds of the vehicles that reach the 300k+ mark at an auction I attend will usually belong in one of four categories.
Ford truck or SUV. Chevy truck or SUV. Honda car. Toyota everything...
Let me just jump on this list to say “Buy American”.
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I agree. My American made Toyota or my American made Nissan is definitely the way to go.
I had two. Both were crap of crap.
4 million? Did you forget a comma or add a zero?
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