Help me pick this year's winter/delivery beater

Well I'm starting school againn on Tuesday, so it's back to the pizza delivery game. There is a smattering of interesting hardware for sale locally; I'm trying to decide which is the best balance of easy maintenance, fun to drive, fuel economy, and general novelty. Current contenders: 1998 Neon R/T, no power to coil + needs wheel bearing foor $800/bo. 1992 Geo Prizm GSi (4AG/5SPD), no known issues outside of typical rust, $900/bo. 1977 Datsun B210 5spd, runs great, some rust but not dangerous, $1000/bo. 1984 BMW 318i, 5spd, intermittent fuel issue (seems like a fuel filter maybe), nice body, $1000/bo. 1986 VW Jetta diesel coupe, 5spd, ugly but runs good, $800. Last, 1987 Saab 900 turbo, 400kmi, needs brakes. $400. I would REALLY like something RWD, but there isn't a whole lot out there these days. The B210 is appealing for the weird factor, but I worry about a constantly vaporizing body. Jetta diesel is neat but I don't know if I can do something that SLOW! Any/all opinions/info are welcome.

The Jetta will nickel and dime you to death. Don't touch it.

I'd go with the B210 just to say you did.

The e30 BMW is the official vehicle of pizza delivery. Just sayin'

Zomby woof wrote: The Jetta will nickel and dime you to death. Don't touch it.

An A2? Naw. Parts are cheap, the cars are solid and any issues are well documented and easy to fix. A3 and up? Oh yeah those will be a pain but A1 and A2 VW's are excellent choices. I would eschew the diesel models but those underpowered lumps will go 300K without issue. The only time they will make any power is after about 325k miles when the blowby gets severe enough that the engines will run off of it and stop responding to the throttle pedal..... at least that is what happened to me.

The jetta coupe is worth $$$ if its not trashed, you would never find one in reasonable shape for under $2k in my area. I have driven one once and i couldn't tell the difference in power between it and an RV gas 8v, but they get close to double the mileage. That said, IMO they are pretty cheaply made and annoying to work on.
My choice would probably be the neon, my dad used one for bread delivery for years and other than replacing the alternator and fuel pump it never really had any other problems in 360k miles. I don't like E30s or toyotas that much, so neither of those would be my choice.

Travis_K wrote: </ I have driven one once and i couldn't tell the difference in power between it and an RV gas 8v,

You couldn't tell the difference between 54 horsepower and 103?

After 2200rpm the gas motors make way more hp and torque. It is a difference of almost 5 seconds to 60mph over the NA diesels.

The Saab will be really good in the snow

I'd go for the Geo, they're pretty indestructible.

In reply to ditchdigger:

In driving around town for a bit then getting on the freeway no, I couldn't. I know if I had driven it hard i would have, but in about 20 minutes of driving in a legal manner no, there was not any difference i could tell.

GSI geo all the way... honestly i'd go for a 4afe powered geo if you could find one with a 5spd...

in the end buy whats the best compromise of cheap and good condition... i drove in turbo volvo wagons before gas went to $2+ so a while ago)... but still...

I delivered in the following over the years, '85 tercel, '82 diesel 4x4 suburban, '86 mr2, '91 geo prizm, '86 volvo 765ti, '89 volvo 745ti, 91 caravan, '98 neon ACR, 03? Taurus, 95 lumina, '91 escort.

the best by a long shot was the neon... but I got a good condition one and really ragged it...

it's a shame it cost so much to get new cars going these days (to title and transfer a tag it's almost $300 even for fairly cheap cars down here in FL)... at one point the best way was to get the best $500 car... put at most oil, filter, MAYBE pads depending on what they cost) and possible junkyard parts if the price is right... if it gets beyond that sell it for what you can and get the next $500... now that it costs so much to get a car on the road it's better to spend a bit better and keep it on the road longer.

that geo is a slam dunk, or should be.

never worse than second place in any catagory compared to your other choices. none of which are bad imo. I'd rate them....

1. GSi

2. 318i

3. Diesel VW

4. B210

5. SAAB

6. Neon

belteshazzar wrote: that geo is a slam dunk, or should be. never worse than second place in any catagory compared to your other choices. none of which are bad imo. I'd rate them.... 1. GSi 2. 318i 3. Diesel VW 4. B210 5. SAAB 6. Neon

You have listed wisely Grasshopper.

ditchdigger wrote:

Zomby woof wrote: The Jetta will nickel and dime you to death. Don't touch it.

An A2? Naw. Parts are cheap, the cars are solid and any issues are well documented and easy to fix. A3 and up? Oh yeah those will be a pain but A1 and A2 VW's are excellent choices. I would eschew the diesel models but those underpowered lumps will go 300K without issue. The only time they will make any power is after about 325k miles when the blowby gets severe enough that the engines will run off of it and stop responding to the throttle pedal..... at least that is what happened to me.

I owned 7 of them, 76 to 92. The 92 was the best by far, but even it started to fall apart a little over 120 k miles. They were great to a point, but after that I was always working on them. I've been commuting for 21 years, and only been stranded a half dozen times. Talking about it lately, I only just realized that every single one of them was in a Rabbit diesel.

I delivered pizza off and on for 12+ years. And I used three main cars, a 1995 escort hatch for 8 of them, a 1997 escort wagon, and a 1994 escort wagon. Still have the 1994.

Joey

Prizm and a cheapie set of snow tires.

For a beater the neon and saab would be the easiest to get parts for, the others are all way harder.

what

Neons last 400k+ if you do normal maintenance, but most people chose to drive them into the ground in less than 150k miles, so there is a plentiful supply of junkyard parts for them. SAAB 900s are still pretty common too, but none of those other cars are easy to find junkyard parts for. The MK2 diesel engines are hard to find for under $1k, and 4 cylinder e30s, anything newer than 1975 with a carb (at least in california) and geo prisms are hard to find at all.

A Neon will be the easiest to get parts for. Then the Prism. Parts for both could be sourced at any local auto parts store, likely in stock.

The rest would suck to get parts for / repair.

400k+ huh.

if i had to wager which would go further, a 420a or a 4AGE, i'd put all my chips on the toyota.

Oh damn, i didn't notice that that was a GSi. I want one of those pretty badly.

uh, YEAH

OR, for a hundred dollars less, you can buy the neon. the one that doesn't run, and needs wheel bearings.

In reply to belteshazzar: Im not saying a toyota will not last as long as a neon, just that a neon will last as long as you want it to, and at least with the way it is in my area, getting junkyard parts would be the difference between driving 5 minutes and having 15 neons to pick from, and spending several weekends going to 8 different yards and maybe seeing one 4age prism.