In reply to Snrub :
By “operating costs” you mean gas, spark plugs and wires, tune up stuff (8 vs 4) etc., correct?
In reply to Snrub :
By “operating costs” you mean gas, spark plugs and wires, tune up stuff (8 vs 4) etc., correct?
Yes. I'm trying to say when you consider repairs, gas, consumables - small, reliable cars are less expensive to own.
John Welsh said:2011 Kia Soul with 115k asking $2.5k.
https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/d/2011-kia-soul/6731812052.html
woah. That is a lot of practicality, utility, and appliance for the money
In reply to Klayfish :
So much everything he said. I too found a 1-owner V6 Accord with 150k miles and every single dealer receipt since new. No, the Accord isn't a glamorous sports car or cool off-roader, but I've driven the thing for a year now and spent $60 on an oil change and an air filter. When I'm ready I'm sure I can sell it for what I paid for it.
It has less to do with the make/model and more to do with the background of the car. I find that anybody who bothered to spend the measly $30 to list their car for sale by owner on Autotrader is usually a much better start than Craigslist, much less flaky. So that might be a good start. Not a ton of sub $3k cars, but they are out there.
Pretty much any Saab can be had for cheap. I recommend a Saab 9-5 . Great HWY cruiser.
Just looked at the biggest pos xc70. Dang. Buying cheap cars is tough
Not if you are looking for cars that were cheap to begin with. I would certainly expect most $2000 XC70s to be crap.
ProDarwin said:John Welsh said:2011 Kia Soul with 115k asking $2.5k.
https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/d/2011-kia-soul/6731812052.html
woah. That is a lot of practicality, utility, and appliance for the money
Kingkong said:Pretty much any Saab can be had for cheap. I recommend a Saab 9-5 . Great HWY cruiser.
Is the aftermarket parts situation still strong for Saab’s?
rustybugkiller said:mazdeuce - Seth said:The 2003+ Accords sedans are peeking into the $2000 range. Modern, reliable. Sort of the sedan version of the CR-V above.
The Avalon is another GREAT option.
I thought these had weak auto trannys
If you mean the Accord, yes, I've heard that as well. I'm happy with mine, the engine has 150k-ish, everything else is 250k. It's the 4 cylinder which has a timing chain. I only got it instead of an Avalon because I knew a guy.
ProDarwin said:Not if you are looking for cars that were cheap to begin with. I would certainly expect most $2000 XC70s to be crap.
When I checked the oil the dip stick was dry as the desert. Needed rear brakes, 4 tires, front springs struts and mounts, etc lol.
I need to stop thinking a Volvo is the answer. Might look into avalon. Any buying tips on them?
I had an '02 Avalon as detailed in the middle of this thread.
The 3.0L V6 (only engine available until' 06) has a reputation of sludging if oil changes are neglected. I didn't have that issue. I had mine from 160k-ish to 200k-ish. At the end it was throwing a code needing knock sensors. These are located deep in the V and either time consuming to do myself or expensive to have done. It still ran okay, just the annoying light.
The need for knock sensors might be a good bargaining point to drive the sale price down.
Suspension is all the same as Camry. Therefore, popular and cheap. I put on some no-name loaded struts bought off Amazon for $50-ish each.
It really is a Buick Lesabre built by Toyota. Find an grandma/grandpa version who took it to the dealer or dedicate shop for everything
I see that the Kia Soul I listed is gone.
Here is another manual trans Versa. Not sporty but functional as heck and a huge back seat for rear facing kid seats. My wife had a Versa like this but auto trans back when new.
https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/d/nissan-versa-2007/6734621720.html
I had a Manual Trans Saturn Vue from 140k -265k. It has a huge back seat too and is functional as heck. Also, not sporty and generally slow and under powerred but mine gave me a lot of cheap miles. I detailed the ownership over in this thread
https://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/cto/d/saturn-suv-vue/6712415384.html
This Vue is a 2004 which is a good year. The ad says 6 cyl but the manual trans only came with 2.2L 4 cyl.
In reply to John Welsh :
That versa doesn't look bad at all. I know nothing about them though, any ideas on their reliability
ebonyandivory said:Kingkong said:Pretty much any Saab can be had for cheap. I recommend a Saab 9-5 . Great HWY cruiser.
Is the aftermarket parts situation still strong for Saab’s?
Definitely. Still easy to get whatever you need, either new or used from a breaker.
In reply to tjbell :
Its a Japanese car sold the world over and manufactured in many places. I think the US ones are assembled in Mexico. We were happy with ours but didn't own it long enough to get into high miles.
As for reliability, there is a Base model, known as the S and an upper model know as the SL. The biggest downfal or potential for downfall was that the SL got a CVT that has some reputation of high mileage failure. The S got a more reliable 4 speed auto. This one is a manual and there is no downfall there that I know of. Don't expect "sporty" from the 6 speed manual but few people look for these cute cars with an manual so that might mean you can buy one cheap.
The vehicles are narrow but have a huge amount of rear leg room. Super great for a rear facing kid seat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Tiida
Try to push these all down by $500 because they are manual trans.
In my opinion a manual transmission is actually THE biggest factor in whether a cheap car is actually cheap or not, because most cheap cars aren't worth fixing when their auto transmissions fail, meaning they go from ~$2000 to $200 at that moment. Manuals in any low-power car rarely ever break.
Old Versas are great cars for 2k! I actually attended a seminar about rebuilding the Nissan CVT now that the aftermarket has somewhat filled in the blanks of parts availability, but even though I could rebuild a Nissan CVT, I wouldn't buy one unless I was ok with doing it at some point. They're not even particularly bad transmissions, but if you are buying cheap cars because you cant afford a more expensive car then you can't afford for the CVT to break either and you should just avoid it. Manual transmissions are king in cheap cars.
In reply to tjbell :
The only thing I can say about that car is changing out the lower control arms sucks. I changed out both sides for a friend last weekend and it sucked because nothing would come apart. The car was a 10 and crap was rusted solid.
Vigo said:In my opinion a manual transmission is actually THE biggest factor in whether a cheap car is actually cheap or not, because most cheap cars aren't worth fixing when their auto transmissions fail, meaning they go from ~$2000 to $200 at that moment. Manuals in any low-power car rarely ever break.
This, unless is a car with low enough miles or a car known for reliable automatics. A Prius auto with 200k doesn't scare me.
This, unless is a car with low enough miles or a car known for reliable automatics. A Prius auto with 200k doesn't scare me.
True! I have a prius with 273k and the only trans issue is a faint gear whine at very light throttle. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if the fluid had been changed.. ever..
How long do the batteries typically last on the Prius? The majority of them still have a basic gas engine too, right?
Starting to see a massive amount of Priusii for cheap compared to hatchbacks in my area and with how many stores and parks in my area now have charging stations while you "shop", it's all that more tempting for me to buy a hybrid.
In most cases, longer than the rest of the car. They all have a gas engine, and its a basic ultra-reliable toyota mill.
Not only that, unlike the auto trans quandry, if the batteries fail, the cells can be serviced in a DIY manner, or the whole pack can be replaced quite easily. Like a labor cost of $50.
But, only the Prius PHEV is a plug in and can be 'charged'. The rest are gas powered only... they just get very good mileage. And they are kind of the cockroach of the 2000s.
In my recent experience looking at Panther platform cars, they're really easy to neglect the hell out of and just keep working. Because of that a lot of the cheap ones have been really neglected and the asking price was still $3k and up. So I'll just echo the other good advice and just buy whatever is acceptable to you that is in good condition. I wouldn't want to buy something that needs a couple of easy fixes because that begs the question, how lazy is the seller that they can't fix it? What else has been neglected due to laziness or budget?
I have been very happy with the Gen2 Priuses I have bought. They are '07 & '08 and have 78k and 110k for $5,800 and $4,500
BMW E36. All day long at that price point these days provided you can avoid the flat bill drifting y0! crowd.
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