Best affordable commuter car

[jinman]

I bought a '92 Honda Accord from my neighbor for $1500. It had 325k miles on it. I replaced the battery, alternator, shocks, brakes, fuel pump, valve cover gasket, and one heater hose. I also put a new set of tires on. I spent around $1500 for all the stuff I did. After putting 30k miles more on it, I gave it to my daughter and SIL. They had to have the distributor replaced at around $300. They drive it daily to work and it now has around 360k miles. The transmission works perfectly as does the air conditioner. The fuel gage does not work, but it's easy to drive by the odometer and know when to fill up. I got around 30 mpg while commuting 150 miles per day. The body on this Accord has no damage and it has a sunroof that works perfectly. I'd say my money was well spent and is around your price range of $3000. Don't let miles scare you if the car is solid. Most of these Hondas and other Japanese cars will go 500k if you maintain them well and don't let them overheat. I'm sure there are others, but I sure believe in Honda and Toyota for longevity. That's just my personal experience.

I currently own a 2007 Pontiac Vibe that's the same as a Toyota Matrix. It gets 36 mpg on the highway and is a great little car, but way above the price range you listed.

 

[Tig]

Loved my Saturn SC2
My Cavalier was very good to me over the 300,000 Kms that I drove it.
I have a Toyota Corolla, it is a good car but it's much softer (more fragile) than a GM
Sorry I don't measure my MPG much, so no hard info there.

 

[Tom_H]

Last time we bought, we found that internet shopping yielded much better leads and info. than ads in the newspaper. Take a look at:

Buy Cars Online, New & Used Car Search, Auto Classifieds

New Cars, Used Cars, Blue Book Prices & Car Values - Kelley Blue Book

CARFAX used car VIN number search, auto history check, vehicle history reports

We located the car that we bought through cars.com (first link above), but we used info. gathered from the other two sites.

 

[Chuck52]

I get 32 MPG on the highway with my 2003 Impala. It has the smaller v6 engine. I am amazed at the mileage you got with your Saturn....never heard they were so good!

Chuck

 

[LMTC]

We've owned 5 Corollas. Currently a 96 and an 09, both automatic transmission. The 96 is driven 80 miles a day, half interstate, to/from work by one son; it consistently gets 32-33 mpg. He has seen as high as 35, and hasn't been under 32 for this kind of driving. The 09 was going 45 miles a day to/from work until that son was laid off 4 months ago (CAD operator, construction around here is dead), mostly state roads, and he was getting the same kind of mileage.

 

[heehaw]

i can't figure out what the auto makers have done to decrease the mileage on some vehicles: we had a 84 or 85 escort station wagon, with 5 speed manual transmission an got well over 40mpg: now i hear its replacement, the focus gets in the low to mid 30's??
i know the way we each drive makes some difference, but surely not that much? had a corolla that got in the high 30's too.
heehaw

 

[heehaw]

forgot to mention, there is a guy here that has been advertising a GEO Metro with a new motor, that he says gets 48 mpg: not sure where you live, but if your interested i can get the number an pass it on to you.
heehaw

 

[jayste]

In late 2007 my wife and I bought a Nissan Versa hatchback with 1.8L?, CVT automatic trans to drive back and forth to work (80 mile round trip) and on a good day it gets 30-34 mpg. About 6 months later our daughter wanted to buy her aunt's car so we loaned her the money and took her '99 Mazda Protege in on the deal and at 133,000 miles it'll run down the road and get 35-38 mpg easy. It's not as nice as our Versa but we use it as our daily driver. We use the Versa for weekend trips or whatever when we don't need to take one of the trucks.

 

[Bird]

i can't figure out what the auto makers have done to decrease the mileage on some vehicles: we had a 84 or 85 escort station wagon, with 5 speed manual transmission an got well over 40mpg: now i hear its replacement, the focus gets in the low to mid 30's??
i know the way we each drive makes some difference, but surely not that much? had a corolla that got in the high 30's too.
heehaw

I've not known of the Escorts getting over 40 mpg as an average, although it's certainly possible for a particular trip. I had a fellow working for me in the early '80s who commuted about 75 miles each way (150 miles daily) and his wife commuted about 60 miles each way. They both drove Escorts that they bought new at a discount because of hail damage. They claimed mileage in the mid-30s. As mentioned before my own '93 with a 5-spd manual and '99 with an automatic got about the same mileage, but of course the '99 automatic was a 4-spd overdrive while the automatics in '93 were 3-spd with no overdrive.

In addition to the way we drive, there's another consideration. I don't know whether you have some actual mileage you're thinking of with Escorts vs. Focus or whether you're looking at the EPA ratings. And the EPA changed their rating methods, supposedly to more accurately reflect the way people actually drive; higher speeds, etc. For example:

My 2001 Ford Ranger pickup:
2001 EPA rating said 18 city, 22 hwy, 19 combined
New EPA rating says 16 city, 20 hwy, 18 combined
My actual average: 18.469

My 2002 Ford Crown Victoria:
2002 EPA rating said 17 city, 25 hwy, 20 combined
New EPA rating says 15 city, 23 hwy, 18 combined
My actual average: 22.762
But in May, on one 2,300 mile trip, I averaged 26.16 mpg.

So if you're only looking at EPA ratings, I would expect the Focus to be rated a couple of mpg less than the Escort if they actually were about the same.

 

[Tom_H]

I had a mid-year 1980 VW diesel Rabbit pickup that got 52 mpg. It had an engine that was designed as a gasoline engine and converted to diesel. I drove the thing in places with temperature extremes ranging from 117 to -25. In 13 years and 112k mi. I went through 3 blown head gaskets and two blocks that cracked on the same outer corner where the head bolt torques down. The block was cast iron but the head was aluminum. They kept experimenting with exotic alloys on the bolts to allay the differing expansion rates of the different metals, but that didn't help. There are some really long threads re. VW diesels in the TBN archives, and some others with diesel Rabbits in the 80s did not experience these problems.

I have no idea how accurate this is, but I have read that the high mileage vehicles of that era were lighter than small vehicles today. According to what I read, smaller cars have been engineered with collision survival in mind and more mass has been integrated in frame "crumple" zones. Supposedly this increases safety, but the weight decreased mileage. Again, just something I read; I do not stand behind the reliability of the info.

What I don't get is how these micro-cars, like the Daimler-Benz Smart, can be so small, cost as much as they do, and still not get the mileage of a Prius. Supposedly, the Smart has good crash test results, but those results are done against other vehicles of the same size. There's no way I'd let my wife or daughter get in one of those little things and go up against SUVs and trucks. If most vehicles on the road were similar size, and it got great mileage, I'd consider one. As it is, I can't see buying something like that when I can get a used Corolla that I know will be reliable, will get reasonable mileage, and is big enough to give a decent chance of survival in a collision.

smart USA - open your mind to the car that challenges the status quo