Best affordable commuter car

[LD1]

I havent posted in a while so I just thought I'd let you all know that I am still getting 41-43mpg out ot my saturn sl 5spd. all highway around 65-70mph i get the 43. more short trips and ocassionally running late for work and pushing the speed up to 75+ drops me to the 40-41. I am keeping a running tally of my mpg, and my savings vs driving my truck to work @ 16.5mpg and I have save a little over $300 since the purchase a little over a month ago. At my current average mpg, It is going to only take 28000miles with no major car expenses to pay off the $3000 car. given that I bought it with 97xxx miles on it, I think this will turn out to be a good investment.

 

[irvingj]

Ya made a good choice-that's darned good mpg!! Whodda thunk? You're getting as good as my Jetta diesel during normal around-town driving!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Just thought I'd update my situation with my 03 Impala w/3.4L engine.

While I'm happy with the ride and mileage(27-28), the car just turned over 154,000 miles and the tranny is acting up. They want $2700 to put a rebuilt tranny with warranty in it. The Haynes manual says not to try repairing at home unless you have an auto lift, tranny jack and engine 3 bar retainer.

I hate to have to put this much into the car but the rest of the car is in great shape. I suppose my cheapest route will be to have it repaired and then drive the wheels off of it for another 100,000 or more miles...

 

[keegs]

I havent posted in a while so I just thought I'd let you all know that I am still getting 41-43mpg out ot my saturn sl 5spd. all highway around 65-70mph i get the 43. more short trips and ocassionally running late for work and pushing the speed up to 75+ drops me to the 40-41. I am keeping a running tally of my mpg, and my savings vs driving my truck to work @ 16.5mpg and I have save a little over $300 since the purchase a little over a month ago. At my current average mpg, It is going to only take 28000miles with no major car expenses to pay off the $3000 car. given that I bought it with 97xxx miles on it, I think this will turn out to be a good investment.

A while back the wife had a 97 SL2 5 speed (DOHC version). It had the 1.9 litre engine and she got around 35 mpg with it. Towards the end there I had to put a quart of oil in it every week though. It was a common problem for that year/model... something about the piston ring lands getting coked up....She replaced it with an '05 Corolla 5 speed. Mileage on the Corolla is around 35 winter 40 summer.

My commuter is an '01 Echo 5 speed. I'm getting about 40 in winter and 45 in summer. The Echo is a hoot to drive but I'm probably toast if I ever get whacked by anything bigger than a shopping cart.

 

[Mousefield]

Bought a new 2002 VW Jetta Diesel in 2003 and now have over 275,000 kilometers on it. That about 172,000 miles. Have gotten just over 1,300 k out of a 55 liter tank 6 times. Works out to over 60 miles per imperial gallon. Converted to US gallons it get about 50 miles to the gallon. Other than replacing the front wheel bearings the rest has just been routine maintenance. It was a bit more to buy than some of the other vehicles out there but it has the side curtain air bags as well other good safety features as well as being bigger than some of the others small cars. It seats five (four comfortably), has the 1.9 liter turbo engine and 5 speed standard trans.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Bought a new 2002 VW Jetta Diesel in 2003 and now have over 275,000 kilometers on it. That about 172,000 miles. Have gotten just over 1,300 k out of a 55 liter tank 6 times. Works out to over 60 miles per imperial gallon. Converted to US gallons it get about 50 miles to the gallon. Other than replacing the front wheel bearings the rest has just been routine maintenance. It was a bit more to buy than some of the other vehicles out there but it has the side curtain air bags as well other good safety features as well as being bigger than some of the others small cars. It seats five (four comfortably), has the 1.9 liter turbo engine and 5 speed standard trans.

I really respect the mileage the TDI's get but I looked into one of these used and they cost a lot of $$$ to buy and they need to get the timing belt replaced every 60,000 miles or so depending on what year model you have. The average cost to replace is about $500 US. This and the fact that the price of diesel averages about .10-.25 US cents per US gallon above the cost of regular unleaded. I hear the new TDI's have a better timing belt that lasts about 100,000 miles. This is a step in the right direction. Sure wish they'd put a gear driven camshaft into the engine. If the timing belt breaks, you'll have a really big bill to replace the head.

 

[keegs]

Bought a new 2002 VW Jetta Diesel in 2003 and now have over 275,000 kilometers on it. That about 172,000 miles. Have gotten just over 1,300 k out of a 55 liter tank 6 times. Works out to over 60 miles per imperial gallon. Converted to US gallons it get about 50 miles to the gallon. Other than replacing the front wheel bearings the rest has just been routine maintenance. It was a bit more to buy than some of the other vehicles out there but it has the side curtain air bags as well other good safety features as well as being bigger than some of the others small cars. It seats five (four comfortably), has the 1.9 liter turbo engine and 5 speed standard trans.

A couple of colleagues at work have the VW diesel. One has a Passat wagon the other a Jetta. They both love them. I've driven the Jetta. The performance is very good and it feels much heavier than the Echo.

GM and Ford have some new offerings coming out over the next few years that get good mileage.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Bought a new 2002 VW Jetta Diesel in 2003 and now have over 275,000 kilometers on it. That about 172,000 miles. Have gotten just over 1,300 k out of a 55 liter tank 6 times. Works out to over 60 miles per imperial gallon. Converted to US gallons it getinterval about 50 miles to the gallon. Other than replacing the front wheel bearings the rest has just been routine maintenance. It was a bit more to buy than some of the other vehicles out there but it has the side curtain air bags as well other good safety features as well as being bigger than some of the others small cars. It seats five (four comfortably), has the 1.9 liter turbo engine and 5 speed standard trans.

Love my TDI also, Do you think we should tell them that we can run it on used french fry oil?
BTW the rec interval for the timing belt change is 80K I believe for the Golf and 100K for the Passat.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I'm interested to see your mileage. I've been commuting over 100 miles round trip for about 5 years now. Drove my Suburban until it crushed my wallet. Got an SL1 2001 saturn, with A/C on, driving 70mph with a fair amount of starting turning and stopping, I averaged 31-33 mpg checking EVERY tankfull. The car had automatic. Hope yours turns out well. After 2.5 years (and the state retopping the roads with the coarsest gravel they could find) I bought me a 2003 Impala 3.4 engine. I personnally feel the ride comfort is worth the 4 miles per gallon. Spending 2 hours a day in a vehicle is what is wanting me to move to the city anyway.

You can easily add up what gas, oil and tires will set you back. But it's hard to cost out what mileage depreciation does to your vehicle until you sell it. The one thing you can't put a price on is the 2 hours a day lost sitting in a car. I'd rather be doing something with my family.

You are starting off in a good way, keeping your price down. I ended up paying about $7000 for my used Impala. My neighbor works for a trucking company that uses these Impalas for chase vehicles. He says they last over 300,000 miles and 1 had about 430,000 on it before it crapped out.

old thread, but my Impala 3.4 motor has problems now at 293,000 miles. I think a lifter roller scored the cam. Hate to spend money on it but the rest of the car is actually in decent shape....more details as I decide what to do.

 

[bajabum]

Toyota Corolla, they've made over two million of them, reasonable to buy, well built, 30+ MPG, great work car.
I've had mine for 12 years, runs like a top!
PS: get the cruise control, the only gripe I have is it didn't come with one...