Best used economy cars

[Olmike]

The most over looked car out there are the mid-90's park avenue & La sabre.The 3800 is almost bullet-proof & they will get 28-32 MPG all day long.They can be bought for 2-3 grand with 100k on them & easily run to 250 or more.You also have alot more car around you than A Saturn or Honda.Just my $.02

 

[Chuck52]

It's not a small car, but I always get at least 25mpg from my 2003 Impala in mixed driving. We're only about 10 miles out of town, so we do really mixed driving. I watch the miles at each fill, and it basically never goes below 25mpg, and on the highway it always does 30mpg or better. A small car would have to get 40mpg or better to tempt me these days.

Chuck

 

[Dargo]

For good quality, reliablity and good value for you money, I think Mitsubishi is probably the most underated car maker out there.

Well, coming from the repair industry for the last 20 years and having statistical data for hundreds of thousands of breakdowns, I can't tell you what we call Mitsubishi vehicles here as it would violate the family friendly atmosphere. Particularly in the last 15 years Mitsubishi vehicles have been synonymous in quality with a Yugo. I too thought that "hey, it's another Japanese vehicle that is very reliable" until I discovered quite the opposite is true. They have been an utter disaster in reliability and serviceability. What is really, really bad is the fact that it is their engines and transmissions that are just garbage. They don't nickle and dime you to death, they go for the kill shot right off the bat. That may be the reason that Mitsubishi vehicle sales YTD are off 46% whereas all other Japanese small vehicles have been up considerably this year due to high fuel costs. Mitsubishi's reputation has finally killed them. The only thing I have that is Mitsubishi is a Clarke forklift engine. Unfortunately, in 1800 hours it has had two engine replacements. Knowing what I know, I wouldn't own anything again with a Mitsubishi engine in it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dargo,

I've owned two Mitusbishi vehicles and bought both on the reports that I read from various websites and recomendations. Both were uterly reliable and dependable with very minimal care and upkeep. I basically ran them into the ground and sold them for close to what I paid for them. Both times, I sold them for something bigger and still regret selling them. Those are my personal experiences.

As to them being junk now and your personal knowledge of them, I don't know that first hand, but from what I've read of your posts and experience, I'll defer to your broader knowledge on them. You are one of those people on here who I trust to give honest and objective answers based on personal experience and known facts that far exceed my own.

I've been trying to talk my wife into buying one to replace her Explorer, but now I'll stop and focus on some other brands that we like.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[WTA]

I've had the same experience with used mitsubishi cars. Our idea of " minimal care" is far different from the average vehicle owner.

You would not believe how many engines I have had to overhaul from people taking their cars into the cheapest oil change place in town only when they had a problem. Like smoking at startup. An annoying ticking sound at idle or worse yet at highway speed, leaking oil on their floor. People on average these days are just plain stupid when it comes to taking care of their cars.

The biggest reasons I've found for engines going bad in Mitsubishi and Chryslers which use their engines are tolerances and oil passages being so tight that the slightest bit of sludge destroys them. Those lash adjusters in newer engines are just terrible if you ask me.

GM cars these days are no better. Neither are fords. You can't get a new ford V-8 wet or else you short out the ignition system and those darn plastic intakes and dexcool junk eating intake manifolds in GM's just suck.

If I was going to buy a used car for gas mileage it would be either an older toyota or a ford Pinto! I'm not kidding. Pintos might be a bomb on wheels but they do get some great mileage when they work right.
My F250 diesel gets 28 mpg when I keep the rpm below 2000 though so I'm happy with that. For now.

 

[mjarrels]

I have a 1989 Toyota Corolla with 133,000 miles... no troubles at all except for exhaust systems and it now needs a starter (scheduled to be replaced Sunday afternoon). It has a carb and will get 35 MPG all day long!

mark

 

[jdbower]

You could go with a new SMART - they start at close to $10k. I've been considering one if I need a daily commuter (wish they still made the roadster - closest thing to a street-legal go cart).

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

Get this, my BIL who is in the used car business - specializing in German cars just recently sold a used, I think 2000 or 2001 Golf TDI with 444,000 kilometres on it for $7,500.00 CDN. Unbelievable. Apart from looking for a used VW TDI which are rare as hen's teeth now, I have to agree with Bird's recommendation on a used Escort or Protege clone. Generally reliable and benefits from lower residual values compared to Honda, Toyota which in my opinion are overrated.

Around here, the hot commodity right now are used Audi A4s with 1.8T. Premium performance oriented sedan with amazing fuel economy. Or how about a full size all-aluminum Audi A8 with 345 HP V8. Gets well over 25 mpg US on the highway and sounds awesome. These underrated cars that listed for roughly $100,000 new, go for around 20,000 at auction for a 2004. When you are shopping used, massive depreciation is your friend. Let someone else take the hit for the first 3 or 4 years

Of course it is the overall cost of ownership that one should consider, not strictly fuel economy, in which case it would be hard to beat a Cavalier or 3800 engined Impala, le Sabre, or a Suzuki Aerio, Nissan Sentra or a 2003 and newer Ford Focus.

BTW, my BIL had a used SMART. A nightmare of a car. was prone to dying in the middle of the road, or the tranny would just decide to shift into neutral while driving. Was rife with electrical bugaboos. Apparently the battery box and other electronics modules are located behind the right-hand side inner fender, right where ice, snow, road crap will accumulate. Ran it back through the auction and lost money on it. Win some, lose some.

 

[Dargo]

Eddie, I have no real interest in how Mitsubishi vehicles sell or perform except when they hurt investments and dividends for me due to heavy repair costs. I can't post on a public board most information I have as it is proprietary information that companies either have protected through CA's or the information was purchased through a subscription database. I can, however, post vehicle sales reports from all manufacturers for the first six months of this year. Hopefully you can read the info. In the first 6 months of the year Mitsubishi vehicle sales were down 42.43%. When you take the first 15 days of July into the equation they are down right at 46%, as I previously stated.

I know I can't share specific repair and failure data with you, but you can see that word is getting out on their recent plunge in quality and reliability. Overall sales data generally supports (with a bit of a lag) actual realized quality, value, satisfaction and reliability of vehicles being sold. For the most recent month's worth of data, June 2008, here are the basic winners and losers. Sales of Mini vehicles are up 24.8%. Sales of Kia vehicles are up 7.6%. Sales of Audi vehicles are up 5.3%. Sales of Subaru vehicles are up 5.3% and sales of Honda vehicles are up 4.8%. This is over their own previous sales figures. The losers are.....(the first one shouldn't be a shock to anyone!) Hummer, down 59.3%! Saab down 57.1%. Land Rover down 47.1%. Chrysler Division down 43.1% and Mitsubishi down 42.4%. These are just the top five winners and the worst 5 losers.

Overall, the top selling vehicles in the U.S. so far in 2008 are dominated by Honda and Toyota. Nissan, Mazda and even Hyundai have slipped into the top ten. It seems that Hyundai and Mitsubishi have exchanged roles. One is really rising in quality and one is dropping like a rock. Anyway, I'm far too analytical in my analysis of vehicles and do not really take the "I want it" factor into play much. Although they are most certainly no economy vehicles, a guy can almost steal late model SUVs, full sized pickups (including Toyota Tundras) and especially 3/4 and one ton diesel pickups. Since I needed a newer diesel pickup, I recently took advantage of buying a 2 year old pickup for over $2000 below rough wholesale book price for a truck that should rate as 'extra clean' or 'excellent' condition. Although they aren't really economy cars, the prices on the 6 cyl. Jeep Cherokee vehicles have risen. I guess they are mid sized SUVs that are very capable off road and are rather reliable with their in line 6 engines that can get over 10 mpg on the highway.

 

[dmccarty]

The WSJ had an article recently about dealership's offering incentives of SUV and truck on top of the manufactuer deals. They showed a full size Dodge PU for 50% off. 50% off a new truck buys alot of very expensive gas.

Maybe the price of trucks will return to a more normal level instead of this hyper expensive level they have been for a decade or so.

Another article in the WSJ maybe a month ago said that SUV prices are down 25%.

There is a very large used car auction a few hours away from us. They are on 100+ acres. We know someone who has a dealer license but who is not really in the biz any more. He has said in the past he would help buy/sell for us and I'm wondering if next fall we should travel to this auction and see what a big SUV sells for at the gavel.

I have noticed that all of the used car dealers in town have changed out their inventory several times. They went from lots of large trucks and SUVs with a few small cars to lots of small cars and maybe a truck or SUV.

Later,
Dan