My Altima finally died and since we have bought a Pathfinder as a second vehicle we no longer need as big of a main car. We are looking to buy a cheap car that would get us best mileage and be reliable for our 150km round trip commute. Went through the classifieds and came up with a short list of 2 cars. Going to view both tomorrow, but assuming they are both in decent shape I'm undecided between the two.
First one is a 1999 pontiac Firefly ($1200)
- 170000km (105 633mi)
- 1 liter manual
- MVI'ed 12 months ago
- Rust free
- Needs winter tires
Second one is a 1993 Volkswagen Golf Hatchback ($1500)
- 91000km (56 544mi)
- Diesel
- MVI'ed 3 months ago
- Some minor surface rust
In Nova Scotia cars need to through a motor vehicle inspection within 30days of purchase and every 2 years after. So either car I buy needs to be inspected after I buy it and could cause allot of unexpected costs. One would assume the more recent the inspection the less work that would be required.
I'm slightly leaning towards the firefly but she is leaning towards the golf. Firefly with 4 new tires would come in slightly less then the golf. It is a bit newer no rust and I would feel very comfortable working on it myself.
Golf would probably be more comfortable on the highway, and where it has just gone through a MVI 3 months ago there shouldn't be any surprises putting it on the road. As for working on it, my knowledge of diesel engines end at knowing there are no spark plugs. Also I know VW's from this era also had electrical issues, I don't know if this year was effected.
So looking for a bit of advise. Car is dead so need to sort this out tomorrow afternoon, hopefully I'll hear from a few of you by then.
Thanks in advance
Devon