Efficient, cheap beaters! Used car ads: 35 mpg highway or more for $1500 or less

[War_Wagon]

I have a 1998 Civic CX, so manual steering, 5 speed. It's factory purple and ugly, and the input shaft bearing is noisy like all old hondas. But it drives half decent. $500 if you are around Vancouver Canada.

[Xist]

A friend asked if it would have been cheaper to purchase another Civic than replace my head gasket. Since I am doing it myself in my copious free time from being underemployed, no.

This is an allegedly mechanically-sound 1997 with 227,000 miles for $810: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...6521901180453/

Here is a 1996 - 2000 HX of unspecified year with 225,000 miles for $1,400. Please note that I am just seeing this ad, which is already a month old, so either they would probably take less, or it is long gone: https://offerup.com/item/detail/669068594/

They also specify that it does not have air conditioning.

[MetroMPG]

Honda love!



I missed out on this $900, 2008 Honda Fit 5-speed yesterday with 210k km = 130k miles.

Local car, sold in 4 hours (no surprise, at that price). The hatchback glass is broken and it has a check engine light on for the crank position sensor, according to the ad.

I would much rather drive this next winter than my irksome 75 MPG Metro.

[Ecky]

Love the Fit. I prefer the 2007-2008 personally, even if a lot of things were "improved" and "fixed" in the newer model.

Fuel logs for my partner's Fit aren't updated, but she drives conservatively but normally, no EoC, and tends to average 42-50mpg in fair weather. Hers is a manual.

My brother has one too, his is an auto, and he tends to get low 30's, despite the much taller top gear.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Since its an L-series engine, I would strongly consider trying to swap in a HCH1 manual transmission for much taller gearing. I suspect FE would be improved in an already very efficient vehicle.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Love the Fit. I prefer the 2007-2008 personally, even if a lot of things were "improved" and "fixed" in the newer model.

Fuel logs for my partner's Fit aren't updated, but she drives conservatively but normally, no EoC, and tends to average 42-50mpg in fair weather. Hers is a manual.

My brother has one too, his is an auto, and he tends to get low 30's, despite the much taller top gear.

I may need to look at a Fit as my next vehicle if they do that well. They usually go for cheap too because nobody wants small cars these days.

[MetroMPG]

Not the case around here! Fits and Echoes/Yarises (Yari?) command a premium.

This was the first Fit I've seen in several years of looking with a low enough asking price that it could potentially be bought, repaired, driven, and re-sold in a year or 2 to break even or make a few bucks.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Not the case around here! Fits and Echoes/Yarises (Yari?) command a premium.

This was the first Fit I've seen in several years of looking with a low enough asking price that it could potentially be bought, repaired, driven, and re-sold in a year or 2 to break even or make a few bucks.

Canadian car culture and American car culture couldn't be more different in this regard, especially in rural agricultural America, and it doesn't get a whole lot more rural than ND. Where I work I would say ~60% of the vehicles in the parking lot are huge V8 pickups that have never pulled a trailer or carried a load for the current owners. Most of them have our tonneau covers (that's the backbone of this company) on them and they never get opened, the beds are empty and spotless like they were just detailed.

I did look, there's a couple Fits for sale for what I would consider a very good price, and Yaris's are a little pricier being a Toyota, but still very reasonable. I might consider one of them but I would never touch an automatic car that was available with a manual, and all of the ones I can find right now are auto.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

From what I've read though, they are insanely reliable, more so than a Civic. The Fit will destroy a Civic's around town fuel economy, but a Civic will do slightly better on the highway. The Fit manual will struggle more on the highway due to it's poor aerodynamics, unless, of course, it gets ecomodded up. My dad drove a customer's 2nd gen Fit for a couple hours back to the dealership for service, and was getting mid-upper 30s around town and low-mid 40s on the highway, with the automatic. I surmise that the manual would get slightly worse on the highway due to even shorter gearing, but get far better around town like most manuals are capable of.

The HCH1 has a 3.6 final drive with a 0.711 5th gear and the 08 Fit has a 4.29 final drive with a .757 5th gear. The Insight's 3.208 final drive may be a bit too tall, plus the gears aren't spaced as evenly. It would probably require a little bit of modification to fit correctly, but it would be an interesting project and would give the Fit much better gearing.

Originally Posted by Shaneajanderson

I may need to look at a Fit as my next vehicle if they do that well. They usually go for cheap too because nobody wants small cars these days.

Most Fits around here are slightly more expensive than a comparable Civic, even though they are definitely less popular. Was strongly considering a Fit when I bought my Civic, except that there weren't many options and the ones that were relatively nearby were out of my budget.

A 1st gen Fit with 200k-240k miles will be listed between $2500 and $3500 USD aroud here. Ones with 150k-200k will usually be a solid $1000 more. The only one within a 2 hour radius that was under $2000 had around 250k miles and needed some work, and they were asking wither $1400 or $1800, I don't remember which.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

From what I've read though, they are insanely reliable, more so than a Civic. The Fit will destroy a Civic's around town fuel economy, but a Civic will do slightly better on the highway. The Fit manual will struggle more on the highway due to it's poor aerodynamics, unless, of course, it gets ecomodded up. My dad drove a customer's 2nd gen Fit for a couple hours back to the dealership for service, and was getting mid-upper 30s around town and low-mid 40s on the highway, with the automatic. I surmise that the manual would get slightly worse on the highway due to even shorter gearing, but get far better around town like most manuals are capable of.

The HCH1 has a 3.6 final drive with a 0.711 5th gear and the 08 Fit has a 4.29 final drive with a .757 5th gear. The Insight's 3.208 final drive may be a bit too tall, plus the gears aren't spaced as evenly. It would probably require a little bit of modification to fit correctly, but it would be an interesting project and would give the Fit much better gearing.



Most Fits around here are slightly more expensive than a comparable Civic, even though they are definitely less popular. Was strongly considering a Fit when I bought my Civic, except that there weren't many options and the ones that were relatively nearby were out of my budget.

A 1st gen Fit with 200k-240k miles will be listed between $2500 and $3500 USD aroud here. Ones with 150k-200k will usually be a solid $1000 more. The only one within a 2 hour radius that was under $2000 had around 250k miles and needed some work, and they were asking wither $1400 or $1800, I don't remember which.

When I looked a little bit ago there was a 2009 auto with 131k for 2700 (seems reasonable to me, car looks to be in pretty good shape/well cared for), and a 2008 sport auto with 147k for 4350 (seems a little high, but I'm not sure what all is in the 'sport' package, and again seems to be in good shape). Interestingly both have new tires and come with a set of 4 new snow tires on rims.