Best car to start with...
 

Hello everyone. I have been lurking on the forum lately as I recently took a job that requires 130 miles of commuting each day and I'm fully committed to buying and modding a dedicated commuter car. I will for sure being completing the "lower hanging fruits".. removing mirrors, wheel skirts, underpan, and I am also excited about constructing a nice boat tail.

Anywho.. I am interested in finding out which car is a great place to start. I am a huge fan of hondas as they have excellent motors (in my experience anyways). I see allot of talk about the civic VX but there are not allot of them available for sale. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am cleaning out my garage for work space and will be buying a car in the next two weeks.

Cheers,
Brian

Welcome to the site.

I'd have to suggest a 1st gen Insight. Nothing else comes close to the mileage it can crank out.

Thanks for the welcome. I guess I should have also stated that I want to stay in the 2k range in terms of purchase price. Which puts the insight out of my range (besides the fact that I need back seats)

What kind of car are you looking for?
 

Will you need to carry other people? Will you ever need to pull a trailer? Will you need trunk space? How much do you want to spend on parts? I think an O2 sensor for a 98-00 Honda Civic runs like $340!!!!! do some parts cost research before you buy. Just giving some friendly advice.

IsaacCarlson is asking the right question here; what you need will define what is a good car. I consider my Corolla, currently getting ~45mpg, good. But one of my "needs" was an automatic tranny (my wife has never driven a stick and has no real desire to do so). I'm pretty sure I'd be in the ~50mpg range if I had the manual tranny. Are you mechanically savvy? If so, that greatly increases your possibilities.
When I search the garage for gasoline cars over 45mpg lifetime, I find a wide assortment of vehicles. (And that doesn't include diesels!) Yes, you see a lot of Civics and Metros, but also a fairly broad assortment of others.
You can find a bunch of great mpg machines for ~$2k. You have to do a lot of looking, but they are out there. Craigslist in my area had me drooling over two listings: a civic vtec engine and a miata that I'd love to do a "Jack McCornack" on.

2k? Maybe a CRX HF

I would say a CRX is one of the best to start with if you're interested in ecomodding it. Low beginning cd but still some easy improvements and a plethora of engine swap options.

move, it will be cheaper, save you time, stress, gas.
you might look at an old VW rabbit 55-60mpg and simple once you figure them out.
I love my civic VX and my CRX HF either of those would be great but with wear and tear I figure I average 16-26 cents per mile depending on the car and I do all of my own work that comes out to $21-33 per day for car ownership... $400-675 per month, just to drive that's $5,000 to $8,000 per year in tires, oil changes, exhaust replacement, spark plugs transmission replacement, drive shaft replacement, air filters, fuel filters, oil filters, brake pads, brake rotors, wiper blades, timing belts, alternator belts.

If you need a back seat I vote for a Honda Civic. You should be able to pick one up for around 2k.

Your "has rear seats" requirement is directly in conflict with your "dedicated commuter car" statement. The more requirements you drop, the better your MPG. The two-seat CRX is probably the most economical car in your stated price range.

Don't overlook the Toyota Echo, Saturn S-series, Geo Metro, and Mazda Protege/323/3 which may be in your price range.

You're going to be spending >10 hours a week in the car, and like Ryland says, at least $5000/yr on fuel and upkeep. If you see a nicer, lower-mantainence, less thirsty car for $4000-6000, I'd buy it.

Buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car.

But seriously, welcome, and I look forward to seeing your mods.

Really??? 5K per year to own a VX???

I do my own maint. on three vehicles and have a yearly budget of $1200 for all three, that includes all the stuff you mentioned plus an engine and trans swap last year, all within budget. Since I've started tracking in my fuel log, ten months now, I've only spent $950 in fuel and I drive 80 miles round trip each day to work.

I included everything from washer fluid to title, insurance and oil changes, I also kept the car in progressively better shape so I wouldn't have to replace it, fixing things before they got bad, invested in snow tires as it would save on body repairs by not crashing in to stuff, changed the suspension bushings so the tires would stay in alignment, I did the things that needed to be done to keep it in good solid working order, I used to drive 120 miles one way to get to work and I didn't like having my car brake down on the way so I stayed on top of it,
My $800 1984 civic DX was cheaper to drive, that was 16 cents per mile, nothing ever went wrong with that car, pretty much tires, gas and oil with a 42.2mpg average over the time I owned it.
Driving is expensive! this is why I said to move! when I drove 120 miles to get to work I would sleep on the ground in a tent or on the floor and eat out of the ice chest in the back of my car for a few days at a time, anything to avoid a trip, I went from 120 miles to get to work to 4.5 miles, my life has so much less stress, with more free time, so I work fewer hours because stress makes life more expensive.

For low overall cost, four seats and high mileage, a Metro is hard to beat. A diesel Rabbit is OK if you can find a good one.

Huh, move closer...now why didn't I think of that? I guess it comes down to the two kids and wife that works thing. She has her dream job, and I recently got my dream job..so I guess for now I just have to get used to the idea that I will be driving allot and spending money as well. For me, this is the cost of being able to help design stream and wetland enhancement/restoration projects instead of facilitating their destruction to enable more houses and shopping centers to be built. Worth it? Yes.

Robert has a very good point. Right now, I'm set to go look at and drive a two seat geo metro. (yes, I bailed on the back seat option). I drove one yesterday..and lets just say it drives a weee bit different than the wife's Audi A4 which I have been borrowing lately as she has been biking to the office. I can't get over the fact that I feel like I am in a tin-foil death trap. Can anyone give me an idea of how the metro does in rain/snow/high winds? That is the kind of thing I am going to be dealing with on my commute in the winter. I am commuting out the Columbia River Gorge which has to be the most beautiful drive in the country in the fall/spring/summer but in the winter, 40 knot winds, driving rain and snow are fairly common.

There is an 02 honda insight locally with new batteries, tires, and 97k milage for $4900. It has some "minor body damage" but as long as it isn't structural their shouldn't be a problem. Seems like it may be worth just plunking down the 5 grand and purchasing the honda.. Little more safety, little more creature comfort. The downside...if you can call it that. IS that the insight seems to have a pretty small DC already so it may not be worth building a "frankenstein car".

Any thoughts? Sorry if I seem a little all over the place with my posts. I've got a good deal of knowledge about sporty cars and sedans and such, but just don't have any experience with sub-compacts or hybrids.

Thanks in advance!!!

$4900 is a steal for the Insight. :)

I gotta vote for the Metro. If you can find an XFi, the better. 3 cylinder and a 5 speed manual is the ONLY way to go. DO NOT get a 4 cyl or an automatic transmission.

My two door has a back seat. Plop the back seat down and you can load in a cart full of groceries.

I dunno 99Metro... I found an XFi, bought it, and am in the process of restoring it. When I bought it I intended to replace my 98 civic with it, but I agree with the tinfoil deathtrap thing... If you are going to be driving it DAILY for long distances and you have nasty winters, then even if you are a good driver someone could still hit you, and pretty much inevitably cause a lot of damage to you. I feel that the longer your commute, the greater the likelihood of a collision. He mentioned he had kids too. I'm an invincible youngin and even I'm now prepared to fix up the XFi for the experience and the resale value when gas prices go back up (:D) and find a Gen1 Insight instead. The more I read about the gen1 Insight, the more I want one. Even if that car were to not be hybrid at all, it's still about the weight of a metro because its all aluminum, has a 1.0l engine, manual trans, AND it has lean burn. It's the first production lean-burn car with a system to control the raised levels of NOx resulting from lean burning. Sounds pretty frickin sweet to me, and THEN you can remember that it is also a hybrid.

Snatch up that insight ASAP if you can. If not, get a civic, ANY civic for the right price. I have the worst civic you could possibly get for MPG (Due to my thirsty VTEC engine and torque-y transmission gearing) but I'm still cranking out reasonably good numbers with light mods. Good luck on your search, and welcome to EM :thumbup:

This place is not real close to you (maybe 150 miles or so) but he has several that would fit the bill:

RENTON AUTO SALES - www.rentonautosales.com

A Geo, Escort, several Hondas, Saturn SL1, Corolla, and my personal favorite - ZX2:)

Or craigslist has several CRX's in your area. Here's one:

1989 HONDA CRX RUNS AND DRIVES GREAT

Dude!!! Buy the Insight!!!! Buy the Insight!!!! The batteries are still under warranty (10 year 150,000 mi. That car is the mpg King!

I was looking at Insights and they are out of the thread-starter's price range.

Don't tell anyone, but I'd love to have a 1st gen Insight.

4900 bucks, buy the insight. Tell your wife you will leave her if she doesn't let you. ;)

You have kids... A metro is kind of small if you're going to cart them around with the car. If it's commuter-only, go for the metro... or the Insight.
If you want more space, I really, really like my escort. I chose it based on being a non-interference engine (I have 180k on this timing belt but it's not too much of a problem if it does break), cheap parts, and pretty good crash test ratings (no side test ratings because it's old, but the front and rear ones are good).
I ended up getting a wagon, by chance for $500 that needed some light work, and absolutely love it. I haul everything in it except for 4*8' sheets of wood - it's only 38" wide in the back. It's awesome to haul the family and my daughter's stuff around in, and it gets great MPGs - 40+ year round with driving and aero mods.
If you look at craigslist in your city,
1993 FORD ESCORT LX WAGON SUPER CLEAN 4CYL 5SPD
94' Ford Escort wagon 29 mpg!
;)

Lets see, I will give you a quick run down on your options.

Commute only:
10/10 Insight
8/10 Metro

Commute and drive kids around:
4dr metro 9/10
2dr metro 8/10
CRX 8/10


I would get the Insight, because you probably already another car that can carry the kids.