Best MPG car with Auto Transmission?
 

I really need a commuter car, hopefully to get above 40 on the highway. It needs to be automatic and reliable, my budget is $5,000. So what cars should I look at? My first choice was a civic cause they are known to be reliable and run for like ever but i need to open my eyes to other cars. So please what is the best car for me?

And no hybrids.

Add Corolla to the list

yes but what year and specific model? there and tons of them out there.

As far as reliability goes they are at least on par with Civic. As far as the ratings go check out fueleconomy.gov and start putting different years in the side by side comparos and then check with your budget.

Ford Escorts were pretty good in the day as well.

Are you limited to gasoline engines? What are some of your other parameters of your search besides auto transmission?

all i want is auto transmission (cause commuting alot and dont feel like shifting), i need it to be reliable i dont have the money to always be fixing little things and cheap maintenance, and then really good mpg (over 40 highway and over 30 city). oh and $5,000 budget.

also ive been considering the jetta/golf tdi's cause ive heard some goot things about them and i see alot with like over 300k miles on them...

Be cautiously optimistic with regards to the VW TDIs, slightly older ones can be finicky ...almost temperamental and require a timing belt change fairly often that comes with a $6-900 price tag..

what do you mean by "finicky"? And why so much for a timing belt?

The 95-2002 Corolla all use the same engine, and I consider it to be slightly more technologically advanced than the Civic engines in the same time period. I like the Civics though because you can get a 1.5L engine instead of the 1.8. You can't go wrong with either.

My father-in-law's 96 Civic just died, transmission finally failed at 278,000 miles. He never had to do much maintenance to it, and when I asked him how often he changed the transmission fluid he asked, "You're supposed to change that?"

Finicky as in quirky, sometimes they just don't run right, they have problematic EGR valves and injection issues, electrical irritations. You have to tinker with them sometimes. When they run right they are awesome...but when they don't it can be irritating. If you go to Freds TDI page you'll understand in less than 5 minutes.

As far as timing belts are concerned and price...that is a VW thing, The belt itself is cheap ~$100 IIRC...but its the labor, everything is real tight in there and you have to get everything just right because it is an interference engine.

lol, ok thanks. but should i stay away from civics with cvt trannys?

ohh ok thanks. but any other suggestions for civics/corollas as to which models to look at?