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

[freebeard]

I stumbled on something Metro-related today, Ed Roth's last custom car.

https://www.gregspradlin.com/custom-...ow-car-poster/

[MetroMPG]

This is the first local car that has caught my attention since the $1800 2004 Echo sedan last fall..

Kilometers226,000May need back brakes passenger side mirror is cracked. Great car very reliable. Manual transmission. No AC.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...-is/1505571111

36 mpg hwy, says EPA.

It's showing a bit of rust on the door & rocker.

I may go look at it. It's only a 5 minute bike ride away.

I sure as heck don't want to subject myself to driving my parts car Metro next winter!

[Xist]

What is the earliest that you have bought a winter beater?

[MetroMPG]

Earliest would be around now. June-ish. I am always looking!

I haven't yet bought next year's winter beater before I've sold the current beater... but I could see it happening theoretically.

One year, I bought one early (this base Echo hatch) and ended up selling it in the fall (ie. before using it) because my plans changed and I didn't end up needing a victim to sacrifice to Ontario road salt (I went to the east coast for the winter).

I also have my eye on another cheap Mirage, but while cheap as Mirages go, its price disqualifies it from this thread.

[MetroMPG]

I looked - very briefly - at the above Yaris. Turns out it's just 1 km down the road.

It's the rustiest one of that generation I've ever seen. In fact, until I saw this one, I thought Toyota might have corrected the design flaw that leads to structural rust at the rear suspension mount that plagues the previous generation. Wrong!

What's rising, my standards or my reluctance to doing rust repair yet again? Same thing?

Lifestyle inflation!? Hedonic adaptation!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by samwichse

How about 18 3-cylinder Metros for $9k?

Pretty sure you could talk him down from that...

https://m.facebook.com/groups/342268...composer=false

HA! Someone talked him down! I wonder what they sold for? For 19 Metro parts cars, a fair price would have been something closer to $1900. Or $900.

Meanwhile, the guy who owns a Firefly parts car I'm interested in buying won't even tell me how much money he wants to part with it. Fanatics, the lot of us.

[samwichse]

Only an NEV, but arguably a car, and the cheapest one you can buy new:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...158205142.html

$930 if you BYOB (Bring Your Own Batteries) and $1200 with a 60v deep cycle setup.

Torch from Jalopnik did a whole series on it and was impressed with how much you got for somthing 1/3 the price of the cheapest Club Car:





Seems like a lot of potential here for ecomodders.

[MetroMPG]

I've been getting a huge kick out of his series. Much Torch respect here!

[Xist]

For anyone else that has not seen NEV before:

A Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) is a U.S. designation for battery electric vehicles that are usually built to have a top speed of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h), and have a maximum loaded weight of 3,000 lb (1,400 kg). Depending on the particular laws of the state, they are legally limited to roads with posted speed limits of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) or less. NEVs fall under the United States Department of Transportation classification for low-speed vehicles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighb...ectric_Vehicle

[RedDevil]

Ik looks like it belongs in a merry-go-round?

A defunct merry-go-round might make a great parking location. When people are watching, get in it and drive off...