Good, efficient, used vehicle for ride sharing? (EG. Uber / Lyft)

[redpoint5]

Those are never deductible as far as I know. Income tax is the only thing that can be deducted from. There's EIC (earned income credit) for the really poor where they get tax money back that they never paid in the first place.

[19bonestock88]

I’m not sure how much more an XL makes but to feel good about driving XL, I’d need an actual real sized minivan and not the Mazda5 (which only seats 6 total), the most common are the Chrysler/Dodge vans and I have a deep seated distrust of anything DaimlerChrysler or FCA. I like the Mazda because it’s available in a 6MT(alleviates fear of automatic trans reliability) and it serves those pesky rides where a rider tries to stuff five additional people in my Saturn, and is rated at 21/28 so prob wouldn’t use much more fuel than my car(rated 23/32) does...

And I was saying there was no initial inspection for me, other than me signing off on a statement saying my car is in “good working order”, no pics taken whatsoever...

[redpoint5]

My last company vehicle was a Dodge Grand Caravan with 100k miles on it and 4 years old. The tranny felt a bit sloppy, like it wasn't going to hold up for too many more miles. The rest of the van seemed like junk too.

[19bonestock88]

That’s a lot of why I don’t want one... sadly, GM doesn’t do much better in the seven seater arena, with the Traverse/Acadia/Enclave/Outlook having timing chain issues on both the LY7 and LLT V6 engines and the famous 3-5-R waveplate issue in its 6T70 transmission... since Ford co-developed the trans, that boots out the Flex, Edge, Taurus, etc...

Someone at work mentioned Hyundai or Kia and I asked them if they were smoking crack lol... i have a hard time looking past the cars from the early 2000s that just plain sucked...

Due to not wanting a bad automatic trans, I’m wanting to seek out a manual if it’s availabe in the model I’m looking at... due to this, if I can’t find a good Prius, should I go down to a compact class car?

[roosterk0031]

Doing 400 miles a week for your regular job, I'd stay in a car that get 40+ mpg hwy.

I really like my Elantra, they can be had with 6 speed manual. My son go 50+ indicated mpg on the drive home from the dealer with the auto. I used it for work for a few days in December, it was only a 4 gallon fill but got 49 mpg. I've been driving the 2010 cobalt lately and driving similar to the Elantra in December and best tank is 33.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/d...5957/overview/

[19bonestock88]

The side job is the one with the 80mi commute (one way), my day job has me driving like 18mi a week lol...

It’s worth mentioning that whatever car I end up going for, it needs to be big enough to sleep in, because in between the two days in a row that I usually drive I sleep in the car instead of getting a motel room or driving home...

[Hersbird]

I've had dodge minivans since 1988 some with over 200,000 miles and have never had a transmission issue. Early on many people including quick lube shops thought GM spec trans fluid was an acceptable substitute for the Chrysler fluid, it even said something about it on the early dip sticks but it meant emergency use, to be drained and replaced with ATF4 as soon as possible. I've seen 'bad' Chrysler transmissions fixed with just a proper fluid change and last 10 years longer in the case of a van my father had. Not saying they don't fail, but I'd bet money the Honda Odyssey has more failures through the 2000s and the last 10 years they both are pretty solid. We also use the grand caravan for mail delivery at the post office and they are really beat on without issues. They of course don't make a manual anymore but I didn't think a Prius came in a manual either.

[redpoint5]

Well, I bought the Prius to sleep in. Seems like you've got the answer that you don't want to accept. Gen III can be had for under $10k now. I'd go with a 2012 or newer.

[19bonestock88]

It’s less about not wanting to accept the Prius and more of worried about affording a good one, and afraid of getting a bad one...

The other cars mentioned are runner ups but they are also cheaper from what I’ve seen

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Don't buy a Prius unless you drive 20k+ miles per year, and your average MPG is <30 MPG, otherwise the fuel savings won't make up for the cost of expensive components...hybrid battery, transaxle, etc.

1st gen Civic hybrid, manual, would be perfect - I slept in my Civic once and it was fine. Best part is when the IMA dies you can bypass or remove it and get pretty much the same fuel economy.