Help my parents are being stubborn.

[Baltothewolf]

Ok lemme respond the best I can, first off, euromodder, I laugh my toosh off everyday at that, it's 30$ a DAY in gas, and it's about an 2 hours a day in that truck, he is driving a honda odyssey right now that gets even less mpg, because the truck's timing belt broke, then it burnt valves again, then it burnt valves AGAIN before we switched mechanics and our new mechanic goes 'yea the cat is blocked causing engine damage' and my parents have spent so much money on the truck they don't want to fix it. The truck runs fine now, just needs new cat(s).

P-Hack, yes my mom just sits around all day being opinionated, I tried expressing this to my dad that it's not her that's going to have to deal with the car HE has to drive to work everyday, it's HIM.

elhigh, my Dad doesn't want a hybrid, I talked to him this morning and he really just wants a car that he can do general maintenance on (changing oil and spark plugs/wires) and not have to worry about anything else. Like I said before, he is willing to change his driving habbits to bring up his FE after seeing what I'm getting in my Camry.

Xist, Amen.

All in all, I think they are going to go with a 00-06 Corolla, I can't find any Honda civic HX's (ones with lean burn) with less than 75k miles.

[darcane]

Well, it's good she doesn't like VWs, since they are junk. She's just not leaving a lot of realistic options.

There is little to no chance of finding an HX under 60k miles. And you want to avoid the CVT trannies

Nissan Sentra maybe? Here's on that looks pretty clean:
1999 Nissan Sentra

120k miles, manual tranny, $2300. That will save a bunch of up-front costs too. 1999 and earlier had fairly small engines in the base models (1.6L), it jumped up a little in 2000 and the fuel economy dropped.

Toyota Echo or Yaris?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

P-Hack, yes my mom just sits around all day being opinionated, I tried expressing this to my dad that it's not her that's going to have to deal with the car HE has to drive to work everyday, it's HIM.

If it was me, I would forget about finding a new car, and start looking at divorce attorneys.

Maybe your dad (and you) just need to find a 2 bedroom apartment cloase to his work?

[LeanBurn]

The Corolla will be the best fit for him from what you describe. Boring, low maintenance, great fuel economy and reliable are what Corolla does best.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

I honestly believe that most opinions are arbitrary and stronger than facts.

The above opinion included.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

If it was me, I would forget about finding a new car, and start looking at divorce attorneys.

That's pretty harsh, and off topic. Someone having an opinion about brands of cars to avoid is no reason for divorce.

[dmafanp]

tell them to buy deisel,,

[vskid3]

There's a reason you can't find HX's with low miles, it doesn't make sense to buy a car for fuel economy and then drive it 5k miles a year. The fact that most of the ones you're finding likely have 200k miles should be a sign that miles mean nothing to these cars.
As pointed out, pretty much any small car will save more than its cost within a couple years. So if you can't get them to budge, just make sure whatever they do get is reliable.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by vskid3

it doesn't make sense to buy a car for fuel economy and then drive it 5k miles a year

Hey! I resemble that comment.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Hey! I resemble that comment.

Haha, I mean to "normal" people. I'm no better, I don't think my Prius and Insight will see much more than 12k a year between the two of them. I would rather pay a bit more to have cars that make sense than give the oil companies all my money.

[roosterk0031]

LOL, compared to what he's been driving almost any decent car will almost make it's own payment, my wife Impala will do 30 mpg at 70 over that distance, cobalt 35+. Get him to buy a brand new Mirage CVT, bad thing is he'll burn up the warranty in just over 2 years. But HWY driving like that is the easiest thing on a car.