I may soon be in the market for a new car, recommendations?
 

Well, it looks like my little Saturn may be nearing the end of the road. She's down a cylinder, and depending on what the cause is, it might just be a smarter decision for me to replace it. Trick is that I'm looking for something cheap. It doesn't need to be too big, but I do on occasion drive people around, so four seats is kind of a must-have.

Catch is, when I say cheap, I mean cheap to buy too, so we're looking at mostly ten year old cars at this point. Unfortunately my budget puts hybrids right out, but there seem to be a couple of diesels still straggling within the fudge factor above my price range. But what are some makes/models of cars, in general I ought to look at? I live in Minnesota, so unless it's got killer grip, I'm probably going to have to toss out anything with rear wheel drive (assuming it survives into the winter months).

What is your budget?

At the moment, pretty pitiful: $3,000, give or take. I'm looking as high as $4,000 (if I can negotiate down to $3,500, I'll make the leap). It doesn't offer a lot of choice, but I got my existing car for $500 (KBB valued it at $700), and it wasn't a bad buy IMHO.

Just did a quick search on fueleconomy.gov. Sorted for 1998-2003 cars that get better than 30 mpg combined. Looks like I'd just be looking for a Civic, Corolla (Chevy Prizm), Echo, Tercel, Metro, or a Mirage.

Fuel Economy Search Results

$3000 can get you a fairly nice car. Consider also a Ford Focus. Also 5spd cars are usually less expensive and get better fe. In my experiance jap cars are more reliable, but more expensive to repair. Eg ac worked 200k mi on both my Maxima and Altima, Prism. The Escort, F150, Suburban all went out. The Prism only had a 3 spd auto,watch for that to.

Golf/jetta, civic, neon. Depends what kind of mileage you want.

$3000 could get you 20 engines for that Saturn.

FWIW, this is about the situation I was in searching for a car. I looked at most of the cars Daox mentioned, but ran into issues... Civics and Corollas in that price range both had 180k miles minimum on them, body damage, etc. I'm sure with enough searching I could've eventually landed a good deal, but I wasn't patient at the time.

I picked up another Saturn: All options except ABS. Leather, AC, Cruise, Power windows, keyless entry, sunroof, etc. with 100k miles on it and no body damage for the same price. And that wasn't an odd-ball. Pretty normal (even a tad high) price for these cars.


What requirements does the car need to meet? Tow rating? Do you have kids (does it need to fit a car seat)? How comfortable are you working on your car? Is a wagon beneficial? Are you looking for a manual or auto?

When I looked for a car, I had ProDarwin's problem, where the cars were either ancient, trashed, or falling apart. Winters full of road salt don't treat auto bodies too well. However, it seems like the point will be moot: my parents are planning on getting a new car now, and are going to give me their old '01 Echo. 146kmi on it, but it runs great, especially with that 5-speed manual (though I may need to look at the synchromesh for 3rd gear).
Hard part is getting the engine in or out of the body. We don't have a car lift, and we'd spend a lot more cash on renting a place to do the job.
I was basically looking for a little commuter car. 80% of the time I could get away with two seats, but every once in a while I'm driving places with friends, so four seats were my minimum. Didn't need towing, or kids. A hatchback would have been preferred, but sedans work well. Love me a manual. And fortunately I'm comfortable doing my own work. Did a lot of that on my Saturn, and even my old F-150 before that. At one point I got good enough that I could swap out starter motors inside of fifteen minutes on that thing. But it's moot, now, since I'm getting the old Echo, which fits the bill perfectly. Even has a tow jack on there (not that I plan on, or could, towing anything with the car, but we have a bike rack that fits in place of the tow hitch, so I could use that!).