Looking for the "best" vehicle for $5K
 

I know everyone will have an opinion on the "best", but I am open minded! I am looking for a vehicle that gets 35 mpg's or more that I can buy for $5K or less. It needs to be reliable as well since I drive 25-30K per year all over Colorado. Can't afford to have it break down regularly. I am fairly mechanically inclined so if it needs a few mods, tune-up etc, I could probably do it. Kinda partial to Honda and Toyota, but also see Metro's, etc getting great mpg! Anything will work, 4 door, 2 door, hatchback, etc. Thoughts?

Any smaller Toyota or Honda will give you 35 mpg and even their slighly larger vehicles (Camry / Accord) will get around that if you don't get the V6 model. The limitation will be your $5k mainly. For that price your looking at a late 90s vehicle most likely. Another alternative would be a 2000+ Neon, or a Saturn S series (SC1 / SL1). They seem to be descent cars that hold together and get reasonable mileage.

Ideally, I'd look for a lean burn Honda. That means a Civic HX (manual preferred). That'll easily get you over 40 mpg without even trying. I'd really try to stay above 40 too. You can go with a normal engined vehicle, but its much more work to get the real high numbers with them.

Lets throw some numbers at it for comparison.


25000 miles a year
35 mpg
714 gallons of gas
@ $4 per gallon that is $2857 (over half the price of the vehicle!)

25000 miles a year
40 mpg
625 gallons
@ $4 per gallon that is $2500
-saves you $350 per year over 35 mpg car


25000 miles a year
45 mpg
556 gallons
@ $4 per gallon that is $2222
-saves you $635 per year over 35 mpg car

25000 miles a year
50 mpg
@ $4 per gallon that is $2000
-saves you $850 per year over 35 mpg car


These estimates are incredibly conservative @ $4.00 per gallon. The word is gas will be $5.00 per gallon by next year. At that price these costs grow by 25%.

I was thinking a 90's Honda Civic HX or CX maybe. The Geo Metro's look like they get great mpg's. Are they reliable?

I bought my 100K mile '94 escort wagon 5-speed for $1,000. It needed a tune-up, but now it runs perfectly. I've driven it a little over 1000 miles since I got it, about 60/40 city/highway, and I'm averaging almost 40 mpg. Important: it has the Ford SOHC 1.9 liter engine, not the Mazda 16-valve. Only 90 hp, but great torque, and surprisingly good fuel economy. Take the extra $4,000 and buy index funds. The market has to be coming up any day now! You'll be ahead bigtime!

Metro's are highly decent cars, mechanically.

Check the underside of any Metro-Swift-Firefly for rust, especially the front A arms. And be careful a 3 cylinder's engine is in good shape: there is a known problem that can occur from neglect.

It depends on your definition of "reliable". How many years you are planning to operate? For 3 years running, you may add about 75K to 90K miles more to the miles it has already run. You have a lot of choices. Most car can run 150K without major problems. Honda and Toyota gives you more miles to run.

For 5 years running, you will run 125K to 150K miles. Then, your choices is limited to Honda and Toyota and few exceptional reliable models.

Ford Escort manual is cheap and saving gas, not automatic. As I know, its automatic transmission has design flaws. It had been recalled few times for leaking transmission oil and causes failure.

By the way, manual is always better for used small car for more reliable, better mpg, faster pickup and cheaper to repair.

I like saturns. Any car comes with its own set of foibles though. A sohc S car will net you 40mpg easy. Problems, so far none at 100k. But the ECTS sensor, oil burning, quill bearing in the trans. All are somewhat common problems. $5k will buy you a dandy SL, SC, or SW.

I'm partial to the Metro, the FE is great, the build quality and reliability are not bad at all. You would be hard pressed to pay more than $5k for a low mileage '99.

Having said that, I spent one week per month on business in the Boulder area for a couple years. IMO the normally aspirated 4 cylinder cars are already somewhat anemic in the relatively thin 5000ft. elv. air, a 3 cylinder might be akin to moped performance. I wouldn't buy a Metro if I lived in Mile-high Denver or needed to go up into and over the Rockies with any regularity, unless I strapped a turbo on it, but even a homebrewed system will break your budget and reduce your reliability.

If it were me, I'd look at buying an early 5-speed 90's Honda Civic, maybe an accord. I put over 120k miles on an older one, just sold my '88 with 240k mi on the clock that was still going strong. In my mind, cheap vehicles are all over the place, the trick is to get a base model of basic transportation so the repairs don't kill you. Low mileage "grandma cars" like Cressida can also be a good value, but most are FE killing automatics.

What you'll find (with gas prices recently going up) is you aren't alone in your quest, competition for a clean Honda that hasn't been 'tuned on' is tough. When I was shopping for my 'in high demand' metro, I carried a pocket full of cash and was on standby to leave work to go look at a car, if the right candidate showed up on Craig's List. I even started carrying a tow bar

Have you ever considered diesel. the 1.6l Jetta/Golf diesel gets in the high 40's low 50's without even trying.With a little hypermiling magic you could get even better. And they're very reliable for constant long distance driving.And very easy to repair. (no computer to go bad). A little hard to start in the cold without a block heater, but great cars. You can usually get one for less than 3000, and they'll last 500,000 miles if you take care of it. Just my two cents I own two and love them both

You can get a brand new Kia Rio for $8999 without A/C. I bet you could get an '05 or '06 model for 5k.