Looking to get a sub-$1000 car for delivery

[Speedwagon]

Currently I drive a '98 Legacy GT, which I love. But it's been getting around 19mpg lately, which is mostly driven for my job, delivering pizza in Denver. Complete city environment, in Denver Proper.

Thinking about picking up a sub-$1000 car to take over the duty of delivery. I figured you guys would know what might be best suited for the job. Currently looking at some Civic hatchbacks from the later 80s. Needs to have enough room for the big deliveries, and make it easy to get in and out of. Since I work on my own cars, I can keep an older car running on the cheap, and sell it when I am done with it.

Any thoughts on other vehicles that might be suited for this? The small size will be a huge plus as well, since I take the car down a lot of side streets with parallel parking on both sides. I have thought about the Metro/Swift, but there aren't as many of those around. Which means junkyard parts are harder to find as well.

[pacobeagle]

Another vehicle to consider may be a Toyota Corolla/Geo Prizm. They are plentiful in the salvage yards, easy as heck to maintain and get decent mileage.

My '93 Prizm Lsi regularly gets 30+ city driving with the 1.6l. Do some "eco" mods and bring that up even more. There's one here in town on craigslist for $400 that needs an engine. I can source an engine for $150 at the salvage yard.

[Speedwagon]

Thanks for the suggestions. Been looking a bit for the Corolla/Prizm, but I'm not seeing any I really like in my area. The hatchback appeals to me a lot for delivery, as it is easier to get the bags in and out of.

I found an '85 CRX, that claims to need a head gasket for $800 asking in my area. Going to look at it shortly, and see if I can talk them down. Seems fairly clean, but I think $800 is too much for a car that needs engine work.

[War_Wagon]

An '85 CRX will have a carb on it, it won't be fuel injected so keep that in mind. Carbs can work fine, but they are more work to maintain and they never seem to run as well or reliably as a fuel injected car does. That's one of the things I use as a cutoff point for whether or not I pick up an eco-car that I find somewhere - is it fuel injected? Generally with Hondas you want 1988 or newer as they will all be F.I. (except for Preludes) at that point. Some earlier CRXs had F.I. but only the Si models, and I think that didn't start until '86.

You might want to look at a Toyota Tercel, '91 or newer. They have a 1.5L with fuel injection. I have found them to be good little cars, super easy to work on, with parts cheap and plentiful. One problem they all have is bad valve seals, so when you go to look at one it will blow blue smoke when you start it (if the engine is cold at least). They pretty much all do this, and it's not worth fixing, but it does make a good bargaining point when you are trying to get a better price.

Another car to consider is an early Ford Focus. The first few years they carried over the same engine that was in the Escort, you want to avoid those ones. But I think in '02 they went to the ZTec motor, and those ones aren't bad, you can get them in a station wagon, and they are dirt cheap (around here anyway). My friend has a 2003 wagon with 180k KMs (111k miles) and he can't get $1000 for it. Good luck in your search.

[Ryland]

War Wagon is right, if you buy a Honda with a carb you either need to keep the carb and the 56 vacuum lines for it stock and in good working order or you need to accept that you are going to blow head gaskets, have the engine over heat and other issues, when they work well they are awesome and they will work for many years without issue, when you get someone who sees them as having "to many parts" and starts pulling stuff off, then they fail and they fail bad.

[War_Wagon]

I forgot to add a Saturn. An SW1 with a 5 speed would give you lots of room, good FE, and you don't have to worry about rust. I like Saturns, they are cheap, creaky when it's cold out, they are easy to work on, and there is a lot of information about modding them for FE out there.

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

Some earlier CRXs had F.I. but only the Si models, and I think that didn't start until '86.

Actually, there was an 85 Si as well. Fuel injected, and light. They are in demand as racers because of the light weight and more powerful injected 1.5 liter motor.

That doesn't change the fact that your advice is quite valid, though.

-soD

[War_Wagon]

Thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure if it was '85 or '86. One of the few cars that haunts me for missing was a black, original owner '86 CRX Si with 135k KMs (85k miles) as I didn't have the $1250 to buy it at the time. Any CRX from that era is a worthy eco-car, but for someone that is using it to make a living, and not as a project, I would have to say that a beat up '88 Civic would be more reliable than a carb'd CRX, as cool as the CRX is. Projects are fun, but I keep my CX around just because I know it will start when I need to get somewhere lol.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

Actually, there was an 85 Si as well. Fuel injected, and light. They are in demand as racers because of the light weight and more powerful injected 1.5 liter motor.

That doesn't change the fact that your advice is quite valid, though.

-soD

That makes sense. The Prelude Si started in 1985, too.

[Speedwagon]

I ended up getting the '85 CRX. $500, needs a head gasket(and probably the head milled). Decent shape, the girl I bought it from said she was the 2nd owner. 250k miles. Someone went through and replaced all the vacuum lines at some point, as they are not the original hard, brittle lines anymore. Everything appears completely stock, except the stereo.






Some rust over the rear wheels, but that's about it.