# Need a cheap daily driver with good mpg



## nickvree (Sep 26, 2012)

Currently DW and I are a 1-car family (2006 Dodge Dakota). I get about 17 mpg, and drive 60 miles round trip for work every day... so, I have to pay ~$15 to get to and from work every day (plus wear and tear on the truck, etc.)

So, I'm looking for something that gets MUCH better MPG. I also need it to be cheap(ish), but have some creature comforts (AC is a must). I would also like it to be 'easy' to work on myself (I have almost no 'mechanic' experience) but would want to be able to at least _try_ fixing something that goes wrong.

So, any opinions on makes/models/years? I'm not looking for a single silver bullet, just some options to keep an eye out for. Thanks in advance!


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## crispin (Jun 30, 2010)

94-97 Honda Accord

Cheap - very reliable - easy to work on

I average 30 mpg with mine


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## DaveNay (Nov 25, 2012)

I bought a '98 Nissan Sentra last spring for the exact same reason. Went from 15 MPG on the F150 to a consistent 37 MPG. It should pay for itself in only 12 months. I was lucky to find one with A/C for only $2200. All it needed was four tires and a new stereo (with bluetooth for my phone)


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Geo Metro in the 90s years. Mine is a 97 with A/C. I haven't checked lately but was getting 40 MPG (more if I could manage to stay at 55 MPH on my commute). I've heard of the lower 90s getting as much as 60 MPG.

I've seen them listed in the $2000-3000 range.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Olds Alero 4 cyl has been cheap to own and drive. There are Pontiac and chev clones too


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## rickfrosty (Jun 19, 2008)

nickvree said:


> Currently DW and I are a 1-car family (2006 Dodge Dakota). I get about 17 mpg, and drive 60 miles round trip for work every day... so, I have to pay ~$15 to get to and from work every day (plus wear and tear on the truck, etc.)
> 
> So, I'm looking for something that gets MUCH better MPG. I also need it to be cheap(ish), but have some creature comforts (AC is a must). I would also like it to be 'easy' to work on myself (I have almost no 'mechanic' experience) but would want to be able to at least _try_ fixing something that goes wrong.
> 
> So, any opinions on makes/models/years? I'm not looking for a single silver bullet, just some options to keep an eye out for. Thanks in advance!


Saturns are good. Mine gets 40mpg on a trip and drives like a 5 spd sportscar - mechanics say usually nothing goes wrong w/these. Mine is a 99 3-door.


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## travis91 (Jul 26, 2005)

I have a 1988 ford ranger.. less than $2000 invested, looks rough mainly because i use it for things most wouldnt use a F150 for.. but it gets 25-27 mpg highway and can still haul feed, hay, scrap, ect


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## Barn Yarns (Oct 7, 2012)

I have a 2000 Neon that Im looking to sell. Im taking it to my mechanic to have some work done to it. 

Im still getting 32 MPG with it. 

If that is something you are interested in, please PM me.


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

I paid $400 for a 92 honda accord with 199,000 miles on it. it only gets 26 mpg, but its been very durable


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## Daryll in NW FLA (May 10, 2002)

Have to second the post on Ford Rangers-have an 89 and a 2002 both get over 30 miles per easy. Both 4 cylinder 5 speeds. Paid $550 for the 89 and $1800 for the 2002. Just have too keep your eyes open and jump on it when you see an add. Even the 2002 is easy to work on.


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## langoley (Jan 26, 2006)

Our cheap daily driver is a 1982 Mercedes 300SD.It runs great,turns heads,gets 32 mpg on "red fuel" and we only paid 1250 for it.And best of all 350,000 miles isn't out of the question with regular maint.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Pretty much anything with a four cylinder engine. We have a little 91 subaru wagon as our market mobile. 30ishmpg 4X4 with cargo space and a roof rack. When its just me and my dog we play "rally car " on logging roads. Read that as fun to drive.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

langoley said:


> Our cheap daily driver is a 1982 Mercedes 300SD.It runs great,turns heads,gets 32 mpg on "red fuel" and we only paid 1250 for it.And best of all 350,000 miles isn't out of the question with regular maint.


1250 bucks...not bad thats about what your fine will be if you get caught running farm fuel. Just a heads up.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

catahoula said:


> 1250 bucks...not bad thats about what your fine will be if you get caught running farm fuel. Just a heads up.


Not likely in WV. I've never heard of DOT looking at cars. Haven't seen them stop diesel pickups either. FWIW, WV doesn't test for emissions.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Darren said:


> Not likely in WV. I've never heard of DOT looking at cars. Haven't seen them stop diesel pickups either. FWIW, WV doesn't test for emissions.


I wouldn't advertise willfully breaking the law on the internet. I don't really care either way to be honest, I think its a pretty stupid tax. Lets just say you get pulled over for rolling a stop sign or a tail light out and the officer happens to notice the red stain of a little spilled fuel around the fill door. The ticket is quite a bit more than a grand by the way, something to think about is all. 
Cheers.


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

I have a 95 Suzuki swift (a metro) w/AC. It gets 45mpg hwy and like 42 ish mixed.

They are cheap and easy to fix. I paid 2k for mine.


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## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

Early 2000's Chev Impala with the 3.8 engine. Full size car, 6 passenger seating and 28-30mpg on the highway, and the 3.8 is a proven engine. Stay away from the 3.4 engine, it's junk. 
Early 2000's Saturn, get the SL2, not the SL1, the SL2 will get high 30's on the highway. But, those cars are notorious for burning oil, not a big deal as long as you know that and keep it full. 
Either of those cars can be found for $3000 or less with about 100k miles on them.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

96 Toyota Corrola 4 door with automatic transmission. 40 mpg at 75 mph. I paid $3800 in 2006 for it as it had been totaled. Starts at -20 F without being plugged in.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Honda Civic over the Accord. It is smaller and gets MUCH better mileage - and is just as reliable. My daughter was given a 2008 from her grandparents and that car is amazing! If I was a car person, that's what I'd get. Peppy, cute, comfortable, roomy and gets over 30 mpg. Not bad!


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## OKCGene (Mar 24, 2010)

I have a similar situation. I have a 99 Chevy pickup. Good truck but gas mileage not so good.

2 & 1/2 years ago I bought a Toyota Camry 4 Cylinder. Never had a "foreign" car before but turns out it was made in Kentucky USA.

That Camry is the best vehicle I have ever owned. Period.

Everything works right the first time, every time. Smooth ride, quiet, great a/c. Very Comfortable and suprisingly roomy inside, lots of legroom. Reallyh good MPG. One highway trip with the cruise set on 70mph, a/c on, it gave 35 mpg. Anymore I usually run close to 80 mph and don't even think about mpg.

If I wrecked it tomorrow, I'd go buy another Camry.

And when time comes, I am going to sell the 99 Chevy pickup and buy a Toyota Tacoma truck.


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## mikec4193 (Oct 13, 2011)

Hi everyone

I have had nothing but good to say about Dodge Neons....my son had a 95 ran forever....got over 30 mpg all day long. I also raced 2 of them (Neons) for the past 8 years at the local dirt oval track...only had one engine failure and that was due to something stupid I did to it...

Try to stick with domestic brands due to part costs tend to be higher for the "foreign" brands.

Just my 2 cents

MikeC


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## JLMissouri (Dec 12, 2012)

Best MPG cars ever built that are relatively common:

VW Diesels, especially the 1.6 (gas ones don't get good mpg)
Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift especially the 3 cylinder ones
Ford Festiva/Aspire

Nothing really beats the VW rabbits and Jetta's but they are getting hard to find and are prone to rust. They are also in a mechanical world of their own. If you know what you are doing they will go for ever. They are the best economy car ever built. I prefer the 1.6 because it is all mechanical, the 1.9 in the newer VW's is a good motor but computer controlled. The 1.6 gets slightly better MPG, the 1.9 has more power and is more dependable but harder to work on and a lot more expensive.

Geo Metros are great, although again they are prone to rust. I don't have personal experience with them.

Ford Festivas and Aspires are pretty good cars and are probably the most rust resistant of the group, but they don't get the highest MPG. Still I got 40+/- at real highway speeds and they have more power than the others listed.

I have had VW diesels for years as well as Festivas. I have driven a lot of other cars that can get 30+/-, but compared to the ones I have listed these so called economy cars are almost a gas guzzler. There are some other cars that can hang with this group, but they are rare in the US.


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## bikehealer1 (Oct 8, 2009)

1996 Kawasaki Gpz 1100. 43 miles per gallon with smooth throttle control. Fresh air cooling in the summer. heater doesnt do very well in the winter. lots of fun getting there..


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I had real good luck with Chevy Cavaliers/Cobalts with the 2.0 liter and S-10 pickups with the 2.5 liter....James


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## AtomicFarmer (Sep 16, 2012)

I'm with JLMissouri-I like VW's. My first car (in 1997) was an '85 Golf diesel that ran like a champ and wasn't too bad to work on. At around 215000 miles the tranny went and we just replaced it with a junkyard tranny rather than fixing it. One person could reach under the hood and pull the transmission out up over the grille. Easy-peesie. It's all metric and some things were odd but mechanically it was pretty straightforward. These cars are getting hard to come across but they are still out there.


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## Bob Huntress (Dec 17, 2012)

Any small 4 cylinder should get better milage, yet you list a few other things as must. If you plan to work on it yourself and AC is important you want something since 1996, when every car has R-134A or one that has already been retrofited. You may want to look closely at the Ford Rangers and Chevy S10's as they will have more room to work around. If you have almost no mechanical experience, the extra room will be a life saver. I also recommend that you get a good auto book, like the Automobile Encyclopedia, and the Haynes manual for whatever vehicle you do get. The first will help you understand what you are generally looking at, while the second will assist you in fixing it. Parts for Rangers and S10's are usually less than Hondas.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

The Swift was never made with a 3 cylinder. The Geo/Chevy Metro and Pontiac Firefly are amazing cars but have some severe drawbacks : automatic transmissions are weak and rust is severe. These cars quickly rust out the lower control mount frames, and it is a very difficult/expensive repair. Anywhere there is rust, you're not going to find many Metros left.

Total cost of vehicle ownership is a combination of many factors... so something common like a Cavelier or Ranger or whatever... may not get the super MPG of something like a Metro or diesel VW, but these cars are everywhere, insurance is usually cheap and MPG is decent... so that helps offset the total cost.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

1998 BMW 323IC 32mpg and she will go when you stomp it! (Wife's car)


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## JLMissouri (Dec 12, 2012)

The Suzuki Swift is the same car as the Geo Metro and did come with a three cylinder engine just like the Geo Metro. Suzuki made most of the cars that GM rebadged as Geos.

I agree that there is more to consider than just the MPG when getting a car. I consider dependabillity, parts availabillity and cost as well as how hard they are to work on. I have sold cars just because they are hard to work on or very poorly designed.

Most front wheel drive cars are a pain to work on compared to rear wheel drive vehicles. All modern vehicles are also a pain to work on compared to old vehicles. It is worth it for me to drive a VW, while more expensive to work on and harder to work on they don't break down as often and the diesel engines go a lot longer between break downs.


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## JLMissouri (Dec 12, 2012)

Here is a quick look at what will be saved when comparing vehicles with different mpg. They say the average miles driven in US is 15,000 a year so I divided that by 12 to get the monthly mileage of 1250 and used it as the basis with $3 a gallon gas. I am pretty sure due to inflation and other factors that $3 will be considered cheap in just a few years. 

1250 Monthly mileage at $3 a gallon.


MPG: Gal./Month $/Month

15 mpg 83.3 $250

20 mpg 62.5 $187.5

25 mpg 50 $150

30 mpg 41.7 $125

35 mpg 35.7 $107

40 mpg 31.3 $94

45 mpg 27.8 $83


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

I am going to go with a recommendation for anything with a ford 2.3L engine in it. This is a small engine that commonly comes in the pinto and the mustang II and even the newer ford escape. My 84 ford ranger has this engine and averages 32 MPG. My mother also ran this engine in her racecar when she ran the local circle track. Even her racecar built for high RPM and speeds averaged almost 25MPG in a mustang II. Heck, even I can build one of these motors for around $200, and I have no mechanical skills to speak of so they are pretty easy to work on. Home inventors are even using the 2.3l to build hybred and alternative energy vehicles. I am defiantly the most happy with the 2.3l in my ranger tho. It has survived two teenagers, countless hunting and fishing trips, and still puts out good gas mileage without making me take it to my dad or uncle to get it fixed.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

We have a MAzda Protege 1.6, 5 speed, get ~32+MPG. Has good AC. It is lightly made, and replacing the water pump i sa 12 hour chore, but I have done very little else to it, Has 212k miles, seems to be running great still.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

catahoula said:


> I wouldn't advertise willfully breaking the law on the internet. I don't really care either way to be honest, I think its a pretty stupid tax. Lets just say you get pulled over for rolling a stop sign or a tail light out and the officer happens to notice the red stain of a little spilled fuel around the fill door. The ticket is quite a bit more than a grand by the way, something to think about is all.
> Cheers.


Yea, stupid tax. Just let the other drivers pay to take care of your roads.:bash:


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

I'm telling ya those old Subarus just can't be beat, four wheel drive. You can haul grocieries or tools and keep everything out of the weather. Our 91 has AC that could keep icecream frozen. Gets in the thirties for milage, tires are cheap, power everything, automatic or standard five speed. Best part, you can buy them for less than a grand.

Cheers.


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