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Cost effective two seater cars
kaliyama
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Left to find less-moderated foraRegistered User regular
Hello,
My commute takes me and SO over the bay bridge, which offers a carpool lane that two people can use if it's in a two seater car.
Casual/arranged carpooling with a third isn't an option bc we tend to leave at varying and odd hours, so I am looking at getting a cheap two seater car for our daily commute. I'd be willing to get a car in the 10k range. Any thoughts? It seems like used miatas are the only thing I could get in that price range, which I'm not thrilled about but could live with.
Are there other obvious models I'm not thinking of?
My commute takes me and SO over the bay bridge, which offers a carpool lane that two people can use if it's in a two seater car.
Casual/arranged carpooling with a third isn't an option bc we tend to leave at varying and odd hours, so I am looking at getting a cheap two seater car for our daily commute. I'd be willing to get a car in the 10k range. Any thoughts? It seems like used miatas are the only thing I could get in that price range, which I'm not thrilled about but could live with.
Are there other obvious models I'm not thinking of?
kaliyama on
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The budget two-seater is basically a prehistoric thing now. The reason you're only finding miatas is because that's the only thing that exists in that price range
You might, MIGHT be able to find an extremely old and un-loved Porsche Boxster in the mid to low ten's, but that's many factors worse than a Miata because the repairs are $texas
the only other option that comes to mind is the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky platform, but those will still be higher than 10k, more like 13-16k in good condition.
might be worth it for style points, as the Saturn Sky is one of my favorite looking cars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Sky
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Looks like there are CR-Zs in the $15k range. They are uglier than the Saturn Sky, but they also are going to be easier to find mechanics to maintain.
but a Sky is just a GM car, and an old school domestic-built one at that, so don't be scared by the maintenance costs. you could probably take it to any chevy dealer for service
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
CR-Z's performance appears dismal, though, and lousy c-pillar placement. Disappointing! That car would have been ideal if it wasn't rubbish on so many fronts.
No, to get into the carpool lane it needs to be designed as a two-seater.
Considering people love them this much...
I'd say that's a fair assessment. I've also heard they are relatively pain free maintenance wise, and when something does break it's generally an easy fix
You might be able to find a shitty old unloved Corvette going cheap, but it will eat gas like a fat kid eats McDonalds.
I'm a little queasy about getting squished by an SUV in traffic in a miata...
http://www.eliomotors.com/?gclid=CNa7r6vvlb4CFQmSfgodsmwAcQ
Man that is cool. But it is classified as a motorcycle and I live in Nebraska. Land of the required helmet law. I am not wearing a helmet in an enclosed vehicle.
Cool still though.
Six cylinder with two seats. Fuel injection. For being sporty it still gets pretty decent gas mileage.
Downside is the cost of upkeep and trying to find parts.
I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Yeah, I'd go with a Ranger or what ever Chevy's version of a ranger is. They get decent mileage and having a truck to haul stuff in is always nice(and makes you tons of friends).
That would have been the S-10/GMC Sonoma. The Ranger and S-10 are no longer made, the S-10 ended in 2004 in the US and the Ranger ended production in 2012 (2011 aside from fleet vehicles). The S-10 got "replaced" by the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon, and the smallest pickups Ford makes are now F-150's...all of them significantly larger and with significantly worse gas mileage (not that the Ranger and S-10 were any grate shakes in that department except by comparison to other pickups).
You may as well spit in his eye. The MG-F also exists, but you don't see any of us recommending that, do you? Because we don't hate kaliyama the way you just revealed yourself to.
I've seen over 6 for sale, personally, both in PA and CA. They're out there and in his price range. Most "car people" don't know about them so they haven't appreciated.
or you could get a motorcycle with a sidecar
that would be pretty badass
Oh no, car people know about them.
We know about them alright...
There's a reason they're cheap. Lots of reasons, actually!
Nope, every model of the Fit is four doors, four seats.
Now to ship it the 3000 miles to the bay area!
There are lots out there and most of them have been loved all their life and are therefore well maintained. That and the fact that Mazda's in general are pretty bulletproof makes for pretty trouble free motoring and on top you get a car that is really fun.
The Miata has been on the market for 25 years now and it is normally listed in the top ten of any list of reliable cars regardless of type, often getting the #1 spot for sports cars and on top of that they really keep their value unless they are really neglected.
I'm of course somewhat biased having had my Miata for a good 8 years now. It's my daily driver as well as the fun car and I run it all year round.
A good place to get more info on Miata's is here: miata.net/
If you like then you can get away with $5K and still get a sweet ride. It will be a little older but as mentioned the Miata's are normally well maintained.
Here is mine, it's a 1999: