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Cheaper used cars
Fizban140
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
I am looking to buy a used car for under $10,000. I really don't know anything about cars besides that I want one, and some are better than others. I was thinking about getting a honda civic because I have heard they are very reliable. So what are some decently reliable used cars? I don't want a car that is super fast, but I was thinking about getting a car that is a little faster than average (from what I know, the faster the car the worse the gas mileage right?).
So I want a car that is decently fast, decent with gas mileage (around 28 mpg...if that sounds reasonable?), fairly reliable, and most of all affordable.
So I want a car that is decently fast, decent with gas mileage (around 28 mpg...if that sounds reasonable?), fairly reliable, and most of all affordable.
Fizban140 on
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There's my $0.02.
Cheap, bullet proof, good suspension, good motor, limited slip, easy to mod. Did I mention cheap and bullet proof? I rallyX against a couple of guys in these damned things. They should be banned. They are quick and refuse to break.
You mentioned Civic. If you can find an Si around 89, 90, 91, 92 that would also be a good choice. Decent power, great handling, lots of mods.(No body mods, they just add weight)
I find that if you get a great handling car with OK(But not great) power, you will have loads more fun with out getting in trouble with the law. MY fun car has maybe 130hp, but it has lots of $$ in the suspension(And some R rubber) It is way more fun than my bosses NSX or 335hp R Volvo wagon for around the town.
I think you got the years wrong, 88-91 is one generation, 92-95 is another. Both are great models though. Every civic right up to the redesign in 2002 is a great car, inside and out, id highly recommend one, whether youre going for 2 door (92 and up), 4 door or hatchback.
The 88-91 generation is definately my favorite though. Not a lot of horsepower, but as you say, they feel more powerful than they are because theyre so light. My CRX only has 91 horsepower compared to 109 in my honda Fit, but the CRX will beat it off the line and even out accelerate it right up to 80mph just because it weighs about 700 pounds less.
Solid cars, and you can pick them up for cheap. Under 4000 dollars for a well taken care of car with around 100k miles on it.
Sentra SE-R's are also decent cars you can pick up really, really cheap, if you know how to drive stick. Saw a dealer selling one for 7000 and it only had 70k on the odometer. Friend from work has one, he loves it.
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I drove one of the newest generation civics, and its a bit better, its more comfortable to drive atleast, but i still dont like the digital gauges.
*edit*, its a personal choice, if you like the interiors, theyre fine cars as well. Theres no reliability issues with them at all. The newest Si also has the same series engine as the acura RSX (K20) which is a really, really solid engine. You can probably snag a 2006 offlease for about 10k if you dont mind stick and can do a little haggling at the dealership.
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Since I admitted my VW issue, if you want a really fun, easy to play with, and cheap car: 1984 Volkswagen GTi. They are tough, easy to wrok on, there are lots of cheap hotrod parts and tricks. They are loads of fun and very cheap.
Just throwing that out there for another idea...
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Lucky you, we have snow or snowing conditions here for nearly 1/2 the year and road repair for the other 1/2.
Whatever you decide, try to get something E-85 compatable as Minnesota has a large # of pumps with them, and it's STILL less than $2 a gallon in places.
Not really, I'm at work right now but just do a goolgle search for E-85 compatable cars and see what comes up. You might be surprised.
Edit: As a consequence your mileage may go down as E-85 is a much higher octane than the standard 87 unleaded at the pump. It's like 102-105 octane.
The lower mileage is not because of the higher octane, it is because there is less potential energy in alcohol so you need more of it to produce the same amount of power. The octane number tells how resistant a fuel is to predetonation. It has come to be associated with performance because when you have a high compression/high performance engine the fuel is more prone to combusting simply from the heat created by compressing air(Which is more/less how a deisel fires) or hot spots in the cylinder/head'piston top. You could make a higher performing engine running alcohol but you would still have greater consumption
The E-85 industry is pushing the stuff as high performance to enhance its saleability. Even tho the stuff is cheaper, you use about a third more to cover the same distance.
Presently deisel is the economy/power king. If you budget is 10K look for a turbo deisel like a Jetta or Passat wagon. They have somewhere around 200ft pounds of torque and get economy in the 50mpg range.
1984 Rabbit is a great hobby car, but definitely not a daily driver. Last I knew these puppies are 4-speeds and if you do highway driving, get used to listening to your car. And let's not even talk about what happens in a fender bender with those bunnies ..
As for the passat / jetta wagon, you're still looking at 14 grand for a TDi. Last I looked, which was yesterday, you'll still pay a 12k premium for a Jetta TDi w/ ~90,000 miles. If you can find one for less, you've got a hell of a deal on your hands. Those babies will run forever, and yes, the torque is incredible.
My advice? The Civic and Sentra SE-R suggestions are spot on. I'm a VW / Audi guy but I also have a soft spot for Saabs - there are some great deals out there for these, and while they aren't incredibly reliable, they're unique and fairly cheap to fix given the GM parts connection.
Fizban is probably not looking for a car this cheap, but they are great cars to learn on. Very easy to work on, parts are cheap, tough. They handle well and are faster than their non turbo modern counterpart(TopGear ran the '84 against the modern GTi, non turbo. The old car whooped ass)
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