Time to go car shopping!

TL DR

Hey all and thanks in advance for the H&A.

It's time for the younger brother to start driving, so I have the opportunity to give him my car if I want to switch to something else.

I'm currently driving a Mazda 6, and while it's a great set of wheels, it doesn't really suit my needs right now. My first car was a '91 Celica, and I swear you could go all over town on a thimble of gas.

So my questions are:
-What cars are similar to my old Celica? By this I mean 2-door, 4 cylinders, manual transmission, good fuel economy, and from a company that is known to make cars that run forever.

-What's the deal with hybrids? Is the initial cost made up for by fuel economy, or is this eclipsed by getting gouged every time you need maintenance?

fuelish

The initial cost, of a hybrid, is not made up for by the fuel economy. The reason to get one is to be enviromentally conscious, not to be cheap.
Personally, I don't have the money to be that enviro freindly. I drive a Mazda3 wagon. Two more doors than you want but less than 20K, handles pretty good, good power(from the 2.3), you can get it with a five speed(mine is very nice). I get about 32mpg in mixed driving.

TL DR

I was under the impression that the way a hybrid works is that an electric engine assists in starting and charges on braking, so as to improve fuel consumption.

If that's true, it's really a question of how much you drive the car vs. how much more expensive it is to maintain than a normal only-combustion-engine deal, compared to the initial difference in price.

Dyrwen66

There's some nice new Nissan cars that look similar to the celica. Personally I drive a sentra, gets about 30-35 mpg. And yes, hybrid's get about the same mpg, except they're environmentally conscious ....uh, that, if they still take the same amount of gas, then they aren't much use.

I tend to buy cars that're non-American, and according to my needs. I need room for groceries and occasional LAN parties, so a 4-door is a must. If you need a 2-door, obviously the price will increase as that generally gets hit with "sports" labels.

Gdiguy

fuelish wrote: »

The initial cost, of a hybrid, is not made up for by the fuel economy. The reason to get one is to be enviromentally conscious, not to be cheap.
Personally, I don't have the money to be that enviro freindly. I drive a Mazda3 wagon. Two more doors than you want but less than 20K, handles pretty good, good power(from the 2.3), you can get it with a five speed(mine is very nice). I get about 32mpg in mixed driving.

I my mazda3 hatch (though I couldn't get them to go under 20k... I think my final price was 20,003 or something stupid like that); they're all made in japan still as well, though my gas mileage hasn't been awesome (I do basically zero highway driving, it's low-mid 30's when I've taken it on longer highway trips)

I thought the break-even point for hybrids even just for gas costs was still a decently high mileage amount, so like for me driving sub 10k miles/year it wouldn't make sense.. and yeah, the main advantage is the regenerative breaking, which is why the hybrids often get better rated city mileage than highway mileage

Daenris

Dyrwen66 wrote: »

There's some nice new Nissan cars that look similar to the celica. Personally I drive a sentra, gets about 30-35 mpg. And yes, hybrid's get about the same mpg, except they're environmentally conscious ....uh, that, if they still take the same amount of gas, then they aren't much use.

Depends on what hybrid. Obviously a hybrid SUV isn't going to get great milleage (though probably better than a non-hybrid). But my friend with a Prius gets around 45-50mpg. So there is some savings on gas costs.

However, over the long run, yeah they're probably not going to be cheaper unless you drive it for a long time and it doesn't need much maintenance.

Personally I'd love a hybrid, but can't afford it. Right now I'm driving a 93 Ford Escort Wagon that gets around 35-40mpg, but is about to fall apart.

Supposedly Honda is releasing a cheaper (~$15k) hybrid based on the Honda Fit sometime, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of concrete information. Plus it wouldn't be available till likely 2009, so probably wouldn't work for you.

If you're looking for new the Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit are lower cost, small cars that gets decent mpg.