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Looking for a reliable, low TCO daily driver

E

etherealfocus

Senior member
I hate working on cars, but I do have a reliable, reasonably priced mechanic just a couple miles from my house.

Wife just got a FT job so we need a second car. First car is a 2013 Rio, neither of us loves it but it gets the job done.

This time I'm looking used to save some cash. Found some options on CarGurus, but don't know enough about them to make a good distinction.

Any thoughts/advice?

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ned&sortDirection=undefined#listing=150615962

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ndefined##listing=150284217&listing=148192456

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ndefined##listing=150284217&listing=150379082

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ndefined##listing=150284217&listing=144426869

Anything under around $8k or so is an easy cash car and I'd prefer to do business that way.

I'm also considering hybrids. My wife goes through some heavy traffic and residential areas, which is where a Prius or Civic Hybrid would shine. Not sure it's actually worth the extra upfront cost and higher potential maintenance cost though. Is a hybrid with 50-100k miles going to have a significantly weakened battery? Other parts of the hybrid system add significantly to maintenance cost?
 
etherealfocus said:
I'm also considering hybrids. My wife goes through some heavy traffic and residential areas, which is where a Prius or Civic Hybrid would shine. Not sure it's actually worth the extra upfront cost and higher potential maintenance cost though. Is a hybrid with 50-100k miles going to have a significantly weakened battery? Other parts of the hybrid system add significantly to maintenance cost?
Click to expand...

The hybrids (especially the Prius) were designed with battery life in mind (e.g. not allowing high drain, etc.) and many Prius taxis have gone way over 50-100K miles by several factors (think 300/400/500K miles). So assuming you get 200K out of the original batteries, they don't all die at once, it's usually just a cell or two that are weak and the replacement isn't as expensive as you might think.

The FUD surrounding battery pack failure and expense is one of the reasons why Prii are fairly cheap once they get near 100K miles or so. Other than batteries, the maintenance tends to be cheaper on hybrids. Regenerative braking increases brake pad life dramatically; no alternators to crap out on you, etc.
 
Focus - If you can get over the interior, not bad little cars when owned by an owner who gives a crap about it. I'd avoid ex rentals though. Not too sure how well the transmission holds up to fleet service.
Accent - Timing Belt, Hyundai bottom of the barrel sensors and fasteners.
Volkswagen - Just no. You are playing lotto when you buy a used VW with some miles on it.
Aveo - Take Accent and shitify.

I would recommend the newest Corolla with the lowest mileage in your price range. Very low maintenance cars that hold up very well.
Something like this -https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/671241543/overview/


If you can find a Prius in your price range, it will probably have 100K and may have some wear and tear to match BUT they hold up extremely well. I would have more confidence in a 150K Prius over a 80K Hyundai any day.
 
Ok, VW and Aveo nixed.

That leaves:

2010 Focus SE, $5500, 77k miles, 29mpg combined
2009 Accent GLS, $3900, 96k miles, 31 mpg combined
2005 Prius Base, $6000, 54k miles, 46mpg combined
2010 Corolla LE, $8000, 54k miles, 30mpg combined

The Accent looks like a win if I decide to go cheap, although getting close to 100k miles concerns me. Is that getting into risk of expensive fixits range?

The Focus is only $500 cheaper than the Prius. It's 5 yrs newer but has 23k more miles and significantly worse MPG. Let's say the mpg and price balance out... which is the better car, and which is less likely to cost me a bunch of money in repairs? I'm leaning toward the Prius.

Given that the 2010 Corolla and the 2005 Prius have the same mileage (and the Prius has significantly better mpg) do you really think moving up five years is worth the $2000 extra? Serious question, I don't know how to gauge this stuff.

FWIW I'm extremely utilitarian about cars. Just want something that works, no surprises. Hatchbacks preferred but I wouldn't pay more than a few hundred extra for one.

One other option I found is this guy: 2006 Corolla CE, $2600, 174k miles, 32mpg combined
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ned&sortDirection=undefined#listing=141257080

175k miles is pretty scary, but given how long it's been listed I can probably haggle them down to $2000ish. With the money I save it'd be a no-brainer to bring it to the mechanic and tell them to do whatever they have to do to make it reliable. Checkups every six months or so, etc. That a smart route or asking for trouble?
 
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I'd make sure the Prius doesn't have any surprises and grab that. It's about as low-maintenance and low-chance-of-failure as you can get. Since you don't need doodads then you can just drive the thing and not think about it.
 
Toyota's hybrids are terrific. I second Chrono's opinion.

My 16 year old Insight just rolled past 210K on the factory battery pack. It still holds plenty of charge, and Honda's packs have a reputation for not lasting as long as Toyota's. The only repair it's ever had was when I replaced the clutch master cylinder around 190k. It's even still on factory brake pads.
 
etherealfocus said:
Ok, VW and Aveo nixed.

That leaves:

2010 Focus SE, $5500, 77k miles, 29mpg combined
2009 Accent GLS, $3900, 96k miles, 31 mpg combined
2005 Prius Base, $6000, 54k miles, 46mpg combined
2010 Corolla LE, $8000, 54k miles, 30mpg combined

The Accent looks like a win if I decide to go cheap, although getting close to 100k miles concerns me. Is that getting into risk of expensive fixits range?

The Focus is only $500 cheaper than the Prius. It's 5 yrs newer but has 23k more miles and significantly worse MPG. Let's say the mpg and price balance out... which is the better car, and which is less likely to cost me a bunch of money in repairs? I'm leaning toward the Prius.

Given that the 2010 Corolla and the 2005 Prius have the same mileage (and the Prius has significantly better mpg) do you really think moving up five years is worth the $2000 extra? Serious question, I don't know how to gauge this stuff.

FWIW I'm extremely utilitarian about cars. Just want something that works, no surprises. Hatchbacks preferred but I wouldn't pay more than a few hundred extra for one.

One other option I found is this guy: 2006 Corolla CE, $2600, 174k miles, 32mpg combined
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...ned&sortDirection=undefined#listing=141257080

175k miles is pretty scary, but given how long it's been listed I can probably haggle them down to $2000ish. With the money I save it'd be a no-brainer to bring it to the mechanic and tell them to do whatever they have to do to make it reliable. Checkups every six months or so, etc. That a smart route or asking for trouble?
Click to expand...


Accent has a belt that will need changing every 60,000 miles.
2005 Prius (2nd gen) had pretty horrific traction control if I recall. If you get snow or ice...you may want to skip the 2nd gen Prius.
As for the Corolla, I think you might be able to find a better deal if you look around some more.
 
I'm in north Texas and occasionally road trip to Minnesota so yeah, weather can be an issue. On the other hand, I grew up on crappy cars... learned to drive on a beat up Chevette. So far so good.

The bigger problem I'm seeing with the Prius is that there apparently is a substantial chance that the battery pack will need replacing due to age rather than mileage: http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ath-what-happens-when-your-prius-battery-dies

That link is from 2012... the 05 Prius I'm looking at is almost 12 yrs old, and a significant number of batteries are kicking the bucket around the 8-12yr timeframe. Might be fine, but gambling with an additional $3k or so expense makes me nervous. At that point I might as well just cough up another $1-2k and and get something from 2012 or so. I can spend that much if needed, but it seems like a waste to blow that much on a mundane transportation doodad.

Really, I'm just looking for something that reliably goes from A to B for under $6k or so. I'm having trouble finding relatively recent Corollas for that low... do I just need to spend more or are there other good options?

Maybe one of these? They're more than I was hoping to spend but recent model, low mileage, reliable brand.

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...=false&filtersModified=true#listing=149464723

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...=false&filtersModified=true#listing=148125614

I had a Yaris briefly and was very happy with it, but don't know much about reliability apart from the Toyota name.
 
I'd take the Corolla, looks good.

You're right that age is more of a factor for batteries than miles or cycles. Heat is also highly damaging to them, so you'll find batteries last far longer in northern cars.
 
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