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Suggestions for a beater...

purbeast0

purbeast0

No Lifer
EDIT - 8/19/2012

bumping my old thread because i'm going to be closing on my first home in a couple weeks and interested in a beater pickup most likely.

i'm not driving about 60 miles a day because of my new commute and quickly putting miles on my g37, which is fine for now, but i don't want to continually do that.

and since we're getting a house i also want a pickup truck to be able to haul shit around if need be. also in the winter if it snows, my g37 is gonna be awful, where again a truck could come in handy.

so does anyone have any suggestions on a beater pickup truck that gets good mileage? i'm not looking for a monster pickup or anything at all. just one with a bed that can get good mileage. 2 door is fine as well.

any suggestions?

ORIGINAL POST

so i recently bought a 2008 g37s, which obviously isn't ideal for a long commute.

i'm about to start a new job in a month or so that is going to make my commute from 0 miles a day on a car to about 50-55 miles a day in a car. i really don't want to put those miles on my new (to me) car, and additionally, the mileage that car gets is not very commute-friendly in general.

so i'm thinking about getting a beater at some point and was looking for some suggestions.

i'm mainly just looking for something that is reliable and gets good mileage. stickshift would be a plus but not mandatory. also looking for something that will have cheap parts to fix when stuff does go wrong.

my price range is ... im thinking like $3k - $5k maybe?

i really don't know what kind of car i can get for either the low or high end of that range, which is why i'm also making this thread 🙂

so does anyone have any suggestions?

while i do like VW's and had 2 of em, i also experience problems with them in the later parts of their life of my ownership, so i'm most likely going to steer clear of any VW (and european cars in general).
 
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If I were you, I'd eat the MPG costs and get a truck, SUV, or AWD wagon. I hate having to rent or borrow things, and it's nice to have a rain/snow vehicle.

Personally, I have always had a sports car and a small truck. I'm considering selling the truck and getting one of those audi allroads or some other AWD wagon. They're sorta pricey for how I'd use it, but I'd love to have one as a beater vehicle.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
If I were you, I'd eat the MPG costs and get a truck, SUV, or AWD wagon. I hate having to rent or borrow things, and it's nice to have a rain/snow vehicle.

Personally, I have always had a sports car and a small truck. I'm considering selling the truck and getting one of those audi allroads or some other AWD wagon. They're sorta pricey for how I'd use it, but I'd love to have one as a beater vehicle.
Click to expand...

Truck or SUV for 55 mile a day commute?
He'd be lucky to find something that gets 15mpg avg.
 
Unfortunately used cars aren't as much of a bargain as they used to be, particularly for reliable, high-MPG models.

But you can still get a late-90s/early 2000s Civic in good condition at that price, and assuming that people have kept up on maintenance, it will be boring reliable, and get good mileage without sacrificing too much in terms of safety.

You might be able to get into the first of the reliable Kias/Hyundais, but I'm not really sure when they made the transition from "trash cars" to "almost as good as Japanese".
 
OILFIELDTRASH said:
Truck or SUV for 55 mile a day commute?
He'd be lucky to find something that gets 15mpg avg.
Click to expand...


Truck or SUV is great comfort-wise.

He'd be lucky to find something that gets 25mpg. 15mpg suv are dime/dozen. He didn't say he was specifically looking for a hypermiler vehicle, just something with decent mpg.


Like I very clearly said, I personally would deal with the MPG and get something that compliments the g37. I'm not saying my way is definitely what he should do... I'm merely giving him some food for though. But yeah, way to point out the obvious and +1 your postcount I suppose.
 
Yes Saturn S series for pure economy or an 03+ Focus or the 3800 series GM's for a tolerable ride in an ole Buick for those long drives.
 
wow thanks for the suggestions did not expect it to blow up like this so quick haha.

initially i was looking at some early 2000 civics and saw some for around $5k with like 100k - 120k miles on it.

didn't even tihnk about saturn, simply because i know nothing about them.

as far as the pickup truck suggestion, that is actually not a bad idea. i eventually DID want to get a beater pickup for the reasons stated above - they can just come in handy.

do any of the older pickup truck models get decent mileage? i'm ideally looking for something at least 30mpg if i am going to get a beater.
 
I'd just drive the g37. It isn't like it is a Ferrari but whatever.

Pontiac vibes are cheap and practical. Just a toyota matrix without the toyota resale value. Can be had with a stick, AWD optional, and comes in a GT version with more power. I just bought an 03 auto for $2k a couple months ago with 200k miles on it as my beater and for the most part it has been good. They should get mid 20s city and low 30s highway but I haven't gotten more than 24mpg out of mine. I do drive almost all short trip city though. Downsides are it is boring as hell to drive, really wish mine was a stick, and blind spots out the back are pretty bad.

Uses a timing chain so no stupid timing belt to worry about.
 
bumping my old thread because i'm going to be closing on my first home in a couple weeks and interested in a beater pickup most likely.

i'm not driving about 60 miles a day because of my new commute and quickly putting miles on my g37, which is fine for now, but i don't want to continually do that.

and since we're getting a house i also want a pickup truck to be able to haul shit around if need be. also in the winter if it snows, my g37 is gonna be awful, where again a truck could come in handy.

so does anyone have any suggestions on a beater pickup truck that gets good mileage? i'm not looking for a monster pickup or anything at all. just one with a bed that can get good mileage. 2 door is fine as well.

any suggestions?
 
purbeast0 said:
bumping my old thread because i'm going to be closing on my first home in a couple weeks and interested in a beater pickup most likely.

i'm not driving about 60 miles a day because of my new commute and quickly putting miles on my g37, which is fine for now, but i don't want to continually do that.

and since we're getting a house i also want a pickup truck to be able to haul shit around if need be. also in the winter if it snows, my g37 is gonna be awful, where again a truck could come in handy.

so does anyone have any suggestions on a beater pickup truck that gets good mileage? i'm not looking for a monster pickup or anything at all. just one with a bed that can get good mileage. 2 door is fine as well.

any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Chevy S-10 (or GMC version: Sonoma) or Ford Ranger (or Mazda version: B2500) with a 4-cylinder engine and a manual transmission. 4-cylinder Nissans and Toyotas are good too, but harder to find / you are going to pay a premium.
 
Just open up craigslist and look. You should easily find a 2wd 4 banger 5 speed compact truck for $2k or so. Way back I had a 93 nissan 2wd 2.4l 5 speed truck that was great. I got 26mpg, hauled everything I wanted too, and never had any problems with it. All of them are at least fairly reliable so go for price, mileage, and condition. When I was looking the toyotas were insanely priced and usually 200k mile rusted out POS so I mainly looked for rangers and nissans.
 
Used Lexus ES. I've got mine and it's bulletproof. People on the Lexus forums rack in 300-400 k miles easy with proper maintainance.
 
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