Help me pick a riceburner

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M1911A1JohnBrowning

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Mar 6, 2005
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106
Due to gas prices, I am going to buy an older 4 cylinder. I don't know too much about cars yet, so please give me some advice. Here is my question; should I get a civic, a mid to late 80's MR2, or something else? I would like to spend no more than $2000. for the car itself, then of course more for new tires and stuff. I am primarily interested in getting something with a reputation for reliability and good gas mileage.
 
Japanese cars tend to hold their value very well, but you should be able to find a decent car in that range.
If you are not an experienced used-car buyer, by all means find someone who is to come with you, and also be prepared to have a trusted mechanic look the car over. No bargain to find that your new purchase won't pass inspection without a thousand bucks worth of repairs!

General principals- look for bare-bones models without a lot of special features, add-ons, and so forth. Keep it simple. Expect pretty high mileage in this price range, but don't worry, a lot of these little guys go well over 200,000 miles without major problems.
See if the guy has maintenance/service records. See what parts have been replaced. At 100,000 miles, you'd expect wear items like brakes, tires, exhaust, etc may (or should have) been replaced.
Take down the VIN and think about paying to run it through one of the online services that will check for repairs, recalls, and so forth.
Good luck!
 
I had an old toyota tercel that I bought for 1,300. very small car, but very reliable and over 30mpg. Underpowered, but kind of fun to drive everywhere with your foot flat on the floor! did I mention that they are really small? But once I was sitting in it it had plenty of room.

It had 110,000 miles on it when I bought it. I drove it for 18 months, put about 500 dollars into it (alternator, some new parts, etc) and about 30K miles. When I bought my new truck, I gave it to my Mom, who is still driving it, but I could have probably sold it for the same 1,300 I bought it for. It burned a little oil, but not bad.

I would never hesitate to buy an old toyota with 4 cylinder and a manual transmission. I've heard the same about honda civics.
 
Hi M1911A1JohnBrowning-

You might wish to consider a diesel-powered model such as an old VW Rabbit/Golf or Jetta model. Diesels typically don't have quite the "pep" as a gasoline model, but they have MUCH fewer moving parts, legendary reliability, significantly higher mileage, and currently lower fuel costs.

You can't go too far wrong with a Civic, Accord, Corolla, Prizm, or similar car.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
I recently bought a Honda Civic Del Sol with a bit over 150,000 on it, and it's given me no problems so far and runs like a champ. My last tank, all city driving, got me 27.5 mpg. My favorite thing about it, though, is that it's incredibly easy to work on. When I put in a new radiator (there was a crack in the old one that made me uneasy) it was a breeze, and I'm not exactly a car mechanic. Anyway, best of luck with the search.
 
We have a 97 Civic CX hatchback that gets 40+ mpg highway, and mid-30s in the city. I would highly recommend it. A couple of people have made offers on it recently even though it is not for sale. With the gas prices, I'm afraid I'll have to install a car alarm to prevent theft ;)
 
Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla is a safe bet also like someone already said VW deisel. Make sure the timing belt has been replaced on any of these models that is over 80k miles.
 
FWIW my sis in law had a diesal VW rabbit was the biggest **** bar none i have ever encountered, lotsa lotsa lotsa problems with that 1 FWIW.
 
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