cheap car advice

[john112deere]

Mom and my kid sister (HS senior) are shopping for a cheap car (sub $2k).

Most of what they've shown me they're interested in seems to be Escorts, Saturns, etc. that are about 8-10 years old.

Anybody got any thoughts on what to run far away from? Grandma's got a '98 Escort; it's a cheap car that's pretty short on charm, but it's efficent and fairly reliable, so I wouldn't feel too bad recommending an Escort. Dad had an '00 Focus, and I don't think an early Focus is a good choice. Beyond that, I don't really know much about the cars they've mentioned- Saturns, Civics, and the like. My sister prefers a manual tranmission, but (unlike me) wouldn't mind an automatic, either.

Another option is to look for something I want, that she'll use until she goes off to college next fall, then the thing will become my problem. 'Course, that would mean I'd have to have enough saved up to buy it off her in August, but it's still an option. (I won't sell my Ranger, so that's probably a bad idea, anyway.)

 

[O'Rattlecan]

Andy may chime in here sometime soon. His girl drives a mid 90's escort and it has an ungodly amount of miles and seems to be reliable.

My sister drives a 96 taurus. It's not really giving any real problems. Gas mileage is in the lower-mid 20's too.

Ryan

 

[Andyman8282]

Yeah, my g/f Erica (I'm gonna have to get her an account going here, I've caught her reading some posts under my name ) drives a '98 escort too, good car, very reliable, but... cheaply built unfortunately. However, it's Easy on the gas and not too hard to work on. My little bro (Golfplayer3838) drives a '95 Pontiac Grand Am... another cheap car that's pretty reliable, but gets about the same fuel-mileage as my Thunderbird .

 

[d-kuzmen]

Escort is the way to go, needs to be a stick though. The only thing that usualy goes wrong is timing belts, just change them every 60k and you'll be good. Taurus/Sable have there trans issues. I think anything after 1999 are better. I had a Nissan Altima 1993 over 200k on it, great car. Focus's are for the most part decent, other than there axle bearing, again if you go with a stick you'd be better off, auto's are ok but have some trans issues (not all of them)... Hope this helps alittle

 

[blacksnapon]

escorts have been around so long, the bugs are pretty much gone. A focus is somewhat of an escort, rebodied.

 

[6L PWR]

Taurus/Sable have there trans issues. I think anything after 1999 are better.

Ruh Roh, wife has a '97 Taurus with 130,000 on it. Should I start saving up or will my spare 5R110W fit? ROFL

 

[d-kuzmen]

Ruh Roh, wife has a '97 Taurus with 130,000 on it. Should I start saving up or will my spare 5R110W fit? ROFL

If you take care of it and service it it'll probably last (no 2000 hp 6.0 behind it) But they do explode often. If you made it this far your probably ok.

 

[6L PWR]

If you take care of it and service it it'll probably last (no 2000 hp 6.0 behind it) But they do explode often. If you made it this far your probably ok.

Well, the wife drives it 99% of the time, so it's babied. lol When I do drrive it, I like to blow the carbon out a bit. I'm actually surprised by the power it has.

 

[d-kuzmen]

Well, the wife drives it 99% of the time, so it's babied. lol When I do drrive it, I like to blow the carbon out a bit. I'm actually surprised by the power it has.

They are pretty peppy when you get on them. Surprises you.

 

[john112deere]

OK, so stick shift Escorts are good.

Are all Taurus auto trannies bad? Or just some of them? Any early warning signs, or just stay away from the whole model line? I won't say I like the cars, but I'm told they can be bought pretty cheap, and I do like the badge on the grille.

Another consideration that may or may not end up mattering is that my sister is pretty short- somewhere around 5'. When she drives my Ranger (the driver's seat foam is pretty collapsed) even with the seat all the way up she can barely reach the clutch, and barely see over the dash. I'm assuming small cars will be less trouble, but I don't know.

They want me to go look at an '01 ZX2 (Escort) tomorrow. 5-speed, ~115k miles. Guess we'll see where that goes.

 

[Andyman8282]

Another consideration that may or may not end up mattering is that my sister is pretty short- somewhere around 5'. When she drives my Ranger (the driver's seat foam is pretty collapsed) even with the seat all the way up she can barely reach the clutch, and barely see over the dash. I'm assuming small cars will be less trouble, but I don't know.

They want me to go look at an '01 ZX2 (Escort) tomorrow. 5-speed, ~115k miles. Guess we'll see where that goes.

I'm about 6'3 and with the seat all the way back in my g/f's car, my knees almost reach the side windows Shifting gears should be no problem for her.

 

[1970Custom]

I can't believe I'm about to say this, look into the Civic, with a well maintained car the usuals are oil and filter, the little stuff like bulbs and every 100k replace the timing belts.... The parts for the Civics are starting to become Chevy-like in nature, cheap and easy to come by...

There's also a reason my DD is a '91 Toyota SR5 P/U....

just my .02

 

[john112deere]

Yeah, but you gotta find a Civic that doesn't have a fart can welded on the back that the driver ran at redline all the time so he could hear his shoddy exhaust components rattle against each other and pretend it sounded good, and isn't a complete heap, and is still cheap.

Japanese vehicles reputation (deserved or otherwise, let's not go there now) pushes the prices pretty high, and they're popular cars to "mod" and "race," or "mutilate" and "abuse," depending on your perspective.

Worth a look, though- I'm trying to keep my biases out of this as much as possible, which is hard when you're as biased as I am...

 

[1970Custom]

I was born and raised a Ford guy, but when it came to the DD aspect I chose my Toyota over a ranger because the '89-'94 Toyota P/U has a far better reputation for taking a beating, and I like to beat on them... Other than I chose the 3.slow (Iron block w/aluminum heads, can you say head gaskets) over the well loved 22RE I needed the better freeway manners of the V6.

The Grand Am's are good cars too, I'd take the GT over the regular model but then again I have a habit of going overboard....

 

[john112deere]

How 'bout the Saturns?

I don't like the things, but she found a bunch of positive reviews of them online (for what that's worth) and they're all over the place for sale.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

my only concern about saturns (I have no firsthand experience) but they have the reputation of "When it's broke, take it to the dealer."

Ryan

 

[1970Custom]

Saturn is also a GM company...

 

[Andyman8282]

A Civic would be cool if you can find one under 2k.

 

[john112deere]

MY top choice in this price point for A to B transportation is something large and American-branded: Crown Vic, Oldsmobile, Buick, etc. If you aren't putting a lot of miles on it, gas mileage isn't such a big concern, either.

But she likes little cars, so the Civics, Saturns, Toyotas, and Escorts (haven't heard back from the ZX2 owner yet) are what keep cropping up.

 

[1970Custom]

I know you're biased towards the Non-Commie stuff however those Jap cars do a pretty damned good job, even the KIA's and th Hyundai's as of late.

If she does get a smaller car with the I-4 try to get here into one with a standard, like you've probably seen with Rangers like yours, those little motors (the Civic is rated between 90-97hp) don't do worth beans using the slush box...

Just how old are you looking to go anyways? that'll give you a certain range to look into...