gas saver car ??

lugnut

lugnut

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My daughter wants a cheap little car to save on gas. She dosnt want a 5 speed and hates Honda Acords but is OK with Civics. I want something dependable and relatively easy to work on since I do my own work. Anybody have any suggestions? Any thing to stay away from?
 
2006-2007 honda fit

i bought mine new in september of 2007, i now have 81K on it...haven't had to do a THING to it other than oil/air filter/tires.

mine is a 5 speed...and even the clutch is still good, and brakes....with when you consider someone like me driving it, is a miracle.

i get anywhere from 37-40mpg usually...with the worst i've gotten being 35-36 with the a/c blowing on high, 4 people in the car, and all the storage taken up with stuff. If i'd drive it normally, i'd easily hit 40-41mpg.
 
I hate them, but Saturns return fantastic mileage, and are cheap. By Saturn, I mean a real Saturn. Something pre-L series. We had a 96 SW2, 16v, 5-speed. Not the roomiest car, but better than a Civic, and got 36mpg on the highway, and never really lower than 30 combined, mostly city. In 200k, I don't think I ever replaced the rotors, and they looked brand new when I last did the fronts, at around 190k. Seriously, they looked that good, didn't even need turning. It was on the original clutch. My wife learned to drive stick in it, and I'm evil on clutches. It was starting to slip on hard launches, but the little old lady who bought it will probably never notice. It was inconvenient to work on, as the engine bay is poorly laid-out, but not hard. Just wrist-bending and time-consuming. And there's a couple of forums dedicated to them that were really helpful in fixing little problems. I've seen a couple of decen auto sedans lately going for under a grand. They've got no resale value. Look for smoking or signs of excessive leakage. They all smoke and leak a little, but some were better than others.
 
^^ we bought a 97 SL in '99 w/ like 27k on the clock.
Sold it in Jan '09 w/ 140k.
In that time I replaced the following:
tires
starter
radiator (only b/c 1 of the plastic side tanks cracked
A/C comrpessor
Drivebelt tensioner (common failure)

Nothing else.
it was A/T - MPGs never under 28, as good as 33-34 on highway.
The base SL models get even better MPGs b/c of slightly different gear ratio.

But more importantly - you didn't suggest a price range or your comfort safety level, her age etc.
E.g. if it were my daughter's first HS car it would be a big slow-ass non-speeder non-death trap car, like a Volvo wagon (the exact opposite of what I'd want myself, lol).
 
Have not looked at Saturns. I thought were just recycled Sunfire/Caviler junk.
 
RatLabGuy said:
But more importantly - you didn't suggest a price range or your comfort safety level, her age etc.
E.g. if it were my daughter's first HS car it would be a big slow-ass non-speeder non-death trap car, like a Volvo wagon (the exact opposite of what I'd want myself, lol).
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It will be her second car so I dont want to put more than 3,000 in it at the most. I'm not to worried about her going all fast and furious so I wouldnt be afraid to get a semi sporty car like an eclipse. I just want something easy to work on and something I dont have to work on all the time. I already have enough projects.
 
honda, toyota or saturn. ive had good luck with absolutley every honda i have had. and easy to work on. heard nothing but good stuff about saturns too.
 
I prefer Honda's but stay away from the 97-01 Preludes. The cylinder walls are junk and they tend to eat oil. Not all of them, but most of them.
 
Corolla...? or a 90s Geo Prism - it's a Corolla under a different name, but sell cheaper b/c of the bad Geo image.
 
Corolla or Camry, then run forever and return pretty great mileage. Plus its a 4 door and can fit her friends in.
 
x4 on the Saturns, and yes, go for the older ones, S-series. They will eat oil, but they will also take a LOT of abuse, easy to get parts for, and have good safety, especially for their age. Mileage is excellent, easily on par or better than the imports. Lots of user forums out there to help you work on them. I just replaced the clutch hydraulics in ours, took about 45 min and half of that was "operator stupidity."
 
Honestly if you want the best mileage the only way to go is with a Chevy Metro. That's my commuter car and it easily gets 45mpg without me even paying attention to it! I've done my own repairs on it and it's way easier than my wife's damn Stratus! Sure it's not the coolest car but if you want cheap reliable gas saving commuter there is nothing better!
 
Gmachine said:
I prefer Honda's but stay away from the 97-01 Preludes. The cylinder walls are junk and they tend to eat oil. Not all of them, but most of them.
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really? so FRM coating is a bad thing, huh? So the fact that the s2k uses it with a 9500rpm redline means it's junk too?

FRM is a VERY good thing, and the h22a4 in the 97-01 preludes is EASILY one of the best motors that honda has made. The heads flow insanely well, a good r:s ratio, everythings great...cept maybe the tranny and the sh edition of course.
 
I don't think you're going to get a MkIV TDI for under $3k.

And 50+ is easy... but only with a 5spd. The autos weren't as good, more like mid-40s.
 
Yeah, good luck finding a decent VW diesel for reasonable $$$. I've been looking for a while now and can't find one that isn't overpriced or has had the soul removed from it with a corkscrew.

All the mentioned cars should be good. Just don't get her a green Saturn. Refer to Pirate4x4 on why not :lol:. All the saturns I know, just keep going.
 
katuah said:
x4 on the Saturns, and yes, go for the older ones, S-series. They will eat oil, but they will also take a LOT of abuse, easy to get parts for, and have good safety, especially for their age. Mileage is excellent, easily on par or better than the imports. Lots of user forums out there to help you work on them. I just replaced the clutch hydraulics in ours, took about 45 min and half of that was "operator stupidity."
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I know my wife ran hers 2.5-3 quarts low on more than one occasion. When I'd crank it and the valves were ticking or the oil light was on, I knew it was time to add. Usually that was after a couple of weeks of me not driving it.

LR Max, I need to find that thread. We had a green wagon. I think it was their most popular color!
 
catfishblues said:
I know my wife ran hers 2.5-3 quarts low on more than one occasion. When I'd crank it and the valves were ticking or the oil light was on, I knew it was time to add. Usually that was after a couple of weeks of me not driving it.
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BWAHAHAHAHA OMG that is my exact experience in a nutshell. And it's still going, too, isn't it? Stupid tough little cars. Damn shame that GM sucked out their soul in the 2000's. I wish Roger Penske had bought them, and turned them back into decent cars.
 
What year did the Saturns go to crap ?
 
katuah said:
BWAHAHAHAHA OMG that is my exact experience in a nutshell. And it's still going, too, isn't it? Stupid tough little cars. Damn shame that GM sucked out their soul in the 2000's. I wish Roger Penske had bought them, and turned them back into decent cars.
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You do know Saturn has always been a GM product right? They started it to give customers a different kind of sales experience.
 
jds97Wrangler said:
You do know Saturn has always been a GM product right? They started it to give customers a different kind of sales experience.
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Yeah, a division left on their own to do their own thing. I don't think they were ever all they were cracked up to be. They're really pretty crappy cars, but they do get good mileage, are cheap, and some run forever. Just invest in Oil-Dri. And as for the "experience," my FIL bought the car brand new and sold it to his daughter, my wife, after two or three years. Always serviced at the 'ship, taken in for any little hiccup. He's the kind of guy who takes his car back for new tires! When I started servicing it, I noticed the coolant was orange. Odd, but maybe it's that GM specific stuff. Nope, rust. 60k on the clock, and rust in the system. It ran like that for several years until the radiator went. Then I had to change the water pump. Good thing. Several vanes had broken off! The rust never fully went away, but it ran well, and I was usually able to fix whatever was wrong cheaply or for free. I kinda wish we hadn't sold it.
 
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