Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Sleeper" of a reliable used car?

Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable's are good values.

another thing to consider is how easy is it to repair and maintain?

get something with a 5 speed and timing chain (versus timing belt), common tires (no low profile), shock over struts, etc and doesn't have alot of bells and whistles

I'd look at a regular cab pickup truck. They go for pretty cheap as most people now want the crew cab. I bet the insurance isn't a hit on them either. Plus, who doesn't need a truck in the driveway at some point?

If you want gas mileage then Hyundai or Kia seem to be the most bang for the buck and most of them will have the 100K drivetrain warranty (it all that but still...better than nothing)

domestic cars
if you ask used car lot owners what they use for 'runners' to ferry drivers to the auctions, this is what they use; non-supercharged 3.8's.
Buicks, Pontiac Bonnevilles (excellent car) Grand Prix (a little smaller) all have room, good crash ratings, mpg approaching 30 mpg. Great deals can be found in these cars, even examples with very low mileage.
The Crown Vic/Marquis is an excellent choice as well; they get mid 20's mpg and are reliable, big, and safe.

foreign
VW, MB, BMW are going to survive a crash better than any of the others, period. Engine/drivetrain goes to Toyota and Honda (except for the TDI, of course)

On a ridiculously low budget, forget shopping brand. Instead, look for a "deal", regardless of brand.

A "deal" might be a vehicle with a problem that needs fixing, but that you can fix, yourself. Maybe it had been in a fender bender. Or maybe it has some other problem that makes it hard to sell: horrible color, faded paint, torn/worn upholstery, body rust, whatever. Late model cars with extremely high mileage can often be bought very cheaply.

As mentioned, the Crown Vics/Marquis get decent mileage (mid 20's) and lots of 'em are available in good shape/low mileage (tended to be an "older folks" car). There were some reports of fires in high-speed rear-end collisions, but I personally believe much of this was due to the fact that they were popular police cars, and thus, tended to be parked in places where a 70 mph rear-end collision was likely (highway shoulder). Haven't heard many problems with "low-speed" rear-end collisions.

An older 1/2 ton pickup will always be easy to work on (vs. a fwd car) and parts are always cheap/plentiful.

I'd avoid anything European, regardless of price, with the possible exception of a Volvo 240.

My brother owns for his daily driver and buys for his kids what he calls paycheck cars (wife gets a better ride), 7 to 10 year old Pontiac�s he finds for about a week�s paycheck. The Grand Prix or Grand AM with V-6 is his preferred and usually gets 2 or more years out of them with little trouble.

Yup. We have a Pontiac Vibe that is really a re-badged Toyota Matrix. 115,000 miles later and it has never had a single issue. I suspect 200k will not be a problem.

It's a 5-speed front wheel drive, and gets 36 mpg on the highway. We have studs for it in the winter, and it handles like a champ. 4-star crash-test rating as I recall also.

Dave

Corollas are pretty good. I have discovered that the manual trans is good for about 250,000 mi. When I had the problem, I found that a lot of others had given up their tranny's too. Toyotas are not particularly cheap to repair. Good, but maybe not as good as the hype.

I just sold a Ford Escape that would meet your criteria I think. It went might fast (23 hrs) so I probably priced it too low. But in any event, I think they are pretty decent vehicles and old enough now to be available at a range of price points.

The Vibe was also one that I was thinking about.

Like others have said, the older Taurus or Sable generally won't do you wrong and cheap parts abound.

Good advice. Once you get below a certain price point, it depends on the individual vehicle, no matter what the nameplate says...

We have an 05 vibe with 167,000 on it now. Its an automatic and doesn't quite get the mileage the manual does but has been a great car, if you can find an early one like 03-05 you could probably get it for fairly cheap. I don't know how cheap you are looking but I feel confident we will get 250,000 out of it.

I have heard good things about the ford fusions as well. As always the corolla's and civic are good but everyone knows it and they usually get more money because of it. Check out the nissans as well.

Whatever car you happen to find run a google search on it and look for known issues. MSN auto or other sites have user reviews that you can find out some reliablity issues.

Got enough opinions yet? If not, check Consumers Reports for best used cars guide. Bigger cross-section of data; although it ultimately comes down to the "one" you buy!

Same plug for an old Tarus with 3.0 V6. My boss has 2000 with 250k on it. Bought it 7 years ago and hasn't done anything put put a battery in it. Gets 26-28mpg. He paid 1500 for it.

Had a geo prism with was essentially a corolla with no frills. Car ran forever and I regret selling it.

Have a Camry now. Seems fine but only 128k on it so too soon to tell.

Had some old early- mid 1980's ford escorts that had seen hell and back and still ran and ran.

IMO stay away from the grand cherokee. Mine was a bucket of troubles.

I've got a trusted mechanic, & every time I go through this (the 17 year old is #3 of 6), I ask him what to look for, and what to stay away from.

This time around, the total budget will be around $2K. For that amount these days, one can get:
* a Toyota or Honda with 250K+ miles, with somewhat up-to-date maintenance, but that has had major repairs done, up to & including engine replacement
* a Toyota or Honda with 150K - 180K miles, needing water pump, timing belt, starter, major suspension work, etc.
* a pre-2000's Buick with 140K or less miles
* a pre-2003-ish Impala/Malibu/Lumina with 140K - 190Kmiles and a blown or leaking head gasket
* a 1/2 ton truck in varying states of disrepair
* a Taurus/Sable that has needs major repair
* a Crown Vic former police cruiser with 150K
* a Grand Marquis 5 years older than the Crown Vics, that are wrecked

I guess when you're poor, you gots to pick your poison. Good lesson for the lad to learn.

FC

Any Subaru.

I bought a 91 Saturn last year. The cars are down right cheap if ya get the stick shift and roll up windows. Easy to fix too. I'm also looking for another one for my 15 yr old son. I got 42 mpg all summer. Now I'm only getting 33 mpg since winter came. . I've found that a Honda Civic and Corollas are too high priced for the shape they are in. I don't think it's worth buying one.

We had two different Luminas-both beaters when we got them. I don't think we paid more than 800.00 for either one. They both ran for well over 200,000 miles. Good life for a beater, and the bodies held up very well too.

Another vote for the Pontiac Vibe. Very under-rated and a great car.