Least drama beater commuter car?

[monkeydelmagico]

Look at local/state/municipal auctions. Many are open to public. Alot of sebrings, stratus, focus, malibus, impalas. Most will be around 150k miles and sell between 800-1600. I go to these auctions fairly regular and buy a few cars a year. For every ten I check out one is in decent enough shape for me to bid on. Most of the time they are runners with little to no real problems. Anything major the local authority will mark it as a non-op vehicle so there is a bit of safety. Not much. Buyer beware.

 

[Torn Mind]

My parents' Prius has gone 300k on the original battery pack and is still running like a top. But according to the Honda dealer via my parents (so, it could be bad info) once the battery pack goes, the car is a brick.

Well, actually, you can try to either replace the dead cells yourself(beware high voltages) or find an independent shop to do the work of replacing individual cells/reconditioning/replace whole pack for much less than the dealer's ~$4000.

Regardless of the options, a previously-functioning Prius with only a dead hybrid battery is only a brick if one doesn't want to dedicate resources to continuing its operation.

 

[jlee]

My parents' Prius has gone 300k on the original battery pack and is still running like a top. But according to the Honda dealer via my parents (so, it could be bad info) once the battery pack goes, the car is a brick.

"According to the seller of a competing brand"...haha.

Relevant

 

[dave_the_nerd]

"According to the seller of a competing brand"...haha.

Relevant

Nah, I just forgot who makes Priuses. They have all their work done at the dealership where they bought the car.

Nice catch though.

Although that's probably part of the problem too. A good indie mechanic can save you practically the purchase price of the car over enough years.

 

[Slacker]

My parents' Prius has gone 300k on the original battery pack and is still running like a top. But according to the Toyota dealer via my parents (so, it could be bad info) once the battery pack goes, the car is a brick.

Dormant is making batteries for the Prius

About $1400.00 and not a diy, serious high voltage danger, techs wear lineman's gloves when working on them.

 

[agent00f]

I dunno. I always considered them the poor man's Japanese. I don't follow this stuff closely, but people I know with Korean cars have been happy with them.

The problem with korean in this case is some around the OP's price point are going to be garbage. In comparison GM tends to make heavily depreciating cars that run well enough to get around for a long time.

 

[slackerinabox]

HR orientation's after training and I may just wait- I'm hearing conflicting reports that the allowance is twice a month (so $800), which means I'll def. just get a better car. If not, I think focus and prius fits the best, though I may grab this supposedly pristine 2004 v8 lincoln ls for next to nothing ($2k), I figure if major problems creep up I'll just use it towards the down payment of whatever I get post car allowance. Though it SUCKS that my wife has to drive me back and forth for the next week or 2!

 

[slackerinabox]

Actually, no longer unemployed (that's why I need the car), and the real reason for a pretentious car is because my daughter got into a snobby catholic school and i figured our aging, dented kia minivan's not going to be the best impression (I know, i know, it's stupid but parents are asses around here sometimes). I was going to take the minivan and give her whatever we get if it's handsome enough. Though after some thought a $2k bmw's pretty stupid, we're going for a $1200 mercedes. Just kidding, just kidding.

GMs - I'll consider it, but as mentioned above I'm holding off for a week or 2 until I get a definitive answer about my job's car allowance. If it's really $800 I can get a $12-15k used car financed and still manage to pay if I lose the job (with money left over for insurance and gas)

 

[NutBucket]

Unless your $2k Benz is a 70's oil burner then definitely no.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

If the allowance is fairly high you could look at a v6 hyundai genesis. They might fit what you want, and are more in the luxury range.

 

[slackerinabox]

Funny you mentioned the genesis - I set my budget (based on the allowance) at $9-12k, and the genesis was on the top of the list after some research.

If the allowance is $800/month - hyundai genesis
If less, I'm thinking the prius (I'm ok with replacing the battery if needed, I found a local shop doing refurb installs), a corolla, or something not completely hideous looking from GM. Which I'm finding difficult to find! I think the prius is a nice for snobby yuppy parents judging the mrs - they're all crunchy whole food yuppies, and they're super cheap used. Note, my original concern about getting fired/etc. after getting a big loan based on the allowance isn't bothering me much now - a sub-$300 payment should be something I could make regardless.

edit: yay! manned up and put in a credit application and my score was 100 points more than I thought. Looks like I won't be going the $2k route, my baseline is now a 4-6k prius (quite a few available here, with nav and other stuff rarely seen at that pricepoint), up to a $280 monthly payment (used hyundai genesis or whatever my wife likes). I'll be inheriting the minivan, but I put carplay and a sub in there - i'll live! I'm still 2 weeks away from pulling the trigger if anyone has more suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Yuriman]

Dormant is making batteries for the Prius

About $1400.00 and not a diy, serious high voltage danger, techs wear lineman's gloves when working on them.

These batteries can be dangerous if you're careless or reckless, yes, but that doesn't mean it's something you can't DIY. The battery is a sealed unit (which can be opened, granted) which has a breaker on it, and when that's in the off position, it's no more dangerous than working on electrical wiring in your house with the breaker off. Simply flip the breaker off, unbolt the battery, bolt the new battery in, and flip the breaker back on.

I haven't worked on a Prius, but here's the hybrid system from an 04 Civic Hybrid I worked on 2 days ago:

Battery replacement would take about 20 minutes. In this case, I was restoring the pack so it took me an afternoon, but it's much cleaner work than anything you'd do under the hood.

This is my Insight's hybrid system:

It's true that a Prius will stop dead on the side of the road when the pack fails, but they rarely fail suddenly. You'll see it coming - the decline is very gradual, and you'll start to get dummy lights in the weeks or months leading up to when it no longer moves. Honda's hybrids will actually continue to drive with a completely dead battery, though in the Civics you have some issues with the 12v system charging if you don't perform a workaround.

 

[slackerinabox]

Thank you so much for posting this! Would anyone know if the altima hybrid's a brick without a hybrid battery? I know it's a minor concern, but I'd hate for it to konk out when my wife is driving our kids away. The prius is seeming better and better, I've heard of them going 400k without skipping a beat, $1,500 for a battery swap to last atens of thousand miles on a sub-$4k used car really isn't that bad. I spent more fixing the transmission on a saturn that was still a flaky piece of shit after I spent the money

 

[Yuriman]

Thank you so much for posting this! Would anyone know if the altima hybrid's a brick without a hybrid battery? I know it's a minor concern, but I'd hate for it to konk out when my wife is driving our kids away. The prius is seeming better and better, I've heard of them going 400k without skipping a beat, $1,500 for a battery swap to last atens of thousand miles on a sub-$4k used car really isn't that bad. I spent more fixing the transmission on a saturn that was still a flaky piece of shit after I spent the money

Of the early hybrids, Toyota's were the only ones (that I'm aware of) that were able to run on electricity alone, all others required the gas engines to be running too. Generally this is referred to as "mild hybrid" vs "full hybrid", though mild hybrids don't necessarily get worse fuel economy. Most mild hybrids are basically gasoline cars with slightly undersized engines (to save fuel) and an electric motor to make up for the lost power, and they can usually run fine on gas alone.

 

[Ns1]

think the prius is a nice for snobby yuppy parents judging the mrs - they're all crunchy whole food yuppies, and they're super cheap used. Note, my original concern about getting fired/etc.

I don't understand this at all - I bought a prius because it's reliable as hell, gives great MPG, and cheap to maintain.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I don't understand this at all - I bought a prius because it's reliable as hell, gives great MPG, and cheap to maintain.

Agreed. My dad (a very conservative dude, but not a hillbilly type) bought one, and spent a couple years defending it to the more redneck-ey, BIGTRUCK-fondling relatives (who I just ignore, being the resident pinko commie bastard and all) before he just gave up.

He's got a 120 mile round trip commute (because he lives out in the country with the other "real americans") but he spends less on gas than I do. The bastard.

 

[slackerinabox]

*update*

Found a pretty good deal on a 2003 Tiburon GT owned by a gear head (perfect maintenance record, nice mods for a car that cheap, and a V6 that ran very smooth for the age), originally listed at $3,000 but haggled the seller down to $2,200 (he's moving in 2 weeks and needs it sold stat).

It's pretty handsome actually, blue with a black leather interior with no damage (exterior's paint is a little faded), leather, dvd, bluetooth, navigation (jensen, but hey it's something), infinity speakers and sub, and newish rims and tires with at least 70% of their life left. My wife won't look silly dropping off the kid, and I might take a trip to maco for the fading. I think we'll take turns driving it, so sometimes it'll have a 60 mile commute, sometimes 3. Really quite pleased!

The cool thing is that I won't be tempted to dig into the car allowance so I can just let it stack until I get a sizable down payment + trade in, without taking out a loan right now when just starting a job. Thanks for the advice guys, I'm pretty confident this will last me 6 months to a year with little drama! (the headlight looks busted, it's just a reflection)

 

[slackerinabox]

I don't understand this at all - I bought a prius because it's reliable as hell, gives great MPG, and cheap to maintain.

I was just being silly, but yuppies do seem to love them here. No judgement, I'm kinda an aspirational yuppie. I skipped because the tib was 1/2 of the cheapest reasonable mileaged prius I could find, but I'd def. consider owning one in the future.

 

[sontakke]

Get Meguiars Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish duo, few pads, microfiber towels and see if you can put the life back in to faded paint. For less than $20, you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

*update*

Found a pretty good deal on a 2003 Tiburon GT owned by a gear head (perfect maintenance record, nice mods for a car that cheap, and a V6 that ran very smooth for the age), originally listed at $3,000 but haggled the seller down to $2,200 (he's moving in 2 weeks and needs it sold stat).

I'd enjoy that sporty little beater far more than the measly $2200 should allow. Well done

 

[pauldun170]

*update*

Found a pretty good deal on a 2003 Tiburon GT owned by a gear head (perfect maintenance record, nice mods for a car that cheap, and a V6 that ran very smooth for the age), originally listed at $3,000 but haggled the seller down to $2,200 (he's moving in 2 weeks and needs it sold stat).

It's pretty handsome actually, blue with a black leather interior with no damage (exterior's paint is a little faded), leather, dvd, bluetooth, navigation (jensen, but hey it's something), infinity speakers and sub, and newish rims and tires with at least 70% of their life left. My wife won't look silly dropping off the kid, and I might take a trip to maco for the fading. I think we'll take turns driving it, so sometimes it'll have a 60 mile commute, sometimes 3. Really quite pleased!

The cool thing is that I won't be tempted to dig into the car allowance so I can just let it stack until I get a sizable down payment + trade in, without taking out a loan right now when just starting a job. Thanks for the advice guys, I'm pretty confident this will last me 6 months to a year with little drama! (the headlight looks busted, it's just a reflection)

Very nice score for 2200.
How many miles does it have? Has the timing belt been changed on schedule?
Make sure you read up on the BCM issue on these cars and have a cheapo source saved in favorites.
Don't bother with the paint.

 

[slackerinabox]

I'd enjoy that sporty little beater far more than the measly $2200 should allow. Well done

Thank you! Just took it for a little spin and it's quite a bit of fun. It's driving isn't as dynamic as most sporty cars but, coming from a minivan, it's pretty fun especially as a commuter car. New discovery - it has a remote starter, woo!

 

[slackerinabox]

Very nice score for 2200.
How many miles does it have? Has the timing belt been changed on schedule?
Make sure you read up on the BCM issue on these cars and have a cheapo source saved in favorites.
Don't bother with the paint.

A lot - 108k. Every car in my ridiculous low budget was 100k plus anyways. Funny thing is that the odometer malfunctioned so they swapped it, and now it read 3k But he was completely honest and showed me the carfax stating the actual mileage - I suspect this is why he sold it for as low as he did, dealers would never accept it as a trade in with an incorrect mileage reading.

Service/ maintenance - this kid was a pre-med nerd who loves cars and trained with his dad (who i met), he really went above and beyond documenting when recall issues were resolved, saved every service receipt, etc - I'm fairly confident that I have little to worry about, but I didn't specifically ask the timing belt question because I don't know what a timing belt is

Googling BCM, thanks for the heads up. Paint - I'm going to get a good wasH and wax and start from there. I doubt I'll paint it but, with some TLC the thing will look new. 90 pound nerd without a girlfriend means the seats are still like new and the interior lovely (i mean that as a compliment, he's a really nice guy). He's the 2nd owner, the first being his sister and he was helping her maintain it back then too.

Oh- one defect he told me about - passenger side window needs a new regular, which is no big deal because our nissan had that problem less than 2 years into ownership and it cost like 60 bucks to repair. is regulator what it's called? I obviously don't know what i'm talking about

 

[slackerinabox]

Get Meguiars Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish duo, few pads, microfiber towels and see if you can put the life back in to faded paint. For less than $20, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Will do! Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[slackerinabox]

Had a totally silly but fun idea after driving it around a lot (no plates yet, this was all pretty spontaneous). I'm probably going to take the van and give this to my wife, a gift after being unemployed for too long (and no stupid big loans). the hyundai tuscani was the foreign version of the tib and has a certain snazziness to it. I have to repaint anyways, there are a number of scrapes and bruises that should be taken care of, atleast to prevent rusting. and, ok, it'll look cool. I'm also am working at a dealership and already have a handful of connections just hanging out chatting up front, already getting a cold air intake put in for $50 as an example. I figure the budget will be under 1k, including the tuscani nameplate and the paint job (i'm debating the chrome). The tuscani branding is pretentious, but you've all seen the alac baldwin bit - "i came here in a bmw, you came here in a hyundai." car dealers are pretentious at times. I get an $800 monthly car allowance anyways (I have to read the fine print, I'm not sure if I can only use it at their shops or not) so I figure a few months pay get this beater looking sharp, and should make it easier to sell when it's time to move on.