New(ish) used car for lots of highway travel?

[SithSolo1]

My dad is looking to replace his DieselGate TDI for work travel. We're looking for something used, roughly 2012 or newer, and $15k or less.

Must haves:
4 Doors
Automatic Transmission
Good highway mileage

Nice to haves:
Fog Lights
Heated seats

Travel is almost exclusively interstate but its a lot of mileage, like 35,000+ miles a year. So whatever it is also needs to be reliable long term.

I suggested a Mazda3, Civic, or Dodge Dart. The Dart may be nixed for reliability but I haven't had time to look into it. Are there any other obvious options we should be looking into?

 

[jlee]

Prius?

 

[NutBucket]

Whatever is most comfortable.

 

[XavierMace]

Hyundai Elantra?

 

[Crono]

I had a 2014 Mazda3 sedan for 2 years, just under 40k miles when I traded it in. Loved it, perfect car for highway driving. Easily 40+ mpg at highway speed, great handling/steering, looks good (if it matters), low maintenance cost, and I didn't have any issues. Only knock on the car is that it has typical Mazda road noise, which doesn't bother me but may be annoying to people who are accustomed to very quiet interiors.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you're not talking Hybrids, any of the generic 4-cyl midsize sedans will get you >30mpg highway. (Accord, Camry, Fusion, etc.) The equivalent compacts (Civic, Focus, etc.) IMO don't get enough of a mileage advantage over the midsizes for me to be happy about them. (~30 vs. ~34? Meh. Give me some leg room.)

Maybe that's improved somewhat in the last few years - I do tend to worry about older cars, since, you know. Poor.

Driving that many miles, a Hybrid may be worth it. I'd also probably be looking at a used Prius in your situation.

 

[Midwayman]

Driving that many miles, a Hybrid may be worth it. I'd also probably be looking at a used Prius in your situation.

IIRC hybrids lose a lot of the appeal at highway speeds. You are running the engine at all times anyways. Little chance for regen.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

IIRC hybrids lose a lot of the appeal at highway speeds. You are running the engine at all times anyways. Little chance for regen.

My parents have a 60+ mile commute (all highway, they work together) and have been averaging 50+ MPG in their Prius for over 300k miles.

Although to be fair, my dad's got what can charitably be described as a "light foot" when it comes to driving on the highway (at 55 mph in a 65, in the right lane.)

He's basically a hyper-miler, except he wouldn't call it that because he doesn't go in for that liberal hippie bullshit.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

2016 ford fusions with around 30k miles are around $15K. Good highway car.

 

[SithSolo1]

Thanks for all the input so far. I've been looking around to see what we have locally and I've come across the following models:
Focus(es?)
Fusions
Civics
Elantras
Scions
Corollas
Camrys
Versas
Sentras


No Mazdas and Hybrids yet but he has a pretty big lead foot so I don't know how those would work out

 

[Yuriman]

IIRC hybrids lose a lot of the appeal at highway speeds. You are running the engine at all times anyways. Little chance for regen.

Honda's hybrids always run the engine anyway. Their approach was to downsize the engine and supplement it with electric assist, which has the largest benefit for highway cruising. My wife averaged close to 60mpg doing mostly highway driving over the summer in her Civic hybrid (paid $3000 cash for it, and it's very comfortable), and I was getting between 80 and 85 in my Insight (tank average). She's a pretty average driver and although I keep my speed down, I'm known to redline it for merging and occasionally just for fun.

The new Civic 1.5T is good for about 45mpg at 70mph and 55mpg at 60mph. It's probably too new and out of OP's price range, but compacts often have more than a ~4mpg advantage. I'd expect no less than 40 out of even a base-trim Corolla, and the seats aren't bad.

 

[ChronoReverse]

IIRC hybrids lose a lot of the appeal at highway speeds. You are running the engine at all times anyways. Little chance for regen.

This is not true. Regen is only part of what makes hybrids so efficient and a decent one (like a Prius) will get great highway mileage too because you're cruising right in the narrow efficiency band of the atkinson cycle engine (which approaches diesel efficiency when in the band).

 

[Bubbleawsome]

The Honda Accord Hybrids get great highway mileage and are pretty nice in general

 

[Thump553]

My driving pattern is pretty similar to yours, and I drive a Prius. 215k miles and the only repair has been a broken water pump for the ICE. I have a base level, perhaps you can get fog lights and heated seats in more upscale versions (there also is a Lexus CT 200, pimped out Prius with about 10 MPG less). It's also an easy car to work on for routine maintenance/easy jobs.

One warning-test drive one first and focus on the seat feel-it's not the most comfortable nor is the ride the smoothest. Having an iron butt will help. EDIT: I had a chance to drive a year old, 15k miles Prius today on a highway trip 45 minutes each way. Seat and ride much better than my 2007, not a pillow smooth ride but certainly don't need a iron butt. I guess my car is starting to show it's years.

Another, lesser caveat-the Prius comes with a small gas tank (approx. nine gallons) for weight savings. Given the driving you do expect to fill up every other day or so. OTOH your fill ups are fast.

 

[HitAnyKey]

If I were always on the highway then I would want a Hybrid or V6 Camry or Mazda6. Nothing smaller in my opinion.

I prefer a slightly bigger car with a taller overdrive and with the most HP/TQ I can buy for highway driving.

It just feels better/safer and more effortless when merging and passing the many many trucks you will encounter.

 

[Yuriman]

The amount of passing power the cheapest/slowest cars on the road today puts cars from the 90's to shame. 16 seconds to 60 was normal, while a Prius (widely perceived as one of the slowest cars on the road) and Nissan Versa Note (cheapest car in the US) are both a hair above 9 seconds.

 

[who?]

Buick

 

[legcramp]

The amount of passing power the cheapest/slowest cars on the road today puts cars from the 90's to shame. 16 seconds to 60 was normal, while a Prius (widely perceived as one of the slowest cars on the road) and Nissan Versa Note (cheapest car in the US) are both a hair above 9 seconds.

I had a rental car last week.. '15 Mitsubishi Mirage. I seriously felt like I was going to be rear-ended every time I needed to pass / change lanes. 75 HP and 0-60 in just under 12 seconds lol.

 

[Ns1]

Prius is the obvious answer. I average 40mpg highway/city with a relatively heavy foot. Cheap to operate with Toyota reliability.

Also has fogs and seat warmers if you get a high enough trim level (the good stuff starts @ the 4th trim level IMO; there are 5)

 

[dtgoodwin]

I must agree about the Prius. I don't recall where I saw it, but some poll showed the Prius as the least expensive vehicle when it came to TCO. The survey included all costs, and the 2nd gen Prius' (2004-2009) exceptional reliability, and very good economy factored heavily. They aren't super comfortable, and have a lot of road noise not to mention the CVT rubber-band feel, but they are reliable. We've put 55,000 on top of 130k with only minor work aside from routine maintenance. My FIL just traded in his '04 at 475k, again with only minor repairs and routine maintenance. He traded it at a Toyota dealership for a used 2012 and was given $3k for the trade-in.

 

[Ns1]

My FIL just traded in his '04 at 475k

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn


We've put 60k on ours so far (so 130k total) with nothing more than tire changes, oil changes, + 1 brake change. Meanwhile poor Kaido with his Jeep Renegade has been in the shop more days than my car has seen rain.

 

[Yuriman]

Out of every car on longtermqualityindex.com, the Prius comes out with the 3rd highest score, just after the Toyota Avalon (a full size), Lexus LS (Toyota), and is followed by the Toyota Solara, Toyota Camary, Toyota Echo, Toyota Yaris, Scion xB/xA/xD (Toyota), Pontiac Vibe (Toyota) and, oddly, the Volkswagen R32, possibly because of a small sample size. Honda and some GM vehicles follow, with Euro cars tending to fall waaaay down the list.

So, if you're looking for something that won't fall apart, go with any Toyota, or maybe a Civic or one of a handful of GM cars.

http://longtermqualityindex.com/

EDIT: Honda and Mazda had some transmission issues in the early 2000's that brought their overall score down, as well as Honda selling some rebadged Isuzu's with poor reliability on their lots. Looking at just engine reliability, Honda comes out well above all of the others.

 

[Ns1]

^^

thanks for the link. LOL @ the RX-8

 

[SithSolo1]

I thought somebody might like an update:

He ended up getting a '14 Fusion w/ 1.5L EcoBoost for $10.5K

 

[BurnItDwn]

Fusions are nice cars. Should serve him well.