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[SIZE=2]I hope someone can help me out. I am looking for a car mainly for commuting perposes, but the commute is long...about 100 to 120 miles per day. I don't think I can afford new, but a used possibly off-lease car with not too many miles. I am looking to spend about $10K and can put some money down to get the payments to about $200 a month. Any ideas?[/SIZE]
Can you drive a manual? If so, check out the Chevy Cobalt in XFE trim. It was introduced in 2009 as a special fuel saving model. It is as stripped down as you can get but still offers things like a radio. It gets 37mpg on the highway and the best part is that they are CHEAP. I have seen 2010's with less than 2k miles selling for $10k a year ago, which would easily be in your budget. It is in no way shape or form a "nice" car, but they are great commuters and are cheap to maintain.
Outside of that you could afford a new Hyundai Accent 3-door and while it will be pretty bare bones, you will at least be covered for 100k miles on the Hyundai powertrain warranty.
Another interesting choice along the lines of the Cobalt XFE are an absolute base model Mazda 3. You can generally pick them up for around $10k a model year or so old.
I'd look around for a 2009/2010 Hyundai Accent or Elantra. Either one will have the balance of it's 5 year/60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty left to it. With the number of miles that your talking about driving you'd burn thru that pretty quick but it's better than nothing.
We have a 2010 Elantra right now and I paid $20K for it with all the warranties and stuff. I had a VW before and just don't didn't want to pay for repairs anymore.
The cheapest car they had was like $12K and was completely stripped...I mean completely. This is why I am now looking at used cars. I was looking at Honda but it's a lot of $$$.
The Fit and the Versa are not cheap either. I was thinking of getting a 2005 or so Civic for maybe around $5K and see what happends.
Usually Ford Taurus' go on sale off one year leases in mid-summer for $9995. Its pretty comfy for long highway trips and averages about 25 mpg. Maintanence is pretty inexpensive on it. My first Taurus lasted over 250k and my second went to 150k (didn't die, the company closed location and moved it closer to my home so long range was no longer needed). Original drive was 86 miles each way.
I would say a Corolla, Civic, Fit, Mazda 3, or something similar. MPG's will be in the 35 to 40 range for those and their 4 cylinder motors are very reliable.
If you are not in rust country Camrys, Corrolas etc. from the mid- 1980s can be found for $1500-$3000 and are almost impossible to wear out in honest use. Today's ride to work is the 87 Camry, about to turn over 250K miles. Around here I still see quite a few 2nd gen Camrys on the road.
If you are not a real car gal, you are probably afraid to try this route, but the $8000 you don't spend initially and the payment you don't have to make monthly really ought to cover any repairs needed on a decent example.
Civic for sure-
The most reliable car on the road.
Bought one new in the early '90's- never had a major problem, unless you consider replacing the distributor(bearing failure/poor lubrication problem) a major problem. I did the tuneups (spark plugs)myself and the valve adjusting (valve cover gasket) myself.
Great gas mileage- the most dependable car I've ever owned.
It died 2yrs. ago (rear-ended by an idiot while sitting at a light), 163k.
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