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Location: Central Texas. Wait, I mean South Texas. Actually, both Central and South Texas
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Ford Ranger, Ford F-150, any kind of Chevy pick-up truck. If you are looking at cars, Hyundai or Saturn, if you go Saturn just stay away from the "Ion" model.
Ford Ranger, Ford F-150, any kind of Chevy pick-up truck. If you are looking at cars, Hyundai or Saturn, if you go Saturn just stay away from the "Ion" model.
Saturn S-Series, in particular. They're cheap on gas, easy to work on yourself, and the engines don't die as long as you keep oil in them. The manual transmissions last forever, as well.
At a $2,000 price point, I would not touch anything with an automatic transmission with a 39½ foot pole, unless you fancy the risk of spending another two or three grand in rebuilding the darn thing.
At a $2,000 price point, I would not touch anything with an automatic transmission with a 39½ foot pole, unless you fancy the risk of spending another two or three grand in rebuilding the darn thing.
Not even close to true. Most cheap Japanese and American cars will run forever even with an automatic. 4 years ago we bought a $1300 2004 Nissan Sentra 1.8SE for my housemate and it's still going strong, only needing a couple tires, brake pads and a new gas cap in that time. And it has an automatic (not a CVT either). My other housemate bought a $500 Jetta 2.0T with automatic, and even though it's needed a couple O2 sensors and a couple injectors, the trans has been great for 3 years. Most cheap Buicks (and other cheap GMs with the 3.8 and automatic combo) and the like have great autoboxes that are stout and will put up with a lot of abuse.
At $2k or less, I look for cars that are in decent shape, not based on make or model. And it depends on what size car you're looking for. Usually the Hondas and Toyotas are a bit higher priced due to demand, so it's harder to find clean ones.
A Low mileage well maintained Mid-00's Chevy Cavalier/Pontiac Sunbird is decent used no frills A-B transportation with decent fuel economy esp. with the 2.2L Ecotec Inline 4 and has a solid 4-speed Overdrive Automatic transmission.
For $2000, it's gonna be a tall order to get *any* vehicle that's reliable. But I'll agree with GTOlover here. Those small GM cars with the Ecotec 4 cylinder are dirt cheap and very reliable for what they are.
Nobody will envy you driving a Chevy Cobalt or the like. But they're some surprisingly adequate little cars. More reliable than the GM V6 cars of the era because they don't suffer from the dreaded leaky intake gaskets that take out so many otherwise reliable GM's of the mid 90's thru mid 2000's.
Now this it NOT an endorsement of the Chevy Cruze. That's a whole different platform... and not in a good way.
Chevy Malibus up through 2007 (or 2008 if it's a "malibu classic) are similarly cheap and reliable, but ONLY if they have the 4 cylinder engine. The V6 suffers from the same problems as most other GM V6's of that era. A good mechanic can take care of those issues, but it'll cost you. And it's hard to find a mechanic who solves more problems than he creates.
Now to be clear... I'm not exactly saying that any of these are "good cars". By many standards they're not. Interior was cheap and poorly fitted even when new. Neither the interior nor the exterior holds up particularly well. But the drivetrain itself is solid, and parts are cheap and plentiful.
Last edited by turkey-head; 12-31-2018 at 06:36 PM..
Yeah, the 2003-2007 Accords are getting to be pretty cheap now. The V6 models had major transmission problems the first few years, but the 4 cylinder cars are very reliable.
I'm not as familiar with the Civics of that era, but haven't heard of any major problems. And Yotas are almost always reliable.
But imports hold their value better as they get older. A decent one at $2k might be hard to come by.
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