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yeah i'm handy with the basic repair stuff, but this car will be a few states away. they do have a bud who runs an independant shop, so he won't rip them off on the little stuff.
in the south east, a used subaru can be hard to come by, but i'm always on the lookout for them
i'll keep checking (been looking for about a month). thanks for all the ideas.
Older Civic, Accord, Camry, Sentra, Corrola. All dead reliable, good MPG, and generally decent cars. Go for an early to mid 90's model that has had all its scheduled and preventative maintenance done for the foreseeable future
Cheap pickups are hard because they are in high demand for individuals, and small business. Anything thats decent and reliable carries a premium. For example, Toyota Tacomas hit a price bottom almost regardless of mileage/age as long as they are in decent shape. So for 4k, you just do not get the same value as a car. That is unless you get a less desirable one like an S10 or something. Nissans are also sometimes reasonable.
You are so right about pickups. Just about any of them used start off at around 5K (at least around here) no matter the miles or condition (within reason, of course). The exception really is Dodge Trucks (former owner here, not too happy with how it turned out) and the S10.
I'm now down to worst-case parts cost and availability. That brings me back to the common models from Toyota (cars, their used trucks are too expensive), Honda, Ford (Ranger (expensive) Tarus) and the more I think about it the Chevy 1500 Series Trucks. Chevy sold hundreds of thousands of those things. The parts have got to be cheap, and we have a late 90s one in the extended family that is a real champ (but well cared for). If I can find one with the manual tranny, it'll be a contender, even considering my current personal problems with GM in general, lol. Beggers can't be choosers!
The Buicks with the 3800 engine, the Regal as mentioned before, and perhaps a Park Avenue, might be worth a look as would the LeSabre. They are generally reliable, though the supercharged 3.8 in some Regals and Park Avenues might require a bit more maintenance.
I'd say : Honda Civic or Accord, Toyota Corolla or Camry, Nissan Sentra or Altima. They're cheap, reliable, and great on gas. Recent Hyundais are good too.
Your best bet by far would be either a late 80's or early 90's Camry or Corolla. They have a stellar reputation and are inexpensive. You could get a nice one for $1,500- $2,000. Completely forget about the Alero, it is an unreliable piece of crap (see link below). The truck is so so (see link below) I posted links for each of these cars to look at.
I had looked at that Alero since it was across the street from work. It was rough. We had them as fleet cars but they were gone by 3 years to auction.
The guy selling the Nissan Truck with 200K+ miles has some nerve, it's very rough, and not worth it.
The older Nissan Maxima is gone in a flash.
I keep coming back to this Chevy Silverado (2001) with the 4.3L V6 (LU3, since it's an 01) and 5MT. It's at a dealer's wholesale lot. It's cheap. It's got 160K miles on it. They've cleaned it up well.
But there's this little voice in my head that says "hey dummy, do not buy that Chevy truck."
And I reply "ok, but any used car could go bust and you're stuck with a wrench in your hand so you might as well get something with cheap parts you can fix."
Two other thoughts came to mind regarding your vehicle search. What about an Acura Integra or Legend? I know that in an earlier post a Vigor was mentioned, but they were quirky for Honda, but the Integra and Legend are very reliable. You'd be able to find a relatively recent Integra for around $4k, though the Legend went out of production in 1995.
ETA: I wonder if you might find an early 2.5TL in your price range as well. If so, that would not be a bad bet, either.
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