Suggestions for a compact city car? (for sale by owner, renting, houses)

[northsea]

Originally Posted by hellopity

My partner has a sporty type car that has manual transmission, so that's out for me. We talked about downsizing to just one car, but until he is ready to give up his sporty car, I'm still going to want a vehicle I can actually drive.

Is learning to drive a stick shift completely out of the question?

[leastprime]

Keep the Jetta for quick trips around town.
For comfortable and long distance rides, call Enterprise and get a car delivered to you or pick up at the agency.

For $50-60k, thats a lot of car for so little use. That's more than $1000/mn payment (no down, x interest, plus insurance)

[leastprime]

The Jetta is getting long in tooth and probably will need some wheels.
The question is whether $50k is worth the minimal amount driving. If you are only driving around Seattle, 300mi/mn is going to be expensive ownership. Unless you don't care.

[hellopity]

northsea: yes, learning to drive a stick is out of the question.

leastprime: not interested in financing a car. For depreciating commodities I'd rather own outright. Insurance/registration/maintenance/fuel are all part of the expected cost so I'm ok with that. The MSRPs for Mini, Fiat, and VW Beetle look super reasonable.

Thanks for the suggestion regarding Leaf, I'll look into it. I don't know anyone who has one so no word of mouth recommendations/impressions yet. Thanks!

[perigee]

Everyone that I have talked to that owns a Leaf raves about them and say they'll never go back ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars again. The trouble is apartment living and charging it, of course since you aren't using it daily you can probably get away with just using a normal plug. The used market keeps getting under cut by Nissan, so you can pick up a good used one with low miles for pretty cheap. For longer trips there are charging stations everywhere.

I know you said you didn't like the Priuis, by have you thought about the Prius C. It's smaller and cute, great gas mileage and Toyota has a good reputation for low maintenance cars that last a long time and hold their value very well over the years.

[Thom52]

Originally Posted by perigee

......

I know you said you didn't like the Priuis, by have you thought about the Prius C. It's smaller and cute, great gas mileage and Toyota has a good reputation for low maintenance cars that last a long time and hold their value very well over the years.

Prius C would be the obvious choice. Shorter than a normal Prius for easier parking, and they look more like a "normal" car. They last just about forever with higher reliability and lowest maintenance costs of pretty much everything out there. Good for putting around town on battery and having the range for those long drives.

That or a Chevy Volt. But that would require plug-in access. The nice thing is they have the range if you ever do long drives, and the internal combustion engine just charges the battery, so you don't feel any difference between the high torque electric drive and when the IC engine kicks in. They also look like a normal car.

[leastprime]

FYI, DS bought a stick Mazada 3i, 2015. I thought it was a poor choice for all the hills in Seattle, so I can understand why an autotransmission is better local driving. However, son does go skiing and dirt roads camping and he likes the feel of a stick in those conditions.

[hellopity]

Thanks for the suggestions! I looked into the cars and I have to say my favs are Mini, Beetle, and Fiat 500/Mazda 3. My S.O. tells me that if I'm going to torture him with tiny cabins (he is much bigger than I am) then I should think about an Audi TT or Miata (if they still make Miatas??)

[leastprime]

You would want one vehicle to be able to handle sports equipment and supplies.

[Kayela]

I prefer something with some handling and acceleration. When you put an automatic into some of those little cars they really bog down. They're fun as manuals, but automatics never shift as responsively as I like. That said, the Mini and Audi (I'd go with either the TT or A3 hatch) are both decent as automatics, and have good handling. I think the Mini is about as small as you can get and still get decent performance.