What car would you buy if you were starting over and just needed a little beater run around for a few years.

Should not do too many highway miles just to get to work and home.

Would you buy a car for
A. 5-6K with near 100K miles

B. 3-4K with Over 100K miles

C. 1-2K with over 160K miles.

Any cars recommended past or presently owned.

WADAD

 

Alot of it really depends on who personally owned the car. Typically, a car with higher miles has been taken care of better. This isn't always the case but in order to make it to 150k miles, some maintenance had to of been done. Of course, there is also a reason the car is only going for 2,000 dollars as well.

Tough call.

 

That's true...

Just wondering what types of cars people have owned to high mileage that might be recommended. I sold my Lancer with 84K miles that I had well taken care of. OZ's are still being sold in the 6-7K range with well over that.

I just need some other options.

 

65% of my cars Mileage had been highway as I was working on the road at the time.

WADAD

 

Get a Honda. Period. The nicest condition one for whatever your budget is.

In HS I had an 87 Civic that had 185k miles on it before we donated it.

I then had a 91 Accord that had 140k before I sold it for $4k.

My bro currently has a 2001 Accord with 195k miles on it!

 

Honda is a very solid choice or you may wan't to look in to lexus with 150-200k They are cheap and run forever.

The best running car I ever owned besides my 00 accord was a 1995 lexus sc300 with 190k on it and it ran like the day it was new.

 

Like most people so far said, a Honda. The first car I owned in this country was a '88 Honda Accord coupe 5sp, this was in 98. I bought at an auction with 165,000 miles for $1800.00. My family and friends thought I was crazy. It cost me less than $200.00 to get it serviced at the Honda Dealership and it ran great for 2 years and 35,000 miles. I drove it to school in Missouri from Delaware and took 2 trips to Chicago with it. When I traded it in '2000 for an F150 it still ran fine.

Bottom line if you find an Accord in good shape for less $3000, go for it. The are known for reliability and decent gas mileage.

Good luck.

 

I would get an early-mid 90s Corolla or Civic. The Corolla is *probably* a better choice because it's an appliance and most of the owners treated them as such. An Accord or Camry (similar vintage) would be a good choice as well.

I would try to spend under $2k on it.

If you're good with a wrench, you can maintain an older car with junkyard parts for very little money.

 

I see your point about the "appliance". They wouldn't have been flogged.

And yes I have gotten fairly good with a wrench on this car. WHen I get back to the US I need a little bit of a break.

WADAD

 

Keep the suggestions coming though. This is good. All I have ever really owned are mitsubishis, Mirage, lancer, Evo. Not much experience with anything else.

WADAD

 

honda prelude sh is my answer and i'm by no means a honda fan, but you should be able to get a realatively low mile car (around 100k) for about $6k or less. great handling, reliable and reasonably fun. it's the poor man's integra type r.

 

A high mileage SIMPLE car. As WSB said, base model Civic or Corolla, preferably manual trans (less likely to fail.) Keeping it to a simple car means less to break and easier to fix when something does.

 

I would go with option B

 

I bought a 91 Escort back in 2000 with 130k miles on it for $650 bucks. It needed a new clutch and I put another 200k miles on it before I sold it. It wasnt pretty but was the most cost effective vehicle i ever owned.

 

Go with a Chevy Prism instead of the Corolla. They are a corolla in every way just badged as a Chevy and don't have the Toyota premium. My wife has a 2001 with 95K and honestly the thing has never been in the shop besides oil changes and CV axles.