I might need to buy another car for a work commute. Ideas?

[verothacamaro]

Oh and it can be had with a manual transmission!

[verothacamaro]

Welp - I read 1995 and older as "1995 and newer"

Disregard my submission :-(

[GTRON]

You own CB7Tuner, get a CB7 (or CB9) for Pete's sake

[deevergote]

Welp - I read 1995 and older as "1995 and newer"

Disregard my submission :-(

Honestly, aside from being too new for what i want (and too old to be truly reliable), I'd actually love one of those. My wife thinks I'm nuts every time I point one out. I once read an article where turbos were added to a Fit and an SX4, and the Suzuki was the clear winner. Having owned a Fit, and knowing how much fun that car is, I couldn't even imagine something in the same class that's even more fun!

[Raf99]

Ya, not sure why folks are mentioning older cb7s, etc. Yes, great car and reliable compared to another car of it's age. But not reliable for modern day travelling for work. I tried to do this with my cb7 coupe I had, and...

- 1st time it stranded me on the highway was the fuel pump
- 2nd time was the distributor
- 3rd time was the igniter

And...... with that I was done. Not that the car couldn't be fixed, but with an older car you know things are going to break. And when you need to be somewhere and have deadlines to meet the car was simply not reliable. Never mind that a lot of the parts are discontinued.

With that said....... my choice is ......................

A honda fit

[deevergote]

People are suggesting older cars because I'm specifically looking for 1995 and older. Cars of that age are exempt from inspection where I live, which makes life a LOT easier with an inexpensive beater. Newer cars would be more expensive to buy, and not necessarily more reliable (I've had $10,000 cars that were 4 years old be less reliable than $12000 cars that were 15 years old...) Unless I buy something VERY new, I'm looking at all sorts of potential unexpected problems. I figure with a CB, I'll be able to recognize and fix those problems before things get too bad. If I can't figure it out, I have the best resource in the world to help me! If I determine it's not worth fixing, I have a whole community of people that would gladly buy parts (or a parts car... or a new project car.)

As much as I'd like to try something new, I don't think there is a better daily beater than a CB in my particular situation. I think a CB9 would probably be the best thing I could get. It's as "different" as I can get with a CB, more useful than a coupe or sedan (especially since I'm going to be doing some major work in my house over the next couple years), and they're cheap.
With a CB, the only long-term downtime would likely come from engine failure, transmission failure, or fuel pump failure. Everything else I could fix in a day, fairly easily.

I had considered a Fit, but after spending nearly 400,000 miles behind the wheel of one, I'm SO sick of them! One worth buying would probably be more than I could afford to spend. One that I could afford would probably be beat to crap (I sold my Fit for $1200... probably could've gotten more, but my friend hit me up at the right time, and I knew he'd take care of it... which he has!)

[Raf99]

How about this?

[deevergote]

Perfect!

[GTRON]

How about this?

Now that is another solid option

[Losiracer2]

2nd gen prius....my friend had one with 250k that still got 48mpg

[GTRON]

2nd gen prius....my friend had one with 250k that still got 48mpg

Oh Man. He went there.....

[deevergote]

Aside from the fact that they're post-1995, I've actuallly considered a Prius. I wouldn't be tempted to modify it, and that's a major threat with a cb!

[Raf99]

Ya, if you are looking for a pre-95, then a cb7 is what you need

[verothacamaro]

There's a lot of junk pre-1995. American cars still hadn't come into their own. Korean cars were still struggling with reliability. Japanese cars couldn't survive a single winter.

I hate to say it, but German cars from the early to mid-90s were very stout. Expensive parts are the only downside, but how cool would it be to drive around an E34 5 series or a W140 S-Class!

[deevergote]

The late 80s and early 90s really were a high point for the Germans (especially the higher-end Germans.) But you're right about the cost to repair them. Parts aren't cheap, and some require proprietary tools to do important and necessary service (lookin' at you, Mercedes-Benz!) Plus, the cool ones get shite gas mileage!

Japanese cars weren't bad. They rusted, but the early 90s saw some mechanical marvels come out of Japan. If I was ok with rust (which I may be), an older Japanese car is probably what I'll end up with.

Koreans largely used Mitsubishi engines and transmissions in the earlier 90s, back with Mitsubishi stuff was actually decent. Those cars have mostly been used and abused, and tossed away like a soggy kleenex by now, though.

Small American cars... yeah, garbage. Larger American cars weren't much better.