Daily drivers "worth buying" ?

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My 1997 ford ranger with the 4 cyl and 5 speed has 170k and has been pretty much maintenance free other than the usual mileage work. Usually gets around 24 mpg also.
 
YY1 said:
We're almost in the same boat.

Our 2002 P/T only has 135,000 on the clock, but my wife's daily job requires her to do inner city driving in her personal vehicle (has increased 2-3x in the past year), and it's a manual trans.

It's super fun to drive, but it's wearing her left knee out.

It's been a good car, and we only paid $3500 with 54,000 miles on it.
Needed front wheel bearings, but since then just regular wear items (* see below).

We're considering simply getting a slightly newer ('06-'08 ) automatic P/T.

Keep in mind any 2.4L that's approaching 95,000 miles will need a $900 timing belt job.
(If you can't or don't want to do it yourself)

If you can find one that's had it done, you're ahead.
That's a selling point for ours and a bargaining chip for buying one.

I've seen a few locals fitting that criteria for between $2500 and $5000.
If we play the cards right, we could break even, or possibly come out ahead.
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How's your 02 PT ride on poor roads ? my PT is fine on decent roads. But on poor roads it really sucks! It's not a bad car (wife likes it) but at 87,000 miles...timing belt/water pump coming/ poor ride/ and what ever else will follow. I can probably do the belt myself, but I sure don't want to. Age is setting real fast on this car now. And if you buy someone else's old used car...well who know what your starting with ??????????
 
Kitty has an 04 Ford Escape we bought new in December 03. ALL and I mean ALL I have done is regular maintenance and tires. If I have one complaint it would be that it's a little heavy on road noise. Been the best car we have ever owned.


Even that said, I still stick by my first reply.
 
It's OK. Kinda' squeaky, though.

My wife calls it "a little tank" because of the heavy gauge sheet metal, and solid feeling.

FYI the book calls for discharging and removing the A/C compressor (among other things) to do the timing belt.
 
YY1 said:
FYI the book calls for discharging and removing the A/C compressor (among other things) to do the timing belt.
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That's petty high up on the gayOmeter.
 
The battery is under the air box.

Not a big fan of that either.

I've seen worse, though.
 
I moved up from a 1990 Chrysler Lebaron to a 1991 Chrysler Lebaron. They are cheap...23 mpg and one of the most comfortable cars there is. I found the one I currently drive on Craigslist for $600 and it had 81,000 actual miles. Came from Utah and has absolutly NO rust.
 
any of the mid 80's-early 90's small mopars. I had a 93 Daytona 2.5 with a 5-speed for a few years. Only issue I had with it was the clutch cable snapping. Sold it to my brother because he was going to college.

With changing jobs and more driving involved. I needed another good MPG daily driver so last year I picked up a 95 Saturn SC2 with only 60k on it....Little old lady owned. I must say I've been very impressed with the design of the car. Now I know why there's a Cult following for the mid 90's Saturns. The whole design is so simple. Think about how many Saturn's you've seen still putting around.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Kitty has an 04 Ford Escape we bought new in December 03. ALL and I mean ALL I have done is regular maintenance and tires. If I have one complaint it would be that it's a little heavy on road noise. Been the best car we have ever owned.
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Ditto my wifes 07. Been pretty much maintenance free. 88k and on its second set of tires. The AWD is totally mountain goat too, I tried to get that thing stuck in 2 feet of snow and it just wouldn't.

I would avoid anything VW or Audi and any luxury line line BMW, Mercedes, Caddy, Acura, Lexus, etc. Luxury car = $$$ for anything.

Subaru's, rattle and have tinny bodies but go forever. My WRX was fun and reliable.

Owned a 2002 Focus ZX3 and a 2003 SVT Focus, both reliable and fun.

2006 Magnum R/T was nice and I survived a 55 mph rear ending at a dead stop, it didn't.

My current 2006 Mazdaspeed6 is a fun car but OMFG it is a struggle to work on.
 
It's a hard judgment call of weather to replace an old car/ with another OLD car. Or to dump money into the one you presently own.
With the one you own, you know what's been done to it. Are PT Cruisers known to have head gasket rot/ wear out... like the old 2.2 & 2.5 kcar 4cylinder engines ? If so about what time frame/mileage. That could make my decision also.
 
If you want a cheap reliable American Car...get a Box CV...course I like any of the Crown Vics or the TownCars.
 
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