$5000 to spend on a daily driver. Recommendations?

[Got5onIt]

Alrighty everyone.

Help me pick the best daily driver for $5000.

Stipulations:

1. Good gas mileage. ~ 24mpg and up

2. Prefer one of the big 3 or one of their affiliates. No to a Honda. Other imports may be considered.

3. Manual tranny

4. Of course, reliability. I know $5000 wont get me a new car, but you know what I'm saying. If I have to do work, I don't want to have to pay $250 for a damn water pump.

Whatcha thinkin'?

:coolman:

 

[MonkeysL]

one of the sportier saturns....cheap, VERY reliable, and gas mileage is mid 30s up

 

[BuckChoklit]

Thunderbird Supercoupe/ Turbo Coupe
SVO Mustang
Taurus SHO

 

[Got5onIt]

one of the sportier saturns....cheap, VERY reliable, and gas mileage is mid 30s up

I completely forgot about them.
Sportier? What models?

 

[ESVEETEE]

Honda. get over it. nothin comes close for the price on a used DD...

 

[Got5onIt]

Honda. get over it. nothin comes close for the price on a used DD...

Uh No.
Been down that road, sir. My honda cost me more to fix than any other vehicle I've EVER owned.

HonDUH -----> :kaboom:

 

[ESVEETEE]

then it wasnt even REMOTELY taken care of, a honda motor with routine oil changes will greatly outlast the body (i know from experience)

 

[MonkeysL]

here is one sportier style, there are a few though, my ex girlfriend just got rid of her 93 with 280,--- miles and it still ran great and got mid 30+ mpg..http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Satu...ewItemQQcategoryZ80752QQitemZ4616187082QQrdZ1

 

[Got5onIt]

then it wasnt even REMOTELY taken care of, a honda motor with routine oil changes will greatly outlast the body (i know from experience)

You're probably right. I bought the POS used. Sometimes you just get lucky I guess, and get a bad one. :shrug:

 

[ESVEETEE]

regardless... youve been burned by 1 too many honda's i suppose (1 of 1 we'll say)


and uhh... with that in mind... reliable cars-

camry's run forever as well, though im inclined to say toyota sux the only thing i ever liked by them was MKII MR2, Supra, and the tacoma's arent too awful for a small pickup.

stay away from KIA, Mitsubishi, Subaru's just arent reliable on a 200k mile scale... they're good to 100-150k but not much beyond, Dodge seems to be a lost cause on their long term reliability with their "good" DD's, Ford cars in the 5k range will be early-mid 90's which wasnt ford's strong point for reliability... few were good, chevy ive had WAY too many complaints from the ones that would be in your price range/criteria...


Long story short... for a cheap, durable DD you're going Toyota or Honda.... but thats up to you.

 

[Got5onIt]

regardless... youve been burned by 1 too many honda's i suppose (1 of 1 we'll say)


and uhh... with that in mind... reliable cars-

camry's run forever as well, though im inclined to say toyota sux the only thing i ever liked by them was MKII MR2, Supra, and the tacoma's arent too awful for a small pickup.

stay away from KIA, Mitsubishi, Subaru's just arent reliable on a 200k mile scale... they're good to 100-150k but not much beyond, Dodge seems to be a lost cause on their long term reliability with their "good" DD's, Ford cars in the 5k range will be early-mid 90's which wasnt ford's strong point for reliability... few were good, chevy ive had WAY too many complaints from the ones that would be in your price range/criteria...


Long story short... for a cheap, durable DD you're going Toyota or Honda.... but thats up to you.

Any experience on the Corollas?