Dodge Neon.
Cheap to buy. Cheap to insure. Cheap to repair. And good gas mileage.
I have had 4 over the years. My brother still owns my original 1stgen 1995 (35mpg) and wifey had a 96 auto that got up to 38 mpg.

What a little more ummph... try an ACR or R/T model, still get good MPG, hold value better, but use premium.

I still own my 2ndgen 2001 ACR. It's my commuter car. (30-33mpg)
Nicely equiped with a CAI, 60mm TB, Mopar short shifter, eurathane bushings, Mopar high rate springs, and 15" MOMO's.... all bought of neons.org and 2gn.org forums for cheap.

Don't care what anyone says, can't beat'm.

 

OK, then I would suggest, and Ken is not going to like this, forget the Yaris and get a Corolla. Check carmax prices for new ones. You can get a base car for the same price as a Yaris, under $15K. For $15,350, you can get one loaded.

I had a 93 I kept until 2000. Then a 2000 I sold to get the MINI. In 12 years, neither Corolla EVER saw the inside of a Toyota dealer for ANYTHING except a window motor went on the 93 and they replaced it, gratis, OUTSIDE of warranty. They just ... ran. Just changed the oil. Never changed the plugs, never changed anything. In fact, never bought new tires. Probably get 50 - 60K out of the OEM tires. A lot of ppl dont like Toyota for appliances but ... they run.

Its a common joke that MOST Americans do not like cars when they have about 100K miles on them and get rid of them. Finding a low mileage, RAV4 or 4 Runner, for example, is hard to do because ppl keep them to 100K. Then they get wholesaled down to Central America where they run them to 200 - 300K miles. The running joke is at 100K miles, the trucks are just broken in.

I have been reading the Toyota board for the last six months and can say that people's BIG complaint is the lousy cupholders on the RAV4.

Best of luck on your decision.

 

+1

 

why suffer even more than you should? get a civic.

 

Sounds like "I love my car, so I don't want to drive it." It's meant to be driven!

 

no. 'its i love my car, so i dont want to drive it when i dont need to.'



but does not mean i want to drive a corolla instead!

 

so i am a bit stuck... perhaps you guys can give me some insight...

i got a 06' legacywagon which is pretty scratched up from my wife's
'normal' use. it's not bad but it is more or less a 10footer kinda car now.
2 of the wheels are rimmed pretty bad, like gauged. there are several
things about the car that i dont like..like cold feet due to poor lower vent
output in cold weather, no steering wheel controls for stereo, those kinds
of interior features that i now wish i had (they are on my Civic).

thus comes the idea of upgrading it to something else... was looking at
a few options but they all have its flaws..

1. mdx - costly, mpg not that great, no mt.
2. rdx - ugly, no mt.
3. odyesse - lots of utility, but no real fun driving it.... boring.
4. A4 2L wagon - similar to my legacy overall size and utility, not sure about reliability.

legacy has been giving us a very big bang for the buck so far.

Is it worth upgrading my legacywagon to a A4wagon?

 

Once you go from "Need" to "Want", what anything is "Worth" is totally up to you...

 

what about a legacy 2.5gt wagon. dont the coming 08's have available audio sterring wheel controls; its also been facelifted and revised. plus turbo motor and manual

thats woth the loss in mpg's

but of the ones you listed; digging the a4. the 2.0t is a sweet little engine, and the audis are real classy, but if your legacy went through all that with your wife driving it some, id def never hand her the keys to the audi

or what about a mazda 5; there not real expensive, versatile, drive pretty nice (afterall theyre based off the 3) and available stick; oh yeah decent mpg's to

 

i personally had very bad experiences with my subaru dealers so im not
really fond of their cars any more. i would rather not buy anything from
them. plus i doubt they fixed the lower ventilation problem legacy's been
known for. as soon as you go below 30F your feet are so darn cold.

the Maz5 is a nice little package and can use the extra 2 seat-like
benches far back when i have to pickup someone with my kids on board.
they do offer a 5mt so that's kinda nice. and looks pretty cool for a
little van. but i want something with AWD...thus it's either keep the
legacywagon or get the A4 wagon which, i believe, are all AWD now.

 

that is a wise way of thinking... im not in a rush to make the change,
thus i wanted to hear opinions.

to me both wagons are pretty similar but the audi will offer more and a
much nicer package.

 

I can understand your issues with the Subaru. Mostly that due to several issues, it has left a bad taste in your mouth. Just remember, it's NEVER an upgrade if you swap for an automatic. They just sap all the fun out of driving, and then there are all of the reliability issues (at least for me, PRNDSL hasn't been very kind)

I got some good news for my beater! My uncle opened a used car lot for a spare time job after his retirement is closing his lot. His last car is a 98 Civic with 5 speed, pwr windows/locks and a power sunroof. It has 156K miles and I can get it for very little money. That can be a beater that won't interfere with my getting a 335 next year! I may not get it, but I'm surely gonna take a look at it. The only downside is that Hondas of that vintage used a rubber band instead of a chain to run the camshaft(s). How hard is it to change? No way I'm paying my hard earned money to have it done by somebody else.

I had two reminders of why I need a beater today...

1. Some moron came around a curve in MY lane. It was a left hander, and thankfully there was a pulloff on the right.

2. I stopped at the convenience store and before I could reach for the door handle, some woman pulled a new Nissan Titan up so close there was NO WAY she could have gotten out without caving in my door. I fired the MINI up and parked in the back alley behind the store to buy my gum, Coke, and lottery ticket.

Rawhyde

 

yah, there's some key features im looking for in this next daily driver and
it will have to have a MT regardless how much i hate driving manuals to
work and it has to have nice interior features as well...without loosing
the utility.

since the next G37C does not look like wat i was hoping for, i think im
also going to look at the 335ic's in a year or two too.