New Car?

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Well, certainly not a "new" car. But I'm thinking about selling my Subaru station wagon, largely because of the mediocre gas mileage (20 city/27 highway reported, just below 20 measured on long-distance trips with lots of stuff), and because, now that I'm not in college any more, I won't need to haul stuff around the country/city nearly as much in the near future as I did then.

Why am I posting this here? Well, two reasons. 1. I harbor some small hope that somebody reads this, and 2. You might be able to help me choose something. Here is what I want: fuel efficient (which probably means small), cute (which probably also means small), not fast (to keep insurance lower and keep me safer), inexpensive (not much, if any, more than a '97 legacy wagon), and reliable. Think for a minute on your own, and send your suggestions to gjemmott@gmail.com or post them here. You can look up the fuel efficiency here.

My thinking was that most of those criteria make me lean towards something small and Asian and stickshift. I initially thought an old Mazda Miata would be cool, but Brett informed me that they don't get fantastic gas milage (20/26 city/highway for a '97, 22/27 for a 2000). His suggestion was a Honda Del Sol (closer to 30). I also noticed that VW Jettas have been getting good fuel ratings for a while, but they lose serious points on the Cute and Reliable scales. A 2000 Honda Insight looks really intriguing - perfect mileage, slow, the cost is a bit high, but not too bad (and the gas savings would be fantastic), but I wonder about two things: are hybrids from that early on still running well (Do you know of someone with one)? Also, is it cute? I kind of like it, but I'm curious what the public thinks. Let me know if you have opinions!

~George

Comments

Anonymous said…
Get a late 90s 3-cylinder Geo Metro. D'onofrio drove one! Hella gas mileage. ...not "cute," though. Good luck.
June 6, 2008 at 7:33 AM
Bean said…
My Jetta is a 2000, and on the highway it gets up to 36 mpg. I adore it to pieces, but the maintenance of it becomes a problem. It has expensive parts. I love it to pieces.

As for hybrids, our neighbors have a Prius (the jelly bean, haha) and they complained that in the winter it was barely better than a regular car, in "warm weather" it got amazing mileage. I think it also depends which model you get. I don't know much about the Honda.

For not cute, but safe and good mileage, Camry. . . The Yaris also gets AMAZING mileage, but I'm not sure about safety ratings.

Hope you work it out :)

Robin
June 7, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Tim Smith said…
FWIW, the 2003 Civic Hybrid's batteries have a 10-year design life and cost a couple thousand dollars to replace. Honda sells the cars with an 8-year battery warranty.
June 7, 2008 at 4:23 PM
George said…
I watched too much Initial D (japanese racing show) and ended up with a 1986 Toyota MR2. Fast, small, reliable, fun, rear-wheel-drive, and an amazing amount of storage space for a two-seater. Only disadvantage is that it's a bit loud. I can quiet it down a bit, too, if I ever get around to it.
May 1, 2009 at 9:52 PM
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