Best low maintenance cars?

hey, if you want a good car that you can afford and take care of, buy a used one that was taken care of, in good shape, and dont pull out a loan. A loan just sticks you with years and years worth of car payments and high interest. My old shop teacher owes 18,000 on a van that is now only worth 9,000. The value depreciates faster than u can pay off the loan. Pay in cash and just maintain it. Its the bast way to go and will save you money. No more car payments now. I bought my 86 mazda truck for 100 dollars and only needed minor repairs every now and then. other than that, if you want a bran new car, go for a chevy, like a impala, or a monte carlo. a pontiac would be just as good too. Imports are way to expensive to fix when they break down because they have to import the parts to fix it. Go domestic. good luck

Statesman wrote:

1989 Ford Escort, 4 cyl., stick. In a recent crash test an 89 Escort did not have any damage in a front end 5 mph crash. A 07 Pontiac G6 had several thousand dollars damage.

Sure, but isn't that Escort one of the engines that is notorious for randomly shredding timing belts and bending up the valves?

--scott

Check the Consumer Reports Automobile Annual. They give a rating on reliability for all models, and even charts for older (used) ones.

" " wrote in news:46109455.97F2B6A5 @houston.rr.com:

If you're referring to the IIHS study as recently publicized by MSNBC, the test speed was 6mph and the car was an '83 Escort with an exposed steel/aluminum bumper.

Plus it reportedly had "$68" in damage, a figure difficult to reconcile with what was evident in the video shown by MSNBC.

Woops! Red flag....if you dont maintain your cars, then reliability is your own problem.

Every American car company specifies oil changes up to 7500 miles or so...If you dont want to do that, get a mule. They are low maintenance and make their own gas.

They specify filter changes, etc, and again, do it or accept the consequences.

Now, if I have misunderstood you, please pardon me... Most of us want a car that could win at LeMans, costs $5000, and never costs a penny in repair or maintenance. Only Matchbox comes close.

I resemble that remark!

nate

(would settle for Bonneville or my local drag strip, really - I'm not picky.)

This is just my opinion, so it's worth exactly what you paid for it - if you want a "runs forever" car that doesn't need a whole lot of maintenance, you don't want to be looking at newer cars. Old iron is where it's at. I would personally probably look at a late 60's or early 70's MoPar A-body with a slant six or "LA" (273/318/340/360) V-8. Those would be Darts, Valiants, Dusters, Demons, early Barracudas. Also I've had good luck with mid-80's A1 and A2 chassis VW's (Rabbit/Golf, Jetta, Scirocco) any car will require maintenance the key is to find a GOOD mechanic and stick with him, if you don't do your own PM. VW's do require a little more periodic maintenance than other cars but will run until the heat death of the universe if taken care of.

Other people swear by Toyota Corollas, but I have no experience with the Japanese cars other than with my GF's old Sentra which to be honest, I didn't like all that much although it did serve her well for several years.

Low operating cost, sadly, seems to be mutually incompatible with "cool" and luxurious.

nate

Find an old Toyota with a 22R motor. Rebuild it. Spare no expense. Abuse the hell out of it for 150,000 miles,or do reasonable maintenance and go 300,000 miles. Mercedes

5cyl. Diesel. Same thing, except just change the oil every 3k, go 300,000 plus,Adysthemic

You can see some G6 crash tests here:

quoted text -

Best car for low maintenance - none. There isn't a car made that will run for long on low maintenance. They all require regular upkeep to stay running.

I'm not sure what you mean by fuel efficient. A vehicle could be very fuel efficient if it carried 10 passengers but got 17mpg compared to a car that carried two passengers but got 40 mpg.

Best car for low history of problems would be Toyota, Honda and Nissan.