Whats a good small car

[Werd.]

Originally Posted by vctxr6ute

Another vote for a sv21??? camry, or celica (same drive train) of the same era, I car pool with a mate to work in a celica 86 twincam 2.0ltr it gets great fuel economy up and down the expressway,goes ok,but after not driving a front wheel drive car for a while,torque steer did suprised me on a few occasions.before he got the celica he had an sv21 camry wagon and it just keep going,so long as you change the timming belt,I know of a few guys who have lost timming belts on the hume on the way to work,One only last week in a 2.2ltr 95 celica $$$$$$$$$$

Depending on the type of driving your misses does,as my AU SR wagon gets over 700ks to a tank consistantly(expressway only).But not really a small car hey....depends on who you ask.

How hard is it to get your belt changed by a mechanic every 100,000k's or 5 years...

[Interceptor]

shop around a lil, or see if your budget can stretch a lil to a mitsubishi mirage

[waggaclint]

ya cant go past a corolla.....best small car out there.....

[BlackLS]

Yeah go an older Corolla, otherwise like said above, try to look for a Mirage or Starlet, Pulsar, 94 Charade etc

[V8falcons]

Originally Posted by Werd.

How hard is it to get your belt changed by a mechanic every 100,000k's or 5 years...

Um ,its really not that hard I would imagine,obviously he didnt bother, its really not worth worrying yourself over but werd is it!

[Pursuit_chick]

i have an ED on gas, that i have been driving back and forth to adelaide (70km one way) 5 days (sometimes 6) a week that i have been doing for 3 years now. Hasnt let me down once. It is very reliable and is alright to drive.

[vztrt]

From what I've seen the Pulsars aren't a bad unit.

[BlackLS]

Pulsars aren't bad, especially N14 up

[xr6fa]

Toyota yaris Yrs

[steamin63]

laser up to the kj2 or the 323 protege [same car] ,toyota carolla or nissan pulsar .cheap to buy, cheap to run, reliable and you can get a good one for under 5k if you look around.

[RSgerry]

i recently bought a 1999 Mondeo with full service history for close to that price. Ignore the 'bland' criticism, they drive very nicely and are very economical. They also carry a 5 star occupant safety rating, which is the reason I bought one.

[El Venom]

Pick of the bunch would be a toyata corolla. In that price range you should be able to find a low k, vgc twin cam seca which will go on for years with out any problems. As for the last model of the festivas, I wouldnt go near one if I could get a rolla. That particular model festiva was orignally built/designed and sold as a kia until ford got there hands on it and claimed it as there own and I aint sure how much of it is still kia

[98elxr6]

my vote would be for a rolla or an old laser tx3 great little cars heaps better than crappy magnas that blow smoke and transmissions or those daewoos hyundais and kias that just arent built to last in my opinion..

[Disciple]

Boss has a 2001 Pulsar for work. It has 355,000 kms on it and it hasen't had a single problem. The suspension is a bit ordinary, and it creaks and groans, but nothing mechanically has gone wrong. Same gearbox, original clutch still too.

[Steffo]

$5000 on a good small car? Forget it.

If your primary concern is fuel prices and daily driver reliability then for that money there is only one solution... a Falcon on gas from an auction. For $5000 you can get at least an AU. Private seller you're looking at EL's. Cheaper to run then any small car you'll get for $5k, will live longer and you'd be surprised how UNeconomical small cars are once they get some kilometres under them, small engines don't hack the big km's well.

[Disciple]

Originally Posted by Steffo

$5000 on a good small car? Forget it.

If your primary concern is fuel prices and daily driver reliability then for that money there is only one solution... a Falcon on gas from an auction. For $5000 you can get at least an AU. Private seller you're looking at EL's. Cheaper to run then any small car you'll get for $5k, will live longer and you'd be surprised how UNeconomical small cars are once they get some kilometres under them, small engines don't hack the big km's well.

The Pulsar we have for work still does over 600kms to a tank and averages around 7-8l/100. Older Corollas will average about the same as my mate had an 80's something Corolla with over 300,000kms on it and it would run of the smell of an oily rag.

[Werd.]

Originally Posted by Disciple

The Pulsar we have for work still does over 600kms to a tank and averages around 7-8l/100. Older Corollas will average about the same as my mate had an 80's something Corolla with over 300,000kms on it and it would run of the smell of an oily rag.

Yeah those 80's corollas are crazy with fuel, put 5 bucks in and get heaps far.

[Creampuff]

Just spent 2 months looking for a small auto for my daughter....corolla, fiesta are good but ended up with something a little bigger.
A Mazda 626 1991 model, $5000, 62000k's only, auto,power windows,steer,electric windows,cruise,great A/C, drives well. Only fault RACQ said was "replace wiperblades".
Anyway, good luck with your car but, be careful there are lots of dodgy cars in this price bracket!

[vztrt]

You can pretty much pick up that the small car should be Japanese.

[steamin63]

Originally Posted by Steffo

$5000 on a good small car? Forget it.

If your primary concern is fuel prices and daily driver reliability then for that money there is only one solution... a Falcon on gas from an auction. For $5000 you can get at least an AU. Private seller you're looking at EL's. Cheaper to run then any small car you'll get for $5k, will live longer and you'd be surprised how UNeconomical small cars are once they get some kilometres under them, small engines don't hack the big km's well.

how does 40 to 43 mpg hwy and 32 to 35 mpg city [depending on conditions] from a 96 laser liata 1.6l with 240000km on the clock sound. i've owned it since new and in that time i've replaced front and rear struts[at 150000km] ,3 batteries , 4 sets of tyres ,2 timing belts[100000km and 200000km service] and a rocker cover gasket about a month ago and it still goes like a startled rabbit. before that i had a series 2 bluebird trx that clocked up 320000km before i had to replace a head gasket and it still got low 30's mpg hwy.so much for your "UNeconomical,small engines don't hack big km's"statement.
cheers.

[xr8cobra]

i had a mitubitshi lancer 5 door 1.6 lt, had over 380000 lkms on her and went unreal 4 speed auto with over drive it was my daily work car driving from wollongong to helensburgh each day. 1989 model i sold it this yeah to buy my girl a ford focus cl 20lt 2004 now this is a good car but not in your price range. the lancer was sold to a chick and it still going like a dream and still not burning oilshe loves it since its her frist car,good luck mate :eclipsee_

[DirtyHarry]

Another vote for E series + gas. A 6cly Falcon on LPG is cheaper to run than any mid-sized car, and most smaller cars. Assuming you get 14L/100km on petrol, expect to get about 17L/100km on LPG. But LPG is generally around half the price of petrol, so the cost of running the LPG Falcon will be about the same as getting 8-9L/100km out of a small car, and not many will get that.

[Steffo]

Originally Posted by Disciple

The Pulsar we have for work still does over 600kms to a tank and averages around 7-8l/100. Older Corollas will average about the same as my mate had an 80's something Corolla with over 300,000kms on it and it would run of the smell of an oily rag.

I drove with a mate in his old 1990 Holden Nova LE (aka. AE92 Toyota Corolla) from Sydney to Canberra and back two years ago. 5spd manual, with the 3A-FC (1.4litre 55kW carb 4-cyl). I can't remember if it was 8.25 or 8.75L/100km it averaged during that trip (highway km). Which is pretty bloody bad for a 1.4L 4-cyl engine in a sub-1000kg car. It had 270,000km.

I had a 239,000km old Nissan Pintara 2.0 (first car). With awesome fuel figures of 17L/100km city and bang on 10L/100km highway it was opposite of economical.

Another friend had a 1.5litre Laser S KA (1981) which used... alot. Something stupid like 300km from one tank in that thing. And it was super slow... that crappy Pintara which was slow used to destroy it in a drag race.

Pretty much every common small car I've ever seen with over ~150,000km on it has liked to have a drink. Noteable exceptions would be the Seat Cordoba GLX 1.8, Peugeot 205 Si 1.6, Ford 1.6 Carby Laser of the late 80s-early 90s etc.

Probably the worst would be a mate's 1989 BMW 318i Coupe. The thing had a fuel consumption gauge which read up to 25L/100km (analogue gauge, every BMW has it). Normal acceleration would see it at 20L/100km... and it would settle on 12 for a 100km/h cruise. The thirstiest 1.8litre 4-cylinder car I have ever been in, in my entire life. 262,000km.

Either way, long-lasting or not, an LPG Falcon is still cheaper to run then any small 4-cyl petrol car for $5k.

[XR Martin]

I average about 14L/100kms in my EL on gas around town. At 54c/l for gas vs 1.35c/l for unleaded you would have to own a car that averages 5.6L around town to equal it.

[Disciple]

Where do you get gas @ 54c/L?! : In QLD it's like 66c/L.

[XR Martin]

Bought some at that price on the weekend (at a Shell servo too). Other places had it as high as 74.9c/L

[theunfairadvant]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

EL on Gas, cheaper to run than any car mentioned so far.

I agreed EL on gas is cheap as well,
cos you can get one with gas for about $5k.

[Mechan1k]

There's quite a few good models out there on the market.

CE Mirage - Wife had one ... gave it to her Mum ... still runs like new ... has about 200,000km on the clock ... so cheap to run .. sluggish though ... but it's economical.

I used to own a Proton Satria (CC Mirage in Japan ... with different exterior panels) ... this was a surprise packet ... Proton put all power options in it ... discs all round ... and cheap ... in manual form was a quick little economical vehicle (used to get 750km from 50L of the highway) ... handled well as well.

Corollas are decent vehicles as well ... known to be strong and hardy ... economical to boot as well ... used to have an AE92 model ... bulletproof ... traded it in with 380,000km on it (original engine and transmission).

KF Lasers (1.8L EFI models though) ... also decent vehicle ... Mother owned hers for 14 years ... troublefree motoring ... cheap to run ... had some poke as well (autos were a bit weak ... manual was the pick of these) ... very roomy.

These are going on my experiences with small vehicles .... I have seen some crap ones out there ... but these one i listed have been vrey good in my book.

[PHATAL]

+1 for a nissan pulsar awesome little cars

[Casablanca]

yes i agree i like the pulsars and corollas cheap to run and maintain and good on fuel

nissan and toyota FTW :P