New England B.S. Thread

If you can find a golf alltrack that's what I'd do. AWD, manual available, and I really like the VW 2.0

 

I have a friend who has a Veloster N, it is much better than I expected.

 

Amen. I had a 2.5L 3, AT but that thing was awesome. I beat the piss out of it. Had some get up and go too. The 2.5 is the bigger engine though....

Rob - don't be scared of the germans. They're just metric fords, and the high runners like a golf or jetta, parts are easy to come by. If you are comfortable wrenching, they're just as easy to work on a civic, corolla, focus, etc. a 4 door golf is a great car to have.

The korean SUVs are a shit show, but the sedans are okay. I THINK the Volcester also stole some BMW engineers, I KNOW the stinger was a bunch of stolen BMW engineers. That said I think the Veloster might have too much character for an econobox.



And as much as it weirds me out to say it...the CVTs might not be too bad to have for an econobox. My wife's camry has 115k on it, did the fluid at 75k I think. Needs it again, but it's easy. Otherwise those things do kinda just keep going. I know some of the earlier ones have had some issues, but once the issues started getting flushed out, for an econobox they aren't bad. SUVs (Big/heavy), towing, etc no way. But an A to B pipsqueak mobile, I'd run one.

...How far are you going with it? Would a Nissan Leaf work?

 

Thanks everybody!

Rob @GarlicFarts I changed jobs and I'm going 30 miles each way to work (going right through EP actually). So I need something cheap good enough on gas and awd is a bonus. I didn't think about the VW's. Did they get their electrical figured out? Anyways I'm just thinking out loud right now...

 

Don't sneeze at the old Rav4s, ours gets about 30mpg

 

Used is just so stupid pricing right now. I'd rather find a dealer not marking up from sticker and go new.

 

True true, but if you happen to find one that the price isn't gouged that would be a possibility

 

Just throwing this out there https://automatchconsulting.com/
Tom helped me buy a unique car in Florida and recently helped a friend in greater Boston get a new Rav4 hybrid in Vermont at sticker.

 

Keep an eye out for some older-ish models.

My wifes ‘14 outback consumes oil and its a known issue with a couple other models. There was a class action on; they would do an oil change and ask you to come back after 1k miles to determine if it burnt any. Ours never met the threshold but we got about 10 free oil changes out of it by having to them redo the test. Thing burns through a quart evey 1500 miles or so.

 

Yeah I know you said you had a new gig, didn't know about commuting or where abouts it was. I'm sorry you have to go through EP

60 miles could be doable on a hairdryer with wheels. But honestly an older 4 banger Corolla can pull like 35 mpg. But wouldn't be AWD. Winter tires you'd be fine though.

VW electrical is fine. Porsche, high end VWs, etc that aren't being mass produced will have some weirder issues but a sedan (not an SUV they have screwey brakes I think) is mass produced and they're pretty well sorted out.

 

I have a 60 mile round trip now. I planning on buying one of the tdi VWs for the daily then snow I can just drive my tacoma. Sadly wont be happening for a while but eventually.

 

@mach1man001

What’s your budget? That’s going to greatly impact recommendations.

A Corolla / Civic is always the go-to for me. Subarus are either total hit or miss. A turbo Subaru is a commitment. The NA have the own quirks that have been documented in this thread. I loved my STi and have been low key saving for a WRX for ages.

Everyone I know with VWs have had their share of annoying headaches with the majority being intermittent electrical quirks. If you want to get into an enthusiast option, the GTI would be fun, but ehh.

If you want something that you only have to think about putting gas into, Honda / Toyota.

If you want to go REALLY cheap but still solid, find a Pontiac Vibe. Granted the newest ones are old old but they have all of the GM depreciation but all the Toyota quality. Otherwise check out the xA / xB / xD as well. The 1st Gen tC is effectively a Camry coupe, my wife traded hers at 10 years old without any drama.

 

I would vote Honda for the econobox over Toyota but I don't think either is a bad call. The vibes are nice but they're pretty old and not very fuel efficient. My coworker had one at 300 though so they got ambition.

 

I agree on the age, but it’s a super cheap way to get a Matrix without the Toyota tax. It was similar back when you could buy a Geo Prism for 65-75% of a Corolla.

 

Mazda b series instead of a ranger too.

 

Subarus aren’t bad as long as you don’t try to get them to high mileage. Once you hit around 120K things start wearing out. I’ve had a Legacy, Outback Sedan, WRX and Forester XT. All of them were great vehicles. A Crosstrek would make a nice commuter car. The only problem with commuter cars these days is that they all cost so much money that you never really save enough on fuel to justify owning the extra car.

 

Good call re the Scions and I totally forgot that the Vibe was the Matrix..I remember the Chevy Nova as another Corolla wannabe back in the day.

 

Nova? Do you mean lumina or is there another copy I don't know of

 

I was thinking about the Impreza Sport. It's NA, has AWD and it's now too bad looking. It only gets 30mpg on the highway though. This day and age most cars get way better. Hell my wife's Camry gets in the 40's no problem! I don't really mind FWD as I would do snows anyway.

 

In the mid 80s the Nova was a small, FWD econobox... looked like a corolla... or a knock-off. Lumina came later.