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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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7/24/2007
22:56:26
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 Subject: Beater car - daily driver
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Ok folks. I'm in the market for a used beater car that gets great gas milage.
I'm looking for a beater car for 2 reasons. 1st, i'm driving 50 miles a day and i'd rather buy a beater to rack up the miles. 2nd, I'm wanting to do some modifications to the dakota and I still need to get to work. custom skid plates, lights, swap gears, etc. I don't think the new dakota is going to get that great fuel economy so i'll be sticking to my trust 02 quad cab 4x4.
Can anyone toss out a good make/model (prefer for obdii for troubleshooting purposes) for me to search my local area for?
so far i'm considering
1. dodge neon (30+ mpg)
2. chevy s10 blazer. there's a ton of them available and for really cheap. Also parts are cheap and easily available as well. And it gets 25 mpg highway. I was considering an s10 as well but they get considerably less mpg than the s10 blazer.
3. vw's but they seem to be in very short supply and not very cheap.
I'm looking at keeping the cost down, so this means don't recommend the new 07 vw tdi's :D
I was thinking jeep wrangler, but they don't get much better fuel economy than my dakota. And if i bought one of those, that would be the project vehicle not the dakota. And they are easily available but not cheap as most have been modded already.
- Dan M
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RadioMan
Dodge Dakota
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7/25/2007
06:50:58
|  RE: Beater car - daily driver
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My "Beater car" is a NICE 79 AMC Concord Woody
Wagon with less than 85k. The 4.2 258 6 banger
just runs and runs. I only drive it during
summer months. Might look around for a old AMC,
Dan M. You can take a look at mine using this link
http://wx.tatorz.com/hobbies/amc
I also bought a 99 Honda 250cc scooter. It's fun
to drive and gets 75.5 MPG. I use it just about
every day to and from work. It keeps right up at
highway speeds also. 55 MPH is no problem at all.
Good luck on your find...
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lemmy
Dodge Dakota
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7/25/2007
06:52:57
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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A beater with good mileage, and pretty dependable. I hate to mention foriegn, but the corolla or civic in any year would probably be your best bet. At the least, 30 mpg on both.
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Bob Lincoln
Dodge Dakota
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7/25/2007
08:46:24
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Neon's only problem was headgasket back around 95-97. If that's been changed, or car is newer, it's a great beater.
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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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7/25/2007
09:05:31
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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nice amc radioman, very clean looking car.
Bob - thanks for the info.
- Dan M
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daddio
Dodge Dakota
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7/25/2007
09:34:13
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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might i suggest a used Saturn. you can find them cheap. they are very reliable and get between 35-40 gpm depending on which engine and trans combo you get.
my son has a '93 SL2 1.9l DOHC and auto. gets about 35mpg combined city /hwy. he beats the snot outta that car and it refuses to die. i've seen him run it low on oil and coolant and it's never overheated or refused to start. and his has over 200k.
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Catfish Craig
Dodge Dakota
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7/26/2007
08:24:11
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Dodge Neon! Ive had two of them and were gerat cars with alot of get-up and go. Never felt like it couldnt get out its own way. Sometimes I got over 40mpg if I drove easy. As far as the head gasket, do some searching and you can tell by looking for a tab on the left side of the head.
Good Luck CC
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WHAT
Dodge Dakota
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7/26/2007
09:05:31
|  RE: Beater car - daily driver
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A Tab On the left side of the head???
What the He11 are you talking about??
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TJ
Dodge Dakota
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7/26/2007
13:36:32
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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I recently sold a '99 Mazda Protege LX with 5spd and I got 32/40mpg with it. It was no race car, but it got awesome mileage and looked and drove well. I bought it with 92K on it and sold it with 120K on it and it still ran great, I had no problems with it. I'd buy another in a heartbeat. I've seen them go for as low as about $2200 on ebay but most are in the $3K range.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
7/27/2007
02:41:34
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Them Saturn's are CHEAP to fix I'll say that.
They are lightweight wimpy cars in a wreck tho. Mostly plastic everything including the door panels!
Where a radiator fan costs $300 and only available afrom the dealer for a Chrysler FWD car... the Saturn's I've worked on have a motor that comes off to replace and it costed $30 in stock at local parts store.
Every part I've needed was always cheap and available. But they are a wimpy plastic sh*t box like any other little car. Don't get into any accidents with a truck or you will get hurt.
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Bob Lincoln
Dodge Dakota
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7/27/2007
09:08:12
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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"Where a radiator fan costs $300 and only available afrom the dealer for a Chrysler FWD car... the Saturn's I've worked on have a motor that comes off to replace and it costed $30 in stock at local parts store."
??? My fan motor is detachable on my 92 Daytona 2.5L, and it's $180 from the dealer or $65 from Autozone. I replaced the entire assembly for $35 from the junkyard.
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TexasTodd
Dodge Dakota
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7/30/2007
00:39:19
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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TJ, et. al.,
We're still driving our '96 Mazda Protege, 1500cc, 5 speed manual, 4 door coupe. 141,000 miles, original owners. Gets around 38mpg overall.
Runs great, VERY dependable, original struts, exhaust, and rides smooth. I did replace the front brake pads @ ~125,000 miles when the warning strip squeeled. The timing belt @85,000miles, and one front CV axle. A/C still gets real cold.
I'll keep it now, b/c I'd never get what this car is worth to me right now. Wife and kids use it daily.
Hhmmmm, maybe I'll buy them a Honda Element or Odyssey, drive the Protege, and fab a turbo for my QC dak, Hhmmmmm.
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mccamp
Dodge Dakota
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8/01/2007
11:03:22
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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that amc is really clean... sadly with current trends, the wagon is not even that out of date any more.
I know everyone likes to think about a beater, but realistically to get a beater for around $2-3K plus tax and title is a bad idea to me. 1. You will likely require some repairs and maintenance either immediately or down the road 2. You will still have to insure it even with just liability 3. You still have to fill it with gas, mixed driving most small vehicles really only get about 25mpg. so you are really only looking at 10 mpg better.
So to me, you are basically getting to drive around a crappy car on commutes (which is likely the longest amount of time one spends in a car), with few features, in a car might break down soon, that is embarrassing to drive, that is not as safe as a dakota, that has no power, and you would save maybe $100-$150 a month... It would take almost 2 years to break even on your upfront cost, not including insurance, maint., repairs, tax and title, etc.
It is not a good investment....
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Bill K
Dodge Dakota
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8/01/2007
13:04:42
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Yogo's Rock!!!
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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
10:42:07
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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I'm looking at a neon - 21 city 30 highway, so we can assume 25 mpg average. The car has 88k miles and would be around 1200-1500. my 02 dakota gets 16 mpg and has 84k miles.
I'll be saving around 2500-3000 over the next year in fuel costs just driving to/from work. Granted i'll have other associated costs with the additional vehicle such as maintenance and insurance. However, I'll also have other associated discounts such as insurance (i will save on my current dakota policy since it won't be a daily driver) as well as more fuel savings in daily driving other than work (shopping, dinners, gym, etc).
In addition to this, my wife and i will have a 3rd car that she can also put around in and thus saving milage on her 06 jetta.
above and beyond the costs and cost savings, we'll both be prolonging value on our current vehicles - greater resale value. And I'll also have time to work on modification to my current dakota (lights, custom skid plates, gears, etc) and not worry about having to get it done on day off and not having the inconvenience of having to share a vehicle if one is inopearable.
For me it's a great choice. I'm all about not putting "unfun" miles on my dakota - 50 miles/day to from/work. of course i'll still be driving my dakota in inclimate weather, fishing/camping trips, etc. That's what a 4x4 truck is good for!
- Dan M
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mccamp
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
12:48:30
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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If you can find something that works for you that is great.
I have a hard time believing that after driving a nice dakota, anyone could drive a $1500-$2500 car every day of the week for a year and not be horribly frustrated. And if you don't drive it that often then it is not worth it financially. So if it is not a financial benefit, then one should either skip the idea or buy a nicer car. I guess I have never seen a car for $1500-$2500 that didn't almost immediately need almost the same amount of money in repairs.
Again, if you find one that works for you that is super, I am not a snob about it, I just would think it over. It sounds like a good idea but I can't get the numbers to work for me.
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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
13:05:47
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Yes I thought long about this before making the decision.
And on a side note, the shop I use when I need one (also the one i refer people to) has offered to check the car out for FREE for me. I do trust these guys a lot, best shop I've worked with in living in 3 different states. Everyone that I've referred them to that has used them has nothing but high remarks to say about their work. This was pretty much icing on the cake.
as long as the car looks good and passes their inspection, it'll be a good daily driver.
- Dan M
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Bill K
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
13:36:44
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Ya But its not a YOGO... Man I just love YOGO'S
..........YOGO'S ROCK!!!!...........
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Lee
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
15:14:27
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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A co-worker of mine rides his Ninja motorcycle to work every day. The bike gets parked when he gets home, and he drives his truck (full size Chevy) in evenings and weekends. The bike gets over 50MPG and has MORE than enough power (it's faster than most cars). Too bad it's so darn dangerous or I would do the same!!!
Another friend has an older Isuzu diesel stick shift four door econo-box. It also gets better than 50MPG and has decent power. See if you can find one of those.
Lee
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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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8/03/2007
21:53:17
| RE: Beater car - daily driver
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The particular neon i was looking at it out of the question. The current owner would not let me take the car to a shop and would not let me even connect my scanner to it.
I'm guessing he is trying to hide something. If so, I hope he gets caught at it.
- Dan M
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pete
Dodge Dakota
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8/04/2007
10:16:55
|  RE: Beater car - daily driver
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Hey Dan NEONS are great little scooters only problems they have is Head gasket leaking and water pump issues timing belts are a b!tch if car is over 100,000 miles they reccommend to be changed but old 97' Expresso' coupe was a great scooter for the 5 yrs I had it ,also might check the CV joints boot torn suspect to be bad, stay with MOPAR anything else asking for an empty wallet .
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