BannedCR500Riders.com

I see alot of you have big diesels to haul your toys, but what do you drive around town to run errands?

I bought a 2000 Dodge Neon for $2800 with 87k miles about a year ago to drive to work and around town...well basically to drive 100% of the time I'm not hauling something. It had a lot of problems when I bought it, but I put several hours of wrenching and $350 in parts into it. Local Stealership wanted $1700 to do the work, not including parts It's run and handled great ever since. Best news is when I calculate miles driven by the average of fuel prices the Neon has saved me about $2,840 in fuel costs. So it's payed for itself this year alone...and help keep the resale value of my truck. But it's got some damn annoying electrical issuse that I can't debug and won't give the stealership my left nut for them to "try" and fix it. That, and the uncomfortable / jacked up interior really hurts my legs and back during road trips has led me to some car shopping these past weeks.

This is a matrix I've combined of the cars I've looked at and driven. There are a lot of things to compare cars by but these are what I'm most interested in. The highlighted cells are what I consider leading class. Dodge discontinued the Neon a couple years ago, the Neon shown here is my 2000 Neon for quick reference. All of these 2009 model cars listed are comparible in price and the stats listed for each is given with select trim packages that do not exceed $20,000. Cheverolet and Honda for instance offer more powerfull engines and or better transmissions like the Cobalt SS for example, but the costs exceed my desire.



What strikes me as funny is that my Neon looks better on paper than a 2009 Honda Civic! And overall just how poor the fuel economy is for the gas sipping imports. It's no better than a 2000 Neon, of which I've observed steady 30 city / 34 highway mileage.
What I've come to realize is how good my dumper Neon really is. It runs and handles better than most of these '09 model cars. I was really upset with the overall performance of all of them, save for the Cobalt SS. The observations I made that I don't reflect in the table are the differences in interior. The Ford has the best with the Honda a close second whereas the Cobalt has hardly got better seats and trim than my Neon!

Right now I'm leaning towards a Cobalt, but they have got to offer me a better seat and interior package than they do. I dig the Ford's interior real well but it needs uncorked badly.

Our RAM 1 ton Megacab does it all for us, it's our main family vehicle and Man you feel safe in it. Glad the fuel prices are coming down. We just got back from Morro Bay and it was only $150 round trip which is about $25 an hour pulling #15000K.

I think the safety of driving the big truck outways any extra fuel cost of driving it. Driving my RAM and feeling and knowing I'm more safe is PRICELESS!

Yeah you feel pretty insignificant in these tiny gorcery getters. I do enjoy the birds eye view from my lifted Tundra.

This is a little breakdown of my savings in fuel costs. To rationalize things easier I'll use current NW Florida fuel prices:

30,000 miles is 882 gallons of fuel for the Neon or 1,500 for the Tundra provided the best fuel mileage for each, NOT their average. That's $1,940 of regular unleaded for the Neon and $3,750 of premium unleaded for the Tundra. That alone is a $1,810 fuel savings and $1,000 of resale value by Kelley Blue Book. I guess I could go further and calculate how much more I save on oil every 3k miles for each given the Tundra requires over twice as much during a fill. And my Neon only costs $180 a year to insure

I had a Mega Cab, now I drive a F350. We had a mini van for errands plus it was easy to get the baby in and out, but the extra cost of fuel and maintanance plus insurance didn't make sense to keep the van. But the van was handy around town, now when we go to the store I just park in back and walk up. I miss the van once in a while though.

JBaze wrote:We had a mini van

Have you read Consumer Reports very often? Every mini van made is a grenade! With the exception of the Chrysler...it's more like a bomb.

MICK wrote:

JBaze wrote:We had a mini van

Have you read Consumer Reports very often? Every mini van made is a grenade! With the exception of the Chrysler...it's more like a bomb.

No I haven't. We had a Merc. Villager and put almost 100k on it and never had a problem. Just changed the oil and air cleaner, other than that it was honestly the most trouble free vehicle I have ever owned.

A friend of mine bought an '04. I told him to get a car instead but he and his wife bought the Villager. They like it too. He thinks it's a James Bond pimp wagon. The thing is loaded. It hasn't seen the shop as often as his Dakota that's for sure.

Buddies SS cobalt with the stage II kit gets over 35MPG cruising a steady 85 MPH. and the thing is FAST

the cobalt sounds like a winner to me and a blast to drive.
My wife had a ford "fuck-ass" and it was actually a really good car. it was a 2003 lx and in the like 30,000 miles we had it, I changed the oil (synthetic) twioce, changed the air filter, fuel filter and pad slapped the bitch.
fords eat brake pads, but other then that, it was a great car.
I sold it to some kid at my work and he broke some linkage bar in the rear hitting a bump at 90mph with 6 kids in the car, then ran all 4 brake metal on metal, then a buddy of his told him the motor was toast because of a little lifter noise, so that buddy of his pulled the motor and said it was trashed. the best part is we had the 100,000 mile warranty ands the dumbass still pulled the motor he ended up ditching it and claiming it was stolen

Usually I use My Quad in the summer and my sled in the winter,but when problems arise wih those I get her done by footmobile

05 nissan altima.. 28mpg with my fat foot in town and 30ish on the highway

Here is mine
1990 Toyota Surf. 2.4L EFI Turbo diesel.
Currently 2" lift and 34" Super Swampers.
Lock right locker in the front.
Limited Slip out back.

22-24 mpg.

here is the us they have next to no small diesel cars! I'd like to get an import toyota 4 runner with a 3.0 diesel, that would make a bitchen mom mobile for the wife

we bought a new dodge calaber this year and seem to like it

its a gas guzzler, luckily town is only 3 miles away.

xylicon a buddy of mine has a similar truck.. 79 reg cab long bed... slightly lowered not SLAMMED... with a 400 small block that he built He did all the interior and all of the work on the truck himself.. Has had it since high school and isnt getting rid of it anytime soon lol..

definatley a sweet truck.

dannygraves wrote:here is the us they have next to no small diesel cars! I'd like to get an import toyota 4 runner with a 3.0 diesel, that would make a bitchen mom mobile for the wife

Same here in canadia!
This is my RHD Jap spec unit.
We can import them here if they are 15 years old.
If I had known the about the heads cracking on the 2.4's I would have waited for a 3L.
I was getting 26-28mpg with the stock sized tires and gears.
It has a cracked cylinder head at the moment. D'oh!

My dads got a 15 yr old nissan patrol with a 6cyl turbo diesel, the thing is slow as shit but runs tits on veggie oil

Oh great a thread where my daily driver actually fits in

1987 Toyota Tercel
1.5L 4-banger
Bought it from the junkyard with 64K on it bad clutch and trans.
Bought a trans with 32K for $125
Bought a clutch kit for $100
Bought 2 CV shafts for $100

Total=$825 (paid $500)

30 Mpg in town
37 Mpg highway (lower on the interstate its only a 4 speed)

My summary after 10K goes like this

Mileage=awesome
Price=awesome
Cost of maintenance=awesome
Ability to pick up women=not possible with this vehicle
Chance of surviving a wreck or even a raccoon hit=slim to none
Feelings of manliness when driven=downright embarrassing

Its ugly most people laugh at it, but it gets me where I need to go for next to nothing. I never been the sort that needed to look on the way to the store or work anyways.

dude, you should punk rock out that shit box!
bust out the rattle cans and masking tape and put some flames on it or something!!!

well, this is my daily driver... i dont really have a car or truck anymore... in the last year, ive put 22,000 miles on her, and will probably hit 23,000 before the year is up... bought her last year on dec 20th with 3,000 miles on her...




of course, whenever my daily driver is down (maintance or whatever), i have my backup vehicle.



(for anyone that doesnt know, the BMWs are state troopers)

k, i got no way to resize, but...

been beating on this '99 k2500, 6.0 with 440000kms + 175rwhp nitrous

daily drive to work (heavy traffic)



run these bias buckshots and you're garanteed to get under 10mpg

My blown Biscayne.
AKA....the blue beast.

I drove a Mazda 3 and a Nissan Sentra the other day. The Nissan makes good power and has a sweet 6-spd. manual. But neither of them get impressive gas mileage. The Mazda was only rated for 22-29. I think I'm going to fix my Neon's heater, replace the headlights and power window switches and call it good. Maybe do something with the exhaust? I can live with the rest of it's problems. It's a damn good little car for the money I spent on it. The '09 model economy cars just haven't come as far as I thought they had. Maybe in a couple more years...if my Dodge will make it til then.

this is mine






Updated with the new grille and headlights/taillights, and of my new dash skins, and the radio