That's going to pretty much impossible unless you buy a $1000 car that gets huge gas mileage when compared to the 86.


I'll give you an example. My last DD was a Chevy Astro that over 289,000 miles averaged 17.50MPG (yes I track this stuff, it's like tracking your blood pressure, it tells you something. Full history is in the OP of my builders log, see my signature).


As of my last fill-up, I've driven 38,033 miles in my 86 at about two weeks short of two years. During that I've averaged a calculated 32.48MPG (the computer shows 33.2 by the way, never been reset).


I've "saved" 1002 gallons of fuel over the Astro based on my calculations. When adjusted for regular fuel (Astro) over 86 (93 octane) I've saved $3,020 based on the price of fuel at each fill-up.


So using your wish for your return on investment, I would need to buy a car that gets right at 65MPG for $3,020 to replace the 86 with the same results.


Unless you buy a motorcycle (and a small one at that) I don't see that happening.

Older Subaru wagon. I got a 1994 Impreza L wagon for $1000 that had a newer EJ22 swapped in, Forester rear subframe, diff and disc brakes, larger sway bars, and some audio work, something like that is awesome as a second car.

Hadn't heard of the Subaru 200, but I'm talking about cars with as few as 80K for sale with rebuilt engines. Is that not unusual for WRXs?

-Z

Get a toyota truck, the older the better.

Get any car that you wont be tempted to modify

Geo Metro

Find a four door corolla with a 4AFE. Talk about bulletproof. Also its the most bland looking thing on the road and no one would bother to do anything to it. Plus you can get a decent one for 2k or less if you look good enough. I had a 1989 two-door 4AF (the carb'ed version) and used it as my college car.

But I do also agree on old Toyota trucks, especially with the 22R or 22RE engines.

http://hotrod205.files.wordpress.com...turnsl1b01.jpg

early to mid 90's Saturn SL-1:

They get ~40 mpg, can be had for under a grand, easy to find in 5 speed, run off a timing chain (no timing belt to replace), made mostly of plastic, have 4 doors with a surprising amount of space, and parts can be found VERY easily at junk yards for cheap repairs. My first car was a 1991 SL-1 and it had 320k on the odometer when I got rid of it. Original clutch, would do roll-back one-wheel-peels all day.

a used corolla

Thanks for all the responses!

haha yea my first thought when I was looking at cars was an old Corolla or Civic - fits the bill perfectly.

Hadn't considered trucks but now it seems like a pretty good idea. A lot of the older ones are pretty bullet proof.

Is the Geo Prizm any good? I hear it has a Corolla engine... there's one going for really cheap on craigslist right now. It's ugly but if it runs good, could be worth it :iono:

Haha yea, exactly. I was looking at older Civic SI/Integras/RSXs.. even Miatas... If I kept them stock they probably would fit my needs but I don't know if I would be able to resist the temptation.

Don't forget - typically, for a very old used car, I've found insurance costs to be exceptionally high.
Don't be surprised if you end up paying more in insurance than the car is worth over the course of 2-3 years (or less if you're in Canada).

My previous 10-yr Celica GT was worth $3,000 when I bought it, and I paid about $2,300/yr in insurance (Toronto rates).

that seems really really high, but I don't know how rates work in Canada. My 24-yr old corolla was like 40 dollars a month to insure, granted it was just liability coverage, but for a beater, I didn't need full coverage. Also, that is much older than the Celica you listed, but in my experience old cars are cheap to insure. Even my FC RX-7 was under 100/month.

Exactly! When I got my FRS is was supposed to be a fun daily that I wasn't going to modify and well...... that hasn't worked out well for me at all lol