Commuter car?

Harbin_22

Active member
Dec 4, 2010
3,858
7
38
Southern Indiana
95' Honda civic EX. Been an awesome car reliablitly wise. 330,000 and still going. If something does break or you crash it, parts are dirt cheap and everywhere. Plus people try to race me all the time since I'm in a civic.
 

Max Attitude

11SIX
Mar 7, 2012
814
0
16
Caledonia, MI
I was thinking about a cruze or cruze diesel. Anything in the 30+mpg I'll be happy with.

I would love to try one of those out too but the wife loves her Acura. With diesel so high right now we don't even spend much more in fuel now than when we had our tdi. We always got 38-40mpg with that.
 

Kat

Wicked Witch of the West
Aug 2, 2006
17,899
13
38
60
Norco, CA
We got you guys all beat in Allison's Volt. Granted you would have to be able to plug it in at work.

425.36 mpg :woott:
 

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Kat

Wicked Witch of the West
Aug 2, 2006
17,899
13
38
60
Norco, CA
How much has your electrical bill gone up?

Actually it went down $100 last month. They reduced our rate between 12 am to 6 pm. We use a stupid amount of electricity.

We also charge it at work doing the day :happy2:

PS- Pat says it costs $1.10 to go 40 to 50 miles.
 

SmokeShow

Well-known member
Nov 30, 2006
6,818
34
48
43
Lawrenceburg, KY
an ex-coworker has a 4cyl gas cruze and gets 38mpg. very respectable IMO especially with gas being cheaper & warming quicker in winter & being a cheaper initial investment. its hard to justify the extra car & fuel cost unless you plan on racking up more than 150K-200k miles on it.
 

bevi

New member
Jan 17, 2010
709
0
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36
Nh
an ex-coworker has a 4cyl gas cruze and gets 38mpg. very respectable IMO especially with gas being cheaper & warming quicker in winter & being a cheaper initial investment. its hard to justify the extra car & fuel cost unless you plan on racking up more than 150K-200k miles on it.

It'll prob see 20k a yr. and it wana run it till it dies.
 

rivergoer

New member
Feb 8, 2014
34
0
0
SO CAL
i have the same commute, i got a 2006 cobalt lt as a commuter car. it costs about 60 bucks a week to run 5-7 days a week.
 

dman777

New member
Apr 11, 2012
283
0
0
I rock out in my 02 Jetta TDI w/ 300k+ on the stock engine, clutch & trans. It has a rebuilt head & inj pump on it as well as slightly larger nozzles. Peppy but def no tuned Dmax. ;)

I get 40mpg no matter what I do. Best has been 42 & worst has been 39. Most get better mileage I think but it's still hard to complain about 40+ mpg.

I do have a rant though... Everyone wants to rag on domestic cars compared to foreign, especially German. Well, I can promise you none of the GM vehicles I've ever been in besides my plain jane 88 s10 and an older square body truck ever had more interior rattles n noises than my car. There's more in-cabin road noise, in-cabin engine noise, rattles, broken junk latches, crappy plastic etc in my Jetta & it's a fully loaded top of the line model. So, NO, IMO they are NOT superior to most domestics that I've been in. Especially of similar vintage/model yr. that's completely false testimony IMO.

Can't knock the little engine though.



My next one I'd like to think will be a chevy cruze diesel though. :)

X2^^^. I have an 06 TDI and won't even start to list the little stuff that bothers the crap out of me. Poor quality in my opinion and a royal pain to work on but it does average 44mpg and that saves me a lot with around 100 miles a day of driving. My next car will not be a VW but I will definitely stick with diesel. Cruz diesel would be awesome!
 

Max Attitude

11SIX
Mar 7, 2012
814
0
16
Caledonia, MI
X2^^^. I have an 06 TDI and won't even start to list the little stuff that bothers the crap out of me. Poor quality in my opinion and a royal pain to work on but it does average 44mpg and that saves me a lot with around 100 miles a day of driving. My next car will not be a VW but I will definitely stick with diesel. Cruz diesel would be awesome!

Keep an eye on that cam if you haven't replaced it already. We had ours go bad while in FL. TDI Guru (from TDI Club) assured me I would be fine to drive to his house 2.5 hours away. 20 minutes from his house it dropped a valve. Got it shipped home and I dropped a new used engine in (3k). $5k later.. A $1200 cam job seems cheap after that. :banghead:
 

Max Attitude

11SIX
Mar 7, 2012
814
0
16
Caledonia, MI
I do have a rant though... Everyone wants to rag on domestic cars compared to foreign, especially German. Well, I can promise you none of the GM vehicles I've ever been in besides my plain jane 88 s10 and an older square body truck ever had more interior rattles n noises than my car. There's more in-cabin road noise, in-cabin engine noise, rattles, broken junk latches, crappy plastic etc in my Jetta & it's a fully loaded top of the line model. So, NO, IMO they are NOT superior to most domestics that I've been in. Especially of similar vintage/model yr. that's completely false testimony IMO.


They must have improved them with the new body style then. Ours seemed pretty sound. Couple minor things were broken inside when we bought it but other than that I felt the car drove nice and was actually sporty. I do agree a lot of foreign cars are over ratted on quality but I think VW/Audi is at the top of that list. Jap cars are much better.
We have had 3 Acura's now and my wife had an old Honda Accord when we met and they are solid cars. Just regular maintenance. Brakes, tires, timing belt, starters is basically all I've ever had to do. I never was a fan of Acura (Honda) cars until I owned one…still hate Toyotas but they are reliable too.
 
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AKlowriderZ71

New member
May 14, 2012
719
0
0
Wyoming
We just bought an '04 Alero for $3300, has 90K on the odometer. Knocking down 30 mpg's mixed driving with the 3.4 V6. Called my insurance agent & added it to the policy for $9.44 per month. Nice little sedan, power everything.
 

Big Block 88

Multiple choice muscle
Nov 3, 2008
4,665
0
36
38
Kansas when I am home
My old lady still has her 2012 cruze lt2. Awesome car, im a big guy but even i cant have the seat all the way back, in small cars i have to get in by stepping over the steering wheel then sliding in. This little car is roomy and people can even ride behind me in the back seat, my crew cab has people asking me to move up.

On a 600+ mile trip i saw as high as 41 mpg it averaged over 30. And i was goin pretty hard on it. Fit and finish is second to none IMO.

I think we payed around 24k out the door best money ive spent on a nee vehicle in a loooong time
 

Big Block 88

Multiple choice muscle
Nov 3, 2008
4,665
0
36
38
Kansas when I am home
On used cruze' check to see if it has had its transaxle seal tsb done. Ours was leaming in the first 6k miles. Our issue is we have a shit dealer here, they drained the trans and over filled the crank case. Ran it that way till i felt the trans shutter and miss shift.
 

paint94979

Beer Nazi
Sep 18, 2006
11,715
8
38
37
My girlfriend has a 2010 Jetta and imho its a very well built car no squeaks or rattles it gets a little over 30 mpg we couldn't find a TDI with the options she wanted :(