Need a cheap reliable Car ASAP!

[The Heretic]

FWIW - if you want cheap and reliable, do not buy an Audi with the 2.0T engine - especially 5 years on either side of the 2010 models. Besides the piston problems (of which there was a class action lawsuit) and cost $6K (fortunately paid for during the 30 day warranty), we have had the car in the shop for a bad turbo, bad coils, bad hi pressure fuel pump, bad low pressure fuel pump and now it is in the shop again - it keeps dying on us (had to have it towed to the shop twice). We have $20K into a car worth only $10K with no end in site.

When it runs, it runs great and drives nice - when it runs.

But it is a money pit. The Audi/VW 2 liter turbo engines of those model years are just not good. I should have done my due diligence. Also, do NOT recommend buying or dealing in any way with the Audi/VW stealership in Beaverton.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

FWIW - if you want cheap and reliable, do not buy an Audi with the 2.0T engine - especially 5 years on either side of the 2010 models. Besides the piston problems (of which there was a class action lawsuit) and cost $6K (fortunately paid for during the 30 day warranty), we have had the car in the shop for a bad turbo, bad coils, bad hi pressure fuel pump, bad low pressure fuel pump and now it is in the shop again - it keeps dying on us (had to have it towed to the shop twice). We have $20K into a car worth only $10K with no end in site.

When it runs, it runs great and drives nice - when it runs.

But it is a money pit. The Audi/VW 2 liter turbo engines of those model years are just not good. I should have done my due diligence. Also, do NOT recommend buying or dealing in any way with the Audi/VW stealership in Beaverton.

FYI the Vw or audi first direct injection engines u need to clean the valves periodically cuz there is no fuel washing the carbon buildup off the valves. The second bad effect of early DI engines is lots of fuel in the oil. This kills the oil additives quickly via free radicals.

I worked with the former head of Exxon mobile's advanced research lab and we developed two products to deal with this (listed below). This is the root cause for most of the problems u listed including possibly turbo due to effect of fuel on the oil and most likely fuel pump failures again due to the oil degradation. The coil failures can be directly related to the carbon buildup and the inefficient ignition caused by it (which has numerous effects).

1) a valve cleaner which was heavy on poly ether amine and u warm car up and let sit overnight after soaking valves in the stuff via the intake. Then in morning U use rinse product to wash off the now gooey carbon.

2)an oil that can withstand the fuel in the oil (at least for a lot longer than the vw/Audi spec oils). So...

The single best thing u can do is use rotella 5w40 as it has an additive package that can deal with the fuel for a longer period of time before breaking down. Also u need to change sooner than the vw/Audi specs, 5k miles is ideal.

The second best thing is to clean the valves before an oil change. Long discussion here about how to do that and would take too long to write. I have a borescope so u can see how bad the buildup is currently if u want. I don't have any more of the special valve cleaner stuff though cuz it's been years now. But as I recall gumout and 2 other companies made a version of it (called direct injection cleaner or similar) without the rinse product and that may still be available I dunno (these are packaged without the rinse product which kills its effectiveness btw).

The third best thing u can do is check your fuel pump follower. On the FSI engine this is a 2 minute deal. Can't recall how easy it is on TSI. The follower is a small metal "cup" (cam follower) with a diamond like coating that degrades over time as the oil breaks down. Often (not always) the reported fuel pump failures are actually follower failures (a $50-$60 part). But if u let it go too long and fuel pump actually breaks through the follower then the fuel pump hits the camshaft directly which basically eats off the end of the fuel pump "rod". I bought a gti 2.0 car new in 08' and it just got crashed by a local woman recently. It went 120k without any of those failures at all due to oil and carbon buildup issues being addressed. It did however have numerous extremely annoying VW electrical gremlins.

Also +1 to not taking to the dealer, ANY dealer. Probably the least knowledgeable poeple to work on ur car unfortunately. Knowledgeable Indy shop is better.

 

[madmax]

I'm a huge audi fan. But i will only run the 1.8t with a manual. Any other combo is just not cost effective

 

[Flymph]

Yep. Love the lines of the older 7 series cars. These 2 pics r long wheel base but I like look of shorter wheel base version (740i) a little better.View attachment 645907
View attachment 645908

Looks like a mercedes, probably only costs half as much to repair t... also three times as much for parts than a Toyota.

Good lookin' car all the same.

I'm a huge audi fan. But i will only run the 1.8t with a manual. Any other combo is just not cost effective

They make their cars like boats, holes you throw money into.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[Mygrainman]

I'm thinking I'll go with a early '00s civic... They are, after all, the Glock of the car world.
We already have an '05 that my daughter drives the wheels off of and it just keeps going strong. I have a bead on a really nice 02' that should suit us fine...
Highish miles, but has all the documentation for all the scheduled service since it was new...

 

[Flymph]

I'm thinking I'll go with a early '00s civic... They are, after all, the Glock of the car world.
We already have an '05 that my daughter drives the wheels off of and it just keeps going strong. I have a bead on a really nice 02' that should suit us fine...
Highish miles, but has all the documentation for all the scheduled service since it was new...

JUMP
Seems like you've found your car!

 

[coop44]

got a mazda 6 back in may, 2005 with 109k on it, can't say enough good about it, doesn't leak a drop. Had it on a couple of trips down and back to the bay area, 1400+ miles and didn't miss a beat. Imho a 6 or a 3 are a good value, average mpg hiway was in the high twenties. Fuel is the least of your expenses, after insurance and maintenance, you're kidding yourself if that's all you are focused on. I would be more concerned with safety, the turd box cars you are looking at won't hold up in an accident, including my mazda recommendation.

heck for freeway driving, find a mercury grand marquis, they will get an honest 28mpg. It's one of the safest used cars out there 5 star ratings for twenty freaking years. Odds are good you can drive away from an accident. Cheap parts, they run 300k if taken care of. Reliable. God damned ex made me trade it in, still regret that.

if you are still young enough to find a new wife, go ahead and put the current one in a tiny rolling metal coffin. At freeway speeds they are toast. You can save a buck and bury them both at the same time.

My ex and her first husband

 

[Alexx1401]

I don't know if the older ones do anything like mine. We moved out to the east side of the county a couple years ago and I work the far west side of it. Wanted to get a little Kia. Little over a year ago was looking at some 2 or 3 years old. They had a couple 2018 Rio's new with the 6 speed manual that I guess they could not sell as they were offering them less than some 2 and 3 year old ones. When I went to look they offered me financing so cheap I took it. When it's just me driving it the damn thing is getting high 40's. Normally Wife takes it when I get home and she is in town driving. So when both of us are using it starts getting low 40's. At first I thought something was wrong with the meter showing mileage but every time I check at fill ups it's dead on, so it is doing that good. Now I don't know if I got lucky, or if the older ones did this but it has made that 50 mile commute for me so cheap I don't even think about it any more.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I don't know if the older ones do anything like mine. We moved out to the east side of the county a couple years ago and I work the far west side of it. Wanted to get a little Kia. Little over a year ago was looking at some 2 or 3 years old. They had a couple 2018 Rio's new with the 6 speed manual that I guess they could not sell as they were offering them less than some 2 and 3 year old ones. When I went to look they offered me financing so cheap I took it. When it's just me driving it the damn thing is getting high 40's. Normally Wife takes it when I get home and she is in town driving. So when both of us are using it starts getting low 40's. At first I thought something was wrong with the meter showing mileage but every time I check at fill ups it's dead on, so it is doing that good. Now I don't know if I got lucky, or if the older ones did this but it has made that 50 mile commute for me so cheap I don't even think about it any more.

Imo definitely should be right and that's awesome mileage. Small light car, small engine, manual tranny and if not driven hard should give very high mpg. Pulse and glide driving would give even more but is a pain. Sometimes fun though just for testing how high it can get.

They used to make a civic crx hf in 88'ish that got around 56 mpg hwy (had one). Also had a 92 civic Vx which got around 52 highway. Tiny engine, very light tiny car, manual tranny. But back then the added weight of safety stuff and "expected" standard features was a lot less so they weighed a lot less. Still blows my mind though that In 1988 they could make a 56 mpg car without anything special (except weight and tranny gearing) and now have to use fancy hybrid systems to get even close to that (but again safety and comfort expectations have changed).

I bet if u google "epa find a car" and put ur year and model in there it will come up very high on mpg. I find their estimates are around 4-5 mpg too low when talking about strictly highway mileage.

 

[Mygrainman]

got a mazda 6 back in may, 2005 with 109k on it, can't say enough good about it, doesn't leak a drop. Had it on a couple of trips down and back to the bay area, 1400+ miles and didn't miss a beat. Imho a 6 or a 3 are a good value, average mpg hiway was in the high twenties. Fuel is the least of your expenses, after insurance and maintenance, you're kidding yourself if that's all you are focused on. I would be more concerned with safety, the turd box cars you are looking at won't hold up in an accident, including my mazda recommendation.

heck for freeway driving, find a mercury grand marquis, they will get an honest 28mpg. It's one of the safest used cars out there 5 star ratings for twenty freaking years. Odds are good you can drive away from an accident. Cheap parts, they run 300k if taken care of. Reliable. God damned ex made me trade it in, still regret that.

if you are still young enough to find a new wife, go ahead and put the current one in a tiny rolling metal coffin. At freeway speeds they are toast. You can save a buck and bury them both at the same time.

My ex and her first husband
View attachment 646099

Like I mentioned earlier, I was rear ended by a log truck 7-8 years ago, and I'm probably only still breathing thanks to some quick reflexes and the fact that I was driving a Subaru hatchback that helped take up some of the impact force.
Something like that will inspire you to spring for both a safe car and good insurance. Civics get a 5star crash rating and are among the most reliable cars on the road so I'm confident letting the most precious things in my world drive them around... My '13 Edge only gets 4 stars, so I'll take one for the team and drive it and let them have the extra star

 

[rdb241]

Kevin, check the buy and sell pages on Facebook for Centralia/Chehalias/Lewis county. I see cheap cars on Facebook Marketplace quite a bit. Cars that are maybe 10/12 years old in most cases.

 

[Mygrainman]

Done! I hate car shopping, but my daughter's guard recruiter actually turned us on to a really clean 02 CIVIC... Over 200k but maintained meticulously and fully documented every oil change. These things will go forever and at well under 2g I'm satisfied we will get our $ worth.
Not a bad looking rig either! Wife loves driving it, so she'll leave my Edge alone too

 

[malakajim]

Congrats!

 

[kmk1012]

I had a 97 HX Civic that I sold several years ago with over 325k on it, it's still going strong and getting 39mpg (sold to a friend)! You made a good choice OP!