My Top 5 Cars: Economy & Reliability

[stevieteg]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

djenyc,

i wish honda made a 4 door civic w/ lean burn. or better yet, an accord w/ a sub 2 liter engine.

but they'd have to take care of that longer throw on the shifter(5 speed).

Honda swaps are incredibly easy. Lots of people swap out the d-series for the more powerful b-series engines with these 88-00 civics so the d-series swaps are plentiful and inexpensive. Also, there is probably 100 different aftermarket short shifters for these cars too.

The thing you need to worry about with hondas is theft. Even the stock ones get stolen regularly.

They are expensive and hard to find but I got lucky and got my 1993 si w/ 112k for $2,000 back in 05'.

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by stevieteg

Honda swaps are incredibly easy. Lots of people swap out the d-series for the more powerful b-series engines with these 88-00 civics so the d-series swaps are plentiful and inexpensive. Also, there is probably 100 different aftermarket short shifters for these cars too.

The thing you need to worry about with hondas is theft. Even the stock ones get stolen regularly.

They are expensive and hard to find but I got lucky and got my 1993 si w/ 112k for $2,000 back in 05'.

[BumblingB]

I'm stuck on the NA diesel 1.6 VW's - Jetta - Golf - Rabbit - Caddy. That's my favorite with the turbo-ed 1.6's coming in second. I prefer the A2's best out of the group too.

Believe it or not my brother GAVE me a SL2 Saturn ('01) and I gave it away. The tranny case was cracked and it kept leaking from the front pump seal. The guy I gave it to last year has put a ton of miles on it and it still ticks on.

[VetteOwner]

shoulda just JB welded it shut... its whats preventing leaks on my transmission tailshaft housing on my chevette.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

My transmission case got holed last year and I JB Welded it. Didn't leak, but 15,000 miles later, it just crapped out, (oil pump died) possibly related to the incident that holed it, but the JB weld is doing good.

[Lug_Nut]

Originally Posted by stevieteg

The thing you need to worry about with hondas is theft. Even the stock ones get stolen regularly.

They are expensive and hard to find but I got lucky and got my 1993 si w/ 112k for $2,000 back in 05'.

I usually steer clear of the "psssttt, Hey, buddy..Ova here... Ya wanna buy a honda? S'cheap!" sales pitch.

[BumblingB]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

shoulda just JB welded it shut... its whats preventing leaks on my transmission tailshaft housing on my chevette.

I didn't know it was cracked when I gave it to him. I knew it leaked and I sure as heck didn't feel like replacing it. It was cracked where you couldn't JB Weld it.

I made a motorcycle crankcase out of JB Weld when I was 12 - Honda 250. Case was about 10 inches long and the hole in the case was 6 inches. I built up the case using big to small washers layer on each other. Drove the bike until I was 16 and got my car license.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I love JB weld. Despite my employee's best efforts nothing I've ever fixed with JB Weld has ever broken again. I've heard of cases where JB Weld was used to fix cracked engine blocks.

-Jay

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I love JB weld. Despite my employee's best efforts nothing I've ever fixed with JB Weld has ever broken again. I've heard of cases where JB Weld was used to fix cracked engine blocks.

-Jay

Discovered the wonders of JB weld some years ago...had bad motor mounts in my '85 Lincoln Continental. The engine had sunk down so that the oil pan was rubbing the sway bar...wore a hole in the oil pan. Someone suggested JB Weld, I figured I had nothing to lose...if it didn't work, Ford 302 oil pans would be a dime a dozen at the junkyard, so I tried some. Oh, and some new motor mounts. It was still holding just fine about 100k miles later when the car finally just wore out...

[zero_gravity]

i was quite surprised at some of the choices the OP made, but hey to each their own all i've ever heard about saturn is avoid like the plague. if you're sticking with older vehicles (which it looks like) then yes hyundai is a joke...however their newer cars (after 2001 mainly) are actually very very reliable and still cheap too. i'm looking into a newer 5-spd accent myself