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Cadillac Forums: Reliable, used gas-saver recommendations.
I was first going to say a Saturn.... the used SL's can be cheap and were neat little cars.
Then as I read more about what you wanted from a car... I'd have to say a 3800 GM.... Park Ave or similar... most people would consider Buick or Oldsmobile as last pick for a fuel sipper... but my '89 Eighty Eight got 22mpg city and 32mpg highway, A/C on and not driving too easy either. Regular gas, nothing special, but was still pretty quick. Parts are really cheap, they are easy to work on, quite a nice car and very reliable. I miss my Olds, and in fact the only reason why I sold it was due to excessive rust/rot on the underbody, otherwise I would probably still have it. Honestly, I keep my eye out for another car just like it... cause I was able to use it as a "car" without any extra worry, yet it still had features ans options that were very nice to have, but not over the top.
The '85-'91 style seemed to be less trouble and take quite a beating moreso then the '92+, tho they looked alot more modern inside and out and had more options, even then, any of these cars from the late 80's to the mid 90's makes for a crazy used car bargin... I mean, $1k could land a pretty decent car.
__________________ ~ Rick
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~1994 Isuzu Amigo - Daily driver/work truck, back to life
~1996 Lincoln Town Car Signature - Highway cruiser/personal limo, semi-retired
I'm in the process of recycling a '95 Ford Escort wagon that I recently bought for a daily driver. Parts are cheap and j/y sources are abundant. They get 35+ MPG too.
Damnit... Chad and Rick beat me to it... The 3.8 is a workhorse, not only in that they're hard to break and parts a plentiful... but they actually return really decent mileage for such a large displacement motor. What about a late model Regal Coupe, say a '94-'96 - I always liked those cars, especially the rear-end with those full-width tail-light housings.... SHARP!
I had a 98 Bonneville with a 3800 I used to average 27-28 MPG mixed driving. I put over 270,000 trouble free miles on it.
I believe in that time I did normal maintenance water pump and I had added a transmission cooler. I should have kept the damn thing as a daily driver. I gave it away to a friend of mine who needed a car. 330,000 and still going.
Here it is at my former place of work. 3480 on the trucks scales with a full tank of gas.
Or heck, if nothing else, you could always try and find a GM A Body (Ciera, 6000, Celebrity, Century) with the 2.8, 3.1 or 3.3L V6's. With the V6, they're pretty damn durable and cheap as all hell too!
__________________ -Chad
Those were the days...The Cadillac and The Benz.
Ladies and Gentleman. If I say I'm a car man, you will agree.
"Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith........"
one of my guys got a real nice 3 series, but drives it like an idiot and works at a pizza place so he can't tie the knots with gas money. what he did was for $500 he picked up a Geo tracker, that small jeep thing, seats 2 comfortably, i don't know about more than 2 though, however hes had it for a few years not, had nothing to repair on it, drives 200 miles on maybe 6-7 gallons of gas.
No Hyundais. They fold up like a cheap suit in an accident. The 3800 powered cars can be good. Even my 4400 Lbs Buick gets about 25 MPG and I have a terrible lead foot. The lighter Pontiacs and and such will naturally get better mileage especially considering as they're more sporty they're not as likely to have a muffler the size of a Cape Cod house. I did away with that and got about 1.5 miles to the gallon more. The Buick accomodates six in relative comfort. Four like their own livingroom. Good six-speaker stereo from the factory too. Lots of nice features can be had, but beware of stripper models, the most desirable features are hard to add. Even a passenger's power seat is a nightmare.
__________________ "'Lowriding' is the only way to spend $100,000 on paint and suspension work and end up with the net visual impact of $100 worth of crap from the Advance Auto backroom."
