In these times of high gas prices, an FX4 and a 50 mile roundtrip to and from work five days a week, I bought a small 4 cylinder commuter car ('02 Dodge Neon ES, 77,000 Miles) for the ride to and from work all week. The truck will now become the weekend warrior luxury liner. The car is actually in pretty darn good shape for a used car. And I got a real good deal on it.

I'm not a big fan of Dodge and wanted a Honda or Toyota, but I'd have been paying a lot more for those if I could find them and they'd have most likely had considerably more miles on them.

However, one thing I always liked about Dodge Rams are the ultra-comfortable seats. And I'm pleased to announce that those comfortable seats have made their way to the Neon. So even though I'm traveling to work in less style now, at least I'll be a heck of a lot more comfortable than I have been the past 4 years in the least comfortable seats EVER, that are in the F-150.

 

And, the pics of this beast?

 

I had a Neon for about 8 months for commuting. Man I miss that car! I would love to get another one! They get going pretty quick and keep going for being a 4 cylinder.

 

leather or cloth in the F-150? The leather seats kick some serious butt. Drove 2,500 miles 1 way in 3 days and my butt never got tired/sore...same thing on the way back. I'll never go back to cloth seats again

glad you're happy with the commuter. Neon isn't much to look at, but they get the job done.

 

I have a 2000 Neon I use the 1 or 2 days I actually drive in to work. It has 68K on it. I've had it for about 5 years now. Despite being a 3spd (no overdrive), I can manage 33mpg on average. This is with slow acceleration and driving 55 on the interstate. That's nearly double the average MPG of my screw. Plus it keeps the already low miles (just turned 14K) on my screw lower....

 

Good choice. I bought a 98 Ford Escort zx2 last summer. It saved my butt on gas for the last year. It was cheap enough it's already paid for itself in gas savings.

 

I have an 02 cruiser {I believe it is the same chasis as the Neon} 2.2l use it for delivery and commute to and from. I would've bought Ford, but the cruiser fit the bill better than the Fords on the market at the time.
I've not had any serious problem. Just the efan quit once. It's got about 60k now. That's good for the number of different people that drive it.
The seat is just a little to low for my tall wore out body.

 

I've seen a couple of posts like these and I have to wonder just how much money you (or anybody for that matter) are actually saving?

First of all, is your truck paid off? Are you still making payments on it?

Are you financing the Dodge? Or did you pay cash? And how much did it cost you? Thats money out of your wallet too, the same cash that would've gone eventually into your trucks gas tank.

Are you really saving money? Or just because your getting better gas mileage now, it just seems that way?

Now you have to pay for insurance for both, plus registration, maintenance, etc... did you factor in all the costs? Can you still say your saving money?

I have a 96 Infinti I30 that I kept around when I bought my '07 F150. I do the same thing you do as far as only using my truck on my days off and when a job calls for it. But my car has been paid off for 7 years and only costs me $700 a year to keep it insured, registered, inspected, etc...

I'm not trying to flame you or anyone else, but I don't see how spending all that money up front on another car, because it gets better fuel mileage, is going to save you that much money? Maybe in the long run, if it lasts that long, and you don't have any problems with it. But in the short term it seems like you spending twice as much money as you did before. Maybe I'm wrong....

 

So what are your plan for mods??

 

Ok, let's see if I can answer everyone's questions in one shot...

neuspeed5, I plan to post a pic. But naturally it rained most of the day here today, so I didn't get to that. It's coming.

Tylus, I have cloth seats in the truck...and they suck.

ZEEKA, I plan to at least double the mpg on the Neon from the F-150. Figuring that in the easy way, if I just use it for work and that's it, I can knock off $2,000 per year. (I paid $4,000 cash) My wife has a Pathfinder whose mileage isn't much better, so if she drives it also for her trips to the stores, malls, etc, we'll make the money back even quicker. The insurance is only about $400+ per year. Of course if I get better than 24 mpg on the car, that too will make it up faster. But if I have to put money into the car, it puts me back a little. (Tires, etc.)

Basically what I'm doing is preserving the F-150 right now while the gas is outrageous and its value is in the toilet. I think the mileage is a little high going on 5 years, so this'll help even it back out. If in a year gas is back down to a reasonable price, I can start driving it again, sell it for more than I can now, or sell the Neon; probably for about what I bought it for since I got a good deal on it.

If I figure on getting rid of the Neon in a year, I'll actually make out better than if I hadn't bought it at all because I'll have driven to save $2,000 and if I sold it for $4,000 or even $3,000 I'll have made $2K or $1K. FYI: The truck is paid off.

JBMX928, the mods have already started. Hold on to your hat. Here they are:

1. Removed an old dealer advertisment on the back of the trunk.
2. Removed a tattered Dodge window sticker on the rear window.
3. Removed a dime that was rattling in between the glove compartment face and inner glove compartment area. (I don't know the technical terms.)

There are a few things I could do that would make me happy, but would set back my break-even point dollar-wise.

1. Front left fender has a small dent that could be fixed and repainted.
2. Front left fog light, has one mounting side that needs fixing.
3. Could get a paint job. A lot of scratches, but really it's not terrible overall.
4. Will need new tires at some point.

Oh and the biggest thing that I'll be working on tomorrow: I need a front license plate bracket. Some dufus drilled two off-center and unlevel holes on the front bumper to put on a front plate.

 

My '01 Saturn SL2 was rather quickly absconded by my wife for her much longer commute to work, so I keep the F150 going back and forth to work. But that is fixing to change in the next couple of weeks...

We also have a 2000 Focus SE Sedan with power windows. Like most Focus' (Focii?) it had lousy window regulators, and they are all but the pass front busted, the A/C has a leak, and there is a dented fender on the car. I want the car color changed from black to yellow so that it is more visible in foul weather, and isn't so danged hot in the summer...

My BIL has a body shop and will take care of the windows, fender, and paint on the car for us. As soon as it comes back home, I am going to fix the leak (it is a bad hose) at a friends shop. Then we drop some better rims on it because the factory alloys center caps are long gone, and the wheels themselves have some impressive dents in them from meeting curbs a few too many times...

When the car runs, it typically gives me combined MPG around 31 or so... Which, considering the Scab is giving me a mere 14.5 combined, is a HUGE improvement! I have over 60K on the F150 right now, and want to keep the mileage down if I can...

 

Yea thats why when i bought my truck i kept teh wife's old 97 Escort for gas reason the only thing i really want to do is paint her car its purple now

 

I figure the break even point for the purchase of the midget car is at least three years...just from gas savings, not including extra insurance, wear and tear on the little machine and maintenance. In three years they'll probably have something that gets 60-100 mpg (instead of 30) at which point it could make sense....

 

The way I see it buying a daily driver saves you gas money and wear and tear on your truck. It even makes me appreciate driving my truck more! Plus it's nice being able to fit in tight parking spaces and in garages.

 

You know, what I really want to do is get a real beater, to the point of ALMOST embarrassing to drive. A car that I would squeeze next to the turd who takes up 1.33 parking spaces at the stores, leaving him only 1.33 inches to get into his truck. One that I wouldn't care if he got pissed and wacked it with his door, or took his key to the side of it. One that gets 25-ish MPG. One that makes me laugh whenever I drive it because it sucks so bad... Oh yeah, and one that costs ~$1000.

Either that or a moped!