I'm looking at a few different cars to put some miles on instead of the truck. I know none of them are Ford's but found these 3 that are in my price range, all 3 can seat 6 (which is a requirement for me) and are in decent enough condition.

1. 2001 Chyrsler Concord 126,000 miles Leather, loaded, paint faded but seems to be the most solid of the 3. Asking $2500 for it. 3.2L V6. From what I've seen it gets the best real world highway mileage of them all (28-30 from what I've heard).

2. 1995 Olds 88, 120,000 miles, cloth interior in very good shape, body needs some work, but mechanically it seems sound. 3.8 V6 again asking $2500

3. 1991 Chevy Caprice, 106,000 miles, cloth interior, in decent shape, body good, paint good, 5.0 V8, but RWD and living in the mountains of montana, which makes it a very tough sell for me. Asking $2000

4. Thrown in just for fun.... 1988 Chevy Suburban, 5.7 V8 with 601,000 miles!! but is on its second motor and tranny, body rusted fairly bad, interior not too terrible, AC still works as do electric locks, windows and drivers seat. 4x4 works, rattles like hell and whistles going down the highway. New tires. It was well taken care of actually, original owner recently traded and had it serviced every 3k miles at the dealership. Apparently they have all the records. LOL... I test drove it for fun, but no way I'd even consider it, besides I want something easy on gas.

 

Of those 3, I'd take #1.

 

After you buy the car, pay for insurance and all the other good stuff, you would have been better off just driving the truck.

 

Benny,

I bought myself a beater car back in the winter to save some miles on the truck.
I picked up a 2000 Impala LS with 47,000 miles on her.

The thing is mint, was owned by some old guy who bought it new and sold it when he went into the home. It has the 3.8 motor and even though I've almost only owned Ford's, I'm very happy with this car. I also like the fill-ups being half price, it's a nice touch.

Here's a crappy pic taken with my phone.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

Bought a cheap commuter car myself today! Putting too many miles on my beloved 2007 Screw! Found a absolute pristine 1993 Toyota Camry 3.0 V6-LE! Only 107,000 miles! Absolutely no rust, had to be a southern car, extreemely clean inside & out! If I drive it to work everyday, which I intend to do, I will save 8000 miles, that will not go onto my SCREW's odometer over a years time! Plus I will save a bunch of money on gas, since my commute in is mostly stop & go for 11 miles each way!....

 

That is not entirely true! My Insurance only went up $72.00 every 6 months for my commuter vehicle with Allstate!....What I will save in gas, I will quickly exceed that figure easily in one months time, if not sooner!.......

 

Avoid the Chrysler 2.7 like it has AIDS! Just do a Google search and you'll find LOADS of complaints about the engine sludging and complete engine failures are common. Keeping the oil changed has not helped because of poor engine design. I'd get the Olds mostly because of the engine.
http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/chrysle...olidated-2755/

RI, I wish you the best of luck with that 3.0 Toyota....and God knows yer gonna need it. Probably the only worse engine on the face of the planet is the Chrysler 2.7. You're gonna need to drive a lot more than 11 miles in the winter or expect sludging at the front camshafts. They break off with a lot of regularity. My brother has had 2 engines replaced because of it and he runs yer favorite brand of oil, Mobil 1 and it has not helped. His oil is actually coking at the cam bearings cutting the cam in half. Might wanna Google Toyota sludge monster and hope for the best. You might also consider before and after winter running some Auto-Rx thru it just to make sure it's staying clean. You might consider running Redline in it for the esters but I haven't seen any test data to support that statement.
http://www.google.com/search?client=...=Google+Search

 

I looked inside of the oil cap today, & things looked pretty clean I must say for an engine with 107K. The dipstick was clean also! The engine was definetly well cared for! I will probably use a good 5w-30 Syn-blend every 3K just to keep it clean!.......

 

According to what I've read, its 1997-2002 model years due to tighter emission requirements causing the top of the engines to operate at a higher temp!.....I have a 1993...I think I am good, it would have already have blown with 107K+she's clean inside!...Thanks for you input anyway!.....

 

Not true... I'm a full time college student going into engineering so I've run the math many times. I ran the numbers for gas varying between $2.70 to $3.50, varied the actual MPG, etc. Considering I put on 25,000+ miles per year (college is ~30 miles from the house) and most of them will be on the car, the real cost of owning the car is less than $300 even in the worst case scenerio (lowest gas prices and lowest realistic gas mileage). Now, assuming I can sell the car for only $500 when its all said and done, it becomes profitable. Or I can take it to the dealership's push pull or drag sale and get $2500 trade on a new vehicle. Plus we still need to account in the decreased depreciation in the truck (assuming that the truck will be worth more with less miles). I'd say its a pretty good idea.

So back to the subject at hand... anybody else have suggestions on these 3?

 

Thanks for the info Labnerd, after looking into it I realized that the car couldn't have this engine. The 2.7 was only available in the base model. This is apparently the LXi model since it has leather and the infinity surround system which were only available in the LXi I guess. The LXi came with the better? 3.2L V6. My mother had 3 intrepids with the 3.2L V6 and all ran well. Then again my in-laws have a stratus with 140,000 miles on their 2.7L with only minor work done (water pump I think was done last month, $400 in repairs wasn't too bad).

 

Not the worlds best choices but the 1 I would stay a million miles from is the Olds. My niece bought a beautiful old lady's car- the same thing- an '88 Olds 88. Paid $1500. for it, within a month she had to put a trans. in it for $1800. and then it blew (the engine) on the freeway and she and her friends almost got killed getting over to the side. The car was recommended to her by a friend who is a mechanic. One month of ownership and $3300. plus tax and license and some other small misc. expenses... and she gave the car away! Those kind of cars are like a beautiful blond- just a little too expensive to maintain.

 

Really? My commuter car is a 1996 Avalon 3.0 V6 with 178K miles on it. Parent's bought it new in 95', and I've had it since 2004. Great car\engine, no issues and all I do is change the oil in it and rotate the tires. The car really gets up and goes for such a big car. It Still gets 26 - 28 mpg. Maybe I'm lucky, but this thing seems bullet proof to me. "knocks on wood".

Edit: Oh and to the OP, I wouldn't want any of those cars for a commuting car. I'd get something smaller that gets better MPG's to make it worth while having a commuter car.

 

You bought a car for 22 miles/day? You don't get a take home car?

 

22 miles a day isn't even my one way commute.

Benny, I think you can find much better deals than what you've posted. Look in Craigslist and such.