Pick A Cheap Winter Car: Chevy Equinox vs Honda Element vs Pontiac Vibe vs Toyota Corolla

We’ve been looking at cheap, sacrificial cars for winter use this week, and I think we’ve found four pretty good contenders. We’ve got two AWD crossovers, and two little FWD Toyotas. I have a definite favorite out of the bunch, and I have a sneaking suspicion you all do too. But we’ll see how it goes.

I tried to bring the prices down even further yesterday, and found two cars under $1,500 for you to look at. Both were about what you’d expect for that price. The beat-up Lincoln Continental put up a better fight than I expected it to, but a good cheap Corolla is hard to pass up, and it won by a two-to-one margin.

That’s absolutely the way I’d go, too. That Lincoln is an interesting idea as a fixer-upper, and it probably deserves to be saved, but simpler is always better when it comes to beaters. There’s too much crap to go wrong on that Lincoln, and it’s not the kind of crap you want to deal with on a snowy morning. Life would just be easier with the Corolla.

I was thinking about it earlier, and avoiding rust isn’t the only reason to look for a cheap beater for the winter. People drive like idiots in the snow, whether the roads are salted or not. And in places that only occasionally see snow and ice, it’s probably worse. Most drivers north of I-70 know how to handle snow pretty well, but in places that only get one or two snowstorms a year, all hell breaks loose. If you can swing it, and if you have a place to park it, wouldn’t you rather keep your pride and joy safely in the garage, and drive something you don’t care about? Let’s take a look at the week’s winners, and see which one would fill that role best.

2008 Chevrolet Equinox LT – $1,950

The case for it: All-wheel-drive is a help in the snow. Not a necessity or a cure-all, but a help. And it’s a Chevy, so parts should be cheap and available everywhere.

The case against it: It has some potentially problematic and expensive-to-fix warning lights on the dash. And it doesn’t have a great track record for reliability, or at least not nearly as good as the others.

2009 Honda Element – $2,000

The case for it: It’s a Honda with all-wheel drive, and it’s a car with a cult following, so if you end up not liking it, you can probably get your money back fairly easily. And its rubber floors should be nicely snow-proof.

The case against it: Not much, really, if you’re okay with the body damage. The fuel economy isn’t great, though.

2007 Pontiac Vibe – $1,650

The case for it: It’s durable, reliable, nice to drive, efficient, and kinda cool-looking. And it’s in pretty good shape, actually. For this price, what’s not to like?

The case against it: … I got nothing.

2000 Toyota Corolla LE – $1,350

The case for it: If you really need to spend as little as possible, this is the cheapest of the bunch. It’s tough as nails, and it’s not the poverty-spec model, which is nice. The outside looks like hell, but the inside doesn’t look like a bad place to spend the winter.

The case against it: Not a lot. The seller includes a list of little fixes recommended by a mechanic, and if you satisfy that list, this car’s price advantage basically disappears. But if you like it better than the others, I guess that doesn’t matter.

Even if you’re not trying to save a nicer car from Old Man Winter, there are some good deals among this group, I think. And if you do need a winter beater, you can’t go far wrong with any of them. So what do you think? Which one speaks to you?