All this week, we’ve been sticking with a hard $2,500 price ceiling, and looking at cars we might recommend to friends of ours who aren’t enthusiasts, but need a good cheap ride they can count on. We’ve narrowed it down to four finalists, and now you must choose a winner. Even though there is no Highlander among this group, there can be only one.
Our final pairing yesterday ventured into the world of manual transmissions, historically a good idea but a hard sell for cheap cars. You all made good strong arguments for each, but in the end, the Subaru Outback took a decisive win, I think just because it is such a clean example. A lot of those Outbacks get thrashed within an inch of their lives; seeing one that still looks respectable, and has a stickshift, is a rare sight indeed.
I could go with that. The Matrix would make a fine beater, but I think it’s a little overpriced for its condition. The Outback looks like something you could still take some pride in owning, and that goes a long way towards making a cheap car last longer. And as long as the head gaskets have already been replaced with the “good” kind, it should be good to go.
So we have our four finalists, and you have a non-gearhead friend waiting with twenty-five hundred bucks for you to tell them which one to buy. Let’s review the choices.
2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser
The case for it: It’s a useful little wagon chock-full of cheap, plentiful domestic parts. It has reasonably low mileage, too, so it should have plenty of life left.
The case against it: Automatic PT Cruisers are sluggish performers, and don’t get the gas mileage you think they ought to. Also, if that is a cigarette burn on the driver’s seat, there’s a chance it might be stinky inside.
1992 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight Royale
The case for it: It’s a genuine grandpa-mobile, probably maintained by the same mechanic all its life, though those records are probably lost. It has a simple and durable drivetrain and plenty of room inside. And it gets better mileage than you would think.
The case against it: Nothing really, as long as it isn’t rusted out underneath. But that’s a big “if.” Check it out carefully.
2011 Kia Sedona EX
The case for it: Minivans are still the most useful personal vehicles ever devised. If you need a lot of seats or a lot of open space, nothing will do the job better. And this looks like a good one for the price.
The case against it: There’s some strangeness about the title that I don’t quite understand. And some people just wouldn’t touch a minivan, no matter how much sense it makes, because they think it makes them look “uncool.” But most of the people who think that aren’t very cool anyway.
2003 Subaru Outback
The case for it: It’s a legitimately nice car that just happens to not cost very much, so it doesn’t really have that “beater” stigma that something in rougher shape would have. And it’s a wagon, which is the second-most useful vehicle shape of all time.
The case against it: The manual transmission might be a hard sell, depending on who your friend is. And if you don’t actually need AWD, which most people don’t, it adds complexity and potential maintenance to worry about.
Right, now remember: You’re not shopping for yourself. You’re helping out a friend, to keep them from throwing $2,500 down on a sketchy Ford Explorer from the buy-here-pay-here lot, and getting roped into $500 per month payments for God knows how long. Any of these would be better than that, but which one would you feel best about recommending?
I have a manual Subaru, and drove a couple of the sister vehicles for the Buick as a teen. Either would be a great choice.
I pick the newest one because I don’t hate my friends enough to put them in a 33 year old car.
I’m tempted on the Subie because of the manual, but I have to take the Olds because of personal reasons. In 1999 when I was still dating my wife, her sister was t boned in her beloved s10 Pickup. She was in college and had no money. The best her family could offer her was a 91 Buick LeSabre with 70k miles, bad tires and the bad paint (they take terrible care of their cars). Obviously not a fun car for a college student who lived at the beach. So I decided to help her out. I buffed the paint and got it pretty decent. I put on a set of black walls with cheap baby moon hubcaps and lowered it by clamping the springs. I put a set of surf racks on it, and stickered the back windows with freebies from the local surf shops.
She loved it! It became a signature car, and she drove it until 2007 when she got married. Everyone in town knew it and it was always easy to see what break she was surfing because of the car, usually with her 7’6” thruster racked on top. Those were good times, and that car was indestructible, regardless of abuse.
I don’t care if it’s not very durable, the Outback is exciting and looks great.
Ah, so the car I’d recommend for a pal.
Unless he or she needed to off road, the Olds. I don’t see the huge attraction for the stick. If the 88’s gotten this far without blowing up it should be fine.
The Subi outback for me. We Australians learn to drive stick shifts while still suckling on mama’s teats. Why would anybody ever want an automatic. I’ve lived in Brazil for a few decades now and I still see octogenarian great grandmothers rowing through the gears in Beetles so how hard can it be.
Try a commute with everything chock-a-bloc for a half hour or more, five times a week, sometimes both ways. I did that with a stick, and it was tolerable but only just.
As a large computer systems engineer for a global company for decades and who drove an average of 40,000 km per year, both inner city and country, I and 90% of my many colleagues chose stick. Why? a) because we like driving and b) far more direct control of the vehicle in all situations. I’m as old as dirt now and I still drive a stick.
I think it is also a cultural thing.
Most of my time’s in my Volt these days, and clunky ka-chunky gears of any kind are mostly a memory.
But, funny you should mention about your desire for direct control. I actually spec’d a stick when I bought new, in 2013, because of my soul crushing commute. I figured I’d be more engaged and less likely to doze off behind the wheel on dark, early mornings. So I do get that!
But my work/commuting days ended 9 years ago, the old Focus SE (a sweet 5-door hatch that I still miss when I see them on the road) got traded in for a Mazda 6 family sedan with a slushbox, and that’s mostly the Mrs’.
All is right with the world.
Wow this is a slaughter. Picked subaru cause half my friends want to learn stick anyway