All the cars we’ve looked at so far this week have been hovering around the four or five grand range, which is frankly more than I’d pay for any of them. And I imagine I’m not alone. So I thought I’d see if I could find some cheaper options that still fit the 2010 or newer and manual transmission criteria. It took some doing, but I found two good runners for less than three grand each. But wouldn’t you know it – they’re both really funny-looking cars.
Yesterday’s matchup was more of a battle of the sellers than of the cars. That strangely pampered Hyundai Elantra showed us its best, even if it wasn’t perfect, while the bought-from-auction Mitsubishi Outlander Sport was shined up and stuck in a photo booth, but with no maintenance history to tell us how it was treated. As several of you pointed out, condition is king when it comes to inexpensive cars, and the Elantra’s impressive record gave it an easy win.
That’s definitely the way to go, in my opinion. You could probably offer the dealership four grand cash for the Mitsubishi and they’d take it, so the price is probably the same for both. But the fact that someone put so much work into fixing and maintaining a mundane car like a Hyundai Elantra speaks volumes. That will make someone a nice cheap used car.
But we can go cheaper still, and we’re about to. The two cars we’re about to look at are closer to what I think a beater should cost these days. I know the days of three-figure shitboxes pretty much died with COVID, but five thousand feels like a steep investment. $2,500-3,000 is about right; you have to dip into savings, but the sticker shock is far less. These are some pretty odd characters, but in a way, that makes them sort of endearing. Would I have wanted either of them new? Hell no. But for this price, who cares if they’re a little funny-looking?
2011 Nissan Juke SV – $2,950
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 1.6-liter DOHC inline 4, six-speed manual, FWD
Location: Salem, OR
Odometer reading: 166,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
See, this is why I hate the term “crossover.” Nissan calls the Juke a crossover, which implies a certain level of SUV-ness, but this doesn’t strike me as an SUV. It’s just a weird little car with a taller-than-average roofline. All the rest is just marketing bullshit.
The standard engine in the Juke is a 1.6-liter turbo four making 188 horsepower. Most of them came with a CVT, and in fact that’s all you could get in the base model. You had to step up to this mid-level SV to get a manual. This Juke is being sold by an RV dealership, and they say it runs well and is fun to drive. Since it is a dealership, don’t expect any maintenance records; you’ll have to rely on an inspection to determine its condition.
The Juke’s interior design is only slightly less weird than its exterior, but weird interiors were sort of what Nissan did back then. (Ever see the inside of a third-generation Nissan Quest minivan?) It’s in pretty good shape, but the miles show around the edges. There’s some wear and tear on the edge of the driver’s seat, but the rest of the interior looks good. I get the feeling this was a one-occupant vehicle for most of its miles.
I hated the Juke’s styling when it first came out, but it has kind of grown on me. I mean, it’s weird, but it looks sort of friendly too. It is a good thing that it has those lower round headlights; without them, the upper headlights extending way back into the tops of the fenders would give it sort of a bug-in-an-Edgar-suit look. (“Is that better?” No. It most certainly is not.) It’s in good shape, and since it’s an Oregon car, you probably don’t have to worry about rust.
2012 Hyundai Veloster Sport – $2,300
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter DOHC inline 4, six-speed manual, FWD
Location: El Segundo, CA
Odometer reading: 161,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The Nissan Juke’s styling may be weird, but at least it has the same number of doors on both sides. The same cannot be said of this car, the Hyundai Veloster. For the longest time, when these first came out, I thought it was available as a two-door or a four-door – until I saw one parked and saw both sides of the same car, and learned the truth. The Veloster has a single big door on the driver’s side, and two shorter doors on the passenger’s side. What’s weird is that this is true whether you’re talking about a left-hand-drive or a right-hand-drive Veloster, which means Hyundai made both single-door and double-door versions of each side of the car, so it could have sold regular two- and four-door versions, but chose not to.
The Veloster is powered by Hyundai’s 1.6 liter Gamma engine, either with or without a turbocharger. This one is without. The seller says it runs and drives “fantastic,” and it’s “ready to drive.” The oil was just changed, but that’s all the seller gives us for maintenance information. Maybe they can tell you more in person, though. That’s the advantage of buying a car from a private party; you can learn a lot chit-chatting about a car while checking it out.
This is the fancy Sport model, which includes leather seats and what the seller describes as a “giant” sunroof. The seller was a little cagey in how they framed the photos, presumably to hide wear, but you can see a little in the lower-right corner of this photo. My guess is that the part you can’t see is worse. How bad, though? You’d have to check it out in person to find out.
Outside, it’s a little beat-up, and it has some bad touch-ups in the paint (done with a rattle can, it looks like), but what do you expect for $2,300? The flat-black painted wheels, though, I really can’t stand. Why do people do that? I guess you’d have to put up with it until it needs tires, and then either strip or repaint the wheels before the new tires are installed.
When it comes to cheap cars, being a little weird is actually sort of an advantage. If you’re shopping for a beater, you might as well make it something interesting, right? I mean, Corollas are great and all, but they’re everywhere, and they’re kinda boring. At least these two are conversation-starters. Which one appeals to you?
no contest. as a kid who had to constantly slide across the back seat in a ’97 OBS extended cab, 4 doors or get outta heer-yah. tho it’d be a lot cooler if the juke was the nismo rs.
No thanks to both, but Juke I guess.
The thing with the Juke is that it isn’t really making any claims about off-roadiness that it can’t back up. By which I mean, it can drive into your backyard, and that’s about it, and doesn’t really pretend otherwise.
I like Velosters (Velosteri? Velosterae?), but this one looks too proverbially driven hard and put away wet.
I appreciate quirkiness in cars, so the Juke doesn’t repulse me like it does others. It seems to be in reasonable shape, so why the hell not?
The Veloster looks more fun to hoon. I got to get it, I got, got to get it.
Juke. I’m a sucker for big round oddball lighting like that; I also like the first gen Chrysler Sebring coupe for its similar setup.
Juke wins primarily because of the wheels. The spray-painted black ones on the Veloster shows the mindset of the previous owner.
The Nissan seems more upstanding and respectable. The Hyundai looks like something that would cut off three lanes of traffic and pass on the shoulder.
Both are undesirable but the Juke seems to be in a vastly better condition, which is key in this market.
Both are uglier than Jeremy Clarkson, but not as stupid.
I voted Juke. I actually like both of these cars. Given that the Juke is at an RV dealer, it was most likely taken in trade (I can’t imagine an RV dealer buying a Juke at auction for inventory). If taken in trade, there’s a chance it was towed behind a motorhome and owned by a mature couple. I know that’s all a stretch to assume decently cared for, but the other one has rattle-canned wheels.
Now this is more like it. Get those posh almost $5k cars out of here. What do we look like to you, the landed gentry?
I’ll go with the Veloster. My faith in Hyundai engineering is slightly above my faith in Nissan engineering. The Veloster’s seller should also have a lot more useful information about the car’s history.
Okay, maybe I’m the weirdo, but I like the Juke. Always have. Cheap and stickshift only make it more desirable to me.
If it was a better color (and I was actually car shopping), I’d have ripped my pocket out trying to give my money to the seller.
We have another seller face-off.
RV dealer vs. Guy who paints wheels black.
RV dealers sell only the highest quality machines, and would never foist subpar junk on the unsuspecting. Especially with stuff they’ve no expertise in. (/s)
Then there’s someone who rattle-cans wheels black. At least you can talk to them and then decide to run away, depending on how the conversation goes.
Are we almost done the blackout fad? No? Soon, maybe?
I can fix wheels if that’s the worst bit. Veloster.
I would walk vs a Juke.
Didn’t even have to read the descriptions. Veloster all day, my friend had two (after a semi totaled the first, which kept him and family safe as an aside).
The Juke looks like 4 people were told to design a car side/corner but weren’t allowed to talk to each other. People rag on the Aztec, this is my choice for ugly car.
Okay fine I’ll vote CUV today. At least it’s the one they put the VR38DETT in that one time. If the Veloster was in similar shape and…um…not being sold by someone trying to hide their shameful stewardship of it in the most transparently obvious way, I’d go that direction. They’re funky li’l guys. Instead I’ll take the Juke-box, since it’s at least a stick.
I’d go Juke here. Thankfully it’s a manual, which – while as vague as using a screwdriver to blindly push quarters around in a 5-gallon bucket – is vastly preferable to the CVT it could have came with.
I’d take it to a local wrap shop and see if they wanted to use it as a teaching car for a new hire or something and get it done in frog green, maybe with some spots or stripes for fun. Even if the wrap turns out bad it’s better than boring black.
The Hyundai has bad paint on about 3/4 of its surface area, I hate the limited visibility of the body shape which is compounded by the silly small doors on the passenger side (is there a way to swap that side for coupe doors without replacing the whole side of the car? Oh, wait, I don’t care), and these tend to be driven by folks who think they bought a racecar, not an Elantra with a more compromised body. The black wheels reinforce this stereotype.
Easy choice.
“Thankfully it’s a manual, which – while as vague as using a screwdriver to blindly push quarters around in a 5-gallon bucket – is vastly preferable to the CVT it could have came with.”
Probably why it’s still running. Not sure the CVT would survive that long.