I started delivering food with PostMates after my regular work hours for some extra bucks. It’s going well but Baltimore roads are awful and my mustang gets 15mpg in city driving. It’s a horrible car for deliveries. I was thinking, this would be the perfect opportunity to get some weird old car from the 80s/90s with a small engine under the excise of gas mileage and keeping miles off my Mustang! Any recommendations? I’ve seen a few 1990s jettas for around $700 but I’m really hoping to find something I could later turn into an autocross/track rat.
I found a 1980 Nissan pulsar with a manual transmission for dirt cheap that would be perfect but it’s too far away
Gas mileage doesn’t even need to be an excuse.
I’d say sparing a car you care about from the wear that comes with that sort of thing is reason enough.
You want a Prius..or a 3-cyl Geo Metro to go super cheap. Really anything small is better to not wear out the Mustang.
I see a $200 escort in Baltimore on CL..
If you approach it with the intention of "keeping wear and tear" off your Mustang, you're ok.
If you're doing it for the financial aspect of "better fuel economy", in the end, you'll be in the hole, mathematically.
Here is another focus for $850 that just needs a new clutch...so you fix it and then sell it for more than you paid later, double win.
https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/d/middle-river-ford-focus-2001-zx3/7111230995.html
nimblemotorsports said:
You want a Prius..or a 3-cyl Geo Metro to go super cheap. Really anything small is better to not wear out the Mustang.
I see a $200 escort in Baltimore on CL..
A Prius would be PERFECT. My wife already has a 2013. They hold their value pretty well though. The Geo Metro would be the holy grail. I saw the $200 Escort, I was thinking of sending an email.
Bonus, if it’s a 2000 or earlier, I can get historic tags, which means no inspection. That would be preferred.
The wife just found a 94 Civic coupe, manual transmission, for a grand. Runs fine, just some dents and dings and a bit of rust in the rear wheel arch. That’s relatively easy to fix, right? Something like this would make an excellent autocross car as well.
Also my wife agreed that if we get an autocross capable car for this cheap, we have to enter it in the $2000 challenge
Buy it right now. Hondas always rust in the rear wheel arches. It will autocross very well.
In reply to infinitenexus :
I I used to say a Chevy Volt. But the price of Gas is too cheap to make that argument.
a Toyota Tercel is very handy to deliver out of and reliable as a clock.
But holds it's resale value too high.
My next suggestion Is Craigslist Find a Saturn.
I bought one for my daughter taught her how to drive a manual with it . The original clutch lasted over 305,000 miles 18 years and the only breakdown was . The windshield wipers. ( the wiper motor was fine the linkage broke).
Sounds to me like you'll need another part time job to pay for the delivery/autocross/challenge car and registration, insurance, maintenance, challenge entry, etc.
How much money are you actually making on the part time food delivery? Are they taking out taxes or are you getting a 1099 or something? Is it really worth buying another vehicle?
Can you just use the wife's Prius to make money delivering the food?
The wife is using her Prius to make deliveries since she lost her job due to the quarantine. Doing PostMates, $300/week is pretty easy. If I did DoorDash, $800/week is about what I’d get if I did it full time, but this is something I started doing just after hours for some extra cash. It usually comes out to around $20-25/hour.
We’re going to go check out and potentially buy the civic tomorrow. It’s 100% stock and runs great, so the perfect car for a beater/delivery/autoX car to teach my wife how to autocross. And if it turns out well, we’ll keep it and bring it down to the $2000 challenge! My first, after reading and dreaming about them for 21 years. There’s autocross down in DC and up in Aberdeen so once they start running again we’ll have two places to do it. We’ll keep it stock for a bit and enjoy beating on a cheap car.
The most important part of this is me having a good excuse to buy a cheap beater with good gas mileage to autocross, and get the wife started on it!
"The most important part of this is me having a good excuse to buy a cheap beater with good gas mileage to autocross, and get the wife started on it! "
Ah, good luck with the Civic!
And with the price of parts for civics, building something fun for the 2020 challenge shouldn’t be too hard either! Very excite.
Brother, I did newspaper deliveries years ago and having a beater was the best as it kept my nice car (93 MR2 Turbo) free of debris and wear and tear.
At 15mpg, you'd see some savings on gas money with a 35mpg car ,but right now with gas prices low it'll take a long time before you saw a ROI with whatever you buy, especially if its 700+ dollars.
But, as stated, I'd do it just to keep my nice car nice, delivering stuff is tough on a car when youre doing it all the time. Plus, depending on how much youre doing it, you sort of start to hate the car since youre in it all the time and hear every little creak or squeak etc
But, as you said, youre also looking for a challenge car, which a civic would be great for given the aftermarket for those and used markets
If your concern is saving money, you have to figure the payback period. If you buy another car for say $1000, how long is it going to take before you make that up in reduced fuel costs? And don't forget insurance, license and registration, added maintenance required for a second car, etc.
frenchyd said:
In reply to infinitenexus :
a Toyota Tercel is very handy to deliver out of and reliable as a clock.
But holds it's resale value too high.
I can't believe I read a statement that contains both Toyota Tercel and retail value without the word "no" between them.
Drive the mustang. You bought it to drive it not let it sit in the garage. Mustangs aren't collectible so the mileage won't lose value as fast as ownership time does.
The lesson is drive a car you can afford to beat. They are more fun because you never worry about them.
edit: I drive my mustang everyday all year 50 miles north of you.
Andy Neuman said:
Drive the mustang. You bought it to drive it not let it sit in the garage. Mustangs aren't collectible so the mileage won't lose value as fast as ownership time does.
The lesson is drive a car you can afford to beat. They are more fun because you never worry about them.
Well also, the roads here in Baltimore are absolutely atrocious. More cracks and potholes than pavement. I’ll keep my mustang for fun weekend drives.
So I just bought the civic! Other than being dirty, it’s in great shape. I guess that means time for a build thread.
I bought a 2000 Honda Accord for like a grand. With insurance and fuel it saves me over $75 a month vs daily driving my excursion. I haven't put gas in the excursion since mid February. And the Accord cost me about $25 a month in fuel.
Consider your fuel costs as well. Doubling your fuel mileage at 15k miles per year and $2/gallon saves less than $1000/year... which is significant, but I (personally) would have something i love to drive and spend a couple hundred more per year on fuel.
I'm saying that if I had the choice of a Tercel at 35mpg or an early SC400 at 25mpg I'd take the lexus and not think twice about the extra $250 a year I spent in fuel. For me, it's a worthy premium to actually enjoy the mileage I'm putting on it instead of cursing the fact that I'm stuck in a Tercel for half of my life.
I say that having owned two Tercels; one in HS and one in College. They functioned for what I needed, but good lord they were awful to drive. They were good at starting and moving while abusing you with boredom. I looked forward to borrowing my friend's 1989 Cavalier because you could at least have a conversation in it above 40 mph without yelling, and it had a V6 that was able to move the car.
Just my opinion, but I would gladly spend a wee bit more in fuel to have something that didn't suck the will to live out of me one gallon at a time.
is parking a problem where you make deliveries ?
if so you might want something small amd a tight turning radius.......
Let me throw my .02 in. Get a Ford escort (though I think they share most of their dna with Mazda) of the fwd vintage. Last forever, fun to drive in spite of their best efforts, and frugal. I see good cars constantly for <1000 all the time and they're not desirable to really... Anyone? ZX2 models don't even seem to have much of a premium. Might be a southern car thing though, so a willingness to travel could help you net one.
