Cheapest Car to Operate

Fine print of the Smart Car lease:
Total payments equal $9459
$9459 divided by 36 months = $262.75 per month

The increase is caused by:
Cash due at signing includes $2,000 capitalized cost reduction, $295 acquisition fee and first month's lease payment of $199. No security deposit required. Total payments equal $9,459.

For that you get a 36 month lease that allows 30k miles or 10k miles per year. Extra miles are $0.25 so if you drove another 5k miles per year your cost would increase by $1250 every year or roughly $100 more per month for a total of $362.75 per month

For real though, personally, the cheapest car I've ever owned has been the Integra. 40 miles up. 40 miles back. Every_day_for the last 10 years. In the meantime I had 2 Civics that constantly had problems, but the teg just goes. It eats an alternator once every 2-3 years, intermediate shaft bearings are shot and cause premature CV failure, but both of those are lifetime from vatozone.

logdog wrote: Any 88-00 Civic would get my vote. The less options the better.

Indeed. I bought a 96 hatch years ago. Drove it everywhere and sold it for nearly what unpaid for it years later. 13" rims, manual steering etc. the car never broke down an banged near 40 mpg with the ac one. 46 without. P71 can't do that, but the civic was no phallus extension.

Swank Force One wrote: 4afe FWD Corolla.

It's true!

Geo metro for sure. 40+ mpg, super reliable engine, can buy for <$1000, cheap parts and new tires are $30 per corner (wow used tires really?). Not the most powerful so if you live in hill country you may need to stick to 55mph roads but being a tightass has its consequences.

for what it is worth. my late 318ti would deliver 30mpg daily with occasional highway forays as high as 36mpg (calculated by hand at fill up.. I was driving -very- conservatively that trip) and other than gas, oil, and consumables, never needed much.

It did need a lot done when I bought it, the previous owner had deferred all maintance for about 50,000 miles or more. Once I got that all sorted, the only issues I had was a dead fuel pump, a bad engine mount, and rust

I'm going to add MKI/MKII diesel vw. Cheap to operate, cheap parts, decent to drive and rarely break.

I hear myself falling into promoting electrics in every thread. I do.

If you're in the very, very specific set of circumstances appropriate for it, NEVs like the Kandi Coco, Zap, and Think are cheap to buy, have almost no maintenance needs, and cost less than highway EVs to run.

Do you live in a cali emmisions state?
Honda has a hella deal on fit EV leases. 259/month 0 down unlimited miles includes a charger (you have to pay for install) collision insurance maintenance http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/30/honda-fit-ev-lease-drops-to-259-adds-unlimited-miles/

No gas to buy, just electricity. If you drive 100 miles/ day thats alot of gas, likely more then the 259/month the fit ev lease is.

W123 benz running on veggie oil. How does less than a gallon of diesel a day sound, no matter how long your commute is?

I can tell you that it's not a 1980s Alfa Romeo.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: P71 can't do that, but the civic was no phallus extension.

Why was that necessary?

bengro wrote: Do you live in a cali emmisions state? Honda has a hella deal on fit EV leases. 259/month 0 down unlimited miles includes a charger (you have to pay for install) collision insurance maintenance http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/30/honda-fit-ev-lease-drops-to-259-adds-unlimited-miles/ No gas to buy, just electricity. If you drive 100 miles/ day thats alot of gas, likely more then the 259/month the fit ev lease is.

Wow, that is awesome, except that I will not be living in any of those states any time soon.

chandlerGTi wrote: I'm going to add MKI/MKII diesel vw. Cheap to operate, cheap parts, decent to drive and rarely break.

I would agree as far as fuel/maintaince, but the purchase price and any diesel related parts aren't so cheap. When $1k is an amazing deal for a used 20 year old engine thats a little weird lol.

Javelin wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: P71 can't do that, but the civic was no phallus extension.

Why was that necessary?

Because Iggy.

Saturn S-series is cheap to buy and run.

Cheapest car? someone elses

nocones wrote: Geo metro for sure. 40+ mpg, super reliable engine, can buy for <$1000, cheap parts and new tires are $30 per corner (wow used tires really?). Not the most powerful so if you live in hill country you may need to stick to 55mph roads but being a tightass has its consequences.

True story.

3 years ago I talked a coworker into buying a Metro for his 200 km (120mile) daily commute. I think he paid $600 for it, and a few hundred more to put it on the road. With one of my econo cams, some fine tuning, a little aero, a fair bit of attention to detail, and reasonable driving habits, he is now getting 74.98 miles/(imp)gallon, or about 3.8 L/100 km, even better in the city. The car has required no maintenence, other than oil changes, and makes more than enough power for commuting. If power is an issue, a later 4 cylinder version is much better, and is actually a much better built, safer car.

Javelin wrote: *This* is where the P71 wins.

Disagree. They ALL burn oil after 250,000kms. Some MUCH earlier than that.

Edit- Also, I bought a $400 (and it was worth about that) 1993 civic sedan with 500,000kms on it. I've been driving it since December. Haven't even changed the oil because I'm an ass (have topped up though as it burns a TEENIE bit).

40usmpg on the highway, starts in -40*C weather, everything works fine, IS QUIET AND COMFORTABLE. Hard to argue with that or a similiar era toyota corolla. Rusty body doesn't mean mechanically it's in poor condition, and that's how you get a cheap car that is crazy inexpensive to operate.

+1 for Metro. Swap in Swift GT seats for the serious commuter. I'd be keeping mine if I wasn't moving. I'll be sourcing another when I get to Texas.

A Prius is by far the cheapest car to operate. The buy-in cost isn't as cheap as others in this thread though.

ProDarwin wrote: A Prius is by far the cheapest car to operate. The buy-in cost isn't as cheap as others in this thread though.

EDIT: I meant to say that I know a bit about the 1 Gen Insight and the 1 Gen Civic Hybrid, but not any other hybrids.

Yeah, a reliable Japanese Hybrid seems like the obvious answer, but what about replacement batteries? I don't know much about the Prius or other hybrids, but the 1 Gen Insight batteries do fail and the replacements (both Honda and aftermarket) are hit or miss. Some of the OEM batteries replaced at dealers have failed in a matter of months! Even the well-regarded battery guy on insightcentral charges over $2k for a battery with a 2 yr. warranty. If your amortized battery costs end up in the $1000/yr range then how much are you really saving? $1000 is probably more than 2/3rds of what I spend on gas in my Fit in a year, and honestly the Fit is not as easy on fuel as the older Civics or the Metro/Swift.

3 cyl Metro for sure.

The Civic VX and the Metro XFi were about the most efficient and economical cars made, and you can find them for peanuts now. I had my Civic VX for 8 years, 110k miles. My logbook says I spent a little under $10k on that car over its lifetime, including purchase price, gas, oil changes, all maintenance, and tires.

That's a total cost of ownership of about 9 cents a mile, or $100 a month including all expenses. Hard to beat that.

In reply to ShadowSix:

Prius battery is warrantied to 150k. Its ~$2000 new from Toyota. Refurbished used ones can be had for around $900, and you can even get rebuilt ones with newer-gen cells for a bit of a performance/economy boost.

That said, most seem to last well beyond the 200k mark. They aren't as DIY-fix-able as the Honda batteries from what I gather, but they are also far more reliable to begin with. The failure rates of these things are nowhere near as bad as most of the speculation would have you believe.

we seem to have reached a bit of a consensus .... Metro/Civic or a Toyota/Honda hybrid ...

my "needs" are for a long distance trip car (not a commuter) I'll probably be looking to sell my '01 Integra LS next spring/summer, and I'll probably buy new

looking for the best combination of reliability, initial cost, and milage

I've been a Honda driver since 1976 ... so was going to look at a Fit .. but the overall milage doesn't seem to reach my expectations/wants ...

so far (without having done a test drive, to check for comfort/fit) it looks like the Chevy Cruz Eco 6sp is in the lead ....

would like to hear the opinions of the board