Looking for old, reliable, beater used car

Maintenance/Repairs
41

I think that an older vehicle with a 4 cylinder engine and a manual transmission might be a good choice. At least for a while when learning to drive a shift car, one has to concentrate a little more on driving. Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics seem to be reliable. The last of the Ford Escorts have also compiled a good reliability record. A Ford Ranger pick-up truck with the manual transmission and 4 cylinder engine might be a good choice. In the words of Consumer Reports: “The Ford Ranger never lets you forget you are driving a truck”.

I wish that my son had,in his early driving experience, had experienced a manual tranmission. He did have an excellent driving record and as a college sophomore was driving children around in a 15 passenger van on narrow mountain roads. He did ultimately learn to drive the manual transmission. The girl he married brought a Ford Mustang into the marriage with a manual shift. She now has back problems and can’t drive the car, so this has become my son’s car.

At any rate, I think that modern cars make driving too easy. Your daughter sounds like an outstanding student. It is often outstanding students that don’t focus as they should on their driving. A shift vehicle might make her more attentive, at least for a while.

42

And she did have good representation with the tickets, and getting out of the tickets was argued strongly by her attorney, greatly reducing the cost of the tickets, as well as the points in the process. Without this representation, it is very likely that her license would have been suspended. Which would of course have wrecked havoc on her other plans in terms of employment, education and the like.

I hope you didn’t pay for the lawyer.
You’re kinda confusing me though. First you say bad driving record, then you say not really THAT bad; only 3 tickets, now you say she needed a lawyer to get out of them or risk suspended license.
I feel that if she’s done bad enough to get her license suspended, she needs it suspended. You can’t always be there for her, so she needs to learn the consequences for her actions.

43

Take her driving privileges away for a while. The xB is not a hot rod. Anything else you get will be less reliable that the Scion. You don’t want her driving some unreliable hulk home from work at night, do you? Drive her to work and pick her up for a while. I have a daughter without a license that we ferry to and from work. Between you, your spouse, and any other driving children you have, this will work. Even if ti is just a bit tedious for you.

BTW, unreliable hulk is anything mentioned so far in this thread, compared to the xB.

44

Here is a good reason to stress the importance of a good driving record to your daughter. My wife had been recruiting graduate students for our institution as well has having many other duties as an associate dean. Her department realized that she was overworked and hired a person to take over the recruiting duties. This recruiter position requires a lot of travel and one of the conditions is that the person hold a valid driver’s license. Well, the intelligent young woman that was hired for the job went to check out a university vehicle for her first recruiting trip. The attendant at the motor pool checked into her license that was from another state. He found that she had too many speeding violations to be eligible for a license in our state and couldn’t let her take out a car. The new hire almost lost her job after a month because she was not eligible for a driver’s license in our state. She was finally issued a probationary license in our state. However, one violation and she loses her license and her job.

On the other hand, my son was a very good student in his college work and has a good driving record. In his sophomore year in college, he went on an off-campus study program. Part of his responsibilities on this program included transporting children in a 15 passenger van over treacherous mountain roads. After college, he was an assistant manager in a children’s home and was responsible for transporting children in a minibus. I rode with him once when he was transporting children and he wouldn’t start the engine until he checked to be certain that every child had his/her seatbelt buckled. The private k-12 school where he now teaches acquired a bus and wanted my son to be the designated driver. He turned down the extra money because he is taking night courses for an advanced degree and didn’t want his evenings taken up driving the bus to athletic events or his day interrupted to drive students on field trips.

One never knows when a good driving record may be an asset, or a poor driving record be a liability. My son has always been a responsible driver. He didn’t realize at age 18 how important his driving record might be. The recruiter hired in my wife’s office didn’t realize what a detriment a poor driving record could be.

45

I still think there is far more to the driving record of the OP’s daughter than is being related by them; and that includes the bit about being ticketed for 1 MPH over.

Maybe it was more, way way more, than 1 MPH and the lawyering up plea bargained this offense down to a more manageable number.
I’d love to hear the details behind both that ticket and the other 2 that the OP apparently wishes not to discuss. Instead, the OP is only concerned with saving money, giving the daughter what she wants, and will defend her to the hilt no matter what she does.

Hopefully, the daughter won’t end up killing herself somewhere down the road or even worse, wiping out some family due to her driving habits.

46

When I turned 16 my parents told me that I had to pay for gas and insurance for my own vehicle if I wanted to drive and that I could either have the family beater or buy my own car. I couldn’t afford any of that until after college a few years ago, so I took the bus until I could afford my own vehicle. I’m now 26 and have no tickets or points against my license. While this worked out great for me, this may not be for everyone. Still, I suggest the following:

You have stated public transportation isn’t really an option, so here is my suggestion. Buy the most clapped out, ugly, behemoth and sluggish POS of a car you can get for under $1,000.00. Get it also with a manual transmission (a must have). Some moderate rust is preferred. I think that driving a real POS for a number of years will really give her a sense of respect towards any future car she may own, and maybe some stories of her own that she can look fondly back on.

I currently own a 1990 Blazer full size. No A/C, the ABS quit, manual trans, and the paint is flaking off from the terrible, horrible rust. I learned to drive safely and put plenty of room in front of me as well as keep an eye on the other drivers because of one simple fact. This truck will kill me. Not may, WILL! It is very determined.

Bad tires and tread separation lead to bad road vibration (which I promptly replaced all four tires when I noticed that no, vibrations of earthquake proportions are not normal for a truck no matter how old), blinking Christmas-time dash light display (from the failing ABS) and the Mars dust left behind wherever I go from the self recycling frame and underbody indeed alludes to this fact. Sometimes when I kick it large red chunks fall off. Good times.

Why do I suggest something like this as a good starter vehicle? Well, when there is real terror experienced for every hard right turn you learn to take those turns easier. When the brakes decide if and when to engage you put plenty of room in front of you just in case they decide a mutiny is in order. When you have a manual transmission say goodbye to your cellphone (at least in city traffic) and any other hazardous distracting activities, and lastly, none of her friends will want to ride with her but in case they are that desperate, buy a car or truck with missing or destroyed weather-stripping, as this will make it hard for her to hear her friends or the radio over the whipping wind, even with the windows rolled all the way up.

Again, this may not work for everyone, but it’s worked out pretty well for me.

FINE, I will also admit, I don’t want any 18 year old driving a better car than me.

P.S.: I am (mostly) kidding, but a large car or truck with flaking paint, poor performance and manual transmission will do wonders for the automobile humility of our nation’s youth. Think of your own first cars and how they shaped your perception on the privilege of driving. I’ll be thinking of (and experiencing) mine on the drive home tonight.

47

Grand Marquis is way up on the “inexpensive to insure” lists that I have seen. The are rugged, reliable, inexpensive and inexpensive to fix.

When someone gets a ticket for 1 mph over the speed limit the cop is giving a merciful break instead of giving a ticket that carries a much higher penalty. I suppose she can smile nice and be polite. That helps.

48

Either that or she turned on the water works.

49

This girl didn’t need a lawyer and traffic school for 1 MPH over. It’s far more serious than that and apparently the OP doesn’t wanna talk about it.

50

To answer the actual question, I’m currently driving a 1996 Toyota Corolla with 83k miles on it, and it is doing just fine. I got my license at 16, hated driving, and didn’t do it again until I was about 25 (I’m 27 now). I managed to live in places where I just didn’t need to drive while I was in school, not that I could have afforded it anyway. I’ve become a much more confident driver over the past two years despite one accident in bad snow (took my back bumper off and dented the door of a minivan). I’m just now starting to look at a new car with more safety features as my mom needs this car back.

My current '96 is worth maybe $1200, and only because we have such detailed maintenance records including doing the timing belt last year. Even with the accident it’s incredibly cheap to insure and the fuel economy is quite good. The higher trim levels from that era generally have air bags for the driver and front passenger and you might be able to find ABS. To be honest the only reason I’m not looking at another car like this is that I’ve got a good job now and I’m willing to pay for better safety features like stability control.

51

I would put her in some mid-1990s domestic steel – Buick LeSabre/Pontiac Bonneville/Olds 88 or a Ford/Chy product that was (senior) adult driven. (I have a 1996 Buick LeSabre that I am about to give to my 16-y-o daughter to drive.) The upside is that there is metal around her, lots of mass, air bags and anti-lock brakes. Don’t be afraid to make the car safe – good brakes, struts, and tires. Raise your family’s liability insurance as high as possible. Keep only liability on her car. Dump collison, comprehensive, and uninsured motorist coverages on her car. Make it clear to her that if she wrecks the car, she walks. If she gets a suspended license, she walks.

Even though my 18-y-o son drives a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, my insurance agent has rated him on my Buick to save the family money.

Good luck to you and me.

52

Honda Accord- our 1989 one runs well and the model has a good track record.

53

i too, am operator/owner of 18 year old daughter. she’s very mature for her age, but she’s 18…she came up with her budget, and then she looked at craigs list,etc, before finding a 1989 Honda for $1100. i am convinced that her happiness with her vehicle is directly proportional to the time and effort SHE put into finding the car.

54

I would definitely recommend a Volvo. Maybe not that one but a somewhat newer/lower mileage one with the outstanding drivetrains in the 240, 740 & 940 4 cylinder rear drive series. Longevity is well known for these. But maybe that one if the car is clean and has been well maintained. 315k is not, in itself, a warning bell for some Volvos. I personally drove a 740 for about 12 years and when I moved across country decided that though mechanically sound the body/interior didn’t justify the expense of driving it. I bought it used for $4k in '93ish with about 90k on it and gave it away in '07 with 335k, driving nicely, passing CA smog, never had any major repairs done, never even changed or serviced the clutch (it was a stick) or transmission, nor injectors, didn’t smoke. I never even adjusted the valves although you’re supposed to now and then on that engine. So I was no service fanatic. You have to purposely kill these cars with malice and cunning. Plus it got around 28mpg in mostly freeway driving. Cheapest car I ever owned. But stay away from turbos - MPG will fall and maintenance will rise.

Just my 2 cents.

55

we have a 96 dodge intrepid that my daughter drove for 5 years with pl/pd and it was a tank! still is. she just bought her first “newer” car so we need to get rid of the intrepid! great car!

56

How do you “operate” and “own” an 18-year-old daughter?