What car to get for DD and gets great MPG?

[pleasehelp]

Ok. Gas prices here have reached $3. First ever that's happend here. I know it's higher in other places. And I know it's suppose to reach $4 here by this time next year. So I think I'm going to break down and buy a DD. My gf has a 2000 Jeep G. Cherokee and the best we can get around town is 15mpg. My stang is not running right at the moment therefore I don't drive that often and really can't afford to put anymore $$ into it.
So I wanted to ask you what car would make a good DD? I want to get one that gets over 23mpg in the city and one that is realiable. At this point I don't care if it's foreing. So what cars should I look into and what cars should I stay away from? I've been looking at some focuses but I keep reading that their realiability is questioable. I know I might get some crap for saying this but I'm going to look into hoduhs
Oh, and I would like to keep the price between 5-7k. Thanks for any input.


Oh and Striped, myself and everyone in antartica knows you sold your stang and got a bike that gets 40+mpg but I'm not going to get a bike so don't bother posting that info. Thanks.

 

[ROLLIN5.0]

How long is it going to take you to save that 5-7k in gas? I would look at 93-97 4-cyl, 5-speed Probes, which you can get for $1,500-3,000. Their good for about 30mpg. The Probe GT gets 26 highway. I've been looking at them for about a week.
Brandon

 

[Kevin R.]

Buy a bike and use the Cherokee in winter.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

Toyota Corolla, 33mpg city and 40mpg highway with a manual. That and they are nice cars too.

 

[Suspect]

i just bought a nice little 94 escort. paid 600 bucks with 74,xxx miles, auto, 4 door, 1.9 4cyl. 88 horses, just pure power i cant say what im getting per gallon cuz havent been paying attention, but i just put gas in it yesterday. had it for 2 weeks. its ugly, but way better on gas than my stang.

 

[wytstang]

Stay away from the Probe they are one of fords problem child. You will sink money into repairing them often.

 

[94-302-vert]

I would go with an manual trans honda accord or toyota camry or similar if I needed somethign that woudl last forever and get good milage...

I know your pain we jsut got rid of our 02 grand cherokee for a ford five hundred... but that is a little out of your price range...

 

[Swarzkopf]

Escorts rock! My ZX2 gets great gas mileage and actually isn't bad to drive.

 

[ROLLIN5.0]

Stay away from the Probe they are one of fords problem child. You will sink money into repairing them often.

What makes you say that? I have been doing a lot of research, and the only weak link I can find is the auto tranny, and of course you have to service the timing belt. I've found tons of them with up to 200,000 miles on the clock, both I4 and V6.
Brandon

 

[Swarzkopf]

Probes suck man...my buddy had one that had LOTS of problems.

They offer decent performance for cheap, but I'd never buy one.

 

[wytstang]

Becaues I used to work at a Ford dealer ship as a tech's assisstance(sp?). The first thing I learned by the head tech is which cars NOT to buy. Probe being one and the Mystic and the Contour. He list the things wrong with the Probe and it was pretty long.

 

[pleasehelp]

The Corolla is looking good right now. I just read somewhere that gas will be at $6pg by 2006! My friend has a 1999 Dodge Ram and gets 14 mpg and last time he fill it, it cost him over $60! That was before the prices shot up to $3.

 

[BlueOvalStangGT]

Ford Festiva! They get 43 MPG and you can swap the turbo 1.6 in it for like 800 and un 13;s! I want that or a older miata.

 

[TrueBlue95GT]

I've got a 94 Saturn SC1 1.9L SOHC that I bought for 500 and it gets 31 in the city and 38 on the highway. And it's got dent resistant body panels for fun in the winter.

 

[95WhiteVenom]

used to be my 89 civic Si 38+ MPG ran like a dream till a rod startted knocking and its been parked ever since. It will get started on prolly next month breaking down the whole motor new rods (free YAY) new bearings gaskets and rings. Should be enough to keep it running another year or two. Right now I'm stuck with the Cobra as my DD it gets 18-20MPG most of the time unless I get a wild hair.

 

[DougNuts]

Manual transmission Honda car w/ a four cylinder.

 

[STM1965]

Get Her a Honda Civic (stock no fart cans)

My wife has a 2001 Honda Civic 4 door, gets good city & great highway MPG, and its a automatic. We've decided to share the car when I'm on nights so it seeing double duty some days, and between us where only filling it once a week I havn't figured out the MPG yet. However you got to keep the little cars revs down or it'll suck gas like a demon.

 

[SeventyMach1]

Get a diesel truck! Several "gas stations" around me have turned into "diesel stations" because they've ran out of gas. Really sucks. Hopefully, things will improve REAL soon...

If I could get my hands on one of those old diesel motors Ford put in the first compact Ranger's, I'd make the swap on my '96 Splash in a heartbeat. It would be different, that's for sure. I was gonna swap the engine from my car in there once I get the stroker built, but I'm haveing 2nd thoughts. I need a DD that gets GOOD mileage. My 2.3 Ranger gets excellent mileage, though. I just can't find gas within 20 miles from my house...

I have a '05 Focus ZX4 (fiancee drives it). She puts at least 65 miles on it a day... it has excellent fuel economy, but would be better if it was a stick. I'd look into that if I were you.

 

[Jeff7477]

Get a Toyota Prius

 

[Killercanary]

I have an '02 focus ZX3 and I love it. I am getting 30+mpg now that I have learned to drive it for mileage. Before then I was getting around 26-27mpg, but I do mostly city driving and its an auto. I recently got 388 miles out of a tank of fuel!

My wife's '00 MR2 spyder gets 31+mpg in the city even with me beating the snot out of it! Its not very practical in terms of passenger hauling and such, but its fun, gets TONS of compliments (we get more compliments in her car than I ever do in mine), and it GREAT on gas.