Advice on 2nd car

[rsquared]

Hey all, I'm loving my 3 but with a job change looming, will be looking for a 2nd car for my wife. Looking to buy used. She'll only be driving about 15-20kms a day during the week, so something efficient and reliable. We're hoping to spend 10k or under, but not sure how realistic that is. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[Wild Weasel]

Umm.. Yaris?

[rsquared]

Yaris would be nice, but seems to be over our 10k budget. Also contemplating an older Toyota Corolla.

There seems to be a ton of older Honda Civics for sale.

[bubba1983]

get a used protege, round the 2000-2001 year
they range from 6-11K

[PlatMS6]

Yaris would be nice, but seems to be over our 10k budget. Also contemplating an older Toyota Corolla.

There seems to be a ton of older Honda Civics for sale.

Dude buy a used one... new base ones are like $13k

Just make sure its the Echo HB...the sedan (if you can call it that) is 20x uglier

You can get an 04 Echo HB with 50-75k for 8000-1000$

[ptwonline]

Personally, if I was getting a second car that wasn't going to be driven much, I wouldn't worry much about efficiency at all. I would get something functional, and there's few vehicles more functional than a minivan. It would really come in handy for the trips to Ikea/Home Depot, and who cares if it costs a few more bucks/month on gas since you drive it so little?

[Broli]

i think a corolla is a good second car,

[rsquared]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! We're definitely leaning towards a used echo hatchback if we can find a good one within our budget. ptwonline, my wife wants something small and compact, so a minivan is out of the question. The 3 is more than adequate for our Home Depot/Ikea trips. :chuckle

The Protege5 is nice and would be great to stay in the Mazda family, but they seem to come with high mileage in the price range we're looking for. Also, not sure how it performs gas-wise.

[MattC]

i say get a 04 mazda 3 :)

bump for the corolla, i had a 97 corolla and it was a GREAT every day car. can get a 97 for around 6k prolly less

[jedd999]

Personally, if I was getting a second car that wasn't going to be driven much, I wouldn't worry much about efficiency at all. I would get something functional, and there's few vehicles more functional than a minivan. It would really come in handy for the trips to Ikea/Home Depot, and who cares if it costs a few more bucks/month on gas since you drive it so little?

Honestly, this is a great idea!

As much as I HATE Chrysler (:flaming just saying the name pisses me off - I have my reasons that I may share at a later time... too lazy to type now) I am pretty sure you can get an 05 or 06 minivan for about $10k with some decent options. Though vans are an eyesore, the convenience that they provide is absolutely amazing. I tried to get my mom to buy a van when her lease is up (Next week) but she got a 6 Sport (Hatchback) instead.