List of little cars?

[lungdeflator]

Im shopping around for a little car and just dont know enough of them. Can anybody list some for me besides Geo metro, Honda Civic, Ford Aspire, Toyota Tercel?

Preferably a hatchback but I really just want to see whats out there

[Jeremy airjer W]

Saturn SL Wagon

Saturn SC

Subaru Impreza

[deadeye]

Idk what your price range is or how new your looking to get but if I was in the market for a new little car I would look at the Honda fit, the Toyota yaris, the Ford fiesta, Nissan versa and KIA forte. They are all decent cars and do good for mpgs.

If its a little older then like airjer said the Saturn's are pretty solid. You do have a decent list going.

I just got a 04 Subaru in January myself and love it but Idk if I can recommend it as its prone to head gaskets failing. So far the winter traction, space inside, ride, and mpgs have me very happy despite the weak spot it has. If it ever does pop the gaskets it looks pretty darn easy to fix it so I won't complain.

[smilee_54]

ford focus I think they still make a hatch back

[caseymcq]

Mazda 3

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'd Steer clear of the Nissans!

[pureinsanity]

VW Jetta. Despite some mishaps I think they are great cars!

[mainbutter]

Best bang for your buck, great gas mileage, and surprising amount of interior space:

CHEVROLET AVEO

My girl has a.. 2002? I forget what year her Aveo is, but my only complaints about hers are a lack of power and a lack of cruise control, but that's a complaint of mine about most cars that cost drastically less than $25k. It's even pretty darn safe, which is a big bonus for me.

[TravP]

Were looking at buying a Chevy Cobalt for my wife. Her Jeep Liberty drinks gas. I get better gas mileage with my Silverado.

[DTro]

Don't forget the Smart car and all those little boxy Scions.

[Dragonsm]

Pontiac Vibes are a solid hatchback. Only issue I know about them as of right now is you'll need to go into the dealership and have the odometer reset at 300,000 miles as it won't go past 299,999.

[fish with teeth]

why would you steer clear of nissans? i am also looking for a little car. my diesel is hurting the pocket book.

[wastewaterguru]

Some of the Scions are even kinda cool looking....

just don't get rear ended by a semi in one like my wife did in a 2008 scion xD special edition.......although any car would have met a similar demise in that scenario.

[brian6715]

VW Jetta. Despite some mishaps I think they are great cars!

No offense pureinsanity,

but I could never advise someone to get a VW (maybe the most recent versions are better). I used to love VW, until I owned one.

I have had experience with 2 Passats and my best friend had 2 Jetta's, and we both agree that they drive nice and get good my mileage.... but they are horrible as far as random stupid stuff breaking! Why risk it when there are better options out there for less money!

A lot of people who drive VW will say "they aren't as hard to work on as people say!"... well I say why not get something that doesn't need to be worked on so much (if at all).

My current commuter is a Chevy Prism, I put over 24k a year on and have yet do have anything to it! I would go with Saturn, Geo, or Aveo (or even cobalt).

[lungdeflator]

Ok thanks for the cars, sorry bout the price and stuff...Im near the end of my college career so I have been mostly looking at older cars(90's) at or under 2000$. I could care less what it looks like, as long as it gets really good MPG and doesnt require a trip to the shop every 6 months

[pureinsanity]

No offense pureinsanity,

but I could never advise someone to get a VW (maybe the most recent versions are better). I used to love VW, until I owned one.

I have had experience with 2 Passats and my best friend had 2 Jetta's, and we both agree that they drive nice and get good my mileage.... but they are horrible as far as random stupid stuff breaking! Why risk it when there are better options out there for less money!

A lot of people who drive VW will say "they aren't as hard to work on as people say!"... well I say why not get something that doesn't need to be worked on so much (if at all).

My current commuter is a Chevy Prism, I put over 24k a year on and have yet do have anything to it! I would go with Saturn, Geo, or Aveo (or even cobalt).

No offense taken. To each their own. Outside of my recent mishap of running my timing belt to 140K I have put little to no money in my 01 VW. Read the readers digest report. One of the worst years for a jetta with problems specially electrical.

I just put a new timing belt, serp, water pump and head on my car for basically the cost of 4 good tires. Other than that, the stuff I have replaced was because stuff I broke it.

List of things I have put into my car.

Cat (145K)

Clutch (120K)

Head (141K)

Water Pump (@ 54K and I didn't pay for it dealer did. I replaced it while I did my timing belt as well)

Timing Belt ( 141K)

Serp Belt (141K)

Power steering hose (my bad, bottomed my car our on a bumpy road and the under carriage cut through a line)

Wiper Linkage ( one seized I payed 50 bucks for an after market one)

Normal Maint.

Oil changes

Brakes

Bulbs

So all in all ive had a car that has had little to no problems with over 140K on it before they start being an issue.

Like ive stated before you can have the same make, model and year of a vehicle coming from the same production facility. One can be a lemon, and the other can be the best car you owned....

As for working on my car! It is a breeze. I have had some help with a friend who has some knowledge and the tools to work on cars and he basically over sees what im doing to make sure I do it right and most of it is pretty easy.

If I had to get a new car tomorrow I would find it hard to find a car that is as responsive and drives as smooth as my VW does!

[brian6715]

Yeah I know what you mean, they sure do drive nice. They are quick little things!

[pureinsanity]

I do not like the new body style so I will keep this one until it falls apart coming down the road. I guess the 5spd have a lot more get up and go then the automatics. At least that is what my friend says. He has worked on a few AT and when he took my car for a drive he couldn't believe how much snap it had vs the AT

[caseymcq]

VW Jetta. ...

I totally forgot about the sauerkraut burners... gotta show the German engineering some love.

[Ufatz]

Ok thanks for the cars, sorry bout the price and stuff...Im near the end of my college career so I have been mostly looking at older cars(90's) at or under 2000$. I could care less what it looks like, as long as it gets really good MPG and doesnt require a trip to the shop every 6 months

Okay, here's a sleeper: Chevy Aveo. You will hear and see awful stuff about them until you talk to somebody who actually OWNS one. Made in Korea. Millions have been on road for quite a few years in other countries under other names. My wife's gets 35-37 mpg and lowest ever was something like 30, with an auto trans. It is the little four door hatchback. We bought it new 40,000 miles ago and all I've done to it is new tires and wiper blades. Waaayyy...more room in there than you think. New price was $10K and I would guess you could find one pretty cheap because nobody has heard of them. Don't be fooled....it is a great little car.

[deadeye]

why would you steer clear of nissans? i am also looking for a little car. my diesel is hurting the pocket book.

The versas are not bad. They actually have very few problems from what I have seen (I work in Nissan parts) They are a little underpowered (just about any small car like it is) and don't really tend to break stuff. The Nissans with the 2.5 tend to be the troubled ones.

There is a lot of other stuff out there that I would take over the versa but some people absolutely love them.

The vw are kind of in the same boat. Some people love them. I despise them.

Meh, what do you do. I used love gm products and now you couldn't pay me to own one. So who knows. I say see what car you like the most and get that one. They all have issues.

[OnAFly]

The Jetta 1.8T was the greatest handling car I ever owned. It had plenty of power for it's size and it was a blast to drive. However, in the 40K miles I owned it....

Seat Heater shorted out...while driving down the highway I started smelling a burning plastic and one spot on my seat got very hot.

Coils packs blew...twice

radio randomly stopped working

trunk stopped latching, fell apart

There were a few other things that went wrong, but I can't remember them all. I loved the car, but VW needs to start hiring new electrical engineers.

If you want something that is a little bigger, my fiance has a G6. It gets ~30 on the highway, which surprised me.

[Jeremy airjer W]

why would you steer clear of nissans? i am also looking for a little car. my diesel is hurting the pocket book.

I like to think of Nissan as the early 80's chrysler of the import world!

[pureinsanity]

The Jetta 1.8T was the greatest handling car I ever owned. It had plenty of power for it's size and it was a blast to drive. However, in the 40K miles I owned it....

Seat Heater shorted out...while driving down the highway I started smelling a burning plastic and one spot on my seat got very hot.

Coils packs blew...twice

radio randomly stopped working

trunk stopped latching, fell apart

There were a few other things that went wrong, but I can't remember them all. I loved the car, but VW needs to start hiring new electrical engineers.

If you want something that is a little bigger, my fiance has a G6. It gets ~30 on the highway, which surprised me.

Yah the VW have had a lot of electrical problems. That is why I got a basic model with no fancy dancy stuff. I am impressed with VW stock radio it works well. Was yours an after market? Did you buy it from a dealer or from a private seller. I have bought cars where people decided to wire a bunch of their own stuff and do a lot of jumpering in the fuse box. Now I always check the fuse box from a private seller to make sure they aren't cheating certain things.

[OnAFly]

It was a deal car and everything was stock. Actually everything was perfect with it the day I bought it. There were just too many things that were going wrong. Nothing really big, but after about the fourth or fifth problem in a year and a half, I decided I'd had enough. I still miss the car, I just wish it had fewer problems.