Anyone use a beater car as a daily? What is it...

I am thinking of buying a beater car to take some of the wear and tear off my Tacoma. I want to use my Tacoma mostly as a weekend car/camping and mountain biking. What is your beater and why do you like it and would you recommend it. Thanks

 

Mine is a 2000 Civic 4-door that just rolled over 230,000. It cost me $1800 about 4 years ago, I've put 70,000 miles on it and it's doing great. My favorite things about it are that it costs about nothing to insure, it costs about nothing to put gas in, it costs about nothing for taxes, and it cost about nothing to purchase originally. I have had to work on it some, but I've handled most of the issues (rear main seal, head gasket, new exhaust manifold/cat) at the house and it's not a hard car to work on. It doesn't use oil and the transmission is good, so I'm wearing it proudly.

 

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing. I was thinking along the same lines. Small 4banger.

 

2009 civic
2013 civic
2015 civic
2017 accord

 

1998 Wrangler. Live in the mountains so this is the grocery, downtown errand-running spare rig. Straight six, 5-speed, basic. Save the pickup for hauling and camping

 

Nice, I live in fair weather CA. and folks here are asking crazy $$$$ for those jeeps. (15-17k)

 

I bought a 2009 honda fit before the covid used car spike. It's now worth 2-3k more than what I bought it for and i've put 50k on it.
Sometimes when I buy things I just take the fit as it get 30mpg, and I can fit 5 33" tires inside it easily with the seats down. Even bought a small couch and strapped it to my roof rack.

It made sense at the time, as I calculated how long I'd have to keep the car, and how far I'd have to drive my normal route to start actually saving $ after the purchase price/gas/insurance/some maintenance.

 

2003 Hyundai Santa FE, paid $450. "trans is going out, I think." turns out when I first saw the baby SUV the CV axle wasn't cranked down on the passenger side. took it home and wouldn't you know the Transmission was just fine. but yeah my Gambler 500 car has been an awesome 2nd beater.

 

I get offers in parking lots, but what would I replace it with?

 

Inherited a 2004 Nissan Sentra. Works great. A little beat up but runs well. Wife uses it to get around with the kids and her part time job. Driving the farthest, I still DD the Tacoma tho and we use it for family road trips.

 

True true. I guess I have to get lucky.

 

Its a love/hate relationship

 

1992 Toyota pickup. It gets bad mileage, requires more maintenance, and rattles but I really like it. Plus, my HF radio can be use while driving. My 3rd gen makes too much radio interference to mount an HF antenna on it.

 

Had a ‘59 bus and a ‘91 Westy. I understand

 

My daily is a little 3-cylinder...

 

That is an option as well. I used to ride Honda 600f3/ Suzuki 600r. Used cars in my area are still high. I'd be ok with a mini moto. I only live 13 miles away and can take secondary roads. Those Groms/Monkeys get great gas mileage and are easy to work on. These are all great ideas. Keep em coming...

 

It's a beautiful bike btw. Only if I was younger.

 

Honda Fits are supposed to be fantastic little cars, practical and fun to drive. There is even a subreddit for "what fits in a fit" and it's amazing.

The Prius is stupid reliable so you can pick up a high mileage one for cheap. Better yet find a high mileage one with a bad battery, you can pick up the repair parts on eBay and possibly fix it for as little as $60. A whole rebuild is like $800, or $1000 if you just buy a rebuilt one. Crappy cars to drive but usable. We have a prius-c for my daughter and at 245,000 miles it feels solid as new, it's astounding

 

Oh, I forgot to add what I like about it.

Ummm... She's a gorgeous machine! Do I need another reason?! lol

 

I'm in my late 40's and the D675 has been my DD for almost 7 years, now.