This Is The Least You Can Spend On A Cheap Reliable Car

I’ll preface this with I have way to many cars and most of them are a pain and expensive. However, I bought my daily driver a 2010 Odyssey for 5k back in 2018 @125k miles. I would say this has been my best investment in cars in my entire life. Repairs are easy on the 3.5L v6 and there are an arsenal of videos to help with repairs on literally anything. I would say I have probably sank another 2000 into it over the last 6 years just in random repairs and fluid changes, but I still drive it to work every day and that is key when buying a cheap car. Reliable. So to answer the question I would say around 5-7k is a good number for a cheap reliable car.

Suggested by Who.the.hell.is.Mac

“Cheap” has gone up exponentially in the past 20 years. Early 2000s? Cheap to me was $500-1200. Now cheap seems to be $5k if you are lucky.

Suggested by Nemo

The biggest thing with finding a reliable used car is honesty — with yourself. You have to realize that you’re looking for something that’s dependable, NOT something that’s cool, fun, rare, or a platform for your inner Fast-n-Furious child. For $5-8000 there’s a world full of Corollas, Accords, Ford Fusions, later model GM models, Kias, Hyundais, etc. You just have to buy smart and don’t abuse the car.

Suggested by ReluctantFloridaMan

I have a couple baconator-level purchases, but that was decades ago when you could easily get a driver for a couple hundred, so I’ll pick my current daily - a 2007 Mazda 5 with a manual trans. I paid $1500 for it 2 years ago with a busted engine and spent another grand putting a super low mileage 2.5 out of a Ford Fusion in it. It’s a great swap - popular in the Miata and Mazda3 communities and is practically a bolt-in for these cars.

It’s such a good swap I decided to get one for myself after doing one for my kids

Suggested by dustynnguyendood

My first Corvette was a ‘94 automatic I got for $4k and that car was amazing. Daily drove it until I flipped it one winter. Bought an ‘01 6 speed for $14k and put 200k miles on it with 24mpg average. Currently looking for a manual C6 for less than $20k with under 100k miles. Got a couple months before winter, so prices will come down more.

I bought an ‘86 BMW 325I from a tow company with no 3rd gear for $200. That was my ultimate shit box score.

Suggested by Dave

Not a cheap car, but a car that was cheap to run. 2002 Accord four-cylinder 5-spd manual. Paid $19k for it new, then drove it for 19 years. 34-35mpg, worst mpg was 29mpg in subzero commute, best was 39mpg driving 80mph down OK turnpike and I-35, loaded with luggage and A/C cranked up.

In the 19 years i owned it, three things went wrong. 1) Takata airbag (repaired for free under recall), 2) SRS seatbelt sensor, replaced for free at 15 years old under Honda’s old “Belts and Buckles” lifetime warranty, and 3) light bulb on dash clock would burn out every five years, but easily replaced in 5 minutes with a $5 replacement bulb.

The car was underpowered (149hp), but great fun to drive, very comfortable. Replaced tires every 50k or so, oe brakes still had 5/16" pad left at 175k miles when i traded it. Changed timing belt at 120k, 2 or 3 batteries, that was about it.

i did get an extra set of wheels and General Altimax Arctic winter tires for it. Thing would go through snow and ice like it wasn’t there, up to 9" snow (even though ground clearance was only 5"). Fantastic car and highly-recommended. Avoid the V6 with 5-spd auto from that era, though!!

Suggested by Grasscatcher2

Cheap, with a glove box full of oil change receipts.

GOLD.

We had an $2k 88 Bronco II go 450k, an $1800 94 Probe go 300k. And that was with teenage girls driving them. Well maintained is the key, not the logo on the grill or the price tag.

Suggested by PWilly

Over the years, I’ve bought 9 used cars between $17k and $20k. All of them had their minor issues, but most of them ran just fine when we sold them. We easily put 100k on each one and two have gone well over 250k. (Both VW’s ironically.) Maintenance was completed when something broke, and other than oil and tires, little was preventative maintenance was done to a schedule.

Suggested by Go Padge (GoPadge)

I wouldn’t go less than six thousand. Not unless it was a unicorn purchase.

Suggested by skeffles

I don’t think there’s any minimum price as long as the vehicle is mechanically and structurally sound. But it’s 2024 so I’d put in the caveats that the vehicle also has to have ABS and front and side airbags.

Suggested by NotLewisHamilton

I think around $1500 for something with a reputation for being unkillable. The family beater is a 2003 Buick LeSabre my son bought for $1700 in 2017. It literally outlived the first two owners, survived college and his sister learning to drive and the only major repair was replacing the front cylinder head with a used part. Stuff is wearing out after 214,000 miles and 22 years but it’s still going.

Suggested by Slow Joe Crow

My current daily: 2012 Ford Fiesta with 202,000+ miles on it.

Bought it for $3k over 5 years ago. It has never broken down or let me stranded even once.

Suggested by Knyte

I mean, I think $1700 for a 2001 Saturn SC2 with 122K on it in 2021 was a pretty good deal I’ve been driving it for 3 and a half years and have put $700 into it so far. And that $700 was for 4 new tires, a combo wiper/lighting stalk (the car was missing the wiper stalk when I purchased it in 2021), a pair of new power mirrors and a Pioneer Double DIN head unit with Bluetooth and USB to replace the factory single disc CD player it came with. The only non-stock items this car came with from the proverbial ‘little old lady’ I bought it from were aftermarket aluminum and yellow plastic clutch and brake pedals straight from the back of an ad in Super Street magazine! Weirdly, the gas pedal was still stock!

Suggested by boost_r

Don’t laugh, okay? You have to promise you won’t laugh.

When I started grad school way back in 2008, someone backed into my 1991 Accord (what’s up, mouse-belts!) and bent the hood. The speedo was already busted, and it had ~200,000 on the clock. So I looked around and found a 2001 Cavalier at CarMax with only ~5,000 miles. And it was a manual. And it was only $6,000, with the famous five-year, bumper-to-bumper warranty. It had exactly one problem in the next nine years, which was a starter motor. In year ten, it had a second problem, namely that some idiot hit a stopped Explorer behind me so hard that the Explorer hit *me* so hard it demolished my car entirely.

But for the poorest decade of my life, that car was rock solid reliable. It wasn’t *nice* but it worked, and that’s what I needed.

Suggested by Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death

08 Honda fit sport 5spd $900. Rusted, dirty but damn it’s fun to drive even with worn out 175/65/14 snow tires on steelies. 226k on it and it doesn’t skip a beat with near 40 mpg consistently.

Suggested by Mike