I want a new daily driver.

[Beck]

My daily driver is a 2 door '02 Blazer. I am about tired of working on it. I hear the rear starting to growl when I turn corners. I repaired rust on the passenger quarter last year. Now the drivers quarter is showing signs of rust through.

I was driving to work this morning in the dark. A vehicle ahead caught my attention. It looked good. I caught up and checked it out.... another 2 door Blazer the same color as mine, and lowered like mine. His was nicer, but???

I hate to buy something new to beat on daily. I park in a tight lot at a chemical plant. Not the best conditions. I don't want to drag tools and dirty parts into a new one either.

I need something dependable, that I don't have to wrench on, with the right look. The Blazer gets 18 mpg. I would hate to drop below that. Anyone have a great idea?

[58 Yeoman]

In 2010, I bought an '05 Ranger 4x4 with about 31xxx miles.  Other than the problem I had with the relays going bad under the hood, twice, and the rollover switch shorting out, I haven't had any problems with it.  I've put brake pads on it once, and it's due for another set of tires sometime this year, and it consistently gets 18mpg.  It's got around 97xxx miles on it now.  Too bad they quit making them. I've got a fiberglass topper on it now for the garage/estate sale stuff.

I've checked prices on used ones once in a while, and '10 or '11's are around $20,000 with 60xxx miles plus.  Geez...

[enjenjo]

My daily is a 2001 Ford Escape with a 3.0V6. It gets about 22 mpg around town, and about 26 on trips. right now it is setting with a 12 ft ladder on the roof rack. It has a trailer hitch on it, and I have towed up to a ton numerous times for long distances, and twice that for short distances. Outside of scheduled maintenance, it's had one coil pack, a brake booster, and a door lock solenoid replaced in 146,000 miles.

If you can, buy a used car out of the Las Vegas or Phoenix area, no rust problems.

[416Ford]

I just picked up an 02 Escape back in February with 52,000 miles on it. It's a nice daily driver and great for a daily driver without all the bling. If you need the extras like heated seats and lots of comfort, these are not for you.

[Carnut]

Heh, heh, again I am odd man out. But I thought I would just plug my daily driver, an 02 model I bought new. I run it in sedan delivery mode with the rear seats removed. It works for me.

[idrivejunk]

Anything with a GM 3800. If you don't require a bed, make it a W-body they are simple cheap and tough. Check around for cherry minivans at a steal too. Seems like all the desireable small trucks and SUVs are too high and worn out. I vote fix the Blazer because you know some history on it!

[Beck]

I vote fix the Blazer because you know some history on it!

The history on it... I bought it totaled in Chicago. Repairing the damage from the accident was the easy part. Repairing everything that was neglected is the issue. I keep thinking I have to be near the end of the repairs, but they keep coming. I put both front fenders, a quarter patch, and a tailgate on due to rust. I just had to have a cowl hood, and my wife bumped it with the Jeep so it got a new front bumper too. It appeared the quarter had 4 or 5 paint jobs on it when the repairs were done. I suspect it has had a rough life. The mileage isn't too bad at 126k. I have noticed the transmission takes just a little longer than it should to engage when shifting into reverse or drive.

I suspect the rear end noise I am hearing is spider gears or the posi since the only time I hear it is when turning at slow speed. Every morning pulling into the parking lot at work it grinds a bit. The fluid has been changed twice. Once preventative when I got it and again when the axle bearings were changed. The fluid looked good the first time. I didn't do the bearings. They were sprung on me (along with e-brake shoes) when having wheels road force balanced. If you recall I had problems with GM rally wheels shaking. 3 sets later they are tolerable, but not good. I had the driveshaft balanced twice. The 2nd time included shortening it a bit because of lowering it. The pinion angle has been adjusted.

I cleaned it up tonight. I do like the way it looks. Taking 450 mile trip with it this weekend. No fear, I have AAA.

[Beck]

Thanks for the reply's.
The PT Cruiser idea is out. It just is not for me.
The Escape would be workable. A buddy at work had one that failed at about 130k miles?? He donated it to get rid of it.
I put 160k miles on a Ranger that I bought new. I sold it to another guy at work. He drove it for years.
Enjenjo, I do like the idea of a road trip to Vegas or Phoenix. I told my wife about your thoughts. She said just spend what the trip would cost and buy a newer car here..  I told her to just go ahead and pick one out for me. Darn, I used to wear the pants here.

Anyone have any experience with a Ford Transit Connect???
There so ugly I kind of like them. (not a 2015)

I cannot get in or out of anything with a low roof. My neck just doesn't bend any more. Getting in and out of my daughters Cruise hurts me for hours.

[enjenjo]

Last year I bought a super clean 96 S10 SS in Phoenix for about the same price a rusty one would cost here.  It was high miles, and unfortunately the engine went bad on the way home with no warning. I sold it to my Grandson, and he replaced the engine with one out of a 2004 model with low mileage. Not even the exhaust pipes were rusty on this truck. My Escape came from Vegas.

[papastoyss]

My daly is a 2001 Nissan Frontier ex cab pickup. 119k miles. 2.4 4 banger/5spd manual trans. It's a rebuilt total from the days when I still had my repair shop.Still has original brake pads. Oil change every 5k miles. It pulls my swap meet trailer & load of junk ok ,but you sure know its back there.Gas mileage is disappointing, best has been 25 highway, unloaded. It replaced a 1992 Nissan, same equipment , that got 32 mpg highway. It's still cheap transportation though.

[Carps]

I just treated myself to a new daily driver.  It's no good for hauling' lumber but does haul * and makes driving to the salt mines worth the effort as it'll out accelerate most although the bummer is that it's electronically speed limited to 200mph.  Oh, and it's gunna cost a couple of buckets of cash to fix if it ever gets scratched, the paint is a six step pearl clearcoat over translucent orange mica-metallic over a metallic gold base coat, looks great in the sunshine.

[jaybee]

I'm not a truck guy, but hauling ability is nice to have. For a long time I've thought that if I wanted a truck I'd look for a used Explorer Sport Trac. They aren't too big to fit in most any parking space, they have 4 doors, and they still have a bed...plus they sold a BUNCH of them.

Carps, that's one SWEET Lexus.

I remain very happy with the 2014 Fiesta, a year and 11,000 miles in. It gets 34mpg in mixed use and beats just about anything reasonable to "that spot" in traffic, particularly if I get the hole shot.

The thing is a kick to drive. It rotates really nicely into corners if you trail brake a bit and inspires a lot of confidence behind the wheel. I wonder if that ability to induce a bit of controlled oversteer is due to stability control. My thought is that with electronic help to help keep stupid people from killing themselves it's no longer so important to set cars up to plow like dump trucks.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I use this as weather permits. Which is most of the time.

Ful time automatic temp control ;-) , heated seats, heated grips, air bag, surround sound, radar detector, GPS , cruise control, ABS brakes, fuel mileage is OK, fun factor is great.

1.8 liter 6 cylinder with EFI , 5 speed

[Beck]

Just got back from my little road trip in it. I didn't have to use the AAA card.

Papastoys - I only got 20 mpg on the highway this weekend

Carps - SWEET ride, but not to take to the recycle yard and haul parts.

Jaybee - A buddy has a Fiesta. He has a longer commute. He loves it. I can't get into it.

Crosley - I swore off of the bikes. Too cold here. That axle I need won't fit in the saddle bags.

I ask about a Ford Transit Connect above. Research says they have a weak tranny.

I could throw out fuel economy and get an old police Tahoe.

[Carps]

My Orange car can match a 4 cylinder Camry for fuel economy.

It has a dial and some switches on the console, dash and steering wheel that change it's personality depending on my mood, or just to make my grin bigger, as the case may be.

In the Sports + Expert mode it's an angry snarling 500hp monster that rockets to the 7,500rpm redline in a heartbeat and will light up the 11" wide rear rubber on the one two, two three and three four gear changes.  In fact, the top of the tah in second will get you arrested, whilst staying on the throttle and going about halway up the dial will see the car impounded.  At the other end of the console 'dial' it switches from the 'Otto' combustion cycle to the 'Atkinson' cycle, which makes it operate like the engine in a Prius.  However, it still sounds like a V8 should, just, a little subdued and the needle on the tach doesnt fly so far or fast up the dial.  In fact in this mode, the tach disappears from the dash panel because it's not required.  The upside is drives like a four cylinder Camry auto and returns about the same fuel economy.  I admit, I tend not to use this mode.

Strangely the best part isn't the power but the differential, it's a Torsen (Torque Sensing) LSD with an edge.  It uses the Torque vectoring system devised to control torque steer in high powered european Front wheel drive cars.  The beauty is from a standing start it just bites and accelerates with almost no wheelspin from launch (only spins the tyres on WOT manual gearchanges above 5.500rpm) The torque vectoring control allows dialing in as much or as little rear end 'push' as you want for the job at hand.  So if you're just enjoying that great bit of winding country road, it can be set to allow a gentle four wheel drift through the bends, but if you wanna get really serious you can dial in so much that there's no special modifications required to go drift racing with the ricerboys.  But if you dial up some of the car's other tricks at the same time, you had better be good with those lightnig fast reflexes because it is so quick to respond to any driver inputs, that just the slightest bit of steeringa angle and throttle will see the tailamps beat the headlamps around the corner or bend.   Only takes about 800rpm from stationary to turn it around.  The Sport plus mode increases throttle pedal travel (for better car control) at the same time as making it like a hair trigger with blindingly rapid response.  The steering ratio is increased to reduce how far the wheel is turned to change the angle of the front wheels for quicker conering response and 'expert' mode (which can only be activated in Sports +) all the electronic gee whizzery like VDIM, traction, stability, ABS and pre-collision sytems are turned OFF and the gearshift switches from to necksnappingly quick to downright brutal!  

To help it bite the pavement a bit harder at speed, the aero downforce can be adjusted from the driver's seat or set to increase automatically t specified speeds.

It has two fuel injection systems (port and direct), cold/ram-air induction and variable length intake runners which translates to an almost flat tourque curve and blindingly quick acceleration.  And in the sporty modes the main mufflers are bypassed, my friends all say it sounds as good outside as it does inside (you wont need to turn on the sound system, coz you wont be able to hear it anyhow once you get the ting rolling).  It's also got bloody big brakes with carbon ceramic pads.  Accelerates from zero to sixty (MPH) to zero in 6 seconds and four of those are used getting to sixty.

My old IS-F was a good thing, but this one is just insane and weird at the same time in that's it's perfectly docile and at home in stop start freeway traffic but equally at home playing with purpose built competition cars at the track.  And as my buddy Dillard has conformed, it has the correct number of doors.  

It still seems weird that we can build a production car that's got enough mumbo to whup a late seventies muscle car AND stick with or even overtake an exotic sporty car like a Ferrari on the track. I've had it since November now but only in recent weeks have I really started to enjoy it.  However, I reckon I could enjoy Crosley's big two wheeled limo just as much, in the right environment and weather conditions.

Of course I could also enjoy a SUV, pick-up truck or wagon.  Watching the way they are driven around here suggests they can be flogged hard in any conditions or environment.  I'm thinking most of the folks who own them figure the Sport Utility monika means they have handling, brakes and performance like any regular muscle/sports car.  Yup, I get more challenges from trucks, in all conditions and on any kind of road than from other sports or muscle cars  

hey Beck, I went to the local auto recyclers just last week, everything I picked up fitted in the trunk just fine.  All ya gotta do it remember not to dial up the nasty car and stay off the go pedal until after all the stuff is unloaded.