I Need A Cheap Winter Beater That Won't Leave Me Stranded! What Car Should I Buy?
Quick Facts:
Budget: up to $10,000
Daily Driver: During the winter months
Location: Portland, Oregon
Wants: AWD, safe, reliable, affordable
Doesn’t want: A beater that is about to fall apart
Expert 1: Tom McParland - Get A Value By Being Different
You need a Suzuki SX4. Suzuki wasn’t super successful as an automaker in the U.S. toward the end of its run, but that doesn’t mean they made bad cars. The SX4 was a spunky hatchback/crossover available with all-wheel-drive and a pretty durable little package. They are reliable, fuel efficient, and pretty darn fun to drive.
Due to Suzuki’s limited sales numbers, these are not easy to find, but I did locate what looks like a super clean example with 132,000 for only $5400. Don’t get too caught up in the mileage number, maintenance and condition are far more important than what is on the odometer.
Go find yourself a Suzuki winter hoonmobile.
Expert 2: Michael Ballaban – The Old Staple
You said you can’t find a Subaru for under $10,000 with less than 100,000 miles? Feh! Pish posh! And many other profanities besides! The first and second generation Subaru Foresters were great, with a surprising amount of feedback from the controls. They were just honest workhorses that happened to have huge side-view mirrors. Okay, so they weren’t quite an SUV, and were more station-wagon-like, but that’s mostly because Subaru was just ahead of this whole crossover curve thing.
Expert 3: Patrick George – iX Marks The Spot
If you wanna get something different and fun, might I suggest the E30 BMW 325iX? These days AWD variants of luxury sedans are as common as pee smells in New York City, but back in the ‘80s, the iX was a pretty interesting offering in its field. It had legit AWD too, with a locking center and rear differential that could send up to 90 percent of torque to the front or rear axle as needed.
(Jalopnik.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment