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My question to you... The MX3 community is... Help me find a daily commuter that wont let me down... I recently got a nice pay raise, and My company is expanding and moving to near markham. My question is, if you had to choose a very gas efficient car, but something that has some power, still fun to drive, and to mod up... I already have a tricked out mx3... that has the j-spec swap and she guzzles gas, so daily driving her is out of the question... I need a good reliable car, that isn't going to cost me much... My budget is Max of 10-15 grand ideally... If it's something I can finance, even better....

I test drove a mazda 3... Fantastic ride... Good price @ 17 grand brand new... But with my parents consult and me only being 20... The insurance on two cars that are both expensive would just kil me in the end.. not really worth it...


SO!!!! My question, What do I do? Buy a EK civic and b18c5 it?? Or buy a new car?? Or what? I need suggestions, I need to get at least 600k+ to the tank, if this is possible, of course on daily commutes I wont be raping the car


YOUR OPINION IS VALUED, AND I THANK YOU ALL

Get a bike dude, if you have 10 grand?? You could go out right now, take the test, and walk to the store and buy a nice ninja 250 for 3000 dollars. Those are super fuel efficient and REALLY fun to drive.

Otherwise, get a civic for fuel economy, maybe an old CRX in good condition?
I dunno, I am poor so I am always thinking of the cheap way to get things.

a bike dosent make sense to me.... what if its pouring rain, or what does he do in the winter

i say get an apartment in markham

You COULD just move out with a buddy and actually be IN Markham rather than commuting it, dude. It's not worth it to spend that much $$$ on gas and the mileage you rack up on your car to commute 480kms on a daily basis isn't healthy for the ride either.

I have a buddy who lives 20 mins out of town, so it's not that big a deal. But the company he works for just gave him a new appointment at the office that's about an hour out of the city. Solution: he's moving into that town this weekend rather than driving 2 hours a day to go back and forth. Can't say as I blame him.

IMHO, if it takes more than half an hour (one way) to get to where you're going, and this is a place that you have to go to very frequently, then it's just not worth it to make that drive so often. I would either choose to move closer to that neighbourhood or find a job that's closer to where you already live. For those of you living in the larger metros, like the GTA, or Van, I can't understand how you guys can stand taking a whole hour or more just to get to work!!! It's not that I'm an impatient person who races around all the time everywhere I go, but I look at that and think of all the sleep I COULD have been getting if it wasn't so far away, the time I lose at night that I could use to spend with the Mrs. or play a few games on my own personal time had it not been for the fact that I'm losing an hour to get home and another hour of wake time I could just use for fun but would have to sacrifice for sleep, etc.

Buy a Subaru. Stay away from the turbocharged models, and the all wheel drive will really help out on the insurance. Preferably on of the models that's sportin the 2.5L RS motor. If you get a boost bug and decide to turbo this "big block" (Compared to the 2.0 STI motor) you will have something that makes Imprezza's look silly. But the boxer motor is pretty reliable for that application: they were origionally designed for airplane motors so they're kinda built to withstand long periods of midrange rpms.

Brand new starting under 18,500 USD. Used for a lot less.

2nd hand toyota echo dude.

cheap as hell good on gas, reliable.

JWMX3 wrote:a bike dosent make sense to me.... what if its pouring rain, or what does he do in the winter

i say get an apartment in markham

I personally wouldn't mind driving a bike in both of those conditions, but I understand others don't have the same opinions as me, so I mentioned the CRX as well

Chasing_Size wrote:SO!!!! My question, What do I do? Buy a EK civic and b18c5 it?? Or buy a new car?? Or what? I need suggestions, I need to get at least 600k+ to the tank, if this is possible...

My .02. I don't envy you having to drive 600 hours/yr roundtrippin for the job. I used to be in a similar, though not quite as long commute. Dude you are talking about putting 63,000 km/39,000 commuting miles on the car every 12 months. IMO, forget about getting a new car for the job. You'll depreciate the hell out of it in just 3 years. You need a decent, comfortable, reliable, economical "go-ta-hell-car," meaning one that you can literally dispose of down the road without breaking the bank now or then.

The Yota echo was a good suggestion as would be a Civic, or Corolla. Make it a 5 spd for the reliability and best gas mileage. Buy one that's in decent shape with maybe 50-90K miles on the clock. You'll save on insurance too by getting only liability coverage whereas w/a new car, you'd want to carry more expensive collision/property coverage. Here's a link to some mileage comparisons & good luck. http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/gasmileage/

p.s. Maybe you could drive the MX-3 once-a-week or so just to have fun mixing it up and giv er a chance to air it out and breath...

This is a tough one.. I guess it depends on a couple of things.. how long do you think you will have to be doing this commute? If you Know its going to be temporary.. then I agree with the Echo or Corolla suggestions (Sorry Nuetral.. I hate hondas LOL) But if you are being left in timeframe limbo by the company you are working for (meaning they somehow dont know how long they will need you at that location) then I think I would be looking for an apartment or maybe a studio with cheap rent. IMO there are other variables here besides the wear & tear mileage on your car. You will be literally giving up a portion of your life with that commute time. Yeah I know that sounds melodramatic. And I guess it would depend on how valuable you consider your time to be. For me... even though I love to drive.. I couldnt spend that much time behind the wheel, even in a car I love, on a daily basis for a indeterminate amount of time. If I knew it would be garanteed temporary.. well thats different. Ultimately.. its your call man. Best of luck.

Tunes67

Get a diesel and "smoke" the competition! The Volkswagon TDI family is pretty fuel efficient...

ford focus! 40+mpg and they handle really good!

hmm it all depends on how you drive..first of all hi\wy miles are not as bad as stop and go taffic. I had an 87 maxima that drove me 60 miles round trip for one year back and forth..no problems at all. My mx3 has 210 thousand miles and I still use it..Im sure the engine was rebuilt but screwe it..something goes bad..replace it...it be nice to see 500 thousand miles on an mx3

Get a SMART car. I drove one of them yesterday and was very impressed. They're pretty quick and handle go-karty. Plus you can't beat the milage.

The big question is...how much gas will you have to spend on your Mx-3 to make a new car + insurance cheaper + gas cheaper than driving the Mx-3.

Honnestly. I went through the exact same thing 2 months ago. I was doing about 300km's a day when i first got my job in Mississauga (remember, I'm from Port Colborne) for almost 3 weeks. The Mx-3 cost me $35 to fill up (Ultra 94) and would last me a day and a half. The 626 (with a 2.0 i4 and auto), $40 to fill up (Regular) and would last 2 and a half days. Also, i would take the 407 on the way up to make sure I wouldn't be late for work cause of traffic. I can see the 407 from work, so no city driving is required. I would take the 403 on the way back, but taking the 403, up o back added an extra 30min-1hr to the already long drive time of an hour and a half thanks to the rush hour traffic.

So here's the math, even using the 626, which is better on gas, it would cost me about (calculated on a 30 day month, minue 8 days for the weekend) would cost me $352/month in gas, conservatively, the Mx-3 would be $513/month....plus add about $50 extra for the 407, plus the extra wear on an already 280'000km vehicle, plus the danger come winter, plus the wasting 3 hours of my day on teh road, I did think about getting like a cheap 3-banger for the drive, but i'd have to insure her and put plates and safete and s---. So intead i would a place in South Mississauga for $500/month (all included except for the Internet and phone, but i paid for the Internet while i was living at home too, and I use my cell hone instead of getting a land line). It's just a basement appartement, but it's 15min from work and safer than driving, and cost wise it comes close, but i'm not tired from driving all the time. If i want to go home and do something with friends, i'm only 1hr-1.5hrs away, and I dont mind doing that, even once a week, hell, i used to come up here weekely for the Mx-3 meets, now i'm about 15-20min away.

So i still get to drive the Mx-3 without having to put insane mines on my swapped engine. A tank of gas in the Mx get me upto Mississauga, back and forth to work for 5 days, and the trip back to Pt Colborne. Yes, I go home every "weekend" (my weekends are Thursday/Friday) Plus, with the new job, even with the apartement, i still come out ahead than living at home and working my old job (slightly), so hell ya it was worth the move. But you gotta think of your future too. Sometimes it's not the job itself, but the oppertunitues later because of it, it can be worth the risk in the long run, even if you loose money by taking it.

Sure, sometimes I'm board, and lonely, but I bought a PS2, plus the weather is getting nice, stuff is starting to happen, plus I'm starting to work on my car again, so it won't be so bad