I currently have a 1994 Toyota Corolla with 307,000 miles (and I change the oil every 50,000 miles whether it needs it or not!). It has power that seems as good as the day I bought the thing slightly used from Budget Rent A car back in 1996. The only repairs I’ve ever made on the car are a clutch, two alternators, brakes and a timing belt ( it does need a quart of oil about every 1,200 miles, but I’m not complaining). Some people have told me that the Honda Accords and Civic’s from the same time period are even more reliable. I’m looking to purchase a second “back up car” next year and would like to get one that is as reliable or even more so. I’ve noticed that of the ten or so Honda’s from the early 1990’s that I’ve called about in The Trader at least three have engine damage from broken timing chains they suffered (I have not encountered this issue with any of the Toyota’s I’ve called about). In addition, it seems like the Honda’s sell for about a $1,000 premium over the old Toyota’s (that is comparing Corollas to Civic’s and Accord’s to Camry’s ). Are they worth the extra money? Am I on the right track by only considering stick shifts (my thinking is that a clutch is much cheaper to repair than an automatic transmission)? Is there another model of car out there (maybe Nissan’s or Mazda’s) that are equally or even more reliable? Is there “A” year which represents the best of the best in terms of cars from this era (anything I look at will be at least seven years old so we are talking about 1998 as the most recent I would consider).
I’d back the Toyota Corolla.
I bought my '96 one in '02. It’s a 1.6 litre manual, bog standard. Admittedly the previous owner was an elderly gent who had had it since new and it was only ever used on runs to the shop I think - only 44 000 km on it, but since then my wife and I have taken it up to about 120 000 km, and all we ever do is the regular service. I have NEVER added any fluid to it myself. Oh I check the levels sure enough, but they are always brimming up until the next service. And right up until the day of the service the old oil looks pretty clean considering.
We’ve never replaced anything in it other than a battery (which is a consumable). Touch wood.
The thing can move too when you ask it to. I love that car.
If you’re going back 30 years, nothing can touch the classic Beetle. There’s one out there somewhere with over a million miles on it.
In the 80’s, I think the Honda Accords reigned supreme. My uncle had a hatchback one (probably about an '84 or '85) that he just beat the living crap out of. Ruthlessly and constantly. That thing was like a tank.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
Corollas, especially those in the mid to late 1980s, were phenomenally reliable. Not much looks wise, though.
I don’t think Hondas are worth a price premium over Toyotas if you’re just looking at reliability. Mazdas and Nissans are pretty good, but probably a notch or two below Honda and Toyota in the reliability department. If you’re looking to save money, you could look into domestic cars made with Japanese drivetrains - for example, I believe for part of the 90’s the Ford Escort was largely Mazda 3-series beneath the skin. A car like that you might get the Japanese reliability without the price premium that Hondas and Toyotas carry on the used market.
I drive an 84 Accord. I got it from my FIL when they pried his license from his cold, cranky, irritated, stubborn, bitchy, cantankerous, contumacious hands.
It’s my favorite little car ever. I replaced the timing chain so as to forswear the aforementioned engine damage, and she just passed smog!
essvee and 84 Honda Accord, 2gether 4ever.
I had an 85 Accord untill about 3 months ago. It had 270,000 miles and had only had timing belt, cluth, and stuff like that. Right about the time it 19 yrs old the original radio went out…that was crushing…
Are we old enough to remember the Woody Allen movie “Sleeper?” The part where they find an entombed VW Beetle in a cave, dust it off and it runs! It had top gas milage for its day, too, although many of today’s cars do better.
What kind of reliability are you referring to since there are several ways a car can fall apart (age, miles, types of driving, etc)? Some cars may be able to handle alot of miles but do not hold up over the long run. ie, there might be a car that will handle 40000 miles a year with no problem but once it gets to be 7 or 8 years old no matter how many miles are on it it starts to fall apart. Some cars may not hold up under city driving while others hold up well. Some theoretically can last 15 years but fall apart once you hit 100,000 miles.
Having said that, i’d stick with the tried and true honda and toyota family. Accord, Civic, Camry & Corolla. They may not be the ‘most’ reliable but they are easily in the top 10 of all the cars you can purchase and i’m sure the difference between them and the most reliable (assuming cars are more reliable than them) is negligible.
Expensive where? If you want them used, there are VW graveyards all over America where you can get parts for next to nothing. If you want them new, JC Whitney is pretty reasonable. I believe you can completely rebuild a motor out of that catalogue for about $600. What are you comparing that to that makes it seem expensive? A lawnmower?
If those dipshits had replaced the timing chain at 90k miles like they were supposed to, they wouldn’t have engine damage. I’ve been very happy with my Honda Accord and my wife has one too but I’m not qualified to say that it’s the most reliable.
Haj
mid-80’s Honda’s were great motors. The oil rings would unseat but that only caused a small puff of smoke on startup. The carburetors were also great but I suspect they are expensive to overhaul. Not sure why carbs got so expensive to repair. You use to be able to buy a rebuild kit for $7 and you were back in business. Can’t say I appreciated the plastic tank radiator or the brake master cylinder. Both of which took a crap early in the life of the car. Everything else held up.
If you want to go back a bit further, the straight 6 that they put in the 70s era Dodge Darts runs forever, although the body might not hold up. In my personal experience, the 4 cylinder engine in most 80s VWs is a real winner, 3-400k miles easily with proper maintenence, but some models had electrical problems (more common on models from early in the decade). As mentioned, parts are plentiful in junkyards, and VeeDubs are generally easy to work on. Oil changes are a snap, literally they take less than 5 minutes in a driveway.
Early 90s Accord would be my choice. (Looked better than the 80s Hondas, too!)
My mother’s 1990 (91 maybe? whichever was the last year they made them) Cadillac Brougham has given her about 14 worry-free years so far. The brakes started to wear down a little at the 12- or 13-year mark, I think, and every once in a while now the car will start making some odd but not that noticeable noise. Other than that it’s run great with basically standard maintenance.
I had a few friends with early to mid 90s Corollas or Accords (Accords and Civics seemed to be everywhere in San Diego–I once counted 9 in one trip) and they’re both fine and very reliable machines.
94 Accord here, with over 170,000 miles on it. I’ve taken it on many long road trips. It’ll take me to California for Christmas and New Years this year. The only problems are:
It doesn’t like to start when it’s frosty.
It growls a bit between 1500-2000 RPM.
The smegging fan control knob broke; so when I want it to blow more or less air, I have to take it off, take off the temperature control knob, put it where the fan knob was, and turn. And sometimes at night I’ll drop the knob, so the illuminated area behind the knob shines at me like the Eye of Sauron.
There are stains in the back seat that indicate that a small child exploded in it some time ago. I keep it covered up with trash, though.
I need to strip off some tinting from the back glass that’s gone weird and hard to see through.
Too many paint flaws and dings to count.
Other than that, it’s a great car.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange you’re getting a back up car for a ten year old car? I’d be getting a newer car and keeping the old car for backup. Really, maintenance of the car you’re buying is what you need to look for. If you can, check the ownership history of the car. If it has changed hands many times, it may have a problem that is too expensive to fix, and they sell it off rather than fix it. I put 250k miles on a 92 ranger, and would still be driving it if some idiot(without insurance) had not run into me at a traffic light. I have however seen cars that people never do any maintenance on that are junk at 30k miles.
I learned how to drive on a 1977 Toyota Corolla hatchback that my mother bought new in '77, a year before I was born. It was still going strong (for the most part) by 1996, when I was driving it to high school during my senior year, although it had major rust problems all over the body (I used duct tape and band stickers to hold it together) and leaked badly whenever it rained (which in Miami was a lot). We finally gave it to a friend who was going to put the engine into an airboat he was building, but it was a great little car–despite my friends having dubbed it “The Blue Hemrrhoid.”
I’m going to put in a vote for the Ranger also. I have two, a 91 with 300,000 miles that I bought new and a 88 with 198,000 miles on it (and the original clutch) which I’ve had for a year (both with the 2.9l engine and manual transmissions). The nice thing about them is the body on frame construction and rear wheel drive layout. Maintaining one is easy and relatively inexpensive. No expensive items to replace like CV joints, struts, or timing belts.
I getting a back up car percisely because my old car has so many miles on it. I’ve told my wife that I intend never to buy another vehicle and pay more than about $3,000 for it. Also, my 1994 Corolla has gone over 300K with the worst imaginable maintenance ( I’m a real cheap, lazy slob). I’ve have only changed the oil AT BEST every 50,000 miles (although as indicated above I do have to add a quart about every 1200 miles or so). In fact, I didn’t change the oil at all between 200 and 300K miles. Also, I’ve NEVER changed the timing belt, not even once.
Even if the engine goes to crap now (and there are no signs that it is) because I haven’t changed the oil, think of all the money that I’ve already saved. If I had gotten an oil change every 5K miles at $25.00 per oil change I would have spent over $1,500 on oil changes by now.