Recommend a car that is easy to work on

[jay50]

I was wondering how the 01+ rangers with the 2.3l duratec with a manual trans. were. I was actually going to ask the question on another forum.

easy to work on? reliable?

IIRC, the newer 01 Rangers with the 2.3 use a pressed on lower pulley that is held in place only with the bolt; there is no woodruffkey in the crank to set alignment . These require special tools to remove and set up. Not my idea of being owner friendly.

I'm sure the resident Ford Tech will chime in on this also.

 

[terabyte]

mazda miata had got to be my favorite car to work on

 

[fasteddie24]

I've always had good luck working on the 1.7/1.8 liter 4 cyl VW's. However, the VW VR6 has a complex cooling system that is quite a pain to work on.
A few years ago I picked up a '95 Caddy DeVille w/ a 4.9 liter V8(not the Northstar). It runs great, 22-23mpg, very little maintenance, and has that Cadillac ride.

 

[rickairmedic]

Easiest car I ever owned to work on was a 65 Mustang fastback hipo 289 . I could lift the hood climb in sit down on the inner fender and do judt about anything under the hood no plastic **** other than the dizzy cap under that hood . You can still find nice coupes under $10,000 and with a straight 6 and manual trany actually get half decent milage .


Rick

 

[peterbilr98]

i would go with 77-84 chevy truck with 350 cheap as they get for parts have bilt and restored many of them.

 

[speed bump]

i would go with 77-84 chevy truck with 350 cheap as they get for parts have bilt and restored many of them.

pretty much chevy trucks from 67-87 are very close to the same as far as ease of working on and parts availability.

Now this is getting into easy to work on for me. I like people saying such and such BMW or Honda is easy to work on. On my 71 Ford truck the only hard thing to work on is the body and that becuase there is maybe one flat surface on the entire truck. By easy to work on I mean I can change a cam and a timing chain in the time it takes you to get a timing belt off.

 

[joenero]

Another vote for HONDA!

I bought a 1997 Civic expressly looking for one that the owner kept records on and was well maintained, it had 107K miles on it when I bought it. It had the timing and water pump already done.

So far after 60K miles I've only replaced the radiator, LF CV axle, both side motor mounts, wiper switch, Oil pan (drainplug was misthreaded when I bought it) and haven't had to do brakes and I've thrown in a battery, wiper blades, and some bulbs on top of oil changes. So about $600 outside of maintaining it. That is some cheap running costs!

 

[autoace]

A Volvo 240,2.3 non-turbo

 

[autoace]

or a VW golf/jetta with 2.0 liter,5spd. from the more recent years

 

[Vicegrip]

If the only criteria is ease of repair then the early 70s VW beetle is the hands down winner. You can tear one down to the crank with the contents of a roll-up tool kit and all parts are still available and cheap.

The mid 90 US pickup trucks are hard to beat for bang for buck.

 

[ed_v]

IMHO, one of the best cars ever made was the 96-2000 Chevy Lumina with 3.1 V6. Unfortunately, 2000 was the last year made.

Easy to work on under the hood. The biggest issue with these was the lower intake manifold was prone to leak coolant into the engine due to crappy factory gaskets. This caused engine failure if not corrected. I've seen the 3.1s go to 200,000 miles. They do have a tendancy for piston slap at start up, but not a big problem.

Try to find one from a little old lady with less than 100,000 miles....

Good MPG, 26 on hwy, 22 around city.

My dad had bought a '95 Chevy Corsica with that motor. It's still driven daily with 256,000 miles on it. It has lost a ton of compression because it badly needs a valve job. It knocks so bad it sounds like a diesel. He said he's just going to drive it until it dies and then will leave it on the side of the road.

Ed

 

[ed_v]

honda- i hate them, but they are the easiest to work on
they are like lawnmowers
and the parts you can find anywhere
all you really need is a size 10 socket- if i remember correctly the size

You can take most mid 90's jap imports completely apart with a 10mm and 14mm socket

Ed

 

[goodfellow]

+1 on the pickups -- on many of the full size six cylinder models there's enough room to actually step into the engine compartment to do routine maintenance.

 

[FuriousGeorge]

The old Ford pre-Powerstroke diesel trucks are about as simple as it gets. All mechanical, no computer control. The 6.9 liters are probably the most rugged once you bypass the glow plug controller with a manual switch. The 7.3 gets you a better glow plug system and overdrive at the cost of weaker transmission choices. The only big thing to watch out for is cavitation. As long as you keep on the coolant changes that isn't a problem. Not the most powerful trucks in the world, but you can pick them up cheap.

 

[bchee]

I'm surprised there aren't more recs for the toyota corolla or camry. Reliable, abundant parts, and good MPG. Under hood space is tight, so I don't know how 'easy' it is to work on.

 

[The Critic]

91-02 Saturn S-Series is fairly easy to work on, with the exception of oil changes and the alternator.

Oil Consumption, motor mounts, cracked heads (SOHC), alternator failures and transmission valve body failures are some common problems with those vehicles.

The lifespan of its components are on the short side though, so be sure that you are capable of performing all of the repairs yourself or else it will become a very expensive vehicle to maintain.

Otherwise, as long as you stay up-to-date on scheduled maintenance and repairs, they can last well over 300k.

 

[eschoendorff]

My Wife has an 03 Buick Century that has had no issues at all except for a window regulator. All I've had to do is change it's oil, that's it.

Buy a Buick with the GM 3800 engine. Buicks have no re-sale value and the 3800 is a tried-and-true design.

25mpg, parts are readily available, and repair info is fairly easy to come by (for older models - c. 2000).

 

[grawil]

I'm partial to VW diesels (mk4, 1999.5 - 2004, manual)... all the advice you could ever need is at tdiclub.com.

 

[Homoudont]

I can attest that the vovlo 940 is a great vehicle to work on and cheap to maintain. I maintain my niece's 1994 Volvo 940 non turbo with 235,000 miles on it, and it runs better then most of my cars. The only thing to watch out for is a leaking rear main seal. which is mostly caused by improper maintenance of the Flame trap on these vehicles.

The other cheap vehicle I found east to maintain was a early 90's VW fox. These vehicles are cheap and very easy to work on.

 

[gibbon_guy]

Toyota and Honda will be more expensive initially on the purchase and parts can be expensive but they will take more abuse than a European car. Nissan is okay.

Domestic cars/trucks are okay. I would avoid any GM car with a Vortec engine and/or the v6 3.1 and v8 5.7 liter with leaky intake manifold gaskets. Also GM trucks seem to have fuel pumps that go south.

I like the KISS idea. I have unwittingly been following that advice and recommend it to all car owners.

 

[gibbon_guy]

I can attest that the vovlo 940 is a great vehicle to work on and cheap to maintain. I maintain my niece's 1994 Volvo 940 non turbo with 235,000 miles on it, and it runs better then most of my cars. The only thing to watch out for is a leaking rear main seal. which is mostly caused by improper maintenance of the Flame trap on these vehicles.

The other cheap vehicle I found east to maintain was a early 90's VW fox. These vehicles are cheap and very easy to work on.

A Fox is a VERY basic commuter car. Definitely an oddball car with a transversely mounted front wheel drive car. I had a 1990 Fox and so did my Dad. No real issues with those. A VW quantum and Audi 5000 (if I remember right) is the same body as the Fox but they are more complicated.

I'm partial to VW diesels (mk4, 1999.5 - 2004, manual)... all the advice you could ever need is at tdiclub.com.

No love for mk3s ? They may even be superior but a Mk4 is much more comfortable and common. Mk5s are even MORE comfortable by the way.

TDIclub has a lot of information but every now and then, I cannot find what I am looking for.

 

[zuspiel]

Very useful info! I never thought to ask here but that was a great idea, Tooljerk. Our son just turned 15 and so I have to start looking. Already told my wife a couple of weeks ago that it'll be an older 6cyl pickup with a manual trans. I hate that older Maxima we got our daughter a year ago. Stupid transverse mounted engines... And who had the glorious idea of putting the intake over the rear bank, making changing the rear coils (or spark plugs) a big project???? Grrrr...

 

[epmills]

As said, any Jeep with a 4.0 will give you excellent reliability and if it does break, something easy to work on. The body will rust out before the 4.0 will die, excellent engine in terms of longevity. And also as said before, the w123 chassis Mercedes were great cars, some will say it the best Mercedes ever built. I have one with over 300k on it in my garage and it runs like new. Even though its European, its horribly easy to work on, and there isn't much to go wrong. Parts are also availably cheap. Just watch out, you're not going to be winning any races at stoplights in them, im pretty sure a semi truck could outrun mt 240d-no joke. A w123 would be my vote, but then again I am a little partial, im a MB tech.

 

[paramudduck]

OK dumb question. Why the no love for the 4.3 Vortec's? I have one thats at 158k now. Is there a big boomer I'm going to have to look out for?

 

[JebNY]

Was surprised I didn't see the obvious one. Model A Ford, you can fix them along side the road with 2 or 3 sizes of wrenches and a screw driver. A little bailing wire is always helpful to. Well you did say easy to fix not fast.

Jeb

 

[TNToy]

I can attest that the vovlo 940 is a great vehicle to work on and cheap to maintain. I maintain my niece's 1994 Volvo 940 non turbo with 235,000 miles on it, and it runs better then most of my cars. The only thing to watch out for is a leaking rear main seal. which is mostly caused by improper maintenance of the Flame trap on these vehicles.

Because Volvos eat flame traps like candy. I must have replaced over a hundred of them in the year I worked for Volvo. Going a week without doing one was rare.

And the newer ones (2001-2007 S80, S60, etc) are worse than the old ones.

At least when Toyota figures out something they build is ****, they fix it when redesigning it. *shakes head*

A Volvo 240 is about the easiest modern-ish car to work on. But you'll be working on it more often than a 95-02ish Camry, Corolla, Civic, or Accord. One of those would be my recommendation.

 

[arthur1920]

mid 90's or newer honda cars are really easy to work on

Whaaat? Buying Hondas is why I quit working on my own cars. You can't reach anything and the sheet metal is shrink wrapped around the mechanical bits. Also, you seem to need a lot of special purpose tools. And you can't use any old parts...you need genuine Honda parts.

I expected you to say "67 chevy nova with a straight six".

 

[stioc]

Lots of good suggestions. I'll only comment on the cars I've owned:

- '95 Miata 1.8L: Bullet proof car, you probably wouldn't have to repair much but a few things are a pain to get to, e.g. CAS seal and even the oil filter. Overall not too bad

- '88 Volvo 240: Fairly easy to work on, pretty reliable except for the fuel pump relay, wiring harness issues on the older models as well as the blower motor and heater core being a total PITA to replace...step 1. remove the whole dash board.

- 92 Integra: again, not much goes bad and actually fairly easy to work on.

- '88 Corolla: Fairly accessible engine bay unless you've got issues with the crazy electo-magical carburetor...avoid it.

- '91 NSX: Very reliable, I didn't have to do a thing and despite being mid-engine it wasn't all that hard to do basic tune-up stuff.

- '87 MR2: Again, not that hard to do but probably better to avoid mid-engine cars since most of them require lifting the body to drop the engine out from under the car. Fun to drive and reliable car though. I enjoyed it more than the Miata.

- '88 Supra: Forget it...miles of vacuum hoses and head gasket failures.

- '86 Jetta: Pretty darned easy to work on actually, the 1.8L 8v engine is pretty simple and basic

- '65 Volvo: It was a 3rd car...my wife (in her mid 20s then) wanted it so we got it. At the time I only had a $20 tool set from Autozone and I was able to do anything that it needed. I didn't get a chance to take it all apart as I'd planned. We sold it after about 2 years.

- '92 Dodge Dakota V8 with 318: There's fair amount of room around the engine but some things on the engine are a PITA to get to e.g. thermostat, oil pressure sending unit even the distributor is way back right up against the firewall.

- '97 E36: Mechanically solid car overall, cramped engine bay but surprisingly DIYer friendly. I've replaced every suspension bushing, differentials, radiator, clutch, tune-up stuff on it myself without having done some of those things before. As long as you have lots of wobble adapters etc you're ok.

- 04 Accord 2.4L: Bought it brand new for wife with the intention of passing it on to our 6 mo old (at the time) when she's 16. The engine bay looks fairly easy to work on but we haven't had to do a thing except brakes pads, rotors, tires, battery and oil changes. Uses timing chain so service manual calls for major service at 100k for ATF changes etc. With almost 60k I'll be changing all the fluids soon.

 

[rocketman]

Any Toyota with the 22RE engine. Any Jeep with a 4.0ltr.

 

[nissan_crawler]

I also like the older Rangers. If you can get the V6 pushrod (not SOHC) I would highly recommend that also. The 4 is a little docile for my taste.

~Steve

Dear god no. We went through 3 engines, two axle beams, springs, maf sensor, manual ****** locked up repeatedly, two clutches, one hydraulic slave (requiring you to pull the ****** when it was a 15 minute job on the nissan), twisted frame, sagging suspension, steering pump, several injectors, and more things I'm missing on one of those things in 40k miles, vs 200k on my nissan with the biggest thing being replacing the two injectors.

BMWs E 36 ( E 30s too) up to 98 are simple and reliable and the motors are cast with high nickel steel and prone to many miles before overhaul is needed.

late model 1989 to 1991 BMW E30 325i or 318i

You are the only people I know that would recommend a BMW for reliability.

As for the OP, I think you're missing one important part. As said, a Model A would be the easiest to work on, BUT you would be working on it all the time. There's a balance between easy to work on, and how often you HAVE to work on it.

The 86-95 v6 nissan pickups, (just as an example) are fairly easy to work on, and RARELY have to be. The major parts, such as pulling the engine take a bit of doing, but the minor stuff is almost all fairly easy.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Any Toyota with the 22RE engine.

Hell yes. I tend to disagree on the jeep part, though.

 

[fotoflojoe]

MKIII Volkswagen Golf or Jetta... doesn't get much easier.

Yes it does, MKII Golf or Jetta!

 

[csquared]

mk1 FTW.

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[stioc]

If this is for wrenching and learning purposes and keeping with the KISS rule you may want to check into older motorcycles too if you have any interest. There some college kids report on advrider.com that took $50 70s bike from NY to SF and back.

 

[paramudduck]

Only problem with some of the older bikes is finding parts. With the limited production of bikes and the throw away mentality of the riders and companies it can get interesting.

Other wise yep it is really fun fixing them up!

 

[Need4racin]

I prefer the ZFs, but I know a few people with piles of ZFs and M5s so if something ever happens transmission wise with those I can get spares cheaply.

I personally dislike the AOD trans though

87-96 f150/250s/350s are cheap to run. I'm talking about Gas engines, I don't know very much about about diesels. The main ford section at the pull-part will have many 87-96s, so you are covered on used parts. If you are looking for cheap, get a 2wd, since its less parts to fix/maintain, cheaper price on the truck, and there are a TON of 2wd for ford trucks in the pull-a-parts. Get fuel injection...

1988 the 300, 351, and 460 went efi
late 1985 the 302 went efi.

the 250/350s came with zf5 manual trans, which are considered heavy duty 5 spd OD.

150s and broncos (bronco=only 4x4) got the m5od behind the 300 and 302
no 351s were manual in them.

The aod is considered a light duty OD trans, I would pass it up. Aod came behind the 302s in f150s, broncos, and some mid 80s Light duty f250s. Its not a bad trans, there just more heavy duty ones for towing, off roading, etc.

heres a thread on the transmissions...
http://fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49569

Good luck, you really can't go wrong with any efi ford truck.

 

[hguerrero]

buy the newest and best vehicle you can afford so you don't have to do anything other than routine maintenance....
i'd rather drive it than be under the hood fixing it...

of course then you wouldn't get to use all the tools you've spent money on...

 

[amishman]

Some else also mentioned an older aircooled VW. Fun to drive, fairly easy to learn and work on, parts all over the place to fix them. A nice little beetle would be fun to start working on. All the basics of working on a car are there and if you keep up with maintenance, these little VWs can last for a very long time. If you don't keep up with them, then you will be found in the side of the road <grin>.

But, I am learning with my old VWs. They are not my daily drivers so I can take my time and learn as I go. Get the How To Keep Your VW Alive Idiot book and have at it.



tj

 

[billymade]

I wouldn't recommend a air-cooled vw; I drove a air cooled beetle every day from 1987-2000, you will be wrenching on that thing constantly! I was ********* and dedicated to these cars... that being said, it was probably irrational and the amount of brain damage I experienced from driving a vintage car daily can only be experienced by owning one to understand what they can put you though! They tend break down at the time when you need them to work most; I think any vintage car used daily will require constant wrenching and repair. Things got somewhat better when I got to the point when every component on the car had been rebuilt or replaced; even then, I still had to repair or replace things all the time! If you buy a air-cooled beetle; just assume that you are going to have to replace the motor; at this point, expect 1k to 1.5k for a replacement. I will admit that my beetles "taught" me allot about cars, because I was always working on them! If you are hell bent on getting one I recommend 1968 on, IRS rear suspension and the Super Beetles have a nice ride and better suspension tech. If I bought another one today, I would: put a electronic ignition in it, if replacing the engine, get a long block with after-market hydraulic lifters (no more valve adjustments!), consider after market injection system, put a spin on oil filter on it, and consider disc brake upgrades too!