patriot993

I have a 2004 Honda CRV that is unbeatable in the winter, especially with snow tires. The 2002 to 2006 CRVs are a very solid platform...I had a 2005 that I was selling for my daughter, a rural postal carrier bought it - she said that the '02-'06 generation are the most recommended vehicle for their rural mail carriers. You can pick one up for way less than the top end of your budget.

Parts are cheap and maintenance is pretty simple

Mine is a manual and I love it - never plan on getting rid of it.

But with that said, given the low number of miles you plan on driving the recommendation of a rental probably is your best bet

Ale_72

200 miles per year? Rent a car when you need it.

FutureCaymanGuy

I drove 200 miles today lol.

I agree re: Suburu Outback, or perhaps older model Toyota SUV

maspirito

Toyota Sequoia good for 350k buy one with 200 on the clock for under 4 k.

SoCal-NSX

look for a deal on older 4Runner, they run for ever.....

funny, I started a thread like this asking about Jeeps and it was moved within an hour to the "off topic" forums because "it didn't have anything to do with 987-981"


wish they would leave these kind of threads on here because we are part of our own community and who cares if we talk about something other than 981-987 on every post.....

NAMR6MT

OP here...Many thanks to everyone for the multiple ideas.

Re: rental...the value proposition just isn't there. A 4x4/AWD is no less than $1000/month on Enterprise. So $2000/per year (January and February) multiplied by 3 years amounts is an approximate budget for a vehicle of my own. Because the Cayman is a "forever" keeper (Raby engine soon), this doesn't make fiscal sense. Plus, our region gets snow in parts of December and March.

I'm loving the Rav4, Sequoia, 4runner, Outback, CRV, etc. idea. A 200k mileage with lots of life to spare for well under $10k sounds ideal. Insurance premiums for my '07 CS is ~$1000 per year so an old, cheap add-on should be minimal. Again, time is on my side as winter is more than halfway over. No rush.

Ale_72

More than rental I was thinking at pay per go (not sure if it exist something similar in US).

NAMR6MT

I placed a dummy order for a '03 $7500 4 Runner on my current insurance policy, same coverage as my Cayman except that collision/comprehensive deductibles were maxed out at $2500 for each occurrence. Came to an extra $100 per year. Needless to say, having an insurance policy added won't put me in financial straights.

patriot993

One other thought NAMR6MT - once you decide on the model you are looking for (4 Runner, CRV, etc) - find the "Rennlist" for that model and lurk around there - will learn things to look for in a used one as well as might be able to find one from a member that was well cared for.

NAMR6MT

That may be the biggest obstacle...locating a "problem free" example. I really don't want to pay for a PPI for a vehicle that I don't give two s**ts about. By the same token, it can't have a "bore scoring" issue either and have an imminent catastrophic failure. Good call on checking out those forums.

Patrick3000

A bit of strategy will go a long way here. Last summer we picked up an eight year old Volvo sedan with 33k miles for one of our kids from a friends 86 year old mother who stopped driving. After getting it serviced, inspected, insurance and tags I think it was $5k all in. Ask around someone will have a car that they are not using.