Who drives an "every day commuter car"?

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Moistdef

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Who here drives an every day average run-of-the-mill boring commuter car?

I do. And I figure most people do as well. How do you deal with it?

I drive an '05 Honda Accord Coupe, its only the 4 cylinder model, granted, at least I have a manual transmission.

Sometimes I wish my car handled better or had more power and I'm not the type of person to do mods to an Accord, knowing its limitations in the end.

I commute to school, about 50 miles round trip 5 days a week.

I can't wait until I graduate so I can get something better.

So again, who here drives a normal commuter car, and what do you do to deal with it? (Besides playing GT of course, haha)
 
I drove Neons for a long time. I found it worthwhile to tinker with them both in varying degrees. They were simple cars and a lot of people look down on them, but they were quite willing little toys and they loved to be driven hard.
 
I have a nice 05 Focus ZX5 SES that I use to get to work. I put over 1000km on it in a week going back and forth. It's great on gas, and it doesn't look too bad either.

Duke
I drove Neons for a long time. I found it worthwhile to tinker with them both in varying degrees. They were simple cars and a lot of people look down on them, but they were quite willing little toys and they loved to be driven hard.
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I have had two of them and both had the head gasket go.:guilty:
 
Agreed, my Neon gave me nothing but problems, I hated it.

But I have a commuter car I would say, 2007 Mini Cooper. Gets upwards of 40mpg if you drive it easy on the motorway.
 
At the moment my Civic is simply a commuter car in quality, but it's leaning on the sporty side of "commuter". Throughout this coming year it'll get less and less "commuter" and more and more "man, I wish I could get a better daily". :lol:
 
Joey D
But I have a commuter car I would say, 2007 Mini Cooper. Gets upwards of 40mpg if you drive it easy on the motorway.
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Sorry to break it to you, but a Mini Cooper is nowhere near the vapid normality of a four-cylinder Accord. :p
 
Sage
Sorry to break it to you, but a Mini Cooper is nowhere near the vapid normality of a four-cylinder Accord. :p
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Oh come on, it's not even an S :dopey:. A regular Cooper is pretty commuter-ish although it is a bit fun...but you are right, it's no where near the dullness of the I4 Accord.
 
Keef
Personally I think the Accord is higher up than the Cooper.
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In what sense?

I drive a relatively normal car, but it'll be my last one. You only live once, and I've already started looking at irresponsible, irrational replacements that will probably kill me. Unfortunately I'm not replacing my car for another two and a half years - but that'll only make me appreciate the replacement more.

a4-060307-2.jpg
 
I normally roll in a '99 Camry. My wife drives an '00 Civic (sedan).
Would I like something with a bit more go? Yep.
Am I likely to buy something more exciting in the near future? Nope.
Not as long as my wife finds her Civic to be "perky" and fun to drive.
I'm likely to stay in boring commuters till I'm not driving 80 miles round trip to my job.

I do have a great toy in my 6.0 liter diesel Excursion. Big as a house, but darned quick, and somewhat agile for its size.
 
1988 Chevrolet Nova (AE82)

Commuter? most definitely: It hates anything above 55, being geared short enough that it can go down hills, in high gear, while decelerating, with no brakes. 70hp or so from a 4A-C that doesn't even have a rev limiter. at least, I've never been brave enough to try hitting it.

It has no electronic control whatsoever. the C.D. player (a $60 Wal-mart model) is probably the most advanced part on the damn thing. I consider this good: it's tossable and thouroughly enjoyable, despite running on 80-series tires and having no anti-roll bars. (You had to step up to the Twin Cam model for those) Mine's (unfortunately) a 3-speed auto, but one that's pretty much bulletproof compared to the Chrysler units I used to drive. (Those Chrylsers being K-Car transaxles, not Torqflite 727s)

Oh, did I mention, it was a rebadge of the FWD Toyota Sprinter? No Joke.
 
M5Power
I drive a relatively normal car, but it'll be my last one. You only live once, and I've already started looking at irresponsible, irrational replacements that will probably kill me.
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So can we expect Buy this because of the specs-to-price ratio-Doug to turn into Buy this because it’s an awesome kick in the balls!-Doug? :D

Gil
Not as long as my wife finds her [2000] Civic to be "perky" and fun to drive.
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:scared: I drove my friend’s cousin’s 2000 automatic Civic a few weeks ago, and that was such a terrible thing to drive. It felt like driving a manual with the clutch completely totally 100% worn out. Gas, gas, more gas, why isn’t this thing moving yet? More gas, gas, oh finally we’re off!

The steering was sharp, but the engine and tranny were a very bad pair.
 
Joey D
Is that your house Doug?
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No - that is the David W. Brown House, which is a National Historic Place.

I've posted photos of my car in front of my own house before, but they're not quite as visually interesting. :D
 
my family usually doesn't drive commuter cars, but a few days ago my mom got into a head-on accident that turned into a 5 car pile up. she was driving a mercury mountaineer, i am pretty sure it saved her life. back to the commuter car thing, my dad has his dodge ram, and my brother has a 97 sebring coupe, neither of them i consider commuter cars. but the rental car that is taking the mountaineers place is a commuter car, it is a toyota avalon exs or something like that. i was surprised by the amount of space inside, its pretty nice.
 
my daily driver is a 300E mercedes. 18 years old this coming year. gets mid 20s freeway, does everything competently if not very well, but not exciting in the least.

vintage BMW 2002 for fun. used one for nearly ten years as my daily driver.
 
Commuter car?

'88 VW camper: Nope.
'00 Volvo XC70: Meh. Not really.
'06 VW GTI: Nope. Although I do use it to commute in the summer.
 
Commuter car?

1996 Volkswagen Jetta (Vento) Wolfsburg Edition. I usually put about 30 miles on it a day, give or take a bit. Average about 27 MPG most weeks, occasionally as high as 30 MPG. It was the first "nice" car I bought, got a really good deal on it, and now that its starting to nickel-and-dime me, I'm looking to get rid of it.

...Much like Douglas, I'm also looking at an irresponsible sort of car that would do a much better job of killing me by comparison to the rather "normal" VW. Then again, by comparison to a Corolla or Civic, even the VW has soul and character...
 
YSSMAN
...Much like Douglas, I'm also looking at an irresponsible sort of car that would do a much better job of killing me by comparison to the rather "normal" VW.
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Yeah, those crazy Subaru Foresters… :p

Lately I’ve been thinking that it would be fun to own an old decommissioned Police Interceptor. It’s a big, stupid-ass car, cheap, and you wouldn’t care if it got scratched, and imagine how much fun it would be to punch the throttle to that V-8 while the suspension is half-heartedly trying to negotiate a corner. Plus it would be fun to see how many people slam on their brakes on the freeway.
 
Mazda Miata, Forester, they're all crazy...

Speaking of police interceptors; I saw a used 2007 Caprice 9C1 today and that got me thinking... That wouldn't be too bad of a car. Looks nice, runs well, cheap to maintain. Shame about the FWD though...
 
Sage
Lately I’ve been thinking that it would be fun to own an old decommissioned Police Interceptor. It’s a big, stupid-ass car, cheap, and you wouldn’t care if it got scratched, and imagine how much fun it would be to punch the throttle to that V-8 while the suspension is half-heartedly trying to negotiate a corner. Plus it would be fun to see how many people slam on their brakes on the freeway.
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I know somebody who owns one of those. He gets pulled over all the time because cops want to know if he really is a cop. Other than that, it would be awesome to own.
 
I drive a 98 Malibu, which I use for the short commute to the train station. It has a pretty smooth ride. But the brakes are pretty bad, so I wouldn't try anything crazy in it. It also likes to drink gas.
 
Sage
So can we expect Buy this because of the specs-to-price ratio-Doug to turn into Buy this because it’s an awesome kick in the balls!-Doug? :D


:scared: I drove my friend’s cousin’s 2000 automatic Civic a few weeks ago, and that was such a terrible thing to drive. It felt like driving a manual with the clutch completely totally 100% worn out. Gas, gas, more gas, why isn’t this thing moving yet? More gas, gas, oh finally we’re off!

The steering was sharp, but the engine and tranny were a very bad pair.
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Her Civic makes her happy.
I'm happy to avoid driving the thing.
Not because it's a bad car. Far from it. Though I usually put it in D2 instead of drive because the Toyota's shifter stops at D.
I don't like to drive it because it's so small.
I'm not the biggest guy on the planet, but I'm nowhere near the smallest, and I was "blessed" with very short legs and a long torso. The greenhouse of the Civic has my head entirely too close to the ceiling for my personal comfort.
That said, why is it so difficult to find a car these days without a sunroof?
I need those extra inches of headroom.
 
Sage
So can we expect Buy this because of the specs-to-price ratio-Doug to turn into Buy this because it’s an awesome kick in the balls!-Doug? :D
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It will be both - just slightly skewed towards the latter.

YSSMAN
Speaking of police interceptors; I saw a used 2007 Caprice 9C1 today and that got me thinking... That wouldn't be too bad of a car. Looks nice, runs well, cheap to maintain. Shame about the FWD though...
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Are you referring to the Impala?
 
Jim Prower
1988 Chevrolet Nova (AE82)

Commuter? most definitely: It hates anything above 55, being geared short enough that it can go down hills, in high gear, while decelerating, with no brakes. 70hp or so from a 4A-C that doesn't even have a rev limiter. at least, I've never been brave enough to try hitting it.
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I doubt it is geared shorter than the Prelude, 80mph just under 4k revs, but the Lude loves being revved that high
 
i would assume the term "commuter" is referring to something thats cheap and doesnt drink too much :p my rover 214s pretty reasonable, got 40mpg out of it a few times, can get 400 miles to a tank if im lucky :p has no problem doing motorway for 5 or so hours
 
I drive an everyday car but it's not boring. It handles great, has a bit of poke in the power band and it's pretty economical. 5 doors, plenty of room front and back, decent boot space and it cost me £2700 knocked down from £3000 with a free MoT and 6 months tax thrown in.

It's a Ford Focus 1.6 LX.
 
Boz Mon
I doubt it is geared shorter than the Prelude, 80mph just under 4k revs, but the Lude loves being revved that high
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65 at around 35K. at 80 it'd be at around 6K screaming for mercy - Provided it got there. :)
 

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