I’m surprised it was that close, actually. But I just couldn’t keep that absurd V8 Nissan Versa to myself. Some things are so weird that they must be shared far and wide. I believe that’s one of the founding principles of the internet, isn’t it? So with that out of the way, it’s time to scrape the bottom of the barrel again, and seek out the cheapest running and driving cars on the web – vehicles you can buy tonight, drive home without incident, get in tomorrow morning and drive to work. These two aren’t perhaps the absolute cheapest, or the best value; they’re just the first two viable candidates I spotted. And honestly, I’ve seen worse. Hell, I’ve bought worse. Let’s take a look.
1995 Subaru Legacy – $800
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter flat 4, 4 speed automatic, AWD Location: Boulder, CO Odometer reading: 191,000 miles Runs/drives? Yep I may have mentioned this before, but I generally dislike Subarus. It has less to do with the cars themselves and more to do with the attitudes of too many of the drivers; Subaru’s braggadocio about their cars’ wet traction prowess makes too many drivers too overconfident in their machines’ abilities and leads them to do stupid things. But that’s not this car’s fault, and to be fair, all-wheel-drive Subarus are capable of some pretty amazing things in bad weather.
At least it’s a sedan and not the twenty-in-every-Trader-Joe’s-parking-lot wagon, and the second-generation Legacy isn’t a bad-looking car as midsized sedans go. All-wheel-drive was still a box on Subaru’s option sheet in 1995, but this car is so equipped, as one would expect in Colorado, and sends power from its somewhat puny 2.2 liter engine through a four-speed automatic transmission. Don’t expect miracles when you step on the gas.
Overall, for eight hundred bucks, this car doesn’t look too bad. The seller says the brakes and tires are recent, but the struts might be done for, and it could probably stand a new correctly-sized battery. But it doesn’t look too rusty, and apart from a few bits of broken plastic, the interior looks fine. Cheap, underpowered, and all-wheel-drive: sounds like an ideal winter beater to me.
Of course, it does mean you’d have to admit to owning a Subaru. So you’d have to be okay with that.
2001 Hyundai XG300 – $700
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter V6, 5 speed automatic, FWD Location: Antioch, CA Odometer reading: 190,000 miles Runs/drives? Sure does I had to look this car up. Nobody seems to remember that before Hyundai tried to make a BMW and succeeded, they tried to make a Buick and failed. Actually, that’s not quite fair; this is the third generation of the Hyundai Grandeur, apparently a very successful and well-regarded car in Hyundai’s home of South Korea, and a stepping-stone along the way to the Genesis cars today. But damn if it doesn’t seem like they were trying to make their very own Buick Century based on a rough description.
This XG has lost quite a bit of whatever grandeur it had over the years; it has suffered a fender-bender that knocked the alignment out, but the seller says it still drives. The front tires are as bald as Telly Savalas, which leads me to believe that they’ve been driving it with the alignment out for a while.
But in the plus column, the seller says the car runs well, the air conditioning works, and it’s a good color. Kudos to the original buyer for choosing this emerald green over beige or silver. Shame about the clearcoat failing, but then, it is twenty years old.
If the alignment can be fixed, or gotten “close enough” to not chew through a new pair of front tires, this is a pretty nice $700 car, really. I don’t know much about the reliability of them, but it’s lasted this long with some clearly indifferent treatment. At this price, if you can get a year out of it, you won’t feel yourself ill-used. And there you have it: shitboxes in the truest sense of the word. Cheap, disposable cars you need to have a certain attitude to drive, but probably will do the job of being a car for a good long while yet before something catastrophic happens, at which point you just walk away. Which one will it be? [Editor’s Note: Man, I have to say: When it comes to old cheap cars, manual transmissions are a requirement for me. There’s nothing like an underpowered motor mated to a crappy four-speed slushbox. Driving these two around everyday sounds like hell. -DT] Quiz Maker ….or you could just buy a better one. Because there are plenty. Take the Legacy. The Hyundai is a parts car. The Hyundai pushes all my pet peeve buttons. In 20 years of that apparent glaring sun you never thought to apply a single coat of wax? Does that Covid mask hanging from the turn signal switch come with the car as I drive away? What other biohazards do you like to hang in places my hands will often touch? Am I gonna find your sitting in traffic picking your nose booger stash spot under the seat? But the worst offender (I can’t stand it!) is the “temporary” fix that has gone on far beyond temporary. Is that packaging tape holding the mirror on? I get it. Just to make it home. You’re broke and will fix it later. Waiting for the part. You don’t care about the car anymore. But for the love of god, as a member of one of the most intelligent, problem solving species on this planet, with infinite tools, hardware and other cheap solutions at your disposal….?! The packaging tape is still holding it on? Sun bleached and frail. The temporary fix that is far from temporary has always been the deepest shade of crimson for me. Wait.. what was I saying? Just started seeing red (flags). I’ll take the Subie. I don’t really like Subaru that much, except for the Forester because of the big sunroof available on it. Was the default torque split in 95 still 90/10 or did they make it 80/20 by then? Also, the EJ22 Legacy and the XG300 get similar gas mileage LOL. If the Legacy had the 2.5L EJ25D, then my vote would’ve been the Hyundai. As someone who has owned Subarus for a long time, the Subie is objectively the better car. But for that little money if I had to have a car I have no desire for I’ll at least pick the one I’m not familiar with. Who knows, maybe there’ll be something fun or at least interesting about it. Seems unlikely you won’t get back out of it what you put in. https://www.cartalk.com/radio/letter/subris-some-drivers That era of Subarus were Lego-like for their interchangeability of parts between models. When a timing belt bushing on my already-tired 99 Legacy GT 2.5 failed (previous owner changed the belt…only), we “upgraded” to the much more reliable 2.2. The difference in power was much less noticeable than expected, though my car was 5MT. The 2.2 doesn’t have the head gasket issues of that era’s 2.5. The 2.2 is also a non-interference design – you can neglect an expensive timing belt replacement on your cheap beater and mostly just risk walking. While I’d also prefer the 5MT, the 4AT is probably more practical for a beater since it solves another potential weak spot. The 4AT can be put into FWD-only mode by installing a simple fuse, meant to minimize the risk of permanently locking the center differential clutch pack when driving on the spare tire (mismatched circumferences). The 5MT is purely mechanical, and while still plenty drivable with the differential seized, the MPG is awful and it corners not-unlike a Jeep in 4WD (with no doubt plenty of strain on other components). The 4AT would give you the option to live with FWD-only if someone already killed the differential or it otherwise breaks – I wonder if an AWD button could be rigged up for low traction situations or winter-time use? My XG300 was an excellent, comfortable, economical, semi-luxury sedan. When I passed it on to my son it had already gone 150K miles with no repairs. He drove it another 30K before totaling it in a Wichita snowstorm. It performed flawlessly for its entire life. Averaged 25 mpg, never burned a drop of oil, and the fit and finish remained excellent up to the day it died. So for all the nay sayer’s who have never owned or even driven an XG300, I say shut up until you have some hands on experience rather than just parroting some crap you read on Facebook!
