Battle of the cheapo wagons

Another Saturn Vote. Take your time shopping, a good one isn't much more than a rough one. The twin cam engines can get decent power by mixing the parts from several years. See sixthsphere for details

Escort Wagon. Swap in 16v from Escort GT, Protege, Tracer LTS, etc.

I know you're looking for a get in and drive option but I would rather have this. They are all Mazda underneath and the Ford 1.9s blow up fairly regularly. I bet you could find one with a bad engine for $500-$750 and finish the swap for under $1000.

Out of your two, Saturn all the way.

Protégés get terrible fuel economy compared to the Saturn. Wow. Why?

The autocorrect turned my misspelling into "girl economy" although I am pretty sure they all get terrible girl economy.

I recently replaced our BG Protege with a '99 SW2. I bought it for $400 with a failing automatic, ~217k miles, dirty interior, failing headliner, and paint BADLY in need of a detail. A sedan parts car, manual transmission swap, some time with the Porter Cable, and a couple of trips to the junkyard and I'm all in for around a grand and driving the car most everywhere now.

I really like the way they're put together. Everything I've done to the car, including the transmission conversion, has been very straightforward. Parts are plentiful and cheap in junkyards, and new parts are still very easy to come by, despite the Saturn's demise. The lowest MPG I've gotten on a full tank so far is 32, but this engine is very healthy and the previous owners obviously kept up with maintenance. The car is a joy to drive and I expect that we'll hold onto this one for a long while.

If I was going to go with a Ford wagon, it wouldn't be the Focus. It'd be what JunkyardDog suggested above--- a BP-converted Escort wagon. It all bolts together and the BG chassis rocks, IMO. If I had taken the time to put a wagon together instead of the Protege we had, we would still be driving it. wagons > sedans

You can't go wrong with any of the choices presented so far in the thread, IMO. The dual-cam Saturn is my current choice, but they all have their merits.

I'll toss in a vote for the Saturn. Because everything GM is going to run badly for longer than anything else runs at all. And I had a friend who owned one. He drained out the power steering fluid because he preferred the feel of manual steering, drove it low on oil pretty much the entire time he owned it, and still racked up a quarter-million miles before selling it (running, mind you).

I know you nixed the 850 early on, admittedly I'm a bit biased, but an 850 or V70 would meet/exceed your criteria. Comfy seats, plenty of room, good road manners, can seat 7 with a factory rear facing back seat. T5 would be fun, but comes with more maintenance and less fuel economy. GLT 850 was only low pressure turbo in '97 before then it was just a trim package. All the 70 series GLTs were LPT.

Anything under $2K, the reliability part is going to be greatly dependent on the previous owners maintenance, or lack of.

pinchvalve wrote: What about a Subaru Legacy Wagon, with parts swapped over from a Legacy GT?

Or skip the middle man and just go with a Legacy GT wagon. I guess maybe it depends on generation (and maybe it's a Canadian thing) but my parents had one for years.

142 wagon

captdownshift wrote: 142 wagon

122 wagon

Edit: or this: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/cto/4795592470.html

I also vote Saturn. Plastic body panels ftw! Except for hiding rust, but I don't think you are in the rust belt..

I'd vote for the Saturn given your budget. I think the focus is a slightly better car in some respects, but I'd rather have a nice SW2 than a bargain-basement ford wagon.

Protege's are good, but slightly less miles-per-gallon, and RUST. rusty rust. with rust sprinkles. And a dollup of rust on top.

EvanB wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

mndsm wrote: I'd take the focus of those two, though an sw2 would be a neat wagon to own. Out of respect for your request I shall bite my tongue at what I perceive the real winner to be.

If it's super relevant, is not a bi turbo or a unicorn, let's have it.

This? http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/4803002913.html

Damn right that. 7afe, either a 4speed auto with a manually lockoutable overdrive, or a 5speed manual, TONS of performance parts, drop and swap with any of the 4ag motors, reliable as an anvil, 30mpg all day and night, and when you're done with it, it's still worth what you paid, no matter what you paid, because corolla.

I agree that you probably couldn't go wrong with either choice, and it would come down to you driving them back to back.

I vote 95-99 legacy, 02-07 WRX suspension is a direct swap. I DD one and love it. RWD is always an option and plenty of engine swaps are well documented if your DD needs for it change.

Focus

SVT front and rear disc brakes and front suspension pieces can be swapped onto a Focus wagon. But the rear suspension is different from the sedans and hatchbacks. There was a company that made aftermarket suspension for the wagons some years ago, but I don't know if any of that is still available.

Are there $2k duratec focuses in your area? They are $4500 here. I think a Subaru would be a good $2k wagon, they are a lot harder to ruin by using non factory parts than something like a VW too. If you look at 1996 Subarus check the emissions laws first, I found out that some of the emissons monitors clear everytime you shut the car off, and although they are supposed to be obd2 exempt, California doesn't go by anything but year so you have to hook up a scanner and drive until all the monitors complete then take it and get it tested without shutting it off.

Volare wagon with slant 6 ...

This one's right in your price range.

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/4792048301.html

Ideal midsize wagon.

DrBoost wrote: I had a focus wagon. It swore me off the blue oval for good. The decisions I saw that the engineers were forced to make turned it into a turd. It left me stranded on the highway, then a week later did the same to my wife. That was twice in 5 weeks of ownership. I sold the crap-wagon in week 6 and didn't look back. I have NOTHING good to say about the focus. What is your price range?

A friend of mine has had her 2001 Focus Wagon from new. Now starting to sucumb to rust at 190K miles, 160K of those miles with a supercharger, Ford Performance cyl head (not SVT), uprated suspension, LSD etc fitted. Never left them stranded and just had things replaced as they wear out. It just keeps on going and going. They live about 4 miles down a dirt road so it's taken a hell of a pounding but is still alive. Just about the most reliable car I know of. They are half on the look out for a rust free southern wagon shell so they can re-shell the rock solid reliable running gear to pass down to their currently 13 year old daughter in a couple of years as mom now drives an Electric focus.

Another guy sold his early 90's Escort wagon to get a Focus wagon circa 03/04 and last I saw him a couple of years ago the Focus was still running strong.

My ZX3 was perfect. The only problem I ever had in 70k miles was needing the CD player replaced under warranty. The only reason I don't still have the car is I totaled it.

Friends son has a ZX3 that is closing in on 170K miles, it's starting to wear out from old age but still keeps going and going.

Another has a gold SOHC 4 door. After so many Michigan winters I will admit there are no rockers left, but it still gets him to and from work every day needing nothing but gas, oil and tires every couple of years.

I know of three people who had SVT's from new, one only had it for 3 years, another to something like 8 years, the last for about 10 years. All just ran and ran with nothing but regular maintinance and were only sold as they wanted something newer, faster and in one case needed more doors (his was a 3 door) for little kids.
I have personal knowledge of many many Focii Wagons, ZX3/5, sedans and SVT. With mine, and the experience of the dozens I'm aware of, they about as reliable as gravity and the sun rising in the morning. I can't think of anything I'd recommend over them for a reliable family/teen fun DD.