>complain to boss about how much gas I'm wasting driving

It's pretty much a Toyota, for the most part unbreakable. For $500 I'd do it.

>>16304372
I'm just scared of the transmission or engine going completely retard. There's a little rust on the door apparently. If I had pics I'd post. I'll talk to him tomorrow depending on how /o/ sways my opinion.

>>16304346

>It's pretty much a Toyota

First gen, yeah, second gen, which the 2002 is, I thought was different. Still pretty much unbreakable.

>>16304346

Go for it. Don't know how the autos hold up, but I learned how to drive stick in my 60k miles ago on what is probably the stock clutch, and at 154k miles on the clock it's still doing just fine.

Don't know if it applies to all of them, but mine rusted out pretty bad. Rockers disappeared pretty quick, and the front subframe is just about shot now. Rockers can be fixed with large amounts of fiberglass and bondo, the subframe is permanent unless you swap it out.

Mine gets pretty good mileage, 12 years old and it still averages 30+ MPG.

Mine was a rebuilt, so it came with some issues, don't know if any of them are common to these cars. Timing chain guides went out, turned out the timing was off by a couple degrees, which explained the stalling in cold weather. Had to replace the wheel bearing/hub a couple of times, brakes are fairly straight forward to service, but you need an allen key for the front calipers and an external torx socket for the rear brake cylinders on a drum brake equipped car. Oil is easy to change, you get to the filter from the top of the engine bay, need a 1-1/4" socket to get the cap off. Struts are easy to change if you need to, pull the wheels off and it's 5 bolts said and done, takes less than 2 hours to do all 4.

All in all, they're pretty solid little shitboxes from my experience with them.

I'll sell you mine for $500 if you live anywhere near Vermont. 2004, 154k miles, 5 speed, manual everything, AC doesn't work, CD player is broken but it has aftermarket speakers and the radio still works, maintenance is all up to date, runs/drives fine, won't pass inspection in my state come next year when they start logging fault codes straight back to a state database.

>>16304448
Thanks anon. He said this one has a bit rust too. I am expecting it to have a lot of problems, but being a shit box, I hope it doesn't run over $500. I drive my parents German luxury sedan and pay for all the maintenance and repairs as a payment for driving it wherever but not paying for the insurance and it being registered in my name.

How much do you think I should have in mind for repairs? I'll definitely talk to him about it tomorrow.

>>16304475

If you're just looking for something to get to work and back for a couple of years, $500 is probably all you need, and probably not even that much if you don't have inspections in your state.

Most any problem you can live with, as long as it's not a catastrophic failure of a major system. I've never had serious engine or transmission problems, or had the car not start for any reason, brakes have always worked, steering has always been fine. You might lose niceties, like the radio or AC, but the car will still run and drive.

The most common thing I've had happen has been a wheel bearing, and it runs about $130 for the nicer version, takes about an hour of labor, you'll be able to get out of it for under $250 if you have it fail. Other than that, it's pretty much been maintenance and car-specific problems for me.

Like the timing, you'll probably never have an issue with, as the people that rebuilt the car most likely caused that problem for me. I've done brakes, struts, air filter and oil changes on it, which was just replacing worn out parts, but outside of the wheel bearings, it really hasn't had any problems to speak of, it's just needed maintenance like any other car.

For a beater, I think it'd be pretty difficult to do better than a Cavalier.

>>16304387
For $500 bucks, you should be okay.

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>>16304387
>scared of transmission or engine going
Never heard of a test drive, have you lad?

I wouldn't trust it if it's from a women

But for 500 bucks, you ain't losing much. It could break and you could still sell it for that much. If you have another vehicle as a fall back, there's no real reason to not take it.

i bought a 03 saturn l200 from an old woman with around 110k miles for $1500

So far ive nearly gone over twice that amount in repairs and other maintenance