PEAK PUTTERS

I'm in the market for a cheap and easy to work on "get around town" rig... a very simple rig under $2K. The Geo Metro or a small 2 wheel drive pickup (e.g., dodge D50) comes to mind; however, there may be more modern rigs that are better. Any other ideas?

A Jeep Cj5; CJ-7, Flatty or an old school Bronco. It'll cost much >2K and not much for creature comforts but the cool factor will far out way the negatives making it a no brainer. Just my cool honest opinion.

I drove my little yellow bronco to work today. So much more fun then my focus was. Still has some bugs to work out.

My little 4 cyl Altima has been a great cheap car to rack up the miles out to the site. No problems in 3 years, very smooth comfy car, and I only fill up once a week. 40 minute drive each way. Paid a little more than 2K though.
Not nearly as fun or manly as the Jeep or F250. I do drive them out now and then if I need a testosterone boost.

We bought our little Kia Spectra for about $6k several years back. We've put about 100k miles on it so far with no major issues, just a timing belt, alternator, and oil changes. Not your $2k dollar range, but sure got a lot for what we put into it.

Thanks guys. The Altima and spectra look like good options

I had an early 90's VW jetta for several years. Picked it up for under $1000. Got great gas mileage and was fun to drive. Easy to work on and parts were pretty cheap. Only really had one issue with it in that time which was the Hall Sender (basically distributor) failed. Under $150 and 20 minutes worth of work was all it took. If you go that route shop for one built in Germany. The ones made in Mexico seem to have more issues.

Good to know about the Jetta. I would have thought replacement parts would be expensive.... guess not.

I have a 2004 or 5 dodge neon svt that has newer tires on it. If you don't mind a little work, it needs a tranny. But I will let it go way cheap.

The OEM parts are spendy but Autozone had everything I needed for reasonable prices.

XJ Cherokee. Millions of them out there, parts are literally everywhere, reasonably economical, good cargo space, and you can put some decent tires on it and wheel anytime you feel like it. Plus you could literally have a fleet of them for your $2k budget. Different color for every day of the week

my wife bought a 2009 dodge caliber brand new (not even close to your price), we have driven it all over the place back and forth to Wyoming several times and south Dakota, we have even loaded it and taken it camping. it gets 28MPG on the hwy, its my daily right now between Prosser and Yakima every day, all we have had to replace on it is the struts, rack and pinion and general maintenance, I would have to go look but I think it has about 150,000 miles.

you can find them for sale now for about $2,500+