Commuter Cars?

[Pineywoods]

How many of you that drive a long ways to work have a secondary commuter car to keep the miles off of your primary vehicle? I have had my truck for about 5.5 months and already have over 18,000 miles on it in that span. I average about 800 miles per week. I'm now considering buying a cheaper commuter vehicle to save wear & tear and mileage on my truck. As expensive as new trucks are now, I don't want to have 100k miles on my truck in 2.5 years which is exactly what would happen. I think if I can find something Japanese with fairly low miles for $15k or so, it might make sense. I could drive it a couple years to save my truck and pass it to my middle daughter or son when they start driving around then. Has anyone else gone this route?

[Edward F]

I don’t have a long commute but I like to keep my miles off my truck and save gas money. I have a 2020 Tundra that just sits in the drive way and I drive a 2013 Toyota Camry to work.

[bbqfan5909]

I drive 50-60k a year and drive a tundra. Only thing Ive found to hold up long term so far and pay them off within 2 year and keep driving them. As much as I want a commuter, the added insurance and maintenance of another vehicle didnt sound great, plus I need to be able to pick up 2 kids.

[blfx4]

I have a an f250 for weekends and towing trailers. During the week I drive a corolla, I picked up used for a decent price. The f250 gets 12-13 mpg, the corolla 36-38 mpg. Also driving the corolla around town you usually don’t have to worry when you go in a store. It works for me, maybe not for others, but definitely easier to park and easy on the wallet.

[PoppinPiggies]

I just decided to get a commuter car myself, I drive about 600 miles a week currently working from home 2 days. With the cost of fuel heading north I didn't want to be spending so much at the pump with my truck so I went and bought a used Toyota Camry. Great reliability and mpg, so far I'm glad I've made the decision. I got the Camry with 48,000 miles on it for $9,500 in March. I can hit 31 mpg on the hwy where I averaged 15 mpg with my truck.

[trophy8]

Yep. 90 miles each way. Got a little Mazda 3. Paid $10.5k for it. I put about 40k miles on it last year. And it gets 2.5x as good of gas mileage as my truck. That alone pays for itself not to mention wear and tear on my nice truck. Well worth it. Paid it off in a year. It’s not fancy but my big *** is comfortable in it.

[jds247]

My commute Is only 15 miles a day but I don't want to drive my truck into the plant. The mist off the cooling towers eats the paint up .. I also like to leave all of my work stuff in my car so I'm not lookin for it before work.

[TA_Fab]

Don’t forget to take into consideration insurance, registration etc... on another vehicle.


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[Mike D]

Try to find you a used Corolla or Camry. We bought a 2 year old Camry for $13k and kept it until 285k miles. Then we sold it to our daughter after falling into a smoking deal on a Lexus IS250. She’s had it for a year and it has over 300k miles on it now.

In the 10 years we owned that car I put less than $500 in actual non maintenance repairs in it. It is a 2008 LE model with the 4 cylinder and 6 speed auto and it averaged 28mpg over that time frame. I have no doubt the newer ones get over 30mpg now and the Corolla gets 36-38 mpg.


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[BJ DUPLECHAIN]

I drive a Honda Civic during the week for commuting. Keeps miles of the F150 (35k so far) and gets 2.5x more mpg's.

[Rubi513]

I put about 65k miles a year on vehicle.
Current commuter is a 2020 Toyota Camry. Averages around 36 mpg.

[tazhunter0]

I need a commuter car, but don’t feel comfortable in anything but a full size truck. Unfortunately already got 32K on my truck I bought in the middle of September to replace my totaled truck.

[Geezy Rider]

For 38 years I either rode or drove a vanpool. Tremendous savings over the years.

[kkp005]

Yep.. drive a Honda Accord. 183k trouble free miles

[91cavgt]

I have a car for commuting but don’t have a truck, yet. Here is another car to keep an eye out for too, a hybrid.


My 2018 KIA Niro cost me $21.5k brand new(got the last 2018 model on the lot so they gave me a deal on it). It routinely gets just over 500 miles to a tank of gas and it typically takes 10 gallons to fill it up. That’s an average of about 50 mpg! My commute is 31 miles one way, and I drive this twice a day for a total of 124 miles a day.

My car payment on this new car, should you finance it, is about $350 a month. If you set the cruise control on the highway to 75 mph, it gets about 45 mpg. Slow down to 65 and it gets about 50. At 55 mph it gets closer to 55 mpg. If you are driving around town only, and know how to hypermile, I’ve seen as high as 75 mpg on the dash readout. My best tank of fuel was 11.5 gallons to go 628 miles(54.6 mpg average for an entire tank).


Just some more numbers to take into consideration.