The Golden Age of Cheap Cars - an R/T article I found on Facebook

[AdamMurphy94]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...of-cheap-cars/

I loved this article, and everything inside it is true.

The new Nissan Micra, Chev Spark, and Mitsu Mirage are a nod to those cheap cars of yesteryear. So there are still cars available today like the ones described in the article, but those three are basically the only ones you can get today, and all are basically new models. Oh, and the Toyota Yaris CE 3-door hatch, which has always been around. Hats off to Toyota for staying in the cheap car game for so long!

[Howie]

I loved this article. I'm a bit younger then the author. But I have a certain relation to it..

It would have been the end of the 80's- or close to it. 1988 I'm pretty sure. We were posted from Halifax to another Army base in Ontario. We were used to not having a car at all, and relied on halifax's bus system up to this point. My dad elected to buy himself his first new car. A 1989 Dodge Omni.

It was not what I wanted when we went to the dealer. I was 6 years old and my eye was set on the Racy Daytona that was parked next to it. But here was this rink-a-dink little 5 door hatchback that looked eerily similar to a VW rabbit. But more doors. I remember it's price tag, $9998.

I tried to con dad into a black one of the same style. It also had some "upgrades". It was a GLS model. But dad was convinced that this little hatchback he had picked was the right one. I remember the first ride in it. 5 speed manual. 82hp 2.2L four cylender engine with fuel injection (Big deal those days) and an AM/FM stereo with 2 speakers. It had a pleather and cloth interior, and was a sea of red. In and out.

From there the little omni carried us from Petawawa to shilo, then to calgary, then back to petawawa. The military life was full of adventures. By the time we had made it back 10 years had passed and the poor omni had seen a lot of kilometers. Over 323,000km. And I had turned 16. The poor omni had its fair share of bunny hops and became the taxi for me and my friends. It lasted almost another 2 years before the mechanic had given the result. The car was on her way out. There wasnt much left on the floors of the poor thing. Dad had given it to me as he had just bought a new hyundai accent. But the mechanics advisory stuck.

No more money to be put into the omni. I kept it going for a few years, wandering around scrapyards and collecting cheap parts to keep it running until one winter's day it finally drew its last breath. The battery had failed. The poor omni was done. I cried when it went on the flatbed, but the old man was wise. The car had no floor left. It was a deathtrap.

Ive had many cars in varying states of luxury since then. Lots. More then id like to admit. From a used mazda 626 to a monte carlo, to a windstar sport to a few dodge caravans. When the last vehicle was on the way out I thought about the way dad bought his cars. The omni was basic. In the grand scheme of things, it made sense. It was a base model. It was cheap to own, and cheap to repair because there was simply less to go wrong with it. The accent he bought after was the same way.

See he wasnt being cheap. He was thinking of the future. He might have had a base model car, but then he had money to spend on me and mom (Ok, 90% me).. So when I got to buy a new car. I followed his footsteps.

Yeah, Ive had some problems with my micra. I like to think of them as 'growing pains'. But I know with my rolly windows and lack of AC, its going to have less to go wrong in the future when the kids get older and more expensive.

So thank you dad. I kind of wish I clued into the life lesson a lot sooner. XD

I still miss that goddamn omni.

[graymeeguts]

Awesome post, Howie! I love this.

[Graham18ce]

I buy cars for more or less the same reasons..I've always bough used cars, usually 3-4 years old out of lease around 60K on them.
My first car was 2 dr Sunbird that i worked a deal on when my brother sold a truck of his to the guy who own the Sunbird.
5 spd, manual windows, cheap deck. work like a charm for years. eventually the steering rack seperated and you never knew were you were going to be going after a bump...
time for car to...off lease Saturn Sport wagon. 5 spd...keep the practical cars for me..drove that til some doh head ran a light and wrote it off on me...
bought a Chev Malibu Maxx Hatch back off lease for about 6500...drove that to the end of its usefull life and bought a Mirca..i have a van for my wife so i needed a small car for commuting to work..i don't need a fancy car to get to work...this car is paid for in the fuel savings from the Malibu! 120 bi weekly to 35! payment is 115ish! and i quick smoking a couple months before i bought it so no more smookes at 8 a pack three times a week! free car! hahaha

[MetroMPG]

Good article.

a nod to those cheap cars of yesteryear.

The amazing thing is that today's cheap cars are FAR less expensive than the cars mentioned in the article, when you adjust for inflation.

As in, even cheaper than a base Hyundai Pony in the 1980's, which was Canada's cheapest car at the time and a best-seller:

Thread: The 2015 Nissan Micra is cheaper to buy than a 1984 Hyundai Pony

But here was this rink-a-dink little 5 door hatchback that looked eerily similar to a VW rabbit.

That's because Chrysler literally bought a FLEET of 70+ VW Rabbits for "research" while they were developing the Omni/Horizon! Then they even bought VW's 1.7L Rabbit engines to use in the earliest Omnis until their in-house engine was ready to deploy.

http://www.allpar.com/omni/omni.html

I was a big Rabbit fan. I owned 5 or 6 of them through school. Buy, fix up, drive, sell for a little profit. Rinse and repeat. Doing that covered all my driving expenses.