Honda commuter is dead. Now what?

100-120 mile commute (round trip). All highway.

Most I would want to spend is in the teens. Prefer a later-model used car. High 20's for fuel mileage would be the minimum. Two seats OK. Manual transmission preferred.

Plan would be to run it until it quits, just like the Honda. I would like something a bit nicer than the clapped-out del sol sitting in the garage until the junkyard comes to get it, however. if I could get several years out of it that would be great.

Here are a few possibilities in no particular order:
1) VW Beetle TDI (2003 & 2006 available near me w/ <75k miles for $12k. Should last another 200k miles or not?)

2) Mini (MiniNext CPO cars in the $15k range. 2007-08 with 20k-40k miles)

3) 2007 Hyundai Tiburon. $12k or so. Not that great of driving experience from what I've read but seems like a solid car and looks pretty good to me.

4) Honda S2000. There is a '05 near me with 55k miles and the cool silver/red color combo.

5) Pontiac Solstice.

I have looked at a couple of '08 Cobalts, they just seem like such junk though. Cheap and feels it. Not sure how long they would last. Found one that had roll-up windows! (Actually one less thing to go wrong, I would just hate to spend $10k on such a POS).

 

Considering I'm coming from a teal del sol anything will be a step up.

 

We had an '04 C230, a '05 C320, and have had a '08 C350 for the last 3 years. The coupe version of the C230 would be a possibility for sure.

Of the cars mentioned so far the car I want is the S2000, followed by the Mini. But 45 mpg with the VW would be cheap to run and should last a very long time. Heart says Honda, head says Beetle.

I'm going to look at an '03 VW TDI (5-sp, black w/ tan leather, 50k miles for $12k) over the weekend. We have two other nice cars for everything but my long drive each day, it would be used almost exclusively on the highway, ideal for the diesel IMO.

If anyone has any horror stories with the Bug I would appreciate it. I know the early ones seemed to have annoying electrical problems. Some of the complaining I have read from owners though sounds like they don't even know how to change a taillight bulb, maybe it was as much an ignorant owner as the car.

Putting a search for cars made in the last 5 years, manual, coupe, under $15k at cars.com revealed a few cars I didn't even know existed. The Saturn Ion Red Line Coupe? Never knew...

 

Please elaborate on the TDI. I know the automatics have their problems, it seems the manuals are fairly strong. If you look in the classifieds most of them 5+ years old have lots of miles, in some cases 200k+ on them. I did want to stay away from the early New Beetles, but it seems like they worked out many of the early 'bugs" if you pardon the pun by 2003.

If there is a good forum for this information I would really appreciate it.

 

I'm not trying to argue because I only know what I have read, but if anyone has specific problem areas with the VW TDI with standard transmission I would be interested in reading. It seems the diesel does seem different than a gas engine (obviously) and has its own quirks. Timing belt at 100k, change the oil and filter every 10k, fuel filter every 20k. But overall the engine seems simpler since it doesn't have an ignition system.

Is it the drivetrain that causes problems, or all the electrical systems going haywire?

I have read about glow plug relays going out ($130 for the part). things like clutches and brakes would wear out the same as a gas engine.

 

I believe for the S2000 it goes like this...
2001-02 2.0L motor, plastic rear window
2003-04 2.0L motor, glass rear window
2005-09 2.2L motor, glass rear window.

Fuel consumption was a concern on that particular car, it seems it is low-geared because of such a high-revving engine and that hurts it on the HWY rating. it would have been a lot of fun though.

Found a TDi Jetta close by, probably looking at it this afternoon.

 

I went look at two cars today. One was a Jetta TDI that the ad said was manual but was automatic. The other was a 2009 Mazda 3 but it had been sold a few days ago and still on the dealership website.

Thinking about the Mazda more. Dealership in St Louis has a cheap 2009 with on;y 6500 miles. Called them and it doesn't have factory A/C? Didn't know you could even get one without air these days.

I'll check out the Fit. Also saw the new Mazda 2, for $15k it didn't seem like a very good value, but then again it isn't really fair to compare new to used. A Scion XD for the same new price as the Mazda 2 seems like much better value.