Good morning! This week, we’re going to embark on a quest: We’re going to leave aside the projects and the money pits and actually try to find something good for a change. All of this week’s choices will be between three and four thousand dollars, all will be in good running and driving condition, and I will do my best to make sure there’s at least something interesting about each one.
We finished off last week’s matching prices with a pair of $15,000 classics, and in what was probably a foregone conclusion, the “secretary-spec” Mustang wiped the garage floor with the high-mileage Toyota pickup. A lot of you thought the truck was cool, but just too much money for its condition.
I agree wholeheartedly. I admit that there are a lot of other vehicles I’d sooner spend fifteen grand on than either of those, but if those are my choices, I’ll take the clean cruiser over the rough-and-ready off-roader.
All right, let’s get sensible. I’m kicking the week off with two not-quite-twenty-year-old sedans from southern California, both silver, both four-cylinders, but to make up for it, they’re also both five-speed sticks. Let’s check them out.
2005 Mazda 6i – $3,950
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Orange County, CA
Odometer reading: 160,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
The early 2000s were a good time for Mazda. The rotary engine was back, the Protege and Miata both got turbocharged, and the frumpy also-ran 626 gave way to the sleek new 6 (technically Mazda6, no space, but that always irked me, so I’m just going to call it the 6). In 2003, I got to participate in the “Mazda Rev It Up” driving school/autocross competition, in which we drove brand-new 6s, and I learned two things: I am terrible at autocross, and the 6 is a really fun car to drive.
This 6 is spec’d just the way I’d want it, with a 2.3 liter version of Mazda’s MZR four-cylinder and a five-speed stick. The MZR is a great engine, so good, in fact, that it has won the praise and appreciation of our own David Tracy, a man not easily impressed by engineering. This one has 160,000 miles on it, not a young engine by any means, but there are plenty of MZRs out there with more miles than that. It’s a one-owner car, which is good, but it’s for sale at a dealer, which is maybe not as good. Don’t expect any maintenance records, and just assume everything needs to be done; that’s the safest bet.
It’s pretty clean, with very few signs of wear and tear. I see the remnants of a stain on the back seat, and I think there’s a broken cover on the storage bin on the dash. Or maybe it just needs to be snapped back into place. It’s got the basic equipment you’d want, power windows and cruise control and whatnot, and the seller says the air conditioning works just fine; hopefully everything else does too.
It’s clean and shiny outside, and this is another example of the base model with no adornments looking better than the sporty model with a bunch of crap stuck on it. Its only cosmetic issue is the black steel wheels with surface rust, visible through the spokes on the plastic wheel covers – a problem that afflicts a large number of base-model cars.
2006 Toyota Camry SE – $3,650
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Canoga Park, CA
Odometer reading: 209,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
When the history of the internal-combustion-powered automobile is written, the Toyota Camry will have a bigger chapter than anyone wants to admit. For decades, if you wanted a nice, simple, reliable four-door sedan, there was no better choice. There still isn’t, really. But I also believe that one of the death-knells for the manual transmission will someday be recognized as the discontinuation of the Camry equipped with a manual transmission.
This Camry has the standard-equipment four-cylinder, in this case the 2.4 liter 2AZ-FE. This engine doesn’t exactly have the same flawless reputation as other Toyota engines; it is known to consume quite a bit of oil. The problem seems to be hit-or-miss, and there’s a chance this one is okay, or has already been rebuilt or repaired, at 209,000 miles. It does run and drive beautifully, according to the seller, and was just tuned up and just received new brakes.
It’s in good, but not great, condition, and it has a few yellow flags, like the cheap window tint turning purple, and some silly stick-on air diffusers above the rear window. Still, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and I guess you shouldn’t necessarily judge a car by its Pep Boys accessories.
The photos in the ad are weirdly oversaturated, and I have a feeling it was done on purpose to hide blemishes. What we can see doesn’t look all that promising: Scrapes and dings abound, especially on the rear bumper, one of the perils of parking in Los Angeles, I suppose. At least it’s mostly shiny.
The key to an enjoyable, reliable, inexpensive car, as we’ve discussed here many times before, is a manual transmission. They just last longer, and while shifting gears can’t necessarily make a humble midsize sedan into a sports car, it can help keep you from nodding off due to boredom. And because many “normal” car buyers don’t want manuals, you can sometimes get great deals on them. Which one of these feels like a better deal to you?
(Image credits: sellers)
I voted the Mazda, but truthfully I’d need to see the underside to be sure. That era tended to have serious issues. I don’t see any bubbling though, and it’s in southern California, so it’s probably in the clear.
2007 Camry was the first new car I ever bought. Perfectly cromulent but that pretty much covers its strengths. Give me some zoomzoom for a change.