What Engines Do You Recommend To Folks Who Are Bad At Maintaining A Car?

Until fairly recently, or maybe still now, I feel like I was a car guru in a sea of car dummies. Okay, maybe car “dummies” is kind of a harsh term, but I have historically had a lot of friends who need vehicles to get around. I live in Ohio, where public transit is completely useless, and these folks are probably decent enough at driving, but I don’t know if I could trust them to correctly follow the instructions on the back of a Betty Crocker box of brownie mix, let alone maintain something as complex as a car.

Yet, I know they need a car. So I do what I can to help. 

Maybe you’ve been in this situation too; you know someone who needs a vehicle, and you want to suggest something idiot-proof and hopefully bulletproof. I’ve got my picks and favorites of a handful of engines that I know will likely hold up to the abuse and neglect of a kind, yet oblivious owner.

Toyota 1NZFE and 1NZXFE

This little 1.5-liter four-cylinder wasn’t exactly the quickest engine Toyota ever made. It only made anywhere from 103 to 106 horsepower, depending on the application. Nor did it go in any of the most interesting-to-drive vehicles, as it was the engine found under the hood of any Scion xA, xB, Toyota Echo, Yaris, and second-generation Toyota Prius.

It’s got a timing chain, so no weird belt service intervals that’ll be put off for miles until it snaps, like every Honda Civic before 2005. Outside of the engine, these are robust vehicles that don’t come with any strange CVT weirdness (except the Prius, which isn’t a true toroidal CVT), or strange GDI engine technology that’ll gunk up the intake valves. There’s a reason why my old roommate’s 2005 Scion xB has 335,000 miles and counting.

[Editor’s Note: I’ll back Kevin up here, as the engine in my old xB was pretty much bulletproof. I changed a starter and some coilpacks over the years, but that was it, and it had an absurd amount of miles. – JT]

I have now owned six versions of this engine, including the Atkinson-cycle engine found in my Toyota Prius. Anecdotally, they only really break after severe neglect. Out of the six I purchased only two truly needed engines, one of which was due to a strange freak accident where road debris had punctured the radiator, causing the car to overheat.

GM L61

Now, I’m gonna take a lot of flack for this one. The GM L61 isn’t the most refined motor; you probably know it as the 2.2-liter Ecotec that first showed up in the Chevy Cavalier, and quickly spread its way to every GM shitbox of the early to late 2000s. It’s the base engine found in the Malibu, Saturn L-Series, Saturn Ion, Chevy Cobalt, and Saturn VUE, and a gaggle of other bailout-era crapboxes.

I know these engines sometimes have timing chain tensioners that fail, and they’re installed in some of the worst examples of “Old GM” to ever disgrace North America. But the L61 seems to hold true to the old adage that GM vehicles will run badly for a long time, longer than some vehicles will run at all.

I grew up not far from the old Lordstown plant that churned out GM’s insipid J-body cars. It seems like a teal and rusty Sunfire or Cavalier with half an exhaust and noisy timing chain should be the state car because it seems like damn near every family had one, or knew someone that did. I remember family members being upset that Chevrolet had discontinued the Cavalier, insisting that the conglomerate had done so because “the car was just selling too damn good.” I don’t think that’s how it works, but, okay. I guess.

Are those cars good? Absolutely not, but it’s remarkable how long they’ll drive around in a dilapidated state. For the ultra-budget buyer who won’t buy a foreign car (or can’t find one that is roadworthy), the Chevy Cavalier or Cobalt with an L61 will embrace you with open arms, and a clattering timing chain. 

Hyundai Beta Engine

For a long time, I’ve avoided Hyundai products, probably because I fell for the trap where my midwest parents and peers insisted South Korea could never ever build a car as good as GM or Ford. Well, in my late teens, I stopped listening to them after my brother’s 1999 Grand Prix went through two transmissions and an engine. Yet, that man had the audacity to call his Grand Prix “reliable.” Reliably terrible, maybe.

My personal experience with the Hyundai Beta engine came from a friend or two with the 2001-2005 Hyundai Elantra, and later when I purchased and reconditioned a 2008 Hyundai Tiburon. Technically, this engine seems to be mediocre. Unlike the above two engines, the Beta uses a heavy-as-hell iron block. It’s an interference design, with a timing belt, so ignoring the intervals will ensure it dies a terrible death with bent-up valves and gouged-out pistons.

And yet in the real world, at least anecdotally, these engines tend to hold up really well. They’re not known for any serious issues. Sure, performance, refinement, and fuel economy won’t be as good as a typical Honda or Toyota of the same era, but who cares?

You need a solid car, that will take the abuse only a kind, but clueless car owner can dish out. Also, if the engine does explode, a used replacement engine can be had for as little as $350 from your local junkyard. Far cry from the thousands of dollars necessary to find a good-running replacement, the Hyundai Theta engine, which replaced the Beta engine in many applications.

So, that’s my (probably misguided) list of engines I recommend to people who I know are on a budget, and don’t have the wherewithal to maintain a car correctly. How about you? What engine, or cars, do you recommend to your friends who you know aren’t great at maintaining either?