I suppose I should consider cost of insurance and cost of maintenance as well. How are these cars in that regard?

 

Expensive. Source: My sister has 2 E36 M3's and a E46 M3.

Maybe it's me, but german cars always seem to cost way more on maintainence and fixing

 

Just a different idea outside of the typical Honda/Toyota/Hybrid answer.
An old Jetta (or some other VW) TDI. Gets 50+ mpg.

 

True, the E36 M3 are pricey, that's why I recommended the 318. That would be like comparing insurance on a 2.5i vs STI.

The 318 is a 1.8L 4cyl and are easy to maintain as well as relatively cheap to repair as they're becoming more and more popular at local pick and pulls.

My 325is that I had got 29mpg on average with a heavy foot and had 421k before I put her out to pasture!

 

Honestly dude - if you're looking for mileage on the cheap and don't care about "cool"

1978 VW rabbit diesel 40+mpg

Mark I VW's are some of the most fun to drive cars I've ever found. I bet you could walk with this one for under $1000

 

Well, those are M's. Insurance is always higher when its a performance version of a car.

 

I was referring to the maintainence, but yeah, I guess the insurance is gonna way more too XD

 

Im jelly of your sisters garage. Whats up with the E36's? Lux or sport? and whats up with the E46? lol. Im intrested in these things now

 

E36 sport. She bought the E46 brand new, then felt bad about DDing it, so she got the E36 as a DD. Don't ask me why she got ANOTHER E36 after that. But she's been an M3 fan ever since she was a teenager (over 20 years ago XD)

She moved to the east coast and sold one of the E36's though.

 

<----- On criagslist searching for an E36 M3 for DDing

 

My pops just bought a 2012 Mazda 3 hatch with skyactive and is getting 47 MPG average on his drives from Sacramento to Portland.


****EDIT****

Didnt see the $10k max budget.

 

can you find a base model mini in that price range?

 

Different people have different needs of a daily driver. If you can go a couple days without a car, have a place to work on a car and leave it torn down for a day or two, definitely go the "old used car" route. I have been doing that for years, and up until the last two years, that has been going well. In 2012, I lost my place to work on cars when I agreed to move into an apartment. For some reason though, I have had the weirdest constant car problems with my used cars. Last month, I picked up a 2013 Corolla on a lease. It's $198/month and was $999 down. I have heard Honda is doing the Fit for $159/mo. Keep in mind this is a brand new car, but not a top model. Mine has bluetoof and A/C and all that. Averaging 30mpg with city/highway (this is actual, with calculations and stuff). Sure I have seen 37mpg on the display before, but.. Nevermind.

For me, it is critically important to always be able to get to/from work. My WRX has broken too many times in the last year and now the tranny has died. Sure, these are great cars and these problems are not serious, but I have spent more in the last few months on maintaining my daily driver and my WRX issues than this Corolla will cost for an entire year.

Again, totally depends on the situation and 5 years ago I would have punched myself in the face for making a stupid suggestion like this, yet today, it's like a life-saver for me.

Of course, A lease doesn't make sense for everyone, but it works for me, I hope. A lot of people will probably say this is bad advice when you can buy a cheap used car for the price of the lease payments. I understand, but I just cannot afford to deal with the BS related to fixing broken cars anymore.

A friend got a Corolla for a similar down/month but with 15k allotted miles, so after paying my last bill, it got me thinking. I do around 400 miles a month for work and hope to have my WRX running some day again, so 12k was not an issue for me. I also intend to purchase the car at the end. So, it's around $1k down, $2,200 a year for 3 years and then a purchase of $10,800. Purchase price of the car was $18.8k. I couldn't find a 2 year old one for less than $14-$15k and the loan payments would be much more than my lease, with a used car. We will see how it really works out (this is the first time I have leased a car).

Note: I have driven around 600 miles now. I thought I would be terminally bored in this thing but - I actually really like it. It's super convenient, and keyless bluetooth and A/C is soooo much nicer than daily driving a '91 Justy. Plus, it seems like this car is completely invisible. LOL?

Note2: I have no idea why anyone would want to drive an E36 but different strokes. Some people probably wonder WhyTF I have had a '91 Justy for seven years so fair's fair. Just know that operating a 10+ year old BMW, Mercedes, SAAB, Audi, Porsche, Alfa, Fiat, or whatever will be something you do because you love the car, not because it's a worth-while experience. You take your chances with a Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mazda but the biggest thing I have found over the years is the Europeans will fully shut down when something fails, but I have driven broken Subarus and Toyotas for weeks. Of course this may not be true across the board but was true for me with my experiences with SAABs mostly, but also the odd BMW.

 

Of course I do not have first-hand experience with this car, but I would bet he's not getting anywhere close to 47mpg peak, and definitely not averaging 47mpg.

 

I'm currently putting offers in on houses, FARTHER from work, since I work in Marin I can't afford to buy a reasonably sized house that comes with a garage in that area (I'm not buying a Condo that has no garage). Likely I'll be buying something in Santa Rosa.

My WRX was my DD, and I'm selling it to help achieve that elusive 20% down on a house thing (avoids having to get PMI, etc.). My built STI gets less than 20 mpg because I can't help but get into it (that's what it's for). No way in hell I'm going to DD that thing for longer than I have to.

So I'm looking for a DD that is going to be cheap, hopefully for less than 5k, that will last me a few years (after which I won't need it anymore and can donate it to whomever wants to do something exciting with it like blow it up or offroad it until it dies).

Thanks for all the input thus far. If anyone has any unmentioned cars they know of that would be ideal for this, please chime in.