Top 5 Reliable Cars Under $1500

hey do-it-yourselfers today I'm going to give you my top 5 picks for a reliable car that you can buy for under 1,500 bucks now if you already subscribed to my channel you probably know that I have a knack for fixing and diagnosing issues with cars and you may also know that I'm a used-car dealer and I've sold hundreds if not thousands of cars now while doing this over the years I've noticed different cars have certain types of problems and which ones tend to be more reliable than others and which ones seem to rarely have any major mechanical issues now if you're not a mechanic or a car dealer I would imagine this type of info might be hard to come by for you but fear none today I'm going to transfer that information over to you and give you my top 5 picks for a reliable car for under $1500 so at number 5 we have one of my personal favorites which is a Ford Crown Victoria now Ford Crown Victorias have been used for ages both as a police vehicle or a police interceptor and as a taxicab and it's for good reason these cars are very Hardy the lasts a long time with proper maintenance they rarely have any major engine or transmission issues and on top of that they're fairly easy to work on now if you look hard enough you can usually find one of these that's in decent shape and you can buy it for under 1,500 bucks but if you can help it try to buy one that's 2001 or newer but even better try to find a Crown Victoria that was used as a police interceptor because these Crown Victorias come with upgrades to their suspension cylinder heads camshafts and other components but even better than that these characters were probably maintained properly because they were used as a fleet vehicle as far as the spec goes for these vehicles they come with the 16-valve single overhead cam 4.6 liter v8 engine it produces 235 horsepower and 275 pound feet of torque these cars have a kerb weight of 3946 pounds and they have a four-speed automatic transmission now as far as mechanical issues really only two things stick out in my mind when you go to buy one of these if specially if you're buying a 2000 100 or older make sure that the intake manifold is upgraded because the factory intake manifolds the front portion of them was made out of plastic and it was a very common area for leaks to develop now if I remember this correctly in 2002 they upgraded these intake manifolds but less when you go to see one of these cars up in the hood and take a look at the intake manifold and make sure it's upgraded now the second issue that comes to mind is that the chaotic converters on these cars seem to clog up more often when compared to other cars so it's important if you ever develop a misfire on these cars you fix it and treat it right away and also that you maintain your engine and do your oil changes on time so you don't damage your oil ring on your Pistons and develop any oil burning issues which can damage your Kelly D converters but besides those two issues nothing else major stands out in my mind I've actually known people that have driven these cars up to five hundred thousand miles on the original engine just by properly maintaining them alright next up coming in at number four is a 1995 to 1999 Nissan Sentra which is a B 40 series for these cars now in my opinion these Nissan Sentra's are some of the most reliable cars Nissan has ever made they're nothing fancy they're not really fun to drive but they just go and go and they never seem to want to die now these b14 series come with a 1.6 liter dual overhead cam engine but there's an SE model which has a two point leader engine but that's not what we're talking about in this video I'm talking about the 1.6 liter engine for these series the engine and these cars produces 115 horsepower and 108 pan feet of torque these cars also have a curb weight of 2315 pounds and when you put a dual overhead cam 1.6 litre four-cylinder engine in a body that weighs only 2,000 315 pounds you get crazy gas mileage which is upper 20s for city driving and then upper 30s for highway driving which is pretty impressive in my opinion now the engine on these cars is an interference engine which means either the valves or the Pistons will occupy the same space if the engine is not timed properly by the timing belt or the timing chain now luckily these engines have a timing chain which lasts a lot longer than a timing belt and these chains rarely break or snap in half like your timing belt without any warning and that's great because if that happens your valves will hit your Pistons or your valves will hit each other and cause catastrophic engine failure and you also save money on maintenance because chains last a lot longer than belt and you don't have to replace them unless they stretch whereas timing both you have to replace every 60,000 or whatever interval the manufacturer specifies as far as any common or known mechanical defects or issues with these cars well they're hardly any both the engine and the transmission work very well they're well made and last a long time the only thing that comes to my mind is that if the you buy car that has not been maintained properly and the origins haven't been done on time you could have a worn out timing chain guides or timing chain tensioner or maybe the timing chain can stretch over time and then you are going to have to replace that timing chain but besides that nothing major stands out with these cars all right next up number three which is a 93 to an 87 Toyota Corolla which is the same as a 93 to an 87 Geo Prizm at least on the inside where the engine and transmission are concerned now in my opinion to it overall makes the most reliable cars people think Toyota and Honda or equals but that's not true it's not even close to it it is much better than Honda in fact any other manufacturer when it comes to reliability now two different sized engines come in these Corolla is you can get them either in a 1.6 liter dual overhead cam engine or a 1.8 liter dual overhead cam engine now these two engines produce 100 and 105 horsepower and 105 and 115 pound-feet of torque respectively now the Corollas with the 1.6 liter have a kerb weight of two thousand three hundred and fifteen pounds and the ones with the 1.8 liter have a kerb weight of two thousand four hundred and three pounds and very similar to the nissan sentra when you put a small dual overhead cam engine and a lightweight chassis you get excellent gas mileage again is in the upper 20s for city driving and upper 30s for highway driving now you being a broker are going to probably only afford the base model which is the C II Toyota Corolla which comes with the 1.6 liter the 1.8 liter comes with the DX and the le models I believe that's not a big deal because if anything the 1.6 liter in my opinion is slightly more reliable than a 1.8 liter on these cars now unlike the nissan sentra these cars come with the timing belt which does need to be replaced every so often but looking for the owners of these cars these engines are non-interference both the 1.6 liter and the 1.8 liter which means the valves on the Pistons don't by the same space so if your timing belt breaks we're time in both components becomes defective and your engine loses the ability to time itself all you have to do is really replace that defective part or your timing belt and be on your way but yeah as far as the driving experience Wells pretty much similar to the Nissan Sentra there might even be a little bit more stiff than the Nissan Sentra which is not easy to do but they are all right so next coming in at number two is a 1988 - a 2002 Honda Accord these are basically the sixth generation Honda Accords and along with the fifth generation Honda Accords which were made from 94 to 1987 these are the most reliable Honda made vehicles ever made now these six generation on that course came with the four-cylinder and the six-cylinder engine but as far as reliability is concerned I believe the fourth cylinder engine is much more reliable now the base model or the DX model of these Accords had a 2.3 liter single overhead cam engine however the LX and the II X models had a 2.3 liter VTEC engine now if your budget is $1,500 and you're looking for a Honda Accord and it's probably a better idea to buy the base model that's non-vtec because if you buy a car that was not maintained properly than the engine sludge and the lack of lubrication could damage the VTEC system and cause you to run into all sorts of problems but as some of you may know driving a Honda with VTEC is pretty fun as far as the spec for these cars the non-vtec 2.3 liter gets 135 horsepower and 145 pound feet of torque the VTEC version gets 150 horsepower and 152 pounds feet of torque the kerb weight for these cars is about two thousand eight hundred eighty-eight pounds and the gas mileage is mid 20s for city driving and mid 30s for highway driving as far is known or common mechanical issues with these cars well there aren't any now these engines do come with a timing belt and our interference engines it's crucial that you know exactly when the timing belt was replaced if you go to buy one of these cars or that it's properly inspected if there's no maintenance records and now the moment you've been all waiting for the most reliable car you can buy for under 1,500 bucks without any doubt or question is a Toyota Camry with the 2.2 liter engine now these cameras were made from 1980 - all the way to 2005 but if you can help it try to buy one that's at least 96 or newer now as you remember up until about a year ago I owned a 95 Camry and that thing just simply refused to die now that thing was a total rust bucket and had all sorts of leaks and other minor issues but it just simply would go you know I just start the engine get in it take me from point A to point B no problem now these 2.2 liter engines can put out 130 horsepower and hundred forty-five pound-feet of torque these cars have a curb weight of 3263 pounds now this is not a reliability issue but the mpg or the gas mileage on these cars is not super great you get about upper teens maybe low 20s for city driving and then mid 20s for highway driving as far as known or common mechanical issues there's absolutely none with the engine or transmission in fact you rarely find a 2.2 liter with the transmission that's going bad or an engine that has randomly developed the overheating issue or head gasket issue or a knocking issue I mean I drove the car you see on the screen which had more than two hundred thousand miles on it with look cooling at times other times even with low oil and it simply refused to die it we just keep going now these 2.2 liter engines do have a timing belts but again similar to the Toyota Corolla these engines are non-interference which means if the belt breaks your valves will not hit your Pistons and you probably be okay with just pointing on a new timing belts and in fact that's exactly what happened to my Toyota Camry on my way back to the right house one day that tiny melt on the car broke and what I did was to toilet car to the right house and then replace the timing belt and the timing belt components I also actually got that on camera so I have a video on that on my channel if you're interested and I simply started a car and the car kept going for many more miles the only minor mechanical issue I can think of on these cars is a leak from the oil pump seal or gasket right by your crankshaft these seals are known to go bad over time and then since the leak is done by the crankshaft due to the circulation of air oil gets all over the place but in my opinion this is not a major issue now if you want to see other videos similar to this maybe four different categories do me a favor and leave a comment down below or if you see a suggestion or a comment that you agree with you that and I'll make a video on the one that gets the most amount of votes and I promise not to use the electoral college this time actually scratch all of that I'm going to continue to make these types of videos because all I did for this video was to sit on my chair listen to myself speak and look at myself on camera and I won't lie I really really like the sound of my own voice and also looking at myself on camera but it's really hard keeping a straight face while saying some of this so if you feel the same way do me a favor and check out these other related videos the which I'll put links to on this side of the screen there will also be links down below in the description box as well alright thanks for watching I'll see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,236,636

Rating: 4.8908734 out of 5

Keywords: Top 5 reliable cars, is Toyota better or Honda, which one is more reliable honda or toyota, most reliable car under $1000, reliable cars under $1500, Top 5 picks for a car, 5 reliable used cars, how to buy a used car that lasts, most reliable car brand, who is the best car brand, who makes the most reliable cars, Is a Ford Crown Victoria reliable, is a p71 a good car, Nissan Sentra a good car?, Toyota Corolla a good car?, Honda Accord a good car?, Toyota Camry a good car?

Id: i4mce4bCAHo

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2017