i live in Boston and my office is Copley. I have been to courts in Worcester, New Bedford, Framingham, Salem, Woburn and others... may go as far as springfield... so mainly 93, 95 and Pike.

He knows his vws

I feel ya. I'm taking a new job starting in July. My POS truck will not make the 45 mile commute so the Boxster will become my daily driver starting next week. I'm not looking forward to putting 100 miles a day on my car that previously only saw about 3-4k miles a year, but I'm kind of out of options.

Luckily, in December, I'll be purchasing my father's Chrysler 300 so hopefully, I won't have to worry about salt. (Please hold off Chicago winter!) Also I think I have just enough tire left to get me to December and I'll still have under 100k on the odometer. Barely.

I think the Acura EL is the ultimate commuter car- if, low cost and comfort are your needs. There's a lot of cars I'd rather drive but they all cost a lot more to buy and run. To me there's important and unimportant miles. I drive the Porsche for those that count most.

My other car is a MINI - love that car and it always makes me smile when I drive it.

Since you are in MA, go talk to Pete at Greasy's Garage in Worcester. This is the guy in NE for MINIs. In fact, he has just fixed one up and will be selling it soon.

The best year for MINIs is '06 - last year for the R53. The new R56 model engines just suck. Since I bought my '05 I have been slowly modding it from 180HP up to over 200. Maintenance is not bad, especially when compared to Porsche, and again, Pete is the guy when you need to get it fixed.

PM me if you have any questions on MINIs. I can give you some good hints.

Also, check out Mass Motoring club website as well. Great group of guys.

I also have a MINI Cooper S (2006) as my daily driver and it is great. My commute is about 15 miles each way and for that distance it is perfect. That said, if you have a long all-highway commute I think it might wear on you - the MINIs are fairly high-strung and not that comfortable just droning along on the interstate. And as been said before, $5-7K won't get you a good example if you can find one at all in that price range. I'm going to side with the others who are thinking "winter beater" and for the money a Subaru AWD is hard to beat for economy and fun.

I have an '04 BMW 325i that I use as my daily driver. I usually do anywhere from 80 to 150 miles a day her in Va. and MD. I currently have 139k on her and she is running strong. Knock on wood!