Considering how high gas prices are these days (as well as insurance prices!), I'm in the market for a 4 door car (not 2 door because of insurance prices). I'm not sure what brands/models would qualify for what I want.

Anyway, I would like to find a kind of car that is a 4 door, with enough room in the back seat, or trunk, or maybe even take the back seat out, for large guitar amps and equipment. Anything from 1980 and up, a 5 speed manual transmission (or at least a 4 speed, as long as the gears are high enough that I can drive 70-80 on the highway without the engine reving at 4,000 r's or more). It has to have a 4 banger, or enough room to put my 2.1 (or was it 2.3?) liter Ford 4 cylinder in it. I'd prefer it to be rear-drive but if it's front drive and has everything else I need, that's fine. And if it's sleek, even better, because the car's only purpose will be highway driving and hauling some decently large equipment in the back, so the main thing is that I need the gas mileage...

I was looking at some old Geos, I was also considering an older Neon or Cavalier. But I don't know enough about them or the gas mileage they get, or the specs on the transmissions and gear ratios. I don't really have a brand preference when it comes to this car either. Just as long as it's reliable and gets good mileage!
Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance! :)

geo prizms are good, very reliable (toyota engine and transmission and chassis)

cavaliers are alright but alot of them were poorly maintained and its hard to find manual ones.

I would stay away with older neons, they had some teething problems and weren't very rugged, although they get pretty good gas mileage.

If you can deal with a smaller sedan, a toyota tercel 4 door may be worth looking at as well.

Good advice... I'd say any of the Japanese cars from that era should do. For more space, look at the wagons; camry, corolla, maxima, etc.

I remember driving a very nice 91 maxima wagon with a 5speed that felt very solid at 163,000 miles. Camry wagons should be very similar in reliability.

Good advice... I'd say any of the Japanese cars from that era should do. For more space, look at the wagons; camry, corolla, maxima, etc.

I remember driving a very nice 91 maxima wagon with a 5speed that felt very solid at 163,000 miles. Camry wagons should be very similar in reliability.

Nice. Reliability up to 163k miles is great. Thanks for that advice. I never really thought of a camry, nor did I know they made camry wagons. I will go look on ebay for them right now. :)

I'll check out tercels too. I've never seen them around much though.
I was just thinking, what about Ford escorts or tempos? Were there 4 door tempos with manuals? I'd also consider older Tauruses, but I don't think there were any stick shift models (besides the SHO) with a 4 cylinder. plus i hear about reliability issues with pre-1996 tauruses.

yes, there were manual transmission tempos, they're kinda hard to find though, especially 4 doors.

They did make a 4 cylinder manual transmission taurus from 1986-1989 called the MTX5. It was dreadfully slow and not many survived because of their low resale value. Other than the SHO, that was the only manual transmission taurus made. Manual transmission escorts are fine cars but I do think that they feel even cheaper than they are and most of them were abused.