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Good, Cheap Beater Cars & Inexpensive Commuter Cars - how to find one?

356 messages,  Last post on Nov 14, 2010 at 10:25 AM

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Messages Page 36 of 36

#347 of 356 beater cars are awesome by holson

Jul 29, 2010 (11:44 pm)

my favorite beaters
 
* 1995 ford escort lx sport - mint low miler previously owned by a doctor. extremely cheap to run. Anything that broke was extremely cheap to fix even at a shop. Everybody will think you are absolutely broke though, better be OK with that
 
* 1995 jeep cherokee 2 dr 4x4 - this was a cool truck, really simple, good looking and everyone loves it.
Lots of stuff to add/modify and things that broke were reasonably cheap to fix.
 
worst beaters:
* 86 porsche 944 turbo - blown turbo, bad brakes, shuddering clutch, etc etc etc. It sure was cool when it ran though...
* 91 190e 2,6 - way too sluggish. MB gears these things for highway cruising - not moderate stop and go. I also love old MBs so I kept fixing things and things arent cheap to fix
 
i love beater cars

#348 of 356 Re: beater cars are awesome [holson] by qbrozen

Jul 30, 2010 (8:36 am)

Replying to: holson (Jul 29, 2010 11:44 pm)
I recently sold my 2nd 190e 2.6 beater. I wouldn't call it sluggish, as it would still outrun alot of modern econoboxes, at least, but you are right that its a great highway cruiser.
 
On that 2nd one, I bought it for $1500 with 163k miles. Drove it for 6k miles over about 6 months. Put maybe $300 into fixing things and tuning it up, then sold it for $2k. Not bad.

#351 of 356 Where to find the beaters by oldfarmer50

Oct 17, 2010 (3:38 pm)

The private party seller is my favorite place to buy beaters. If you're careful you can find a basically sound vehicle that has acquired too many cosmetic and minor mechanical defects for the owner to put up with any more. Most of them can be fixed cheap or ignored (who needs AC on a winter beater).
 
Last year I picked up a 1988 GMC van from a neighbor for 900 bucks. It's not pretty but it has only has 120K miles and an engine with only 25K on it. I use it to haul stuff on the farm. The tomatoes don't care how it looks.
 
Another place to find beaters is you local indie garage. Some times these places buy a few cars at auctions or from customers, fix them up and sell them as a sideline. I recently picked up a 1993 Caddy Deville with 80K miles at my local garage. Only paid $1200. I'm hoping to get at least 40K miles out of each of them before they start costing me too much.

#355 of 356 Hello yayvar by oldfarmer50

Nov 14, 2010 (10:25 am)

I have to hand it you, spamming this board takes a lot of guts but spamming this board by replying to a HOST is nothing short of insane.
 
Please post again as your first post will be removed soon.

Messages Page 36 of 36

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