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Smart Shopper Good, Cheap Beater Cars & Inexpensive Commuter Cars - how to find one?
345 messages, Last post on Nov 25, 2009 at 9:00 AM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) While I don't particularly like the idea of spending money on a car with that kind of mileage, it's his money. It runs, so I guess $500 for anything that runs makes it a good purchase. What I'm worried about are the maintenance costs on something with that kind of mileage. I'd rather him save more money and buy something that's a bit less used. Anyone have any input as to what to look for, $ wise that he may have to pay to keep this beast on the road? I'll open this up even further regarding good/cheap $1,000-$2,000 "beaters"? |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) For $1K-$2K, I doubt you're going to find anything much better, and you'll be going in blindly, since you probably wil be dealing with a stranger. With that kind of budget limitation, IMHO I'd go with the Camry, unless you know that it was truly abused. Then again, if it's run this long, someone must have taken decent care of it..... |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) I'd say give it a good check-over, make sure all the fluids look decent, check under the hood for signs of anything leaking, drive it around to see if the engine/tranny act up, brakes make any evil noises, etc. Then, if the car seems like something that might be worthy, take it to a mechanic you trust and have them check it out and put it through an inspection. I've had a few high-mileage cars (My '68 Dart now has 338,000 miles on it), and have had pretty good luck with them, for the most part. On a cost-per-mile basis, I figured out that it's run me around 10 cents per mile, + gas and insurance. Just for comparison, my '79 Newport ran about 13 cents a mile, my '89 Gran Fury about 16 cents a mile, and my '00 Intrepid, about 23 cents a mile. In addition to the engine and tranny, I'd definitely look at the suspension. That's probably the next most expensive thing that can go wrong. Well, there's a/c, but that's not really a necessity with a $500 car! Also, have a good look under the hood of that car, and try to estimate how easy it will be to work on. Stuff like belts and hoses, spark plugs, the air filter, battery, alternator, etc. Does it look like something you and your son could work on together, or would you have to constantly be depending on a repair shop to keep it running? |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) Kids want their cars but the things are money pits. |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) If he gets the Camry he will need to respect it's age and drive it accordingly. It could have another good 50,000 or miles in it. |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) I owned it from 96-99 paid 1000 for it, and put almost 50k miles on it. In this time the repairs were: All belts changed(timing included) cost: 100.00 New Tires(early 99) cost: 150.00 New battery and starter cost: 150.00 New muffler cost: 45.00 These were all the unanticipated things I changed except the tires. The battery, left my lights on once to many, muffler was rusted out when I got it, starter died in 98. Belts were changed in 98 b/c timing belt snapped thank goodness for noninterference motors. Aside from that, all normal maintenance including one tune-up, oil changes, brake pad change, etc. Oh yeah, changed out the front shocks in 97 cost me about 100.00 for both fronts. The biggest heartache that I had was that since it was an LE, it had power windows and locks. Well the switches had long since given up so I mustered all the good parts on all the doors and was able to use both front windows for a while, then only the drivers window went up and down. In hawaii, that sucks! At least the A/C kept going until the very end!... The end of the car is still a mystery. I think I had a clogged heater core or something, because one day, the temp guage just started hauling for the H, and nothing helped(even turning on heater, and stopping) just idling would overheat the engine at that point. very strange... well I overheated it too badly that time(among other problems so just tried to drive it home... letting the engine shut itself down is bad) The headgasket went about .25 mi from my house, and then the timing belt melted. It was towed the last 1/8 mi and a junk yard towed it away for free. But it went about 8 miles overheated... =o) This was replaced by a 94 Corolla for 4g's that now has 150k miles and still going. |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) Here's what it needed: -new front brake pads and rotors -rear brake adjust -new center link -new idler arm -engine mounts -valve cover gaskets -belts -tuneup -tranny service -exhaust work (hole in the catalytic converter) -belts & hoses The estimate for all this stuff was around $1200-1300. We had the first four items done, for about $600, and were going to wait on the rest. My uncle was planning on driving this car to work, so he wouldn't be racking up so many miles on his truck, which just hit 90,000 miles and almost paid off. He ended up getting a brand-new Corolla though, about a week after my grandmother put $600 into the car. She was mad, but in the long run my uncle did the right thing. At the time he was driving about 90 miles a day, but he got relocated and it's now more like 130. I'm sure just the fuel savings alone would've been pretty impressive. The Buick also needed 4 new tires, so figure about another $200+ there, depending on the quality of the tire. The last straw was when the brakes went out. At that point we decided to not put any more money or effort into the car. Now a lot of what it needed was just maintenance stuff...any car, even a new one, will need stuff like belts, hoses, brakes, tuneups, tranny services, etc, after awhile. I don't know how Japanese cars age, but with domestic ones I think I'd almost trust one that's 15 or 20 years old before I'd trust one from the late '80's/early '90's. For the most part they were simpler, and when they did break they were cheaper to fix. In the rare even that an old Chrysler Torqueflite does fail, you could probably get another used one thrown in for a few hundred bucks. When I bought my '89 Gran Fury, I bought it from a dealership that fixes up old police cars. I remember he told me that if the tranny went, he could throw in another used one for around $300. If the 318 blew, that'd be about $1,000. You really can't do that with an early '90's Chrysler though. If your 4-speed tranny is fried, well, the chances are the ones in the junkyard aren't going to be any better, and you're looking at around $2500+ for a rebuild. In contrast, a Torqueflite in these parts is only around $800 for a rebuild. |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) Terry. |
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Replying to: ghulet (Sep 02, 2002 1:26 am) Save about $100/ month and it will save a lot of emotional hassle. |
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