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... Of course I have lots of Muscle car stories, but NOBODY hears about that (would kinda ruin my image with my current fleet of $35 - 35 yr old 52 HP 50 mpg 'Grease burner's.) ...
You're right about it ruining your current image. The guy who posts nothing but plugs for grease-powered diesels has a long history of muscle cars? I'd love to hear some of those!
On the $1000 car topic: helping a friend shop for a car right now. Unfortunately he wants more modern conveniences, and isn't mechanically inclined (read: has no idea where to even start doing his own maintenance). While they're not $1000, I'm surprised how cheap early 2000's Focus's (Focii?) have gotten. Plenty of nice, <130k mile examples for under $2500. I've got. A few friends with older. Focus's. No big mechanical issues, run forever, get good economy for a gasser (one friend manages 35-40mpg highway -- impressive for a stock gas engine), are cheap to insure, and fairly fun to drive (ever throw a Focus ZX3 with the 5 speed manual around some tight corners?).
Nope, not safe enough. I'm keeping my 2008 Honda Accord for 10 years, it was $18,599. Twenty $1000 cars (one every 6 months for 10 years) is $20,000, and not nearly as nice of cars. Other than a little dent in the back fender (December 26th fender-bender) it's perfect!
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cab591
You're right about it ruining your current image. The guy who posts nothing but plugs for grease-powered diesels has a long history of muscle cars? I'd love to hear some of those!
... While they're not $1000, I'm surprised how cheap early 2000's Focus's (Focii?) have gotten. Plenty of nice, <130k mile examples for under $2500. I've got. A few friends with older. Focus's. No big mechanical issues, run forever, get good economy for a gasser (one friend manages 35-40mpg highway -- impressive for a stock gas engine), are cheap to insure, and fairly fun to drive (ever throw a Focus ZX3 with the 5 speed manual around some tight corners?).
I'm actually considering picking one up, too...
Keep your eyes open for the Foci. An hour ago, just turned in my NEW Focus rental >300 miles. I left the Average Mileage reading 42.8.... the attendant was as impressed as I. (tho I am NEVER really impressed unless SUSTAINED 50+ for 1000 miles per fill... ... VW diesel) (I get to finish another 'new' B4V tomorrow (#3 of thePassat TDI 'GLX conversion wagons in my stable))
I do have a <$1000 muscle car story from the early '70s.... We... wild kids...- 5 cars. made a pact to run up to Cheyenne (from Colorado) one night. 70 miles ONE WAY.
Rules:NO lights, must be round-trip (140 miles) in under 2 hrs with an OFFICIAL 'gift' from Cheyenne to prove you were there. No CRAZY stuff...
The winner was WELL under 2 hrs and there was LOTS of hanky Panky enroute. (passing in dark, hiding at overpasses and dropping beer bottles on 'leaders', False blinking lights, Spotlight blinding oncoming drivers W/O lights...)
The fleet that night was:
68 Super Bee 383 (winner)
69 Charger 440
69 Chevelle 396
70 Torino 429
71 Duster 340 6-pac
There were a few small block Chevy's that tried to come... They led for the first 1/5th mile, then... whoosh... bug blocks rule for top end cruising. Ironically, NO one got in trouble (that time...).
I had the 6pac, as I had rebuilt it from a TOTAL while in HS ($600). Think of THAT... a previously TOTALLED car (rebuilt by a HS farm kid) with a carload of crazy kids driving 140 miles in the DARK at well over 100mph...
Certainly not one of the more SCARY things I did... (but amoung the top 1,000 STUPID things)
I was also a professional flattracker 'later' in life...
My many yrs as a professional CDL driver (weekend nights) brought a bit more sense to me as I attended to MANY fatal accidents of Kids doing similar... It is NOT pleasant to attend to their death (for HOURS while you wait for next car to pass by in WY) and later explain to their parents why YOUR TRUCK killed their kids (who crossed into your lane and went under your 3,000# engine and 100,000# truck.) Life is not always fun and crazy... I have SLOWED a little...
I still enjoy a nice sporty ride and personally can find them well under $1000 (i,e,...$35 VW W/ SCCA handling package). I still take out a muscle car on occassion, as well as my vintage MC's. (some are VERY fast, but handling / brakes are circa 1970's).
As an ADULT (?) I ASSURE I do NOT put others in danger.... (I'm insured, and DS will have a GREAT sale / party if / when I check out)
My SPEED days on the road were over by age 18, and then to the track for a few yrs, and then;
...52 hp since 1976(1 mpg / HP)... NO OPEC or Dinosaurs required (My dad owned a Sinclair "Dinosaur" filling station when I was a SMALL kid...)
So many cars around here get tossed because the owners are just tired of them or won't spend a nickle to fix it.
I was given a Volare last year... told to come and get it. I asked what was wrong with it.
Told it needed a battery and had a flat tire and the radio stopped working and that was the reason it was parked the year before.
Came with my compressor, starting fluid and jumper cables and drove the car home... radio had a fuse problem... not even a blown fuse... just a little corrosion on the fuse itself.
Sold it for $800, washed, shampooed and smogged...
I've bought nice, newer cars in my life (Saab Viggen, Porsche 911T, Chevy Silverado) but also my share of cheap junkers. Some of which served me very well!
1972 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with 80,000 miles for $500. I drove it extensively for six years then sold it...for $500.
1994 Plymouth Voyager van for $200. Needed a transmission; a used tranny installed cost me $600.00. I had that van for a couple of years and sold it for $600 when it started needing too many repairs.
1964 Ford F250, $200. Was my daily driver for about five years (in the 1980s.) I adored that truck.
1986 Saab 900, no money, I traded two days of painting work for it. Drove it for several years, gave it to a friend who drove it for a couple of years. Then she drove it up to Montana and gave it to her nephew. At that point it had something like 350,000 miles on it and last I heard was still going strong.
I once needed to get from Omaha to Denver in a hurry. Bought a large domestic sedan (can't remember which) for $150.00 from someone in a bar. It got me to Denver, then died. I junked it but it was worth the $150.00.
A young man who works for me bought a $600 Mercury Villager van with almost 300K and got about a year's use. Now he is driving a Ford Ranger pickemup he bought last summer for $500. It looks like crap, but runs.
Nope. On Easter, March 31, 2013, I turned right on a red at a huge intersection and didn't see anyone coming. All of a sudden a huge white Suburban comes flying out of nowhere. I really shouldn't have turned there on that red... mistakes happen ): I almost got hit. I realized that if I had gotten hit, I would be hurt, and my car would be totaled, but I'd survive thanks to my car's robust side structure and curtain airbags. A beater in 2013 is going to be at least 10 years old, more likely 15-20; that puts the production date most likely in the 1990s. If a Suburban hits you on the side in one of those, you're dead due to the lack of curtain airbags and the weaker side structures common at that time. You can get dual airbag on the beaters, but side curtain airbags are still not in that price range... SOMEBODY MAKE RETROFIT SIDE CURTAIN AIRBAGS!
Had my first "bad" experience with cheap car ownership. My locks are broken and (being lazy) I hadn't fixed them yet. Sometime in the past week, someone got into my car and stole a $10 flashlight. Completely ignored the $20 bill I had in the cupholder, and took my freaking flashlight! I hope they really needed it...
New flashlight is locked away in the trunk. And, I ghetto fixed my door locks. Hopefully it won't happen again.
$1000 cars are very hard to come by in MI. No safety or smog inspections plus heavy demand for cheap cars means if it starts, it's worth $1000, since nobody dumps a car because it won't pass smog. Heck, I'm seeing domestics with 250K+ going for $2000+.
My wife's '97 Taurus Wagon cost $800, has had no mechanical work done except an alternator, a set of new tires, and a couple hundred to spruce up non-drive features. She drives several times a year between Texas and Michigan, and has run up about 25K in two years. Oil stays at the full mark, tires wear normally.
If you're just going around town, why not? You buy a vehicle for $1000 or less, and if it gives you any troubles within six months or so, you throw it away and get another. I know it obviously won't work for everyone but has anyone thought of doing this?
I did a variation of this...bought my current daily driver for exactly $1000, fixed the mechanical and electrical bugs, and now have a much better car with less than $3K in it.
It's an 82 Scirocco, I have driven over 200K miles, it still runs great and gets about 38 MPG on clear gas. I have an extra engine and transmission in a parts car that I should go through so I can just swap them out as a unit whenever I need to do that.
This stunt only works in non-rust country.
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I'd love to hear some of those!
