Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

lemmer

So your dad welded up your [non-permissible content removed]?

bumpy

"Miata Z3"? Why don't you just buy a Z3?

I don't know how to feel about the rims

Sport Compact Car, GM style

Andre's new old truck

diesel premium

Lemko Special

qbrozen

i don't like to talk about it.

fintail

I am pretty sure you are right, it's a BMW unit

I can't imagine it being offered with a manual.

fintail

The rims on that Sentra are the sad things I remember dopes in high school buying ca. 1993. Yuck.

Not a bad looking 300TD, they'd want a lot more for it out here. That price looks fair, people go nutty over those wagons.

xwesx

I am in tears here..... simple response, yet effective. The best post in at least the last week.

lilengineerboy

That Sentra isn't bad at all... reasonably fun for a 1.6l w/110 hp. Its not like the squared off predecessor that had 70 hp. I still would be more inclined to opt for an SE-R or NX2000 w/140hp (and a fine track vehicle I might add )

andre1969

but I knew two people who put those same rims on their cars and yup, it was around 1993! One of them was a Toyota Tercel and the other was a compact Toyota pickup.

I kinda like that '69 Chevy C10. And depending on how evil the next emissions test ends up being for my Silverado, I might just scrap it for something older! Main thing I'm worried about is if they try to force me to replace my passenger-side gas tank. Last year, both of them had failed and were leaking, but they were about $850 apiece to get 'em replaced, so I only did one, and had the mechanic disconnect the right side one. He also screwed the fuel filler door shut so that nobody could accidentally put fuel in it.

Well, during the emissions test, they check your gas cap and tank for pressure. Even though I've disconnected the one, I'm worried they might force me to get it fixed to pass it. And unfortunately, my truck won't be eligible for historic (and emissions test-free) tags until January 1, 2010. I'd be willing to de-tag and park a car for a few months, but I'm NOT going to let my truck sit around for three years!

fintail

Future Franken-Ferrari

lilengineerboy

"You will never find a Ferrari for less than this one..."
...or a less desirable one. Weak model with fit and finish problems and maintenance issues, not worth that much to begin with... park it in the driveway and say you have a Ferrari.

british_rover

I think you guys will find this very very funny.

Top Gear does these basicly cheap beater challenges and this is one of the best ones.

1,500 pound(as in money not weight) coupe challenge part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

lilengineerboy

Top Gear is one of the best automotive based shows ever. They had (maybe still do) a "star in a reasonably priced car" segment where someone would be trained to drive a cheap car around the track and see which star could get the lowest lap time.

british_rover

They still do it but they changed cars now to a newer model since their old one had gotten trashed. Right before they changed cars they had The Stig take it around for a lap and he recorded the fastest lap time of anyone. Even faster then the F1 drivers they had on ths show.

fintail

Hilarious, I love the "grandfather clock" name for the XJS

That show is the best, thank god for YouTube, as Discovery doesn't seem to be bringing back its modified version of the show

xwesx

This coming from someone who owns a '69, I would definitely go for older. My truck is a brutally efficient workhorse, it looks good (okay, so that is my less than objective opinion, but others tend to agree), it is dependable (even at -40F or colder after months of sitting), and it is almost shamefully easy to repair. :P

Granted, the one listed was only a C10 and it was a *gulp* fleetside, but they cannot all be perfect fits! On the bright side, if it has a 6 in it you are bound to get better mpg than my 307 (which tops out at about 13.5 on a really good day, more usual is 11 mpg). A C10 only needs a 6 as it is not robust enough to haul loads that would require a V8.

I agree on the 3 years. If it is going to sit around with no use for that long, you would have to question whether you really even need it at all.

qbrozen

yup. that took quite a while to watch, but it was worth it.

michaellno

Hey, I owned a '91 Sentra! Mine was the SE model, which meant it had the alloy wheels (13"!!!) and the rear spoiler. Red with black interior.

Great car, great engine (although I really wanted to spend the extra grand on the SE-R), great everything. However, it didn't have A/C, which on the CA coast is not a huge loss. More annoyingly, it had those durn belts attached to the door frame, which was a gigantic pain in the butt.

I moved to CO in the summer of '93 and traded it in on a '93 Accord DX - what was I thinking?

sigh - sometimes I miss that little car.

andre1969

but I always liked that ~90-94 style (or whatever years it ran). Really made me think of a poor man's BMW, and style-wise it just seemed a cut above the typical small car.

british_rover

Pimp my Lada

jlflemmons

I LOVE IT!!! When the sun shade blew off the Starion with the hyper boost I nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard.

and I never would have believed that Jag would circle a pasture for that long.

Mr_Shiftright

Porsche Boxster: Miles are good but these cars are a dime a dozen so you needn't pay the retail price he is asking. Also, if you will pardon me, the car basically appeals mostly to women, so if you want to re-sell it at some point, you have two strikes....the silver color, which is a hard sell (they all want dark blue) and the manual transmission--they all want auto. So the trans/color combo will eliminate 75% of your buyers.

I'd say the car would be fairly priced at $17,000, at least where I live (California).

But if you really loved it and you paid $18.6K, no real harm done. Like I said, miles are good.

Has he ever had trouble with the top and/or the back window breaking? Be prepared for this defect. Great driving car, though.

au1994

The vehicle was a Dodge A100, '67 I believe. Strange looking little things, but Foose did a great job. Put a crate 360 in it which I bet makes it a handfull to drive, especially on wet roads.

lemmer

I gotta figure that if CarMax offered $18,000 that has to be close to wholesale around here. I thought if anything the price would be higher in California. What is up with that?

I am aware of the girly stigma of the car, but in my area, they are largely driven by men as the the family's third car. Z4s are considered kinda girly, and Miatas are considered to be purely for gay guys.

I don't make the rules or pretend to understand them.

au1994

I'll concur with Lemmer. Here in the Atlanta area, Boxter's are primarily male driven, Z4's are pretty much a 50-50 split. I'd take one in a heartbeat though. Miata's are chick cars. Occasionally you'll see one that is set up for track duty with a male driver.

Again...I don't make the rules etc, etc

andre1969

the Miata seems to be quickly becoming the balding old man's car. Bonus points if you're too fat too realistically wiggle into the thing but find a way to do so, anyway. Don't see too many rainbow stickers or bear flags on them anymore though, so maybe that stereotype is fading away?

I don't see enough Boxters to really make a judgement yet. Z4's seem to be a good male/female split. The SC430 seems to be the car of choice for old women who have been left out in the sun too long.

lemmer

SC430 is the older, fat, golfing doctor's car here.

So what is the car for cool mid-30s dudes like some of us here?

qbrozen

'86 Alfa Spider.

seriously, though, i'm not sure I know of a masculine convertible sportscars for us mid-30s cool dudes. I think they are all chick cars. You need to go coupe to be really cool.

Oddly enough, I think the S2000 might be the closest ... and that's mainly because its NOT available with an automatic. If only it was made for people over 6', I'd probably have one.

qbrozen

am I crazy for loving the end result? Hell, I liked the car BEFORE they showed the tester trying to coax it around a track! I've never seen a car handle quite like that.

au1994

I'm 35 and I have a Dodge truck. We're big DIY'ers and hit some of the antique stores and Home Depot frequently so I get my car fix from my wife's Volvo S40 T5.

Seems to me that the moneyed lean to the 3 Series BMW, Audi A4's, Acura TL's etc. Lot's o' trucks and SUV's though, an occasional Mustang for guys in our demographic.

andre1969

Yeah, I'd say the S2000 is about the most macho looking of the little 2-seaters out there nowadays. And I noticed the cramped aspect of it too, when I sat in one at the auto show.

I really can't think of anything that's little and 2-seater that turns me on these days. I still look at the Corvette as something Larry Tate would drive, and I'm not ready for people to call me Cottontop yet. Although Serena could run her fingers through my hair anyday :shades:

I do kinda like the Solstice, but it still has too much of a cute, playful look to it, like a puppy or kitten that's about to pounce. Maybe the Skyy will come off a bit more butch?

I guess little 2-seaters never were meant to be testosterone rockets, but at least back in the day, they seemed a bit more masculine.

fintail

Indeed, most little 2-seaters are kinda girly these days, as they are just easy to drive, reliable, and have some cutesy styling. The S2000 is the most masculine, with it's 4-wheeled sportbike noises and no auto. Back in the day, did many women drive MGAs, Austin Healey 3000s, etc? I can't picture it.

I'd say a cool car for a cool guy is a nice well kept Mercedes...

Mr_Shiftright

It has to make lots of noise and hopefully be old enough to emit lots of hydrocarbons....

BOXSTERS: Well I can only speak geographically about the Boxster market...in California these cars are like manila envelopes...they are EVERYWHERE....so we have the usual supply and demand formula going on. Thus I don't view this car as a fast seller IN MY AREA..

Whenever there is a glut of something on the used car market I'm always prone to advise buying "back of book". CARMAX can offer financing, etc and can put them in public stores for as long as it takes to sell them...and also their "offer" is a very short one. What they really want is to get you to take their money and use it to buy another car from them.

CARMAX will probably sell that car for $21.5K because the miles are very attractive.

So again, 18.6K is okay, really okay, because of the miles. What makes this particular car a bit sluggish in the market is the silver color and the 5 speed.

I'm probably giving you more info than you need. If you like the car, pull the trigger. It's a fair price. Just remember the old rule "What gets you in cheap in the market will bother you when you want out of the market".

In this case, the Boxster has been produced in HUGE numbers, so selling quickly isn't so easy.

andre1969

wouldn't consider it a small 2-seater, but I kinda like the looks of the BMW 6-series. As far as I'm concerned it's small, and might as well be a 2-seater! :P It's anything but inexpensive, though!

lemmer

My wife just found out from his wife that he is holding out for payoff - $20,500. He said I am welcome to drive it for a few days, so I think I will do that, but I'm not paying $20,500.

benjaminh

1986 Accord LXi for sale on ebay for $850:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-Accord-great-mileage-and-options-reliable_W- 0QQitemZ190024947699QQihZ009QQcategoryZ6254QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(How are those small neat links made, anyway?)

I think I read somewhere that Honda builds most of its cars to have a "design life" of about 150,000 miles. That is, if a Honda's well taken care of, and you're a little lucky, it will probably last about that long. This car has gone double that. It's amazing it's still running (although it may have had a lot of work done on it).

andre1969

if you want to make a small link, first click the little box that says "Url". then paste in the url. Then click the box again. It'll put in a bunch of gibberish after the link but you should see the words "link title". Just change "link title" to whatever you want it to say.

As for that Honda, well I think any car with that kind of mileage is going to be a toss of the dice. You could hit the jackpot or you could crap out. Even if the engine/tranny are fine, I'd worry about the suspension, exhaust, emissions controls, the rudimentary computers they were using at the time, etc.

Still, if you could snag it for a few hundred bucks and it looks as good in person, and lasts you a few months, it might not be too bad.

qbrozen

In my local autoshopper, there is an '88 Iroc Z with an advertised 415,000 miles!!!! I'm thinking its GOTTA be a typo!

qbrozen

ah, better yet, i even found it online!
http://www.autoshopper.com/viewfull.asp?ID=1695052&FromSearch=Yes

lilengineerboy

As someone in that demographic, I have no desire to own a truck or SUV. I am definitely more of a car person. Wife's car has a hitch and it totes a uHaul trailer nicely when the need arises.
I want something fun to go to work and back, gets good mileage, must be a manual, and won't beat me up too much financially or physically. I still think an E36 M3 sedan would fit the bill but they are hard to find in decent shape with a stick that haven't been wrung out, especially around here.

qbrozen

Bimmer owners are just insane. That's the conclusion I've come to.

How is this anything other than scrapheap fodder?

Its 11 years old AND damaged!! $5K??

13 years old AND its just a 3-series coupe!! gee, what a surprise... $5k!

Alright! The big winner! And I thought the 735 above was in bad shape!

benjaminh

My parents owned one of these. It was a couple of years older than this one. They liked it, but when I was born they got a Falcon station wagon.

400k mi? Hard to believe. Cute deathtrap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/austin-mini-1964-very-original-car_W0QQitemZ16002- 4443471QQihZ006QQcategoryZ107007QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(Thanks for the instructions Andre, but I didn't see "the little box that says "Url"," perhaps because I'm a mac user.)

qbrozen

you wanted a stick for your son, didn't you?
its a shame. This looks really clean in the pics.
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/car/200796474.html

lilengineerboy

It shows up just under the message box. It works in Firefox and Safari in 10.3 on Macs. There is a bold/itallics/underline row of buttons and it is in the far end of that row next to close all. Just replace the part that says: link">

bumpy

"THIS CAR IS BLACK, AND IT PERFECT CONDITION"

uh huh

"THERES A CRACK IN THE CARS ENGINE BLOCK WHICH CAUSES IT NOT TO START"

oh, is that all? :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

yeah sure, $5,000 to replace the motor on a 740iL.....I don't THINK so. Try $12,000.

qbrozen

hmmm... what do you guys think of this
'97 C280?
Not a project, but its priced right at KBB trade-in value, so it seems like a decent deal if its all on the up-and-up.

Only thing that kinda bugs me is that he talks about it as if he's had it since new (garage kept, well maintained, etc), but then says "no signs of prior damage." Ummm... does that mean it was damaged but you don't think it shows? If you've had it since new, wouldn't you KNOW if its been damaged?

british_rover

That is one of my favorite Top Gear segments.

Can you imagine taking that car to a Track Day in the US?

Random Guy: What is that?

Owner: A Lada.

RG: What the hell is a Lada?

Owner: It is made in Russia.

RG: hahah a Russian car oh man that thing must be junk. What kind of engine is it?

Owner: A fiat 4 cylinder.

RG: A fiat oh my god why did you bother to bring that here.

30 minutes later after you blow the doors off of all the other cars.

RG: I thought you saidit was a russian car with an Italian motor?

Owner: It is but it was tuned by Lotus for about 200,000 dollars and the motor was built by a team of F1 Racing engineers.

lemmer

Already deleted - how cheap was it?

qbrozen

huh. still coming up for me. man, what is it with craigslist? if its a scam, its not a very good one. i mean, usually the scammers list a $30k car for $15k or something like that. This is above real-world trade-in value, I'm sure, so its not a stupendous deal or anything.

here's the details:

1997 Mercedes-Benz C-Class C280 - $3870

There are no signs of prior damage on this vehicle, and there has been no serious accidents involving. The paint on this car makes it obvious that I garaged it. The transmission is tight shifting and smooth. The engine is mechanically sound and can be driven anywhere with confidence.
The mileage on the car is 96090 , transmission is automatic and the VIN number is WDBHA28E3VF598664.
This vehicle has a very clean exterior with hard to detect flaws.
The interior has been well kept and is clean. There are a lot of miles left on this auto's tires.
I am sure that you will be more than satisfied with this beauty.

qbrozen

yup. now it says "deleted by craigslist staff".
Damn!
oh well, keeps me from buying something i don't need, i suppose.