My mom was cut off and got into an accident. The airbags didn't go off because it was a fairly mild collision. The damage? Also a huge $9000 !!!! The car was fixed and it drives normally.
As far as I know they replaced the bumper cover, fender, lights, grill, rad support, rad, hoses, hood and maybe some other unseen things.
I take it that thing wasn't hit in the rear? Must have been a borderline case.
My mom's wrecked Corolla from last year was estimated at 13K damage, and was totaled. No airbag deployment, rear ended and pushed into the car in front of it. It was able to be driven home, although I doubt that was a good idea.
When I t-boned a car full of high schoolers in my L300 a few years ago, it only cost around $3700 to get everything fixed, and I think I had more damage that what that picture above shows.
I have the pics I took of my uncle's '03 Corolla when he hit a deer. Believe it or not, the damage to the front actually looked worse than either of the two cars above! I swear the thing almost looked like it went through one of those NHTSA offset crash tests!
The impact disabled the car, as it punctured the radiator, and the driver's side fender got pushed back far enough to interfere with the wheel. That fender also got pushed back far enough to jam the door shut! Total damage to that car was something like $4800.
I'd love to know how much the estimate would have been to fix my 2000 Intrepid, but they stopped adding up once they totaled out the car, I think. :sick: The killer for me, I think, was that hit tore the wiring harness, and that ain't a cheap part to fix. It doesn't really show in that pic, but the hood was dented a bit as well, and they included that in the repair estimate. Nevermind the fact I would've been happy if they just left it alone, and re-attached that fascia rather than an out-and-out replacement.
My stepdad rear-ended someone in their '99 Altima, back in 2000 I think, and the impact was just enough to set off the airbags. I never saw the damage, but they told me it was $3,000 to fix, and that included replacing the airbags. Sounded like a lot of money at the time, but nowadays that seems cheap!
No damage in the rear, just front. To be fair this is Canadian dollars/parts cost/labor we're talking about, so maybe about $7k US which is still a lot of money for seemingly minor damage.
Your mom's corolla didn't look all that bad either,
The exact damage that I saw was one fender, hood, both lights, bumper cover, grille, rad support, radiator (was punctured), minor scuff on the other fender, and that's it. I was shocked too.
Good thing it's a lease so they're not stuck with it forever.
Unrelated question - the photo reminded me that I don't understand why folks blank out or otherwise obscure the license plate numbers on web postings. I'm sure there's a good reason, I just don't know what it is... :confuse:
The story wasn't from the Fiero club, but Car and Driver, IIRC. Don't forget that the '88 Fiero was very different under the skin than the '87. I have driven both, and the pre-88 was nothing to write home about, but the '88 had some great moves. And with the Quad four, you could wind it up and boogie.
The Chevy 2.8L never should have been in that car. Like putting a slant-6 in a 'cuda.
I guess in order to keep some sort of a semi-anonymity online. I know it's a license plate seen by the public when the car is on the road (it's not even my car) but in the internet world the picture is permanent so I prefer to keep any kind of ID somewhat secret.
of course, you could always wait for the next prospective buyer, who didn't pull a carfax. i also found this by accident, just have 2 interested parties show up a few minutes apart.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I traded it in August '02, but saw it in the parking lot of the dealer i traded it in at, last year. When i first saw it, i thought, 'hey that looks like my old expedition'. It was an XLT model that I ordered it from the factory, but arrived with an 'Eddie Bauer' badge on the back. Sure enough, there it was, so I walked around the front and the factory wind deflector was still sitting out in front of the hood. I was going to check out the right side running board that I bent driving over a boulder, and fixed with a sledge hammer, but then i realized someone was sitting in the front passenger seat, so I just pretended I was looking for some lost on the ground and walked away.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I decided to pass on that Mini-------AND found another one:
2003 British Racing Green with Black top, 6 speed, supercharged, heated seats, fog lights, NON run-flat tires (Yay!) This time clean CARFAX, with 64,000 miles.
The BAD: Car spent 3 years in Michigan. Is that salt/rust country?
salt, rust and potholes. But, easy enough to get on a lift and see how clean the undercarriage is.
non run flats is good. A guy I used to work with had a mini, and he hated them so much he put "real" tires on it, and put a donut in a back behind the passenger seat (since people can't fit there, might as well use it for something!)
Me? If a PPI couldn't find the damage reported on carfax, If the price is the same, I would go with the Ca. car with 30K less miles. And the white roof.
probably means only when it snows, but most likely, they don't have the money to buy very much of it, so they have to ration it so they dont run out in December.
agreed....I say, depends where in Michigan (some counties use sand, some use salt, snow levels vary, though in general MI gets a LOT of snow), and at 64k on a 7 year-old car, I doubt it's much of an issue. Yeah, just have a look under and check the body for knicky-scratchies (I know nobody has to suggest this to you), and good luck.
I test drove the MINI today on the freeday. It's a real hoot. I'm getting it inspected tomorrow, so we'll see.
The more I think about CARFAX, the more it troubles me as to its effects. It cannot, in fact, protect the buyer in many cases, but it can ALWAYS hurt the seller.
I wonder if I can slap my friend's Porsche Boxster (not an S) silly with this little thing. I hope so.
I was thinking from a mechanic's point of view. If you have a car with some corrosion on all the nuts and bolts, you are going to pay extra for repairs!
a few years ago, i drove my focus to michigan in the early fall. i thought for sure i was going to have a busted shock/spring/strut before i escaped back the what i consider to be the real world.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
MI is the road salt capital of the world. It's not that we don't care if the cars rust away. It's that we get to sell you another one. From the state's perspective, historically, rust is great!
As far some counties do, some don't: Sure you can tell the difference where out in the sticks, ppl drive 20 year old pickups that don't look too bad. But this is a MINI we're talking about. It drove around Wayne or Ingham, not Roscommon county.
Car people gape when they see an early-90s Accord on the road... most of them you do see, you can also see through. Without using the windows.
I had a 15-year-old Chevy van once. Fun truck. Rust holes covered with sheetmetal pieces, fastened with pop rivets. A class act. To brake, you had to pump it a couple times. There was no way to bleed the air from the brakes, as the studs had corroded tight; it was going to turn into a major repair.
Yeah, the body usually doesn't rust... if galvanized... early 90s Camrys sometimes look okay... usually have some bubbles at least. But consider that my '03 Sienna is rusting on the crimp at the leading edge of the hood. And on a lot of accessories, hinges etc.
Don't even think about putting a wrench on the exhaust system after a couple of years of this.
I did have a '91 Civic once that spent two winters in MI... I replaced a bunch of suspension parts on that using just regular wrenches... so a couple, three years isn't the end of the world, maybe.
Also the Mini may have been garaged/stored in the winter.. Just have it looked at carefully, it won't get worse if you keep it in CA.
Regular road salt is ineffective once temperatures get below 25 deg F. There are other formulations that work down to around 10 deg F, but they are more expensive than the regular blend.
Out in the mountains, they don't use much salt just for that reason, but rather cinders that come from the coal-fired power plants. That doesn't melt snow or ice, but does provide good traction. Another advantage (or disadvantage, depending on how you look at it), is that the cinders stay on the road - they don't melt like salt does. So there's always stuff on the road surface during the winter season.
New cars are much better than older models in so far as corrosion resistance goes. But, there are sometimes weak places that, despite what the manufacturers do, start to rust. For instance, my '92 Sentra is rusting at the seam between the rocker panels, no place else.
I'd say rust resistance of the sheetmetal and body has improved, but the undercarriage area...suspensions, crossmembers, etc, can still be prone to rusting.
Just to use one reference point, my uncle's 1997 Silverado looks horrible underneath...much worse, actually, than my 1985 Silverado! My '85, however, is rusting in the rockers and lower doors, while my uncle's still has nice sheetmetal, except for one spot where the hood rubs the header panel.
Around here in Maryland though, I can't recall seeing a car less than 10 years old having rust, although I've seen them with paint issues. Even 10-20 year old cars seem pretty resistant to rusting. This morning I saw a 1991-96 era Park Ave with rust on the rear quarter, but it was only on the wide chrome strip, which is just cosmetic, but still gave it a bit of a junky appearance.
I'd say the one 1990's vehicle I'm most likely to see with rust on it is 1994-97 Honda Accords. They seem to have a vulnerable spot in the rear quarter, just behind the wheel opening. Still though, we're talking about cars that are 14-15 years old or more.
My 2000 Intrepid was getting a little rust on the rear quarter, between the wheel opening and the rear door, but only because it had been hit there, dented, and scraped badly enough. I should have at least put some touch-up paint on it, but never did. And even there, it took about 3 years of exposure to even show a little scale. Try that on a Vega or 1976 Volare!
Now that I think about it, I never had to do any exhaust work on that Intrepid, in the 10 years/150,000 miles I had it. Exhaust systems certainly last a lot longer than they used to, but then with the expensive resonators, multiple catalytic converters, etc, I guess they'd better! But now that I think of it, I replaced my '68 Dart's exhaust way back in 1993, for about $325 (dual exhaust, from the manifold back), and the only time I ever had to do anything to that exhaust was minor. And partially my fault. It had an oil leak on the passenger side, which got on the engine mount and no doubt weakened it. Well, one night I decided to be stupid and went across a raised railroad crossing fast enough to go airborne. And when the car hit it bounced and felt like it left the ground again! That was too much for the engine mount I guess as it squashed and the engine listed to starboard. That pushed the passenger-side exhaust pipe down low enough that the suspension caught it when I had to make turns, and eventually it pulled the exhaust pipe loose at the manifold.
I stopped driving that Dart in late 2001 (or rather, it stopped running ) I sold it last year and it finally got towed away in November, 2009, and for all those years sitting around in my grandmother's yard, and then mine, didn't seem to take their toll on that exhaust system. It still looked fairly good when the car got towed away.
I can't remember now, if I had them do stainless steel exhaust or not. I'd guess a stainless steel dual exhaust would've been more than ~$325 though, even back in 1993?
My experience with rust in my younger days (when the earth was still cooling) and the contrast to now is rather dramatic. When I lived in NYC, the ferrous oxide mines were running 24/7, producing rust for every NY car owner. We had so much rust, I think we were exporting it to China.
Now, in California, rust to us is a mysterious, misunderstood, alien disease that we have no idea how to cope with; we have no immunity to it. It's not even on radar.
How different from the UK, where cutting out rocker panels is like a Jiffy Lube operation. :P
This MINI is clean---it hardly looks driven unless you actually start poking around in there.
But today---the supreme test for any used car---the dreaded "ORDEAL BY HYDRAULIC LIFT". :surprise:
I have heard this same story though and there was a 1989 Fiero GT at the GM heritage collection or whatever that they opened up to the public about a year ago.
Looked like a pocket NSX basically. People have gotten the 1988 GT models to go pretty quick so I can see a 1989 GT with an improved lotus engineered suspension and extra 50 to 80 hp challenging a vette that weighs a 1,000 lbs more.
Well my "pound of salt" comment was related to the fact that you can't really match a prototype car, specially built for track, with a normal production car that goes to showrooms and is eventually driven by 60 year old bald men going to the post office.
One can take almost any car and stiffen it so that on a smooth flat track, given enough crate engine power, driver skill and decent aero, it would give many an expensive production car fits. I could build an 80s Porsche 944 turbo that might slap a new Porsche silly. But you wouldn't want to drive it on a city street.
Besides, in 1990 Corvette introduced the ZR-1, and I'd really like to see anybody's Fiero beat that on a track.
So even if there was a Super Fiero in 1989, it would have soon been made obsolete.
Would it have been so very much better than a Toyota MR2 Turbo? And nobody much bought those.
Well I suppose you are right from that standpoint and no Fiero was going to touch a ZR-1.
I think a 1994 or 1995 MR2 Turbo would have given a 1989 Vette run for its money on a twisty curvy track. Not exactly a fair comparison year to year but still would be an interesting race.
Great little car the MR2 Turbo. I just don't think Americans were much interested in this particular configuration. The Porsche 914 struggled, as did the Fiero, the MR2, the NSX.
Probably the first large production mid-engine car to truly succeed and hit a home run in America was the Porsche Boxster. And even those gave grief in the early years.
Presenting a car to "beat the Vette" is not the point. People don't necessarily want to "beat the Vette", they WANT the Vette. The whole heritage/history thing.
GM reminds me of the Moose on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. After colliding with a tree, the Moose would say "THIS time for sure!!!" :P
The son of a family we have known for years was traveling in a Fiero coming home from a college visit and had been on the road all night. Both the driver and passenger were strapped in when the driver fell asleep and drifted off the road. As bad luck would have it, a stalled car had been left on the shoulder of the interstate and they hit it dead square at 70MPH, never touching the brakes.
The Fiero threw pieces all over the freeway, the car they struck was totally destroyed also. When witnesses ran up to the Fiero expecting to find at best badly injured passengers, the two boys were unbuckling their safety belts and crawling out of what was left of the car. The passenger cage was completely intact, the rest of the car had disintegrated. The "space frame" in that car was years ahead of it's time, safety-wise.
Well they lifted the MINI up and sent me some photos. You can definitely tell this is not a California car. There is some surface rusting on bolts and on a few lips of the subframe, some light rust on the lug nuts, the tailpipe as it exits the muffler. It doesn't look structural in any way (no perforations and you can't penetrate it with a pick) but it does look a tad unsightly, that's for sure.
I think a steam clean, some vinegar, and then some "rust bullet" brush on coating might be in order. So probably $500 bucks to pay someone to go in there and get it done.
Here's the worst of it: Whaddya think, if I can knock $1--$1500 K off the price? Otherwise, car checks out, body is good, runs good.
Now this is a rarity: a '90s 350SDL with low mileage, and still on the original engine. I know those didn't have the best of reputations. This one looks like a keeper. If the motor has to be replaced or rebuilt, will the cost exceed the car's value?
The original engine in those cars is a throwaway. If it hasn't been replaced, you're buying a future boat anchor.
"The failure mode is reputedly that the rods bend a little, resulting in excessive side wear and ovaled cylinders. The only symptom is dramatically increased oil consumption, by which time the block damage is irreversible."
I've seen that thing on ebay at least half a dozen times in the past couple years . It's a lovely looking old beast, but yeah, those end of the run W126 diesels are not the best engines. It's severely overpriced even for that condition - that's mint W126 money in Europe, not NA. An engine rebuilt probably would approach its actual value, which is maybe 8-10K, and that's with all maintenance performed and absolutely not a single need - tires, brakes, belts, fluids all perfect.
I hate the dealer installed tape stripes, too.
Even Wikipedia offers a blurb on it:
"Some engines had a design defect[7] which causes ovaling of cylinder walls, bent rods, excessive oil consumption (1 quart per 200 miles or one litre per 300 kilometres is not uncommon), and eventually engine failure. Mercedes-Benz did not accept responsibility for this defect, even when problems arose before warranty terms were met. Most of these engine failures have occurred on vehicles driven under high load or city driving, while highway driven engines do not show signs of problems until many miles later, if at all. Fixing the problem can cost the owner more than $10,000 or 8000€ which exceeds the value of the car. All 350 SD/SDL's will develop this issue, but will not reoccur after being repaired, therefore a thorough pre-purchase check by a qualified mechanic can give the potential buyer a better idea of what they are getting into. Some 350s have gone well over 400,000 miles (640,000 km), problem free."
I have seen a 250K mile 1991 350SD - and that was when the car was about 10 years old, but I don't know what it took to get to that mileage.
You know, I wouldn't be too concerned about 3 years in Michigan. Ten years, maybe, maybe, but this isn't the '70s. Cars are rust proofed very well nowadays. Sure, all things being equal, it would be better if that MINI had resided in Arizona, but it certainly wouldn't be a deal breaker for me if a car I liked had spent 3 years in the Midwest.
The MINI pretty much passed the inspection, except for:
OEM battery weak on load test
left shock tower has slight deformation (typical MINI problem, corrected with inexpensive metal supports that bolt on over the tower)
license plate lights inop
left fog light inop
slight leak in oil filter
Otherwise, runs like a scalded cat
I think I'm gonna offer $11.5K if....IF....they replace the battery, fix the lights and detail the car. I'll take care of the underside and the oil leak and the shock tower.
I bet they didn't pay more than $9K for it on trade anyway.
Yeah, I do, but the electric bum warmers in the Park Ave do help ease my pain! The Park Ave is nicer in some respects. More comfortable and roomier up front, which is probably the biggest advantage. And it's faster. But on the down side, it doesn't handle nearly as well. Fit and finish is also worse...stuff like trim pieces and body panels lining up, the feel of the switchgear, minor stuff like that. I haven't had a chance to take it on a good, long highway run yet, but so far fuel economy has been worse as well. Which I guess is to be expected, since the Park Ave has an extra 1.1L, 40 more hp, ~90 more ft-lb of torque, and probably weighs about 300-400 lb more.
On the highway, I'd like to think that it would be able to beat out the Intrepid's mpg, since it has a taller axle...something like 3.05:1 versus 3.89:1. At 60 mph it's only pulling around 1500-1600 rpm, whereas the Intrepid was around 2000.
Edmunds says $1800 to $3000 for the best of the best and I agree with that.
That's good to know...I would've been naively willing to go as high as $4,000, if the car looked really nice in person. It might be kind of a fun sleeper...these things are basically an Impala SS dressed in a mumu and a blue-rinse hairdo. :P
Digging around, I found one road test quoting 0-60 for 1995 in 6.7 seconds, with a 15 second quarter mile. I know these LT1 cars were pretty quick for their size, but were they THAT fast?
While neither GM nor Mopar were paragons of excellence on fit and finish several years ago, I was surprised about what you wrote, in terms of these attributes. I would have expected the Buick, especially since yours is the top of the line, to have been better than the Dodge.
On highway fuel economy, I think weight and aerodynamics are somewhat more important than the axle ratio (as long as the latter isn't extreme), but it'll be interesting to see what you discover.
I don't recall whether your PA has the supercharged 3.8, but, if it does, do you use premium gas?
Comments
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
As far as I know they replaced the bumper cover, fender, lights, grill, rad support, rad, hoses, hood and maybe some other unseen things.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
My mom's wrecked Corolla from last year was estimated at 13K damage, and was totaled. No airbag deployment, rear ended and pushed into the car in front of it. It was able to be driven home, although I doubt that was a good idea.
I wonder if it was parted out or fixed up.
Holy moly!
When I t-boned a car full of high schoolers in my L300 a few years ago, it only cost around $3700 to get everything fixed, and I think I had more damage that what that picture above shows.
The impact disabled the car, as it punctured the radiator, and the driver's side fender got pushed back far enough to interfere with the wheel. That fender also got pushed back far enough to jam the door shut! Total damage to that car was something like $4800.
I'd love to know how much the estimate would have been to fix my 2000 Intrepid, but they stopped adding up once they totaled out the car, I think. :sick:
The killer for me, I think, was that hit tore the wiring harness, and that ain't a cheap part to fix. It doesn't really show in that pic, but the hood was dented a bit as well, and they included that in the repair estimate. Nevermind the fact I would've been happy if they just left it alone, and re-attached that fascia rather than an out-and-out replacement.
My stepdad rear-ended someone in their '99 Altima, back in 2000 I think, and the impact was just enough to set off the airbags. I never saw the damage, but they told me it was $3,000 to fix, and that included replacing the airbags. Sounded like a lot of money at the time, but nowadays that seems cheap!
Your mom's corolla didn't look all that bad either,
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Good thing it's a lease so they're not stuck with it forever.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
The Chevy 2.8L never should have been in that car. Like putting a slant-6 in a 'cuda.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
i also found this by accident, just have 2 interested parties show up a few minutes apart.
I traded it in August '02, but saw it in the parking lot of the dealer i traded it in at, last year.
When i first saw it, i thought, 'hey that looks like my old expedition'.
It was an XLT model that I ordered it from the factory, but arrived with an 'Eddie Bauer' badge on the back. Sure enough, there it was, so I walked around the front and the factory wind deflector was still sitting out in front of the hood.
I was going to check out the right side running board that I bent driving over a boulder, and fixed with a sledge hammer, but then i realized someone was sitting in the front passenger seat, so I just pretended I was looking for some lost on the ground and walked away.
2003 British Racing Green with Black top, 6 speed, supercharged, heated seats, fog lights, NON run-flat tires (Yay!) This time clean CARFAX, with 64,000 miles.
The BAD: Car spent 3 years in Michigan. Is that salt/rust country?
non run flats is good. A guy I used to work with had a mini, and he hated them so much he put "real" tires on it, and put a donut in a back behind the passenger seat (since people can't fit there, might as well use it for something!)
Me? If a PPI couldn't find the damage reported on carfax, If the price is the same, I would go with the Ca. car with 30K less miles. And the white roof.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Besides, how long are you planning on keeping this car?
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
The more I think about CARFAX, the more it troubles me as to its effects. It cannot, in fact, protect the buyer in many cases, but it can ALWAYS hurt the seller.
I wonder if I can slap my friend's Porsche Boxster (not an S) silly with this little thing. I hope so.
The run flats are SO inflexible that there have been reports of MINI shock towers actually *mushrooming* !!
MI is the road salt capital of the world.
It's not that we don't care if the cars rust away. It's that we get to sell you another one. From the state's perspective, historically, rust is great!
As far some counties do, some don't: Sure you can tell the difference where out in the sticks, ppl drive 20 year old pickups that don't look too bad. But this is a MINI we're talking about. It drove around Wayne or Ingham, not Roscommon county.
Car people gape when they see an early-90s Accord on the road... most of them you do see, you can also see through. Without using the windows.
I had a 15-year-old Chevy van once. Fun truck. Rust holes covered with sheetmetal pieces, fastened with pop rivets. A class act. To brake, you had to pump it a couple times. There was no way to bleed the air from the brakes, as the studs had corroded tight; it was going to turn into a major repair.
Yeah, the body usually doesn't rust... if galvanized... early 90s Camrys sometimes look okay... usually have some bubbles at least. But consider that my '03 Sienna is rusting on the crimp at the leading edge of the hood. And on a lot of accessories, hinges etc.
Don't even think about putting a wrench on the exhaust system after a couple of years of this.
I did have a '91 Civic once that spent two winters in MI... I replaced a bunch of suspension parts on that using just regular wrenches... so a couple, three years isn't the end of the world, maybe.
Also the Mini may have been garaged/stored in the winter.. Just have it looked at carefully, it won't get worse if you keep it in CA.
Good luck,
-Mathias
Out in the mountains, they don't use much salt just for that reason, but rather cinders that come from the coal-fired power plants. That doesn't melt snow or ice, but does provide good traction. Another advantage (or disadvantage, depending on how you look at it), is that the cinders stay on the road - they don't melt like salt does. So there's always stuff on the road surface during the winter season.
New cars are much better than older models in so far as corrosion resistance goes. But, there are sometimes weak places that, despite what the manufacturers do, start to rust. For instance, my '92 Sentra is rusting at the seam between the rocker panels, no place else.
Just to use one reference point, my uncle's 1997 Silverado looks horrible underneath...much worse, actually, than my 1985 Silverado! My '85, however, is rusting in the rockers and lower doors, while my uncle's still has nice sheetmetal, except for one spot where the hood rubs the header panel.
Around here in Maryland though, I can't recall seeing a car less than 10 years old having rust, although I've seen them with paint issues. Even 10-20 year old cars seem pretty resistant to rusting. This morning I saw a 1991-96 era Park Ave with rust on the rear quarter, but it was only on the wide chrome strip, which is just cosmetic, but still gave it a bit of a junky appearance.
I'd say the one 1990's vehicle I'm most likely to see with rust on it is 1994-97 Honda Accords. They seem to have a vulnerable spot in the rear quarter, just behind the wheel opening. Still though, we're talking about cars that are 14-15 years old or more.
My 2000 Intrepid was getting a little rust on the rear quarter, between the wheel opening and the rear door, but only because it had been hit there, dented, and scraped badly enough. I should have at least put some touch-up paint on it, but never did. And even there, it took about 3 years of exposure to even show a little scale. Try that on a Vega or 1976 Volare!
Now that I think about it, I never had to do any exhaust work on that Intrepid, in the 10 years/150,000 miles I had it. Exhaust systems certainly last a lot longer than they used to, but then with the expensive resonators, multiple catalytic converters, etc, I guess they'd better! But now that I think of it, I replaced my '68 Dart's exhaust way back in 1993, for about $325 (dual exhaust, from the manifold back), and the only time I ever had to do anything to that exhaust was minor. And partially my fault. It had an oil leak on the passenger side, which got on the engine mount and no doubt weakened it. Well, one night I decided to be stupid and went across a raised railroad crossing fast enough to go airborne. And when the car hit it bounced and felt like it left the ground again! That was too much for the engine mount I guess as it squashed and the engine listed to starboard. That pushed the passenger-side exhaust pipe down low enough that the suspension caught it when I had to make turns, and eventually it pulled the exhaust pipe loose at the manifold.
I stopped driving that Dart in late 2001 (or rather, it stopped running
I can't remember now, if I had them do stainless steel exhaust or not. I'd guess a stainless steel dual exhaust would've been more than ~$325 though, even back in 1993?
Now, in California, rust to us is a mysterious, misunderstood, alien disease that we have no idea how to cope with; we have no immunity to it. It's not even on radar.
How different from the UK, where cutting out rocker panels is like a Jiffy Lube operation. :P
This MINI is clean---it hardly looks driven unless you actually start poking around in there.
But today---the supreme test for any used car---the dreaded "ORDEAL BY HYDRAULIC LIFT". :surprise:
Haha, good one!
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Looked like a pocket NSX basically. People have gotten the 1988 GT models to go pretty quick so I can see a 1989 GT with an improved lotus engineered suspension and extra 50 to 80 hp challenging a vette that weighs a 1,000 lbs more.
http://www.autoblog.com/2004/12/31/daydreaming-the-1989-fiero/
One can take almost any car and stiffen it so that on a smooth flat track, given enough crate engine power, driver skill and decent aero, it would give many an expensive production car fits. I could build an 80s Porsche 944 turbo that might slap a new Porsche silly. But you wouldn't want to drive it on a city street.
Besides, in 1990 Corvette introduced the ZR-1, and I'd really like to see anybody's Fiero beat that on a track.
So even if there was a Super Fiero in 1989, it would have soon been made obsolete.
Would it have been so very much better than a Toyota MR2 Turbo? And nobody much bought those.
I think a 1994 or 1995 MR2 Turbo would have given a 1989 Vette run for its money on a twisty curvy track. Not exactly a fair comparison year to year but still would be an interesting race.
Probably the first large production mid-engine car to truly succeed and hit a home run in America was the Porsche Boxster. And even those gave grief in the early years.
Presenting a car to "beat the Vette" is not the point. People don't necessarily want to "beat the Vette", they WANT the Vette. The whole heritage/history thing.
GM reminds me of the Moose on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. After colliding with a tree, the Moose would say "THIS time for sure!!!" :P
Aided and abetted, of course, by the automotive press.
Everytime the General comes out with an import fighter -- say, the 1998 Malibu [shudder] -- the journalists would do a road test and solemnly write:
- Lightyears ahead of the last one!
- This close to state of the art!
This charade would repeat every 4-5 years.
So where do the Malibu LTZ and the Ford Fusion come from all of a sudden?
-Mathias
The Fiero threw pieces all over the freeway, the car they struck was totally destroyed also. When witnesses ran up to the Fiero expecting to find at best badly injured passengers, the two boys were unbuckling their safety belts and crawling out of what was left of the car. The passenger cage was completely intact, the rest of the car had disintegrated. The "space frame" in that car was years ahead of it's time, safety-wise.
I think a steam clean, some vinegar, and then some "rust bullet" brush on coating might be in order. So probably $500 bucks to pay someone to go in there and get it done.
Here's the worst of it: Whaddya think, if I can knock $1--$1500 K off the price? Otherwise, car checks out, body is good, runs good.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mercedes-Benz-300-Series-SDL-1991-MERCEDES-350SDL- -SEDAN-ONLY-54-588-MILES-AWESOME_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c53417033QQitemZ190- 375358515QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks
Now this is a rarity: a '90s 350SDL with low mileage, and still on the original engine. I know those didn't have the best of reputations. This one looks like a keeper. If the motor has to be replaced or rebuilt, will the cost exceed the car's value?
"The failure mode is reputedly that the rods bend a little, resulting in excessive side wear and ovaled cylinders. The only symptom is dramatically increased oil consumption, by which time the block damage is irreversible."
I hate the dealer installed tape stripes, too.
Even Wikipedia offers a blurb on it:
"Some engines had a design defect[7] which causes ovaling of cylinder walls, bent rods, excessive oil consumption (1 quart per 200 miles or one litre per 300 kilometres is not uncommon), and eventually engine failure. Mercedes-Benz did not accept responsibility for this defect, even when problems arose before warranty terms were met. Most of these engine failures have occurred on vehicles driven under high load or city driving, while highway driven engines do not show signs of problems until many miles later, if at all. Fixing the problem can cost the owner more than $10,000 or 8000€ which exceeds the value of the car. All 350 SD/SDL's will develop this issue, but will not reoccur after being repaired, therefore a thorough pre-purchase check by a qualified mechanic can give the potential buyer a better idea of what they are getting into. Some 350s have gone well over 400,000 miles (640,000 km), problem free."
I have seen a 250K mile 1991 350SD - and that was when the car was about 10 years old, but I don't know what it took to get to that mileage.
OEM battery weak on load test
left shock tower has slight deformation (typical MINI problem, corrected with inexpensive metal supports that bolt on over the tower)
license plate lights inop
left fog light inop
slight leak in oil filter
Otherwise, runs like a scalded cat
I think I'm gonna offer $11.5K if....IF....they replace the battery, fix the lights and detail the car. I'll take care of the underside and the oil leak and the shock tower.
I bet they didn't pay more than $9K for it on trade anyway.
Yeah, I do, but the electric bum warmers in the Park Ave do help ease my pain! The Park Ave is nicer in some respects. More comfortable and roomier up front, which is probably the biggest advantage. And it's faster. But on the down side, it doesn't handle nearly as well. Fit and finish is also worse...stuff like trim pieces and body panels lining up, the feel of the switchgear, minor stuff like that. I haven't had a chance to take it on a good, long highway run yet, but so far fuel economy has been worse as well. Which I guess is to be expected, since the Park Ave has an extra 1.1L, 40 more hp, ~90 more ft-lb of torque, and probably weighs about 300-400 lb more.
On the highway, I'd like to think that it would be able to beat out the Intrepid's mpg, since it has a taller axle...something like 3.05:1 versus 3.89:1. At 60 mph it's only pulling around 1500-1600 rpm, whereas the Intrepid was around 2000.
That's good to know...I would've been naively willing to go as high as $4,000, if the car looked really nice in person. It might be kind of a fun sleeper...these things are basically an Impala SS dressed in a mumu and a blue-rinse hairdo. :P
Digging around, I found one road test quoting 0-60 for 1995 in 6.7 seconds, with a 15 second quarter mile. I know these LT1 cars were pretty quick for their size, but were they THAT fast?
On highway fuel economy, I think weight and aerodynamics are somewhat more important than the axle ratio (as long as the latter isn't extreme), but it'll be interesting to see what you discover.
I don't recall whether your PA has the supercharged 3.8, but, if it does, do you use premium gas?
I did see that statistic but I find it hard to believe. I mean 260 HP and 4200 lbs?
Well maybe I guess....Seems more like 7.5 or 8.0 would be easier to swallow.
Maybe the magazine did some kind of radical launch at sea level on a windless moist day?
It would be a decent ride for $2500 bucks or so. Probably very comfortable, with decent mileage. Just stay away from corners.