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Comments
It would be a totally nonsensical purchase, considering I already have two R-bodies, but if this thing was closer, I'd definitely be bidding on it. I think driving 700-800 miles for a $1K car would be a little extreme/obsessive, though.
Does the dealer offer you $7000? Tell you to go away and come back without the trade? Occasionally I'll see cars like this at a new dealer.
The R-body also feels like it has longer front doors than the Ford/GM rivals, and the B-pillar is further back. So for me at least, that makes it feel like the car's easier to get in and out of, and the B-pillar isn't so much of a blind spot when I have to look to the side. And it's a unit-bodied car, so you don't have a huge door sill to step over, such as with the Ford/GM cars, where the floorpan sits between the frame rails.
Then there's other little features, such as the deeply recessed dashboard, comparatively small tranny/driveshaft hump, and a bit less wheel well intrusion in the back seat area, which makes the R-body feel roomier to me. Roomier than their interior specs suggest.
They're not a perfect car, not by a long shot. The GM/Ford cars were much better assembled, especially in 1979. The Lean Burn could be troublesome. The trunk is wide but shallow, and not really designed to accommodate a full-sized spare. The compact actually stows upright in a well tucked away on the right side, but the full-size won't fit there, and ends up taking up a huge amount of room right in the center. They were also rated well below GM/Ford rivals in ride and handling, although I actually prefer the firmer, less bouncy/seasick ride. Fuel economy was also worse than rivals, but on the plus side, a 360-4bbl was offered that put out 195 hp in 1979 and 185 for 1980...which is actually quite muscular for that timeframe. Although I guess that's not saying much.
sure if he can steal a car, he'll do it--but he'd be more likely to wholesale an old car like that if the buyer was that desperate to trade it in. They aren't appreciating classics--they are just old Porsches. I'd guess he'd offer, as you say $5K-7K trade if it were a very clean SC, then maybe stand it out on the lot for a few weeks, and if nothing happened he'd move it on out to the used car guy down the street.
Or he'd buy it cheap for his kid, something like that.
What's the whole story? What is the real experience and real expenses? How much would you really make on that $22,000 porsche?
LOL, that was actually a Little House on the Prairie episode, only it was wooden tables and not lamps. Didn't work for Charles Ingalls then, probably won't work for most people today. :sick:
You CAN get a good deal at an auction but I always liked the saying "every car at an auction is an abandoned car" and there's some truth to that. Some are off-leases with too high residuals--they won't sell at all or the lender takes a beating--others are Porsches of questionable origin, or high mileage, or they need a recon. And a recon on a Porsche isn't cheap. One "check engine light" can wipe out your profit just like THAT!
I think most dealers buying at auction would be happy to make $3K on a car after recon. Sure, you might make $5K, but sometimes you're going to eat it, too.
My friend often buys late model cars at auction for himself, and he's done quite well---but the cars he bought have hardly been trouble-free, by any means.
There's money, but it ain't "easy". And god help you if you don't know what you are doing.
1969 Olds Cutlass convertible, best one in the world.....about $25,000
Cost to restore the pile of ferrous oxide offered at $4,5000......about $60,000.
Net profit? About a minus $39,500.
It's not even a rare car--they made almost 14,000 of them
Could be a good driver, if you don't mind buying gas
The Cutlass seller has another fixer-upper and if one searches his location, they can find another dozen similar vehicles
Fun cars, cheap thrills, but worst cars I have EVER owned, bar none. Even my Renault Dauphine was more reliable and my Fiats were paragons of durability in comparison.
I don't know the Swedish word for "head gasket" and I think they didn't know it either. The convertibles were built in Finland by blind men.
Ouch. That's harsh.
BTW, I spent some quality time at my favorite junkyard a couple days ago. Junkyards in MI are pretty much a desaster because of the rust. But I needed a seat belt to fit my '85 Conversion van (link:http://www.msu.edu/~steine13/conv.html) that I bought last year.
The previous owner apparently didn't believe in newfangled safety equipment and cut off the shoulder portion of the belt. Really.
Anyway, I found an '87 that looked ok and wasn't too filthy, and I was happy to pay them $10 for it. I tried new, but couldn't find a source for belts.
Seeing a few hundred wrecks with various parts removed and exposed really is an eye opener to the complexity of a modern car. $15-20k for a compact to midsize four-cylinder car of high quality is an absolute steal.
-Mathias
Masochist much?
I'd walk before I ever bought another 900 Turbo.
http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/car/642774611.html
Is this the same crew that builds Boxters for Porsche?
I've always been leery of Saabs with the engine sitting on top of the transmission.
But, as compensation, the clutch can be replaced without removing the transmission---you pull the transmission main shaft out toward the grille. Pretty clever---unless of course, the hydraulic slave cylinder, which is internal to the bell housing, -- a collar device that wraps around the main shaft--so if that fails, then you have to compress the pressure plate with a crow bar to get the slave cylinder and clutch disk out.
The turbo coupes handle well---the convertibles are butt-heavy and not so good. The automatic transmissions are trash.
Is this a bargain or the front door to the poor house for someone long on enthusiasm?
I bet there's something really iffy about that title too, IIRC, the 12 wasn't offered in that car until 93.
According to Wikipedia the 600SL was not introduced until July 1992 so you are right there has to be something "iffy" about this car. I once test drove an early BMW 750 and when I opened the hood there was 3.5L 6cylinder engine where a V12 should have been. When I asked the seller about the engine he said that is how I got it.
But whatever---not only a money pit for repairs but also a stunning 10 mpg. At $4 for premium fuel, that's .40 cents a mile to drive anywhere. That's about $5,000 a year in gasoline for the average American.
fintail
another studebaker project
Don't see many of these anymore
I had finally given up on my '79 New Yorker, which would usually get me to work okay in the morning, but then refuse to start in the evening. I had taken it to the mechanic, and he sent the carb off to get rebuilt.
Well, he called me at work today and told me it was ready to pick up. I asked him if I could drop off my 2000 Intrepid, which would occasionally stall out on me, but would always fire back up, and never triggered the check engine light. He said that, unless it actually died, or the light came on, there wasn't anything he could do, as he didn't want to waste time and run up my repair bill replacing potential trouble parts at random. How refreshing is that...an honest mechanic! :P Actually, I shouldn't say that, because there are plenty of them still out there. It had gotten really bad with me when I tried to use it to drive up for Spring Carlisle. I only got about 2 miles from home when it died, started back up very reluctantly, so I limped it back home. And wouldn't you know, it hadn't acted up since then.
Well, about 10 minutes after talking to the mechanic, I walked out to the parking lot. And wouldn't you know it...that damn Intrepid refused to start!
I had a friend come pick me up and take me to the mechanic to get the NYer, and it's running beautifully. Odd, that the mechanic would say that he didn't want to mess with the car unless it actually died, and it refuses to start 10 minutes later. And even more annoying, the Intrepid did today exactly what that NYer used to do. Get me to work with no trouble at all, but then refuse to start back up and leave me stranded! I wonder if it'll fire up tomorrow morning? That's what my NYer would do. I'd leave it overnight at work, drive something else the next morning, and then hop in the NYer and it would fire right up so I'd drive it back home and then get one of my roommates to run me back to work.
Maybe I need a priest to perform an exorcism on my Mopars?
So, not much, really. Once I get it running again (presuming it's a relatively cheap repair), I'll probably just keep it until something major goes wrong with it. Or, if it starts getting unreliable and constantly breaking down. One thing I'll say for the Intrepid, is that this is the first time in its life that it's actually left me stranded. It came close two Fridays ago, but it did finally re-start, and I just turned around, went back home, and got another car.
In terms of newer cars, there's really nothing out there that excites me enough to get back into a car payment. So if the car ends up being not worth fixing, I think I'll just unload it and rely on my older cars for awhile. I'm only pulling maybe 5,000 miles per year these days, mostly local, so they should be able to handle it.
'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
What???
Never heard of this before
1980 Datsun -- earth to seller, earth to seller. come in...come in....
81 Merc SD -- looks like an okay deal---price is sober, and he didn't even lie about the miles per gallon--a very good sign.
http://lansing.craigslist.org/car/672019177.html
Ya gots to wonder how many of these made it past 300k... that's quite a recommendation for this model right there.
Regarding the orange Benz: Around that time, Mercedes' came in more standard colors than any other maker... they were quite proud of this... but you didn't necessarily want any of them.
The joke was ".. in allen Sanitaerfarben erhaeltlich" -- available in all bathroom hues...
German automakers love to charge beaucoup $$$ for any colors that actually look good. Metallic -- extra. Pearl --- even more. "Signalfarben" -- like that Benz: In the 70s, a red car cost extra, too.
-Mathias
I'd wager a hefty sum that the repair and maintenance bills on that car are as thick as the Manhattan phone book.
Hmmm....I wonder what a catalytic costs for a BMW V-12...lemme check here....(flip, flip).
Aha! Cheaper than I thought; Only $2,020 per side (2 required) plus $300 labor.
So for only $4,400 or so you are up and running.
Edmunds True Market Value puts the value of the car, running and in "average" condition, with a mileage deduct of a mere $500 bucks, at $2,000 retail, so if you buy it for $1,900 and put $4,400 into it.....
Hey WAIT A MINUTE!
Do you realize what I've just done? I've proven that this car is worth NOTHING.
It's free, go get it!
Speaking of MB colors, Here's a gallery of all W126 colors - an impressive variety indeed, and many are less than lovely.
Even today metallic is an extra cost option on most MB. Funny how you can blow 60K on a car and pay more for metallic paint. Then again, nav is still an option on some 90K models, so it goes with the territory.