Road car advice?

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Aaron Luptak
when you can find one whose owner isn't jacked up on (insert your least-favorite mind altering substance here), a honda civic is probably the answer - they're like a similar era VW, but without all that pesky german engineering.

unfortunately, it seems that most owners of these cars have been imbibing in some pretty heavy shit, so they're asking $2k for a 15-20 year old car with 200k miles, big honkin' dents and rust spots, and plenty of 'tuning'...

Prelude, while maybe more fun to drive, is much more rare in the 'yard IME, and suffers the same ownership issues as the civic.

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NoCoast

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Houdini91
I'm still paying $400 a month for my Taurus that I totaled so I can hurry up and get that shit payed off and stop worrying about it, so that's like $600 a month for car shit. Plus other bills and rent. And then I save a little and waste the rest.

You do know that they will send any payment for the totalled Taurus settlement directly to the bank and NOT to you right?
If said settlement is LESS than what you still owe on the car, you will have to pay that difference to the bank.
If said settlement is MORE than what you still owe, you will get some money back.

On average it takes approximately 2.5-3 years of car payments to get to a point where you will NOT get fucked if the car is totaled.
Very seldomly does a totaling benefit the person who's car was totaled.
You might want to start thinking about what you are going to do if you do NOT get any money from the insurance company and still are stuck with that $400 per month car payment.
Three months of that car payment would have paid for ANY of the daily drivers I have had in the past 10 years.





A family member helped me out, and they bought the car and I'm making payments to the family member. I called my insurance company today, and they're giving me $500 more than what it was purchased for. After the deductible. I'm still looking at cheap cars that won't fall apart and that I can buy outright. I've been figuring out how I can drive something that I won't hate while making sure I don't fuck myself.

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Vorpal_Rally

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KTurner
here: http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/ctd/3350580706.html

John Huebbe has one of those. He co-drives the Beatle.

And as to a Camry, mine's a 5 spd V6 car. It get's 25 mpg and is comfortable.

There is also this. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/1999-toyota-camry/

I was actually going to get a '98 Camry, but the guy wouldn't respond to my phone calls after I test drove it so I bought the Tore-Ass. And of course he called me back the day after I got it. I might get one. Was just hoping for something different. And that's your car? Seems pretty sweet.

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SteveL

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KTurner
here: http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/ctd/3350580706.html

SWMBO bought one of those new, great little car, the only thing I had to fix was the
serpentine belt, put about 60K city miles on it and sold/gave it to my mother, who
was sick of driving the '94 Continental. She traded it in last year, having done nothing
but drive it and basic maintenance for 30K miles...

My daily is a little bit out there, it's a '73 Capri, with a 345hp 302, not exactly an
economy car, but gets 22+mpg depending on how many idiots in motorhomes I have
to pass on route 109 from home to town... Here's a pic from last years Olympus...



The real question is... Can you maintain something that can make you smile every
time you buckle in??

I haven't driven a ZX2 yet but I think I'll like it.

And your Capri makes me feel funny. I'm sure I can maintain it. I'm more than willing to learn and I'm confident that I have what it takes. If not then I can ask teh int3erwbz.

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derek
The 560 SLC was a neat car back in its day but you should only drive such a thing if you can afford to walk away from it when anything major brakes. It is too costly to fix. So if you can afford to throw away $2000 then OK. IE you have $2,000 sitting around right now not doing anything better that you can toss at a whim.

I find I regret more of the crazy things I did not do than the crazy things I did do. However I can afford all the crazy things I do - no debt for non income producing depreciating assets is one of the keys to happy living.

Some other guy on here and I once took mid 90's 500 SEL and a 600 SEL out drifting here in town... them automatics are not all that bad when driven in anger.

PS I daily drive a 2008 Mercedes - it is not a cheap car to own... figure a grand every time some light winks on - about once every 9 months...

If it's going toward something I'm passionate about (i.e a fun and interesting car) then I don't think it's a waste. The hard part would be finding parts. I'm sure the ONE important part that breaks if I get it will be the one part I can't find on the internet. But if I can buy a car that I can pay for outright then that means I can move to the town I work in, so if my car is INOP then I just have to walk across a tiny town and not have anything to worry about for a day or two. And by not driving the 65 or 70 miles a day, that saves wear and tear and probably $120 on gas a week. And I know what you mean when you say you regret not doing the stuff you wish you would have. I know there
s a saying about living without regrets, but I still think I shouldn't have spent all my money on guitars when I was 16 and 17 and bought a car instead. Life is too short to not drive something that's impractical and mostly useless in the name of happiness. Within reason. It's not like I should buy something that's pretty much guaranteed to break and then not be able to get to work and lose my job.

That's pretty cool. What kind of Merc? As of now I can do a grand every nine months. Would cut into my rally car fund, though.

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Vorpal_Rally
You need to talk to George Beckerman this weekend at Perryville. He has (had) a home for wayward Volvos. I don't know if he's paying attention to this thread, but he's relatively close (southern IL.)

I was planning on going so I could help out a guy from STL with the rally but I borked my DD and don't have a way to get there. So no luck. And also I gotta work from 5:30 AM to 9:30 AM on the 27th. Kind of a waste to only be there for 4 hours, but it's time and a half. And I'm still happy to be doing any work at all. But if I can then I'll talk to him.

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DaveK
I'm still not sure after reading/laughing at all these great replies what the budget is. But what about an older legacy turbo wagon?

Dave
- whatever you do, don't buy and automatic one with a JDM motor and manual trans sitting on the floor of a garage and think "shit, this'll take a weekend to get running right."

Oh jeez. That would help. If I'm buying from an individual, $2500. If I'm buying from a car lot, $5,500. But if I'm in love then maybe $7,000, but not a penny more. I'm still looking for a Legacy wagon. Still love wagons. And I don't feel comfortable buying anything with any engine swap.

---

Something about something....dirt.

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Houdini91
Oh jeez. That would help. If I'm buying from an individual, $2500. If I'm buying from a car lot, $5,500. But if I'm in love then maybe $7,000, but not a penny more.

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TronDD

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Houdini91
Oh jeez. That would help. If I'm buying from an individual, $2500. If I'm buying from a car lot, $5,500. But if I'm in love then maybe $7,000, but not a penny more.

You have this backwords. How much money can you afford to spend on the car? Where it comes from is irrelevant. Usually the same car from an individual costs less than from a dealer. If you have $5500 to spend at a dealer, why wouldn't you spend that much for a much better car from an individual?

Unless you need to finance anything more than $2500 and that's why the difference. $2500 is plenty to not have to finance another car.

Tim.

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NoCoast
This thread is starting to remind me of a friend a few years back. He was living up in Casper Wyoming and wanted to buy a SUV spending around $10k. I told him, buy a 91-94 VR6 4Runner. The 94 would be just shy of 10k, the 91 would be closer to $6k. He then started asking me about a 96 Land Rover Discovery. I said, "The Rover originially sold for $20k MORE than the 4Runner and is two years newer. There's a reason it's the same price, they're garbage. Just buy the 4Runner and be happy." He wanted the status and perceived quality of the Rover and within 3 months it broke down and cost him another $6k to fix.
Your 21 years old. Why do you want to have car payments already? Buy something that is going to be fun that you can learn stuff while working on a car. Stay away from the stealerships and buy a private party car. Don't buy an auto, your commute to work is not in St Louis traffic where the auto would be nice.
Is there not a bus that you could hop on from Blackwater to Stl? Or at least to Columbia? Local to Blackwater probably doesn't leave you many options.

http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/cto/3313161530.html

http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/cto/3237639000.html

http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/cto/3268041975.html

http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/cto/3325919196.html

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JohnLane
Damn.... I'm sorry! At least it will get you back and forth to work.

Derek the S-600 was fun wasn't it!

Rallycross in the S-600.... Power-on oversteer baby!