OT Buying Good Used Car

Too bad about the laws/rules, not surprising though. We're fortunate to have those with much more wisdom looking out for all of us.

Wanna bet some crooks have discovered a work-around?

Finding a reliable used car:

1. get real lucky

That's all ya gotta do, so you see, it's not complicated.

I'm on my second Escort. First one had developed too many problems, and when it wouldn't pass smog, I had to get rid of it. Bought a '94 wagon. It's no Honda or Toyota in terms of quality, fit and finish, but is a right decent car. I'm getting better than 32mpg in town, and that's in the Sierra foothills. However, I do drive with economy in mind. Haven't had enough of a freeway drive to know what it gets there. Best combined mileage thus far was 36.4 and that's from a 14 year old car! (5spd btw, automatics return several mpg less)

Now, Escorts are prone to dropping valve seats, and the current one did. Made a lot of weird noises that would change. Sometimes run fine, sometimes run like crap. While a mechanic friend was looking it over, he though he heard a hint of rod knock, but that got forgotten as he diagnosed the dropped seat. I got a rebuilt head (Alabama Cylinder Heads is by far the cheapest place I've found, nice folks to deal with!) and did the work myself. Car ran better than ever, but a month later, it coughed a rod bearing, so my mechanic was right about that one.

I am loathe to go into debt further to buy another car right now. I have a rat Toyota truck for backup, so am getting ready to pull the engine, recondition the crank and rods and re-ring it. Lot of effort for an older econo car, but it drives nice, gets great mileage. It has new struts all around, new brakes, tires, radiator, and heater core. Doing the lower end should keep it going another 5-6 years easy, and my total cost of ownership outside of gas, oil, and tires, will still come out to less than $50/month.

But to the question of buying an Escort, be wary. A dropped valve seat, if it doesn't take out a piston, is going to cost you $500 if you do the work yourself. Many I see for sale have head gasket issues or have just had a head replaced. However, my mechanic recommended the Escort as a reasonable car for me in my situation. Overall they really are decent cars for the money, they just have a few more issues than others. A '99 for $3k sounds pretty good and the miles are not excessive. If you are serious about it, make sure it's had the timing belt replaced. Talk to a local automotive machine shop and ask if the '99 engines are prone to dropped valve seats, maybe that issue got fixed by then.

My next car is likely going to be a 4-door Civic however. I've owned a Honda before, my ex has a CRV that has been flawless, and my folks have owned Hondas for over 20 years. There is a reason they hold their value.

Hope this helps some....

Jon

Avoid all US-label cars like the plague. I have FINALLY broken my wife of the horrible habit of "buying American". After two transmissions on two US-label cars, both at under 100K miles, I've HAD it! Until my 1989 Toyota Corolla station wagon got totalled, it was the most reliable car I've ever seen. 180,000 miles, on the original clutch, original Freon still in the A/C, original water pump. About the only unscheduled maintenance was a starter motor at

Honda is alos quite good, so that Civic is probably a good deal.

Jon

So, if you drop the claim, you have a car that runs, where you know the mechanical history, and you pony up out of pocket for some small amount of body work and boneyard glass. Have you priced that? How good are the mechanicals on that car?

In Cinci, that money gets you a bunch of mid/late 90's s-10 extra cabs, I just bought a 96 in very nice shape for 3 grand.

Another way out of this is to look for a low-mileage motor out of a wreck. If you're going to pull the motor anyway, you're doing the same amount of lifting, without having to do the motor work. I have a

Around here, car-part.com has worked fairly well for finding stuff, but sometimes local yards will have stuff on hand that don't make it on the website, so it's worth calling too... --Glenn Lyford

Roger You might want to check at a few local banks. I have seen ads in the paper for repossessed cars and trucks for not too bad of an asking price. Lately it seems people just can't keep up with the payments and are forced to let some things go. Steve

Why not buy a 1994 or later Ford Ranger with the 3.0 in it and less than

It will go at least another 150k with minimal problems if you change the oil and antifreeze on a regular basis.

Get the extended cab and put a shell on it.

About 19-21 mpg, street or hiway

Gunner, with one in the drive way with 440,000 miles on it. It now needs an engine. Still runs, but sounds like s*it.

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." Maj. Gen. John Sedgewick, killed by a sniper in 1864 at the battle of Spotsylvania

Wouldn't mind having one to replace the Toyota. But I like the Escort and I really like the mileage. Gas is going to go up again. And when my fiance gets through immigration, I'll need to be able to carry 4.

Jon

My current car is a '97 Ford Escort wagon which has 260,000 miles on it. Has been very dependable and i hope that it lasts a couple of more years.

Errol Groff

Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School Danielson, CT

I'm driving a 2001 Saturn SL1 I bought with 31K 5 years ago. Currently with

I have a light trailer I pull a 5x8 utility trailer when I need to pick up things inside of 500# Load and trailer just under 1000# max. Trip distances 70 miles round trip.

You can get a 10' long rain gutter, piece of pipe, 2x6 in by folding down the rear seat and angling the item into passenger side foot well. Trunk closes.

It can get 35-36 w/o trying, can do 39+ if you try a bit. I drive fairly long distances to work so if you are a city type, knock it back to low 30's.

Wes

And the butt sniffing green cars we will be forced to buy soon are going to take more green to buy than many of use have to spare.

Wes

In article , "RogerN" wrote: [...]

First the specific: SWMBO has been driving a '96 Saturn SL2 for 2+ years now, largely trouble-free. Bought used for about $3500 at somewhere around 90K miles. Liked it well enough that I bought a '99 for myself this spring (similar mileage, similar price); satisfied so far. One thing I find particularly attractive about the Saturn SL-series engines: they have a timing *chain*, not a belt.

Next the general: I've had very, very good results with buying used cars from new-car dealers. They only keep the best of the trade-ins. The not-so-good cars they take as trade-ins usually go straight to the auctions, where the used-car dealers buy them.

Wes, next time you need to haul a 10' piece of something, fold down the rear seat and slide one end of the item up onto the dashboard. Lots easier than trying to guide it into the passenger foot well -- especially if you have a passenger. Trunk closes. Works a treat on my wife's 96 SL2; should work on your 01 SL1 too, I think.

On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:48:39 -0600, the infamous "Up North" scrawled the following:

I'm -not- surprised that neither someone in his church nor God has given him a replacement vehicle, but poor ol' Rog might be.

Another important tip:

Whatever anyone does, if they buy a used car since Katrina and all the flooding in the Midwest, ALWAYS get an insurance trace on the VIN. There are tens of thousands of potential lemons out there just

-waiting- to bite people real hard.

-- The only difference between a rut and a grave...is in their dimensions. -- Ellen Glasglow

I don't go to church so that rules that out. I bought my car for $7XXX with

Thanks for the tip.

RogerN

Thanks all for the replies. I bought a Prizm in 97, still runs great after

Unless I find something else, I'm planning to give the 1996 Honda Civic with

The Ranger sounds great for a truck but for my daily 66 mile drive I would like better gas mileage. I have a Ford F350 4X4 7.3L Diesel that I can use when I need to haul something in a truck or pull my 9.9hp john boat :-)

Thanks again, I have more ideas of cars to look at now.

RogerN

Too bad you are in illinois. Have a very solid little '96 tercel - no body rust - you could buy up here in Ontario for the equivalent of $2800 Canadian - whatever that is on any particular day.

All new brakes - it's been sitting a while so I need to give it a good cleaning and one steel brake line to get it on the road.

It would clean up almost like new - passes E-test here with no problems, etc...

About 15KM from cykf and northwestern flies in daily.

And the later Escorts are just "zooom-zooms" - masda virtually through and through.

My brather is a mechanic. He has an F150 for work, a low milege Taurus wagon, and an Escort ZR2 or whatever they call the coupe for everyday driving. Both daughters and his son(who is a cop and drives like an idiot sometimes) are also driving escort coupes. The kids have never driven anything but escorts, and most had 200,000km on them when they were aquired.

Very close to trouble free. I used to be a Toyota service manager, and I'd but the late escort up against a mid-90s or 90s corolla as fairly well matched, reliability wize.

Just be one hundred percent sure you don't need to go the salvage route if you drop the claim. In Ontario if the insurance co has been involved an knows the extent of the damage, it is branded - no ifs, ands, or buts.

And whatever the adjuster said needs REPLACING, must be REPLACED. repaired parts deamed by the idiot to be structural can NOT be repaired. That includes rad headers.