On The Hunt...
Used car shopping sucks.
Ever since Maggie died, my dad and I have been hunting for a new car for me with little success. The first car that sounded promising was a 1986 Saab 900, rust free, with 140,000 miles and owned by the son of an Andrews Of Princeton head mechanic. My dad called the guy, car sounded good, we mulled it over, and decided to call the guy tomorrow to set up a time to go see the car. The next morning, I go to find the phone number from the craigslist ad, but it's disappeared. No worries, our phone has the numbers of the las people called right? Wrong. My dad used our calling card since it was long distance. Fuck.
Next we spotted a 1984 Saab 900 for $750, with "high miles". My dad says, "hey, for $750 you cant go wrong". So he calls the guy and leaves a message. We head out to Owner to Owner Car Mart, and on our way back, dad gets a phone call from the guy. Turns out the car has 240,000 miles. My dad expresses concern at the mileage, and the guy says he doesn't understand why he should be concerned about that, and hangs up. O.K.
Then we spot a 1994 Geo Metro 3-Cyl 5-Speed 5-Door down at a dealership on Concord, with a few obvious exterior problems, less rust in critical areas than mine, and 160,000 miles for $750. This was a Sunday, so on Monday we go back and take it for a test drive after the dealership jump-started it. First problem: you cant open the passenger side door from the inside. Second problem: it pulled to the left. Hard. Next: there was a sick sound coming from the engine ("runs great" said the dealer). Fourth: the brakes were making horrible noises ("we just redid the brakes"). Fifth: the transmission felt like it was slipping bad. Might have been that the car was low on gas, could have been a misadjusted clutch. Who knows. Finally, it was impossible to downshift from third to second. So we take it back, and tell the ladies at the dealership that it wasn't the car for us. They asked me what was wrong with it, and I started listing off those problems, and when I got to the slipping transmission, one of the ladies said"no, that's not a problem, it's got an oil-type clutch". Ok... They asked us if we wanted to take a look at anything else, but I declined and ran like hell away from that place.
The car we've got a lead on now is a 1996 Dodge Neon with 140,000 miles, AT (blech), and previously owned by a Master Technician (sounds suspiciously like Master Carpenter), for $1,800. According to the guy my dad used to work with, it's super clean, surprisingly peppy, and gets good mileage. So who knows, my dad says he's got a real good feeling about this one.
I personally have a real good feeling about the 1963 Corvair Monza for $995 on craigslist.
Ever since Maggie died, my dad and I have been hunting for a new car for me with little success. The first car that sounded promising was a 1986 Saab 900, rust free, with 140,000 miles and owned by the son of an Andrews Of Princeton head mechanic. My dad called the guy, car sounded good, we mulled it over, and decided to call the guy tomorrow to set up a time to go see the car. The next morning, I go to find the phone number from the craigslist ad, but it's disappeared. No worries, our phone has the numbers of the las people called right? Wrong. My dad used our calling card since it was long distance. Fuck.
Next we spotted a 1984 Saab 900 for $750, with "high miles". My dad says, "hey, for $750 you cant go wrong". So he calls the guy and leaves a message. We head out to Owner to Owner Car Mart, and on our way back, dad gets a phone call from the guy. Turns out the car has 240,000 miles. My dad expresses concern at the mileage, and the guy says he doesn't understand why he should be concerned about that, and hangs up. O.K.
Then we spot a 1994 Geo Metro 3-Cyl 5-Speed 5-Door down at a dealership on Concord, with a few obvious exterior problems, less rust in critical areas than mine, and 160,000 miles for $750. This was a Sunday, so on Monday we go back and take it for a test drive after the dealership jump-started it. First problem: you cant open the passenger side door from the inside. Second problem: it pulled to the left. Hard. Next: there was a sick sound coming from the engine ("runs great" said the dealer). Fourth: the brakes were making horrible noises ("we just redid the brakes"). Fifth: the transmission felt like it was slipping bad. Might have been that the car was low on gas, could have been a misadjusted clutch. Who knows. Finally, it was impossible to downshift from third to second. So we take it back, and tell the ladies at the dealership that it wasn't the car for us. They asked me what was wrong with it, and I started listing off those problems, and when I got to the slipping transmission, one of the ladies said"no, that's not a problem, it's got an oil-type clutch". Ok... They asked us if we wanted to take a look at anything else, but I declined and ran like hell away from that place.
The car we've got a lead on now is a 1996 Dodge Neon with 140,000 miles, AT (blech), and previously owned by a Master Technician (sounds suspiciously like Master Carpenter), for $1,800. According to the guy my dad used to work with, it's super clean, surprisingly peppy, and gets good mileage. So who knows, my dad says he's got a real good feeling about this one.
I personally have a real good feeling about the 1963 Corvair Monza for $995 on craigslist.
posted by AP at 10:21 PM
3 Comments:
Do not buy a Neon. They are horrible cars that suck. You will constantly be fixing it. Just say no.
You do NOT want a Corvair. I had a Corvair. Worst car ever!
Also your brother is right about neons. My sisters have been through like half a dozen of them combined because my sisters are idiots and they keep buying the little hunks of shit. Do not buy a Neon. Even for the kind of $$ you're talking about, you will regret it. Chrysler installed faulty head gaskets on most if not all of the early ones (google it) and unless the one in question had this fixed via the MASSIVE recall or at some other time in its life, you don't want it.
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