Cars you had that were supposed to be junk but turned out great for you
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It was before the carbon credit crazy. My understanding is the "credit" is mostly for HC, CO, and NOX in my air quality management district. If your car fail smog it is basically automatically qualified for yet another program regardless of year.
Yes, we do have smog and we have spare the air day when it is real bad, the sky is brown instead of blue.
Love these type of threads!
For me it was a 1988 Toyota Tercel hatchback that a family friend had sitting in their yard. It has been sitting there for a while and they said that it would not start or run and they had no idea what the issue was. It also leaked oil pretty badly. They said I could have it though if I wanted it.
After a couple hours of investigating it turned out The vacuum hoses had been disconnected for some reason and put back on the wrong way once that was fixed and tuned up it purred! Drove that car for a while, actually took it on several 150 mile round trips and was great although a bit anemic. It did leak a qt of oil a week but small price to pay for being free! And the perfect vehicle for a broke high schooler.
For me it was a 1988 Toyota Tercel hatchback that a family friend had sitting in their yard. It has been sitting there for a while and they said that it would not start or run and they had no idea what the issue was. It also leaked oil pretty badly. They said I could have it though if I wanted it.
After a couple hours of investigating it turned out The vacuum hoses had been disconnected for some reason and put back on the wrong way once that was fixed and tuned up it purred! Drove that car for a while, actually took it on several 150 mile round trips and was great although a bit anemic. It did leak a qt of oil a week but small price to pay for being free! And the perfect vehicle for a broke high schooler.
Pretty much every one of my favorite cars...
My current Pontiac G6 beater I bought new. It was a pretty high volume car that you don't see around anymore. I'm guessing because mine drinks oil like it's free beer at happy hour I'm guessing other's did also
2001 Hyundai Accent. Bought it 6 years old with 41k miles on it. Was working for a Chevy dealership who took it in on trade. Paid $3200 out the door. Other than an automatic transmission it was bare bones. Ran an AutoCheck report on it about a year or so later when I was working for Carmax as they had us learn to use the system by using our own car info. Found out it was a lemon law buyback originally out of California. As I recall, they weren't a very highly rated car for reliability at the time. We kept it for 5 years and ran it to about 150,000 miles. Needed a set of struts, O2 sensor, and valve cover gasket during that time. Kept up on all the preventative maintenance and it was very reliable. Sold it to my buddy for his daughter's first car for $1500. She drove it through high school and into college. Then they passed it down to another teen driver in the family who eventually destroyed it from lack of maintenance. Dollar for dollar that was the best car I've ever owned in terms of the cost to buy and maintain it vs the miles we got out of it.
That's a brand I've yet to try but plan to eventually.
A second one for me was our 2005 Dodge Caravan. Bought in 2009 or 2010 with 75,000 miles on it for $5,000.00. The price was less than half of a comparable Toyota or Honda. They didnt have the best reputation but I figured it was worth the gamble for the price. Drove that one about 5 years to around 150,000 miles also and it needed one intake manifold gasket and a brake caliper in that time frame. I maintained it better than probably 99% of minivan owners do. Sold it to my in-laws about 7 years ago and they haven't blown it up yet but they have definitely tried really hard to do so. It's in rough shape now but it still runs and drives. I just put new plug wires on it recently and I believe it was at close to 180,000 miles.
99 Cavalier. Drove it 250,000 miles before I sold it. Original engine and trans with only fluid changes. I liked that car a lot, but rust got to it really bad.
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It's funny, since 1998, I was like my dad, and tracked my fuel economy with a spreadsheet. Write it on paper, then go home and enter the data.
I kept doing it until about 2017, at which time my son deleted my app somehow (Android back then).
The very first car I had ever experienced a mpg computer on, was a Cobalt rental in 2005. I was fascinated, really.
Oddly, it is grossly inaccurate on our 2011 GM. But it is EXACT to the 0.1 mpg on my BMW, and it is within 0.3 on my Lexus. Not sure why the GM is so bad in measuring the fuel consumed. Buddy said the same on Lincoln Navigator, way off.
Anyway, at the time, I remember thinking this Cobalt isn't bad at all--the electric power steering is really fine. Imagine in 2014, even BMW couldn't get right what Chevy did 9 years prior.
Yep. 2013 Ford Focus SE w/5spd bought new. Consumer Reports - basically lowest possible rating b/c of the awful DCT trans but of course...knowing that...I bought the manual...too bad CR didn't factor that in. 10 years/125K with basically nothing done to it - lowest cost-to-own vehicle I've ever had. My son's now. Great little car.
1972 Gremlin with the 258cid six... not claimed to be junk but certainly a model not well loved. I was in my early 20s and not kind to this car, put 100k miles on it in 5 years and not one bit of trouble. Literally nothing failed or even had problems. One of the best vehicles I ever had. A much better car than the 1965 and 1967 Mustangs that followed.
Another vote for the last generation Chevy Cavalier. They were dirt cheap on the used market and super easy to maintain with that simple pushrod 2.2L 4cyl engine that came in them and simple 4 speed automatic. Bought a used one as each one of my 3 kids aged into getting their license and started driving. Interiors were crap but they took the abuse of a teen driver pretty well.
Probably the 1992 Cavalier that I bought wrecked in 2006 with 76,000 original miles. Had the Unibody straightened and put a new grill, headlights, hood and right fender on it and I still drive it today and it just turned over 250,000 miles. It was my work beater for years and I still drive it quite a bit even though I'm retired because it gets good gas mileage and has been pretty reliable.
The only real issue it's had over the years is that it idles kind of rough and has gone through several sets of ICM's and coils.
The only real issue it's had over the years is that it idles kind of rough and has gone through several sets of ICM's and coils.
2000 Saturn SL2, that car never left us stranded. The only things I ever had to do to it were basic maintenence, plus change the water pump once. I never had the valve cover off of it. The tranny had a spin on filter (just like an oil filter) so tranny fluid and filter changes were a breeze. A tree took it out in a PNW windstorm in 2014 at 212,000 miles. If not for that tree I'm pretty sure we'd still be driving it today. Very basic car, it didn't even have ABS, but what a great, reliable car.
First and second gen Ford Explorers.
I don't think I've ever owned a vehicle that was "supposed to be junk".
76 Plymouth fury - simultaneously junk, but functional and ran pretty cheap.
(pict isnt mine but was identical to minus the rust along the trrimline)
The weak 318, with a freeway flyer rear end it was good for 22mpg at about 70 but seriously uncool and rusty.
Handled awful. Put about 200K on it before the trans blew.
(pict isnt mine but was identical to minus the rust along the trrimline)
The weak 318, with a freeway flyer rear end it was good for 22mpg at about 70 but seriously uncool and rusty.
Handled awful. Put about 200K on it before the trans blew.
2012 Hyundai Accent 1.6
199,970
Cat died and car wouldn't go over 4mph. Liked the Capt chair
and hatchback. Had a custom axle back magnaflow exhaust and Injen SRI. PP 5w30 and it took 3.49 qts. Small gas tank too.
199,970
Cat died and car wouldn't go over 4mph. Liked the Capt chair
and hatchback. Had a custom axle back magnaflow exhaust and Injen SRI. PP 5w30 and it took 3.49 qts. Small gas tank too.Similar threads
