Looking for a car for $4k or less

[eljefino]

Just get a sedan-- they aren't cool any more. 15 y/o Toyota Highlanders are $7000. 15 y/o Camrys on the same floorpan with the same engine are $2500.

There used to be an unreasonable premium for the Toyota name, now, IMO, it's just their trucks & SUVs.

 

[D1dad]

Yep. I just picked up a 1 owner, garage kept and dealer serviced 08 for $3500. I put $500 in the car because I'm anal about everything. As far as the rust belt goes, if you wash your car at a decent place that does the undercarriage it's not that bad. I have 2 cars that are over 10yrs old and are rust free.



Originally Posted by atikovi
2006-12 Impalas can be had for next to nothing and are cheap and easy to repair and get great gas mileage.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Ws6

Very interesting. We would go through 2-3 transmissions by 200k miles, and retire the engine 220-240, or it would throw a rod or spin a be a bearing or something and retire itself. These were 1992-1996. Before that were the 5.0s with AODs. Similar story, but the motors lasted a few thousand less.


Ahh, non PI stuff. Most of the ones I've seen with super high miles were 2000+ MY's.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by Ws6

Very interesting. We would go through 2-3 transmissions by 200k miles, and retire the engine 220-240, or it would throw a rod or spin a be a bearing or something and retire itself. These were 1992-1996. Before that were the 5.0s with AODs. Similar story, but the motors lasted a few thousand less.


Ahh, non PI stuff. Most of the ones I've seen with super high miles were 2000+ MY's.

No experience personally with PI stuff. Did they improve oil flow, main bearings, rings, etc?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
One of our members here had a taxi biz in Canada and ran Panther chassis cars to 400k miles regularly.

My son is a huge Panther fan, currently rocking a 175k mile Town car, absolutely still a tight engine. Quiet and smooth as silk. He's now had at least 4 of them in every configuration, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria, and the big Lincolns.


Is that 400K with engine swaps, though, and the chassis is what has 400K on it? I literally never saw that. Either from my Dad's fleet of cars (albeit small, spanning a decade), or while working at a Ford dealer.


His screen name name was Garak, and he supposedly ran a fleet of taxis for many years in Canada.

My son's current Panther is a 98 I think, a Town Car. Unbelievable car for 1500 bucks! Smooth, tight, runs very well. Even looks good! Someone has done the intake manifold update and other than that the car appears totally original. It will get some front end parts due to our diligence but the car is ready to go to work tomorrow...

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
One of our members here had a taxi biz in Canada and ran Panther chassis cars to 400k miles regularly.

My son is a huge Panther fan, currently rocking a 175k mile Town car, absolutely still a tight engine. Quiet and smooth as silk. He's now had at least 4 of them in every configuration, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria, and the big Lincolns.


Is that 400K with engine swaps, though, and the chassis is what has 400K on it? I literally never saw that. Either from my Dad's fleet of cars (albeit small, spanning a decade), or while working at a Ford dealer.


His screen name name was Garak, and he supposedly ran a fleet of taxis for many years in Canada.

My son's current Panther is a 98 I think, a Town Car. Unbelievable car for 1500 bucks! Smooth, tight, runs very well. Even looks good! Someone has done the intake manifold update and other than that the car appears totally original. It will get some front end parts due to our diligence but the car is ready to go to work tomorrow...

yeah, I remember us having a lot of cracked intakes.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by Ws6

Very interesting. We would go through 2-3 transmissions by 200k miles, and retire the engine 220-240, or it would throw a rod or spin a be a bearing or something and retire itself. These were 1992-1996. Before that were the 5.0s with AODs. Similar story, but the motors lasted a few thousand less.


Ahh, non PI stuff. Most of the ones I've seen with super high miles were 2000+ MY's.

No experience personally with PI stuff. Did they improve oil flow, main bearings, rings, etc?


Cylinder heads, oil control (updated valve seals), new pistons, not sure if they updated timing system components. Both my parents 2000 Expedition and my former 2002 are PI engines (5.4 version), theirs has 332,000Km on it now (206,000 miles) and ours had 348,000 when we sold it, has got to be well north of 400,000 now (249,000 miles) as the guy commutes with it daily. Both have the 4R100, which behind a gasser is nary indestructible.

 

[HemiHawk]

The PI setup definitely increased performance on the 4.6. The good news is you could always upgrade a non-PI 4.6 to PI, but the cost and effort may not be worth it depending on initial price of the car. I had a 96 thunderbird for a short time, and later a 2003 Mustang GT with the PI setup. Night and day power difference (of course the T-bird was an auto). Depending on use for the car if you're looking at a panther platform just swapping to some 3.55 or even 3.73 gears would wake her up. Of course with sacrifices on highway.

 

[ford46guy]

Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
One of our members here had a taxi biz in Canada and ran Panther chassis cars to 400k miles regularly.

My son is a huge Panther fan, currently rocking a 175k mile Town car, absolutely still a tight engine. Quiet and smooth as silk. He's now had at least 4 of them in every configuration, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria, and the big Lincolns.


Is that 400K with engine swaps, though, and the chassis is what has 400K on it? I literally never saw that. Either from my Dad's fleet of cars (albeit small, spanning a decade), or while working at a Ford dealer.


His screen name name was Garak, and he supposedly ran a fleet of taxis for many years in Canada.

My son's current Panther is a 98 I think, a Town Car. Unbelievable car for 1500 bucks! Smooth, tight, runs very well. Even looks good! Someone has done the intake manifold update and other than that the car appears totally original. It will get some front end parts due to our diligence but the car is ready to go to work tomorrow...

Those 98-02s are very good. They are still used as cabs here, I can tell by the dished wheels. Mine runs so smooth I can forget the engine is running.

 

[deoxy4]

Pretty good database to research.

https://www.carcomplaints.com/best_vehicles/

 

[shiny]

Originally Posted by Ws6
The only vehicle Ford made of the $4k or less era that I'd trust is a Ranger with a 5 speed. Their 4.6 motors die after about 200-250k miles, and will eat several automatic transmissions during that time. Their v6s are worse.


The engine and transmission in my 2008 Crown Vic with 190,000 miles is flawless. It uses 1-1/2 CUPS of oil between 10,000 mile OCIs. The tranny fluid is still bright cherry pink at 30,000 miles since the last change.

Then only issues have been the blend door motor actuator and the odometer light going out, requiring a spot re-weld on the circuit board. The latter was a problem caused by the EPA requiring lead-free solder.