your best $500 car

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: SLCraig
I'm very close to paying $500 for a 2000 Saturn SW2 DOHC 5 speed wagon with every option. It needs a subframe, cause the towbar that was hooked up to it, hit a parking median and pinched the frame.

The car has 120k kms and runs perfectly otherwise. There are mint subframes at the local wreckers and the job is not even that hard.

Do it! Since December I've welded two and swapped three more! Six hour job with only hand tools, faster with power.

/threadjack

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: eljefino

If I needed a car tomorrow for cheap it'd be a saturn s-series based on my mechanical experience and their parts availability.

Wouldn't $500 be one of your more expensive saturn acquisitions!? My manager has 98 SL1 that is like new and a dealer offered him $500 on a trade in... He treats it as well as his 1971 Barracuda so he declined the offer/test to see if he is stupid.



Yes but as a "duress buy" if I were down to nothing and had to get to work, I'd get a lot of car from a $500 saturn.

As a hobby, I get 'em for around two bills, on my own schedule and terms.

 

[SLCraig]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: SLCraig
I'm very close to paying $500 for a 2000 Saturn SW2 DOHC 5 speed wagon with every option. It needs a subframe, cause the towbar that was hooked up to it, hit a parking median and pinched the frame.

The car has 120k kms and runs perfectly otherwise. There are mint subframes at the local wreckers and the job is not even that hard.

Do it! Since December I've welded two and swapped three more! Six hour job with only hand tools, faster with power.

/threadjack


I plan on it I do have impact too..
Also, the only other issue with this swap is because of the impact to the bar, the airbags have also deployed. The exterior panels are all flawless, its only because of the stupid towbar. I am not sure how the gen3 BCM deals with that. I may have to swap the airbag sensor too. I do want to buy that car though, it is immaculate shape other than this situation.

 

[Cutehumor]

getting a $500 car is very hard. most cars in this price range have either a bad trans or bad engine.

 

[rjundi]

I went over budget and spent $700 on a 85? Subaru XT FWD (funky looking coupe) with excessive rust at the start of college. Good old "Rusty Jones" sticker did not mean much on this one.

It was rusty and took a special mechanic to pass state inspection but otherwise ran it 2.5 yrs without a hitch. Just oil changes and snow tires. I did 40-50 days/year of skiing, and drove the roads of western Maine in any conditions at high rates of speed in this sled.

The AC was ice cold too.

It looked like this minus the pin stripes and chunks in the body of rust and holes:

 

[panthermike]

I've had two actually;

Got a '88 Toyota Tercel from my gf's parents for FREE! Didn't run and had been sitting for two years, 135,000 miles on the ODO. Anyways; all it needed was some proper wire routing, a battery and a fuel line plugged in. Smoked for a while but some italian tune-up got that cleared up

It leaked oil VERY badly, but I ran it for a while w/ no issues whatsoever.

Also a '78 Caprice I bought from my friends brother for $400. It had the 305 and around 200,000 miles. Also smoked pretty bad, but after awhile not too bad. It ran when I bought it. Drove it for a year or so and did fluid changes, tires and an ignition switch. Sold it to someone for $500.

 

[Johnny]

The best $500 car I ever owned was in 1967, and that was my 1959 Peugeot 403. Looked liked and was the same color as this one.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1959_Peugeot_403.jpg

Well, I can't get the stupid link to attach, but if you really want to see it just highlight, right click and open attachment.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
The best $500 car I ever owned was in 1967, and that was my 1959 Peugeot 403.


It had a hemi engine.

 

[Chris142]

69 Chevy Chevelle. 2dr Post car, 6cyl, 3 on the tree.

 

[lexus114]

1986 Volkswagon Quantum. Paid around $400.00 12 years ago.

 

[wander2039]

Paid for $450 for the Festiva. Spent probably $200 on tires and $100 on everything else. The front main seal was leaking like a faucet when I got it. Probably needs a new oil pan gasket and rear main seal.. may upgrade to a 1.8L instead. Still won't have over $1k in it when I'm done. Regardless the AC blows cold and purrs at 70mph not bad for a 65hp auto.

 

[SteveSRT8]

55 Desoto, purchased for 50 bucks in the 80's. Didn't run, the coil wires were reversed! Put new tires on it and changed the oil, adjusted the brakes, etc.

Drove it everywhere, really cool old car. Dash shifted auto, electric bench seat, Firedome Hemi, tube radio... man, I had some fun in that car.

You could put ten people into it for the 'carload' drive-in night.

 

[wha232]

Paid $400 for my 1986 Camry 6 years ago. Replaced normal wear items and starter and alternator, but its the only car I've never had to have towed.

 

[caprice_2nv]

1986 Chevy Caprice I bought off my friend for $200. I drove it for several winters and wrote it off when I fell asleep driving late at night. Replaced it with an 87 Caprice for $300. Both cars were reliable daily drivers and started every morning even at -25C.

I should have kept the 87 but I ended up selling the drive train out of it and sent it to the wreckers. Got more than what I paid for it after driving it for 2 or 3 winters and letting my girlfriend drive it for a summer (doing home care - she had to drive from house to house every day as a personal support worker).

I paid $400 for the 89 Caprice I'm driving right now. It's in pretty bad shape though so I'm only running it one more winter. It's got 323k miles on it, original 305.

Next winter it's being replaced by a near mint condition 83 Chevy Caprice I bought for $1500. It needed nothing for a safety, 305 runs perfect, has about 165k on it, undercoated and only driven one winter.

My girlfriend drives a 99 Chevy Lumina that we paid $500 for and it's been almost trouble free for the year and a bit since we bought it. Only had to change a water pump and a tie rod.

There is lots of cheap low maintenance cars to be found around here. You just have to be in the right place at the right time to jump on them.

 

[ls1mike]

135 dollars for a 1987 Dodge Lancer Turbo at Auction with 72,000 miles on it. Leather, A/C and sunroof. Clean as could be. Was abandoned with a broken axle. Replaced axle 80 bucks plus two hours of labor. Drove it to San Diego from Bremerton Wa 4 times. Gave it away with just shy of 190,000 miles on. That was one good car.

 

[UncleS2]

Long ago- junior year in HS, early 1970 I think. Looking for a car- went & looked at/drove a 61? Corvette- but too rough, had a Caprice engine, no thanks. Then saw an ad, asking $600- for a 1957 Chevy. It was a Bel Air, 2-dr hardtop, converted to 3-sp manual(with the worlds oldest Hurst long round bar floor shifter!

)from factory Powerglide. Power steering. White, w/red & black "dirt road chic" redone vinyl interior. 283 ci V8, power-pack heads, ancient looking, probably original 4-bbl carb(Carter WCFB?) with *oil bath* air cleaner. No foolin.

You've heard of 8-track tapes? Well, the predecessor to 8-track was the 4-track tape cartridge- looked just like an 8-tr, but where the 8 had a built-in capstan wheel, the 4-tr had a hole in the bottom, where a capstan wheel on a lever swung up from underneath & locked in place. No way I could make that up! The '57 had a working 4-track player mounted under the dash, and a few tapes left under the seat. I remember one was Diana Ross & the Supremes, another was Dean Martin.

I saw it, drove it, fell in love. The seller was motivated, and I managed to buy it for $475. Drove it for about 3 years.

It had a few warts- but was a pretty good car for a high school boy to buy with his own $ back then. Really looked good from just a few feet away, too. *Lotsa* looks & comments in the parking lot at school.

 

[dishdude]

Bought a 1987 Reliant K-car for $500 in 1995. A woman drove into the side of it 9 months later and her insurance company gave me $1900

 

[L_Sludger]

I bought a 1986.5 Toyota Supra for $600, seven years ago. That car was my faithful companion, never once letting me down, over the four years that I owned it. I still miss it bitterly.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
Bought a Rabbit Diesel back in the '80s for $200 with the odometer broken around 150,000 and the passenger side badly dented in an accident. Commuted 120 miles per day in that car for two years doing nothing but oil changes and filter occasionally. Never even changed the fuel filter or tires. Probably put 50,000 miles on the car getting around 55 mpg. Then sold it back to the guy I bought it from for $200 and he drove it for another few years.


All I can say is, "my hat is off to you."

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I bought a 1986.5 Toyota Supra for $600, seven years ago. That car was my faithful companion, never once letting me down, over the four years that I owned it. I still miss it bitterly.


I have to admit that I dearly regret parting with a couple of Toyotas myself, most notably the wife's 2001 Tree (Sequoia) and my 2003.5 V-6 Camry. . .