I’ve always been amused at the notion of trading in your car. People actually do that, I’m told, cleaning and painting and fixing up their existing vehicle to get a little money toward the new car they’re eyeing, even though the dealer most likely gauged the worth of their wreck as soon as they pulled into the lot and mentally adjusted his invoices to match before ever strapping on his smile.
Trading in a car, for me, would be an exercise in futility, and I hate exercise. I shed them instead, casting them aside only after I’ve wrung every last ounce of usefulness out of them. Something like a hermit crab whose previous home started smoking and stalling at stoplights.
I’ve rarely stuck with a specific type of vehicle; when you buy based on an immediate need and whatever’s in your pocket by looking over the ads while sitting in your half-ton, still-pinging paperweight, the choice of make, model, or color rarely enters into your figuring. A wheel on at least three corners and some way to make it go and stop more or less on demand would be the high bar, with anything else an optional extra.
Oh wait, I'm a man... Yeah, let's smash up some cars, and watch some 'Mercan football, then take off our shirts and wrestle.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Oct 2005
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My uncle had six cars stolen in NYC, before he bought a Cadillac and intentionally put a dent in each major body panel with a sledgehammer. That one was never stolen.
My son's 1990 Toyota Corolla had about 200k on it when he attempted to drive to Rochester 2 days ago. It died 90 miles short of the destination. There was oil all over inside the engine compartment and he said it made a rattling noise followed by a loud knock. I assume it threw a rod. The junk yard gave him $100, so he has $22 left after he paid the tow truck driver.
Then he took a bus home.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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My boyfriend's Toyota Tercel threw a rod last month. I was told the engine looked literally shredded.
He keeps being given cars that are junkyard ready and the darn things last a few years with him behind the wheel.
My dad is the same way. Drives his cars into the ground. Whenever my mom or I tried to drive his van, the engine would die or the accelerator pedal would get stuck (resulting in a traumatizing experience that stayed with me four years before I cracked and decided to get my driver's license.) My favorite was his old brown minivan because the interior fabric on the ceiling detached in one big piece that would drape over his head like a shawl while he was driving.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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My Ford Focus just turned five last month (Happy birthday!) and has just over 40K on it. I bought it brand new, so I've driven all those miles. I plan on driving it until a PHEV is available and until I can afford it (which I'm going to assume is possible by the time they come out). As such I plan on it lasting me another 5-7 years before I trade it in, in whatever condition it ends up being in, probably with less than 100K on it still. But that's more for environmental reasons than for economical reasons.
As an aside, I traded my 89 Cutlass Sierra in to get the Focus. I knew exactly what the Focus I was buying was worth, knew that the dealerships in the area were stuck with a glut of overstocked inventory, and knew that Ford wasn't doing so hot in sales at the time. The salesman, like any salesman, tried to talk me into more features than I could afford, tried to talk me into paying more than I wanted to, and tried to talk me into a lease, which I knew I didn't want. I said no every time, and got the price lowered to below MSRP. I even ended up with the sligtly fancier engine under the hood, which was a surprise when I popped it for the first time.
I guess I'm just saying, trading in your car isn't useless, you just need to be ultra informed before going to the dealership. You should have a good idea as to what your car is worth, and should know almost exactly what the car you are buying is worth. Getting full value has a lot to do with dogged persistance and knowledge.
Now if Chevy can just hurry up and bring the Volt to market by 2010 like they are promising, I'll be ready to buy one in 2012-2013 after all the kinks are worked out from the first couple model years.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I love floppy roof fabric! My Chevette did that, so rather than do something stupid like, you know, replace the fabric properly or anything, I stuck buttons up to create a nice tent effect.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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It's fuzzy, but I seem to remember my mom using wire coat hangers to keep her headliner up. (I wonder why?)
edit: Oh yeah, and we still drive an 82 Honda civic that has over 250K (Buy Honda!) on it. Nothing that isn't directly related to the movement of the vehicle works, but we love it. (My husband has pictures of himself in the driver's seat when he was about 2 years old.) He rebuilt the engine when he 20 with no more knowledge than he could glean out of the Clifton manual. I think he used junkyard parts.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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My father use to own a 1971 Ford Galaxy. Or, as I like to call it, "every other car in Starsky and Hutch". Matte white, no gloss. Had one big tear and gaping hole on the left side. Looked like it was straight out of a Mad Max film.
Car ran great. And it's a good feeling to drive around without having any concern over your car's condition. Very liberating.
And the car had the best air conditioning system of every car I've ever had. My dog would rather put his face right up in to the air vents than out the window.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Ah, the memories. I still regret having been compelled to give up my twelve-yr-old Geo Tracker.
It still could go in reverse. You can go pretty far in reverse, so long as it is the middle of the night on well-lit streets with no other cars around.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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hehe. Well, my 2000 Dodge truck has 120k miles on it. Only things I've done are change the oil, tires, spark plugs, and the front brakes (at 40K).
My 1987 Trans Am has 117K on it. Yeah, 20 years old vs my 7 year old truck and the car has less miles. I'm doing some work on the TA so I can drive it while I work on the truck.
My 1990 Dodge Dynasty ran great until rust hit the hood latch, wind caught the hood, and then the hood said hello to mister windshield. In fact, I still drove it afterwards. Dad and I bolted down the hood, and duct taped the windshield. This all was after the transmission went out on me.
Then before the "nasty" there was the 1988 Ford Aerostar. Just the fact that it was a Ford was bad enough. But, it was a fun van to drive. Naturally, the transmission went out, and then I busted the entire front end on the back of a car. (I was....17 I think at the time....Hmmmm, that's also the last auto accident I've had).
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I stapled the roof fabric on one of my old cars, on the advice of a 13-year-old I gave a ride to. She was right! It lasted for quite a while (until whatever it was stapled to disintegrated).
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:My 1990 Dodge Dynasty ran great until rust hit the hood latch, wind caught the hood, and then the hood said hello to mister windshield. In fact, I still drove it afterwards. Dad and I bolted down the hood, and duct taped the windshield. This all was after the transmission went out on me.
Reminds me, I drove my clunker 1989 Ford Escort from Kendall to Miami Airport, a distance of about 10 miles, going 60MPH down the Florida Turnpike without a front windshield.
I just put on my chemistry goggles and it was just like riding a motorcycle... a four-cylinder motorcycle with doors.
Hurricane Andrew damaged the windshield and I had to get to work (I was the network admin, so I had disaster recovery duties). Since I couldn't see through the front windshield, I decided to remove the windshield... with a baseball bat. Then the parts that I couldn't remove because they were still glued to the frame I covered and taped down to the upper dash with Duct tape.
Is there anything Duct tape CAN'T fix?
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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We had a car that had the floppy liner. We used binder clips to clip it up.
I'm currently without a car of my own. Husband left and took the truck (2 days later decides he wants to come back and I'm supposed to send him gas money). So I'm driving a huge delivery van (OK, it's an Econoline but it seems huge to me) loaned to me by a friend with a business. It looks a lot like this but with logos all over everything.
It's only got 2 seats (I have 2 kids ages 11 and 14), it's a big step up and I can't lock it, but it gets me to work so I won't lose my job.
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I'm still using my '94 Buick Skylark, which I bought in 1999. The odometer currently says 160K miles.
It's survived one high-water event (no water on the interior), an expensive brake job, one minor fender-bender (my fault), and a light hail storm. The hail left about a dozen small dents all over, which aren't terribly noticeable.
Since it was purchased, I've invested a good chunk of change in keeping it running. I think I'll easily get another 2 or 3 years out of it, and hopefully by that time, something more fuel-efficient will be affordable.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Uprooted do I know you? I remember giving someone stapling advice identical to that when I was about 13. (which would have been 15 years ago now) We did it in my dad's oldsmobile cutlass supreme and it worked beautifully.
That was the car that the lock only worked on the passenger side so you had to crawl through. Dad did that for years, but one day he slammed his hand in the driver's side door. He was in front of our house, but we didn't know he was home, and no one but the dog heard him.
The mailman eventually heard him and crawled through from the passenger side and let him out... Dad was an interesting combo of white and green, when he staggered in the door, and he still has scars on the back of his fingers from that.
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