beater car suggestions?

brettS4 said:
Not to dissuade you, but at one point every member of my family owned a Mazda of that era. Now none of us own a Mazda and never will again. But I also realize you only plan to keep the car a few months. Reliability isn't as important as resale potential.

And for the record, the mazdas were fun to drive. They just didn't last long. Mine blew a head gasket without warning on Christmas Day leaving me stranded 100 miles from relatives. I think it was possessed.
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The plan is, if its not too expensive, to have my mechanic inspect whatever car we plan to buy. Hopefully we can avoid a ticking time bomb that way. But if we run into several crap cars, we will spend a lot of money on inspections. All I want to do to whatever I buy is an oil change at most. I will detail it once we are done to clean it up and hopefully we can maybe come out ahead in the end.
 
A friend of mine went to a dealer ship and said my wife's looking to buy a car that's a stick and they told them where to go and let them drive it! I would do that! I learned on my cousin's car before she sold it! Oh good times lol
 
brettS4 said:
Here's what I see in your area that are interesting.

Ford Explorer

Ford Contour
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The explorer does look interesting. The countour not so much, I had to use the mercury equivalent when for when I was working on getting my license and my feet could not work the pedals right. They were too low and I had to actually use the metal bars for gas and break cause my normal size feet were too big for the foot well. Oh those are bad memories.
 
Jeep Wrangler
Suzuki Samurai
old VW Bug super easy to work on parts are cheap and really fun cars
 
Chase, if you can tell me where I can get a running Miata for a grand, I'd be up for that.
 
I'd buy something you can learn more than just driving on. Paint correction, body work, replacing parts, wrenching, etc. So something common and very cheap to work on. 90's american stuff IMO. Junk yards are littered with them, many companies shared parts with sister companies, i.e. Chevrolet to GMC to Pontiac, etc.
 
At 180k I would think the clutch has been replaced already. As far as selling it afterwards it has a built in reselling option....Toyota emblem🇯🇵

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I used to buy and sell jeep cherokee xj body style. I only did these because of a couple reasons. I had one i took to 260k miles without a rebuild on trans or engine. I did however need to replace the rear end but that was my fault for getting about 8' of air lol. But aside from that they were super cheap. I was buying them for about 500 bucks and selling them after minor repairs for about 3-4k.

I also worked as a valet parker when i was younger. Probably the easiest stick to drive is anything toyota. You can be a little lazy with the clutch and it will still shift without grinding.

If the soul purpose of getting a beater is to learn stick just buy anything though. As long as it runs. A very cheap car is a Ford Festiva. A running one will cost you about 500 bucks.
 
brondondolon said:
I used to buy and sell jeep cherokee xj body style. I only did these because of a couple reasons. I had one i took to 260k miles without a rebuild on trans or engine. I did however need to replace the rear end but that was my fault for getting about 8' of air lol. But aside from that they were super cheap. I was buying them for about 500 bucks and selling them after minor repairs for about 3-4k.

I also worked as a valet parker when i was younger. Probably the easiest stick to drive is anything toyota. You can be a little lazy with the clutch and it will still shift without grinding.

If the soul purpose of getting a beater is to learn stick just buy anything though. As long as it runs. A very cheap car is a Ford Festiva. A running one will cost you about 500 bucks.
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it's funny you say that about XJ because at various times throughout the past decade or so i've been looking for beater 4x4s - first i settled on was an '87 Montero SWB (loved it) and then a couple years ago i picked up a '99.5 Pathfinder. anyway, whilst looking, i swear more often than not when i'd come across an XJ it would say "bulletproof I6" and then elsewhere in the ad "engine replaced at 115K" or something like that hahaha
 
builthatch said:
it's funny you say that about XJ because at various times throughout the past decade or so i've been looking for beater 4x4s - first i settled on was an '87 Montero SWB (loved it) and then a couple years ago i picked up a '99.5 Pathfinder. anyway, whilst looking, i swear more often than not when i'd come across an XJ it would say "bulletproof I6" and then elsewhere in the ad "engine replaced at 115K" or something like that hahaha
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Lol yeah I have seen the same when i was buying and selling them. I will say this though. The radiator expansion tank is an absolute joke. They constantly pop. I was about 40 miles away from home and it popped for the 5th time or so. I was so over it I drove all the way back home with no coolant then back to where I was. The engine didnt blow or anything. I think its how you take care of it. That was obviously one of the worst things you could do to an engine lol but prior to that I took very good care of it. I loved it and it was very reliable.
 
actuator_mz3 said:
the answer is always miata

Mazda MX 5 Miata Convertible | eBay
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Haha. I see we got a jalopnik reader here. :xyxthumbs:

Most recent news is no news. Me and my bro decided we are going to look into renting a car for a day so we can learn stick. That was we can test drive the cars ourselves without relying on my buddy. He isn't really a car person, so I have doubts he would notice if anything felt off.

I thought I found an amazing deal last week. Found a Mitsubishi starion and he only wanted 1500. But then I learned it had sat for a long time and it ran rough. I am sure the turbo would explode on the first spirited drive if I got it fixed up lol. Not looking for a project car, but man that had me thinking for a sec as those are sweet rides and that would be a car I would keep and not sell.

Heres another cute car:

1988 Mazda 323

And if all was well, this is the win of the century. Love SHO's.
1992 FORD TAURUS SHO
 
That little 323 is a great car. My parents had one exactly like it (same color, even). It had a torquey engine that could actually squawk the tires shifting into second gear. Ran beautifully. Got great gas mileage, too. Their car got rear ended and that was the end of it. As leery as I am about older Mazdas, I'd jump on that one if it ran well.

As much as I love SHO Tauruses, the price tag on that one makes me wonder. Apparently it was repossessed. It would be a fun car with its 225 hp, but might have been beat up on a lot. And resale could be a problem. But for that price, I personally would look at it if it were in my neighborhood.
 
man, i wanted a 323 GTX so bad when i was younger. i almost got a 323 hatch but ended up with a Scirocco or Isuzu Stylus...can't remember.
 
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