The Driveway: COBbies talk cars

No idea, then. I've never even been in an Explorer, any year, and only looked under the hood of one once back in... 2002, I think, of a 1993 model.

(The reason "under the hood" didn't lead to "inside" was partly because the engine bay looked like crap, including an empty beer can wedged between two of the exhaust pipes leading off of the engine. )

That's.... not really a good place to park a beer can.

When looking at a used car, subtract 100 dollars from the asking price for every Ziptie you spot.

Didn't see any zipties, but the bay was filthy way beyond any normal expectations for a truck that hadn't been dumped in mud or somesuch (dealership swore it wasn't used for offroading), and there was rust in several places. All in all, "do not want" territory.

I figure the previous owner was a redneck, given that a) this is South Carolina, and b) the can was Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Hipster redneck...? Didn't think that was possible. This merits research.

How would that qualify for "hipster" (acknowledging how thoroughly over- and misused the term is, nowadays)?

"PBR" may be hipster in urban areas, but "Pabst" isn't in other areas.

I suspected that it was the drink that was the issue, but wasn't certain.

Here in SC, PBR isn't that far from ButtwiperBudweiser in sales to the redneck population.

edited to avoid double-posting: Anyone know anything about '90s-era Ford Thunderbirds and/or Mercury Cougars? I found both near me (the Cougar XR 7 is a '97, and the Thunderbird LX is a '96 Limited Edition), and I'm a little conflicted over which is a better choice. They both have the same engine (the 4.6 Modular V8),both have relatively low mileage (Cougar has 119,000, Thunderbird has 89,000), and both would presumably drive about the same. The Cougar's slightly cheaper ($2250) than the Thunderbird ($3995 at last check, the car's been there long enough that a price is no longer listed in the window), but the Thunderbird is in slightly better shape, and is completely bone-stock (the Cougar has a newer stereo installed, and I'm not entirely convinced the ground-effects kit on it is stock... though the color matches, and it does go well with the car). Granted, all the Cougar really needs is a fresh coat of paint, but I'm still kinda torn.

edited 28th Jul '13 10:33:55 PM by DemonSharkKisame

Nothing like waiting for road service on the shoulder of the interstate while heading home from looking at a potential trade-up car to help make up your mind.

It's just a flat tire, but as far as I know, it just suddenly lost air while I was stopping in at a restroom on the way to the meetup.

edited 31st Jul '13 12:30:41 PM by TParadox

Back last winter, ice in the driver's door or something blocked the window and broke it out of its track, but it always stayed in the path because I would hold it in place. While my mom was getting my tire replaced (because it was one of two things that needed to be done today and this was the thing she disliked less), she tried rolling down the window and completely destroyed the window's channel because she didn't know what to do with it.

Probably not of much help, but are they power or crank windows? Hope you don't have to replace the whole door, that would be super-expensive.

As an addition to my earlier question, the place selling the Cougar also has a '97 Saturn SC2 for the same price. I'm aware Saturns sometimes have a reputation for being cheap, but on a budget like mine, I doubt I could reasonably afford a big coupe like the Thunderbird or Cougar, especially with a big V8. 30 MPG is always a good thing too.

edited 2nd Aug '13 6:07:43 PM by DemonSharkKisame

Power windows.

And I've found that the power locking system now can't lock the driver door, but can still unlock it.

Yikes. Didn't think a window problem could mess with locks... it really must be pretty badly busted to do that. I'm lucky all my van's window does is go off-track, though I do need to A: get the inside rear-view mirror glued back onto the windshield, B: reglue the front of the headliner fabric back onto the headliner itself, and C: get the left headlight/turn signal replaced (first-gen Ventures have a design defect that allows water into the bulb housings, and now I have an inch of water in my left headlight/signal. Fun stuff). Really, I'm thankful for the years of service my van's given me (and my father, rest his soul), but I won't really miss its various problems once I sell it.

By the way, that Saturn I mentioned earlier? Turns out it's got about 170,000 miles on it, and I dunno if I want to risk having a car that will leak more oil than it uses (an infamously common issue with high-mileage Saturn S-series cars). Thankfully, there's a '98 Honda Civic DX coupe not too far from me in Raleigh, and while it's got almost the same amount of miles, it's in excellent shape. Plus, it being a DX, it's pretty much as basic as a Civic coupe gets (no stock AC, crank windows, AM/FM radio, 5-speed manual), so there's less that could break. There's something about basic, functional cars that the fully-loaded versions just don't capture IMO. Maybe I'm just weird...

Well, I now own two cars. One with a busted driver's window, and one that I'm going to be paying my parents back for for years.

Um... time to scrap the "hi: you can use my window... on hot days, maybe" one.

Yeah, the one with the busted window is going to get fixed up and sold, maybe to my cousin.

Meet the new car, a moderate improvement on the old car.◊

"Moderate"? Don't sell yourself short, that Buick makes the Plymouth Acclaim over there look like total ass. Then again, anything made from the mid-90s onwards would do that.

Also, there's another car I'm considering besides the Civic DX coupe: a '99 Pontiac Grand Am SE sedan with about 130,000 miles. It's about $250 more expensive than the Civic, but it has fewer miles and is better-equipped (power locks, automatic transmission, AM/FM/CD, ice-cold AC, rear seat that doesn't require an Olympic gymnastic routine to get into). I've read a few horror stories about Grand Ams, but I'm still willing to give it a shot so long as it drives good. Should I still go for the Civic?

edited 6th Aug '13 6:10:17 PM by DemonSharkKisame

Well, it is 7.5 times more valuable...

Okay, the Acclaim is fixed, and since there's no longer a gap at the bottom of the window exposing electrical mechanisms, I finally used the free car wash voucher I found in the parking lot a couple of months back. Now it's all ready to sell. Well, it'd probably be a good idea to vacuum...

Hm... may not be selling the Acclaim to my cousin. I texted my aunt to say that the car was ready for sale if they were still interested, and she said they probably weren't anymore. However, my mom said it seemed like my uncle was the more interested party...

Don't really blame them, it's an Acclaim. Seriously though, I hope you can sell that thing soon, I'm sure there's someone who will want it (K-cars were very popular for a reason, they were good cars for their time).

Surprising find for me: there's a '92 Honda Accord EX for only $1500 right up the street from me. It's got about 180,000 miles, and it's a 5-speed, but it's in surprisingly-good shape for something so cheap (all it really needs cosmetically is a good wash). This might be a better choice than the Civic DX coupe, since it's much more well-equipped (AC works as far as I know, power windows, a functional backseat...) at a lower price point (the Civic is six years newer, however).

Well, we gave them as many specs as we could find and I re-evaluated the price based on having those specs fresh in my mind, so they seem to be considering it again.

It'll probably help a lot that my re-appraisal dropped the price over $200.

Ouch. Sounds a lot like the Oldsmobile I'm trying to sell, I can only get $800 out of it tops (engine mounts need replacing, gas float does not work, radio/speakers need work).

Would I be able to comfortably fit into a Mazda Miata? Keep in mind, I'm 6' even and weigh about 140 pounds (in essence, a string bean). I've found two in Fuquay for the same price ($3950); one's a '96, and the other a 2000 model. The only thing the '96 has that the 2000 doesn't is leather seats (the plastic rear window on the '96 has been replaced with a glass one, which all Miatas come with starting with the '99 model), which are nice but not necessary IMO. I would love something like this since I don't have a family, nor a lot of stuff to lug around.

edited 8th Aug '13 11:24:47 PM by DemonSharkKisame

The first time I appraised it at Edmunds', it gave me a $1.2k valuation, and I was offering to sell it for an even thousand. I ran it again and got $890, so I've changed my asking price to $775 for family.

It doesn't really need any work on it except somebody can probably poke at the cruise control to get it working again. There's a bit of rust in a couple of spots, but it's easy to miss.

edited 8th Aug '13 11:53:36 PM by TParadox