Advice for buying a sub $1500 beater car

[efript]

uh. yes, there is. the sentras had bigger and more powerful engines that most other econoboxes at the time. i think it was a 2.2 liter w/ 140 hp or something, not bad for the time.

 

[tm37]

I am buying a little geo (the corrolla one) for $300 from my brother in law.

It has been his daily for about 9 months and he just out new tires on it!

 

[Wuffsunie]

For about $1500, unless you can find a good deal, you'll most likely be looking at something 10 years old or so. After haveing done that myself, I say avoid Honda! Nice car when newer, will eat you alive in parts cost later! Try and go fo something that you know you can get repaired for cheap should something critical go.

Things to look for are all locks requiring the same key (seen that once myself); areas of new paint, especially large on the inside of the engine compartment, and/or whole pannals that look a little off colour (that means most likely that someone did a bit of body damage to the car and fixed it up); check around it as much as you can for rust and frame weld marks; test drive it for not less than 15 min on as many different road conditions from suburb to highway if possible; if it's a standard, when you take it out for a test drive, rev the living sh!t out of it for a bit and give the clutch a good, hard workout to make sure it's still in good condition (You don't want it slipping at 4-5000 RPM say); ask to see as much of the maint. history as you can; beware of private sales by people with access to dealer plates.

That's about it from me.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

props for the '85-'87 camry... get one in ghod shape it will last you longer than you want it too.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: efript
uh. yes, there is. the sentras had bigger and more powerful engines that most other econoboxes at the time. i think it was a 2.2 liter w/ 140 hp or something, not bad for the time.

Only the SE-R had that much HP, the rest were 110. Is 110 a big advantage? I think not.