Car runs great, but looks bad

[KrillBee]

I know that everyone cars most importantly about how well their car runs, because it has to get them from A to B reliably.

But of course we all want our cars to look nice too, because we live in America and all.

My ride is a 1996 Nissan Maxima, with 126k miles, chipped paint all over and a little rust. but has no check engine codes, components are great, etc.
It has a cheap black paint job on top of the stock gold paint. the black is chipping off. theres a place where bondo chipped off on the door. the front bumper is sanded down to black plastic (too much paint was coming off), and the trunk is rusting by the spoiler and the rocker panel and quarter panel are starting to rust on one side.

I want to part with it, for something that doesnt look as bad, but the problem is I know id be giving up a reliable machine and wouldnt be getting much money in return. I'm only 22 years old, dont have that nice a job yet, so cant afford a better car at the moment.

Could you folks stand driving a well-running car, even if it had problems with its appearances?

 

[Tylanner]

im going to drive my cars into the ground

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: Tylanner
im going to drive my cars into the ground

i like that principle. so do you do any kind of heavy duty maintenance? replacing of engine parts / transmission?

driving it to the ground could mean lots of things. theoretically a car could run forever if u kept replacing stuff, and keeping the body nice.

 

[Tylanner]

Originally posted by: KrillBee

Originally posted by: Tylanner
im going to drive my cars into the ground

i like that principle. so do you do any kind of heavy duty maintenance? replacing of engine parts / transmission?

driving it to the ground could mean lots of things.

I'm a cheap bastard, I'll get stuff done that needs to be done, but beyond mechanical upkeep my car is on its own.

 

[Swanny]

I'd wait till you get a job with which you can afford a nicer car. On the other hand, image matters in a lot of jobs, and driving a poorly kept-up car doesn't help.

 

[Squisher]

I consider my older vehicles as urban camouflage. Who is going to carjack a guy driving a 15 year old pickup.

 

[Nettles]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I consider my older vehicles as urban camouflage. Who is going to carjack a guy driving a 15 year old pickup.

Here here to that! Cars are for 1.) transport
2.) all else My car's following Tylanner's

 

[doze]

You cant see the outside while your driving the car. I have a huge dent on my drivers side door and the only time it bothers me is while getting in/out of car. Car runs great on the road

Besides you can always get bodywork done a little at a time or take it to a cheapo paint shop like maaco and the get the whole thing repainted for $500 or less.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: Swanny
I'd wait till you get a job with which you can afford a nicer car. On the other hand, image matters in a lot of jobs, and driving a poorly kept-up car doesn't help.

honestly, i dont think i would be judged as much in a job scenario (when do employers see your car? lol)

But what really is unfortunate, is how --women-- judge a man based on the car he drives.
Although that shouldnt be incentive for me to get a different ride, and i should be just happy with my car, but unfortunately it still bothers me.

 

[Lonyo]

I bought my car pre-dented.
Saved me some money, and some worry, if I dent it then it just adds to what's there already, no biggie.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: doze

Besides you can always get bodywork done a little at a time or take it to a cheapo paint shop like maaco and the get the whole thing repainted for $500 or less.

thats how my car got to looking so bad in the first place. When i bought it, i paid a little money to get one of Maaco's better paint jobs because i wanted a cheap way to have it be black instead of stock gold color (normally was $800 for that job, but i got it for $600) I know, sounds stupid, but its too late to change that now.

Anyways Maaco doesnt do any body or prep or anyhting. they paint over old paint! yuck!

they also sanded about 3-4 mm of metal off my door just to cover a small door ding, and then they put bondo there. the bondo is now cracking, and it looks like there is a fist size hole in my door, where the missing bondo was. i painted the exposed metal black, so that it wasnt so noticable.

 

[jme5343]

I drive an 89 Buick Park Avenue. You'll notice a lot of these cars have paint peeling, or missing, or both. 220,000 miles. Runs awesome, cost $300. So, I'll take reliability (and cold AC) over snazzy looking.

That said, I agree somewhat with the job thing. If I were to take a job as a manager, I would get a nicer car (I'd also take a pay cut, lol). Not sure why, but it just doesn't seem right to have the crappiest car in the lot if you're a manager...

 

[mrchan]

Going to drive my car into the ground. I will avoid another car payment for as long as I can.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: KrillBee

Originally posted by: Swanny
I'd wait till you get a job with which you can afford a nicer car. On the other hand, image matters in a lot of jobs, and driving a poorly kept-up car doesn't help.

honestly, i dont think i would be judged as much in a job scenario (when do employers see your car? lol)

But what really is unfortunate, is how --women-- judge a man based on the car he drives.
Although that shouldnt be incentive for me to get a different ride, and i should be just happy with my car, but unfortunately it still bothers me.

Get some self esteem, man!! A chunk of steel and rubber, that is all it is. It serves a purpose, point A to point B. Any woman worth keeping would see right by the 'nice ride' and spot the good guy or the asshat. Same goes for the beater driven by an honest nice guy.
Keep that car till you can buy a 15K car with cash, that's my advice. At $300 a month saved from no car and minimal insurance payments, we are talking 4 years. It feels GREAT cashing out a decent car

 

[Reckoner]

Of course I can, I drive a Subaru

 

[Evadman]

I drive my cars into the ground. Toyota Tercel 190k miles. blew trans doing a neutral drop, trans was more than the car. drove though cornfields, a few fences, and other stuff. Got S-15, went though a big fence. blew 2.8 engine, put new 5.7 one in. then rolled it. 4 times. got old ford station wagon, blew engine. Got Prelude, brke a bunch (5+) half shafts, bent trailing arms bent back on 20 ton press. bent again. Replaced with 1.5" .500 tubing, bent them again. finaly blew trans with too many performance mods. Got Suzuki, broke couple of 1/2 shafts, front pumpkin (cracked the case in 2 trying to hop a bottle in 4x4 low dropped clutch from 6.5k whoops), smoked the clutch, had someone hit me and caused 8k in damage, etc. Still have it, runs like a champ. Got Dodge ram, broke everything; twice. on the 4th rear dana 70 axle (bent housing on 2, cracked housing on one, shattered ring gear which tore up the housing on another), couple of transmissions, started on fire, on the 8th (I think) set of tires at 33k miles, and more cars and stuff that I forget. Just put in an order for an FJ Crusier, I expect that to last at least a week before I break something on it.

 

[DrPizza]

My wife wanted me to buy a pickup truck in the 10-15k range... I divided that number by 10 for what I've been looking at. I'd much rather pay cash and drive the thing into the ground. So far on my current car, cost + total repairs + non-routine maintenance (I'm ignoring the costs of routine maintenance, since that cost really doesn't differ from new cars) divided by the number of months I've had it equal a monthly payment of, ohhhhhh, $5 ish. Each year, that puts me about 3k ahead of someone with a $250 a month car payment. In fact, it puts me even further ahead, since if they have a car payment, you can bet their lender requires more car insurance than just liability.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: KrillBee
But of course we all want our cars to look nice too, because we live in America and all.

You assume much. Not everyone is a spineless social panderer. Many don't give a damn about such ridiculous things as brands and appearances.

If you have a good running car you don't want, I'm happy to take it off your hands. I just happen to be needing a new car.

 

[ballmode]

damn evadman!

 

[Toastedlightly]

I drive 2 of those. I like 'em cause they are cheap.

 

[DainBramaged]

I used to drive a total POS '89 Maxima 5 speed. I loved that car, regardless of the fact that it had many holes through it and everything single thing was trashed. The console was mostly missing, the back seat looked like someone tossed a bucket of tar in it. I LOVED that car.

 

[LordMorpheus]

I loved my first car - it was a 1991 Sable, in Black.

It had been totalled by hail at least twice (parents bought the car back and pocketed the difference), had a big dent in the trunk (mom's fault) so that, on warm days the trunk wouldn't stay latched.

The tach was a laugh to watch as it just kind of did random stuff for no reason.

The tail lights didn't match, either - some old lady took the passenger side tail light out, I replaced it from a junkyard with the first part that fit the hole.

Auto transmission wouldn't hold a gear when turning left . . .

Great car, but the transmission stopped holding a gear altogether so we just signed to title over to the first person who wanted it.


Now I drive my very own 1997 lincoln town car, and it's in great shape and I love it.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: Evadman
I drive my cars into the ground. Toyota Tercel 190k miles. blew trans doing a neutral drop, trans was more than the car. drove though cornfields, a few fences, and other stuff. Got S-15, went though a big fence. blew 2.8 engine, put new 5.7 one in. then rolled it. 4 times. got old ford station wagon, blew engine. Got Prelude, brke a bunch (5+) half shafts, bent trailing arms bent back on 20 ton press. bent again. Replaced with 1.5" .500 tubing, bent them again. finaly blew trans with too many performance mods. Got Suzuki, broke couple of 1/2 shafts, front pumpkin (cracked the case in 2 trying to hop a bottle in 4x4 low dropped clutch from 6.5k whoops), smoked the clutch, had someone hit me and caused 8k in damage, etc. Still have it, runs like a champ. Got Dodge ram, broke everything; twice. on the 4th rear dana 70 axle (bent housing on 2, cracked housing on one, shattered ring gear which tore up the housing on another), couple of transmissions, started on fire, on the 8th (I think) set of tires at 33k miles, and more cars and stuff that I forget. Just put in an order for an FJ Crusier, I expect that to last at least a week before I break something on it.

holy crap, those cars have been abused!

 

[buck]

I have a civic thats getting a little old, it only has 70k on it, but the thing is that $20 in gas lasts me a week. My commute is 1:30 5 days a week.
I cant justify getting a new one yet...

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: buck
I have a civic thats getting a little old, it only has 70k on it, but the thing is that $20 in gas lasts me a week. My commute is 1:30 5 days a week.
I cant justify getting a new one yet...

you see, i average 17-20 mpg in town, which for me isnt good enough. but then again, id feel unsafe in car as small as a civic.