Which car should I take with me to school?

[Stojakapimp]

So I have to decide between two different cars that I must take down to San Diego. I live in Sacramento so it's quite a long drive.

The first car is the car that i've been driving around for about 3 years now. It's an 85 Ford LTD with about 127,000 miles on it. I put in a cd player and some 6 x 9's in the back. Other than that, I have had very few problems with the car...only needing to get the belts changed and the radiator replaced just last week. But the dash lights don't work so I have no idea how fast i'm going at night, my driver side window doesn't roll down, and my e-brake light is always on. But again, it's been a nice car to me.

The second car is a car that my mom just bought for 400 bucks. It is an 81 Buick Century with about 60,000 miles on it. I've only driven it once and it seems like it runs pretty well. It doesn't have a custom cd-player though. I don't know what the gas mileage is either. My Ford gets about 22 mpg. Other than that, I don't know too much about the Buick.

So I was hoping that maybe some of you car buffs out there can help me pick which car would be better for me. Such as which one will last longer with fewer problems and will ultimately be more beneficial for me.

 

[Reliant]

It sounds like the LTD and you have a history, it might be hard to let it go....

 

[Stojakapimp]

^ get up there

Can anyone spare some advice?

 

[charliebrown]

Sounds like that $400 Buick has a rolled back odometer or else its rolled over and really has 160,000 or 260,000 miles. Has it passed smog?

 

[thedarkwolf]

I would take the LTD.

Your dimmer for you dash lights is probably burnted out. I have had it happen several times in cars and jerry rigged it but you can probably get a whole new light switch for around $20 and its easy to remove. You just have to reach around under the dash till you find the swicht and feel around for a button. Push that and you should be albe to pull the nob out. Getting the actually switch out itself will be up to you. I never did it on a newer ford just a dodge and I can't remeber what it took but it wasn't hard.

I'd check the fuse first though

 

[Cyco]

Go with the LTD. Long trip between San Diego and Sac, might as well cruise down in a car you're comfortable in.

 

[notfred]

Fix the lights and take the ford!

 

[crab]

LTD!

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
Sounds like that $400 Buick has a rolled back odometer or else its rolled over and really has 160,000 or 260,000 miles. Has it passed smog?

Well i think the Buick used to belong to some old lady who never drove it around. But yeah, for an 81 to only have 60,000 is kinda hard to believe.

Do the Buick Century's last very long? And does anyone know their gas mileage?

Also, The Ford tends to shake a lot whenever I'm braking. I've recently had the wheels realigned and that didn't work, so one of my friends told me that I probably just need to get my rotor's shaved down or something. Does anyone know how much that would cost? And will it be a big problem if I don't shave them down soon?

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: Stojakapimp

Originally posted by: charliebrown
Sounds like that $400 Buick has a rolled back odometer or else its rolled over and really has 160,000 or 260,000 miles. Has it passed smog?

Well i think the Buick used to belong to some old lady who never drove it around. But yeah, for an 81 to only have 60,000 is kinda hard to believe.

Do the Buick Century's last very long? And does anyone know their gas mileage?

Also, The Ford tends to shake a lot whenever I'm braking. I've recently had the wheels realigned and that didn't work, so one of my friends told me that I probably just need to get my rotor's shaved down or something. Does anyone know how much that would cost? And will it be a big problem if I don't shave them down soon?

You've got warped rotors. New ones would prolly be less then $50 each. Not sure what the labor costs would be if you were to take it to a mechanic.

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: Stojakapimp

Originally posted by: charliebrown
Sounds like that $400 Buick has a rolled back odometer or else its rolled over and really has 160,000 or 260,000 miles. Has it passed smog?

Well i think the Buick used to belong to some old lady who never drove it around. But yeah, for an 81 to only have 60,000 is kinda hard to believe.

Do the Buick Century's last very long? And does anyone know their gas mileage?

Also, The Ford tends to shake a lot whenever I'm braking. I've recently had the wheels realigned and that didn't work, so one of my friends told me that I probably just need to get my rotor's shaved down or something. Does anyone know how much that would cost? And will it be a big problem if I don't shave them down soon?

You've got warped rotors. New ones would prolly be less then $50 each. Not sure what the labor costs would be if you were to take it to a mechanic.

But is it dangerous at all to drive around with warped rotors? Or does it just make it really annoying by how much it shakes? Cuase it's been shaking like this for maybe 6 months now. I just need to know if it is very important for me to fix the rotors before i go down to school or not.

 

[Mutilator]

If you've got the money then get them fixed... bad brakes are never a good thing no matter what component is to blame.

- Like you mentioned you can have your rotors turned/shaved if they aren't warped too badly and if there is enough metal there to have them turned. You can go someplace like advance auto or almost any automotive store/shop and they can tell you if it can be done or not. It's probably about $10/each if you take the rotors off yourself.

 

[Zenmervolt]

As a general rule, don't trust a car you don't know. Getting a new-to-you car and immediately taking it on a long trip is just asking for trouble IMO. The E-brake light is most likely just the sensor at the pedal (or your brake fluid might be low). I say just fix the problems with the LTD and take that, going backwards in age is seldom a good thing.

ZV

 

[Stojakapimp]

Well I guess I'll be taking the Ford then. It really has been a great car for me and it would be hard to part with that thing. So hopefully it will treat me well in San Diego too

On a side note, is it easy or hard to take off rotors? I know absolutely nothing about cars, but if it's easy then I wouldn't mind giving it a shot in order to save some cash. So does anyone know of any good sites that could give me a walkthrough?

But thanks for all your help

 

[Thegonagle]

Find out why the brake light is on (it's a safety warning light!) and take the LTD. At least you know what you've got.

The Century was closely related to the notorious Citation back then. Trust me, you don't want to take this one on. It's so old that you'll need to do a lot of stuff to it to make it dependable.