Least You Have Paid For a Car & Drove? Still run?

In college I bought a 1948 Ford F-1 pickup with a Chevy 6 cylinder engine for $75. It burned a quart of oil every 15 miles and was the most efficient smoke producer I have ever seen. The tags had been expired for 5 years and that's just the way I drove it. You couldn't see the tag for the smoke! I really felt bad when I passed a bicyclist.

Later I bought a yellow Renault Le Car for $100 and found $20 in the glove box. That was a fun little car when it wasn't over heating. Sold it for $800.

This spring I bought a 1971 Triumph chopper sight unseen for $1,000. It hadn't been run since 1986. I picked it up at the track in Grattan, Michigan in June. When I got home, the guy that cuts my lawn got wind of it. He rolled it out of the trailer for $2,500. It paid the sales tax on my Ferrari and my lawn care through next season.

 

$25 for a 1959 Merc 190SL off a chicken farm in 1975. Put air in a tire and jumped the battery and drove away. Drove the car off an on for a year or two then the brake lines burst (water and below zero temp) and then the engine siezed because of lack of use. Sold it for $250 for parts and thought I got a great deal...

$45 for a 6 cylinder Chevelle that blew up on a bridge spewing oil all over the windshield at 60 MPH...

$750 for a 67 Alfa Boattail Spider that drove for about 1 year until it had an electrical fire and insurance paid me the $750 I paid and I sold it for $450...again thought I got a great deal...

Brian

 

I paid $400 for a 92 ford escort. It had 148k miles on it. It now has 165k miles on it and runs like a champ. It looks like a ghetto cruiser because I hit a deer in it, and didn't fix the damage, but it still runs and drives straight.

 

Bought my '70 vw bug for $500 and a holley 750 4 bbl. It's my commuter car. Vws suck....

 

My very first car EVER was a 1980-something Chevrolet Celebrity Station Wagon... i bought this car before i had a license; had it without insurance or registration or license plates... i paid $47 for it... i put about 1,000 miles on it in about a month and a half... Looking back, it was SCARY how often the brakes just DIDN'T work...

Next car, a year or so later, was actually my uncle's - which i later came to find out, actually belonged to my brother - but we won't go there... The had expired tags, expired insurance and my license was suspended at the time... i drove the CRAP outta that thing; it was a late 80's Chevy Cavalier Z24; my uncle and i shared it and since he had it before i moved in with him, i didn't pay anything for it...

My next car that was MINE was a 1993 Nissan Sentra; given to me for free with 173,000 miles on it and a SLIGHT oil leak... After driving like i tend do, it wasn't long before that SLIGHT oil leak turned into a BAD oil leak... 364 days and about 25,000 miles later, i cracked the engine block...

Next car was a 1994 Saturn SL... Paid $2,050 for it; it has 73,000 miles on it... It was my first 5-speed... i proceeded to put 1,000 miles on it each week; nary a day went by that i didn't hit 100 mph in that car... Three months and about 13,500 miles later, the engine was dying, the clutch was already screwed and some other mechanical problems pretty much put me on the shoe leather express...

While i had the Saturn, i bought a 1993 Kawasaki Ninja ZX6 for $2,700... i rode it once... Then i could never get it to start again... Lack of money forced me to get rid of it - for $100...! That's one financial lesson i won't soon forget...!

NONE of those vehicles are in my possession today and i highly doubt ANY of them are even still alive... i killed them. i killed them all...

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!!!

 

Nothing ... but I did eventually have to do a head gasket. This was my sisters Simca 1000.

Loved that car and ran it until the tyres were so worn that one day I heard a hiss as I walked to the drivers door and realised the tyre was actually going down ... there was more canvas showing than rubber . It actually improved the handling with bald rear tyres because it just hung sideways into corners and was great fun.

Never was as much fun with new tyres on the rear

Eventually took the car to the rubbish dump as every time you braked the wheelbase would shorten!!

Pete

 

in 1973 i paid $100 for a 1962 ford falcon station wagon. we drove it for three years then sold it for $100

 

This thread has got me thinking, I need a cheap ass runabout! I bet I could get a beat up CRX for less than 2k, and those cars are fun. Maybe an old Olds Cutlass, just to fiddle with.

Ive never bought a car myself, but the cheapest car I own is a 98 Olds sedan, which I call Olga. Its hideous and slow, but its not bad for ~$3k or whatever my mom bought it for. I want to sell it and buy an used Crown Vic Interceptor. I have a few ideas for such a car.

Ford V10, 355hp, 455lb/ft of torque, Black paint, dark tint, black HRE wheels, nice exhaust.
FUN!

EDIT: Found my starter for this project here:

[html/]http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2484903842&indexURL=0#ebayphotohosting[/html]

Anyone know how to make links shorter?

 

Like this Jordan?

Pete

EDIT:Okay here is the answer:

[u*rl=http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2484903842&indexURL=0#ebayphotohosting]Like this Jordan?[/u*rl]

Note I have added the *'s so you could see the formatting ...

 

Hey Jordan, buy that Crown Vic, I'll keep it at my house until you're ready to come pick it up. Keller is just right outside Dallas.

 

I know it's not the cheapest car I bought, but I have '69 Mustang Convertible since 1984, and is still running fine. I paid $3,000 for it back then, and spent over $10K for re-storation, re-paint, repair, etc. I just cannot let her go although I hardly drive her.

 

Thanks Pete!

Jimpo1,
Only if you promise to exorcise it daily

 

Paid my cousin $100.00 for a 1958 TBird in 1968.

 

Bought it for $300. Top was gone. Floor was rusted straight through - ala Fred Flinstone. Replaced head gasket, hoses, belts and brake lines, put boards in to cover floor holes (all less than $50 and an afternoon). Painted it tie-dye. Added a few GD stickers. Drove it to the beach everyday and parked illegally, in the front row, for free. Sold it at the end of the summer to a surfer dude - for $900.

Scottie

 

Actually I remember my Grandpa having a 50 something DeSoto with a push button tranny and I think I've heard of older cars than that.