How to find a good CHEAP used car

The first generation Kia Sportage is a pretty durable car with very low resale value. I bought a 2000 in 2009 for $1,850, drove it hard for four years, put very little money into it, and sold it about six months ago for $1,000. Easy to work on, too, and most parts are cheap.

On the down side, the gas tanks tend to rot out in the Northeast, and there's a 60K timing belt / water pump change interval. But many of those cars had the tank changed under warranty.

Saturn S-Series cars are also very durable and can often be had on the cheap. They're also easy to work on, although some parts are getting hard to get.

Whatever car they look at, it would help to have a gearhead friend go along to inspect it. This usually isn't that hard to do because most gearhead friends are honored to be asked to help in this way. Buy us them a pizza and we'll they'll be happy.

The gearhead should bring an OBD2 reader with him / her, especially in the NY / NJ area. One common trick employed by sellers of beaters is to disconnect the battery to reset a troublesome CEL. The reader, in that case, would show "not ready," in which case you should walk away. The car probably has a problem not worth fixing if the seller deliberately cleared the code that way.

Another tactic that sometimes works when looking for a cheap car is to put a "wanted to buy" ad on CL describing the need and the budget. Some people have old, but serviceable cars in their driveways that they wouldn't mind parting with. Bulletin boards at the nearest college campus might also be worth checking this time of year.

Rich
 
Henning said:
Look for a Honda or Toyota on Craig's list. Another good cheap car is the Cavalier/Sunfire series, they run forever on few parts.
Click to expand...

I agree with the above. I currently have a '98 Accord. At one point I had a '98 Sunfire. Both pretty decent cars that you can run a long damn time. That said the Accord is definitely superior in fit and finish and IME has been less troublesome. Sunfire wasn't expensive to keep running but required a little more dicking with over the years.

Biggest thing that drives me crazy about the Sunfire and Cavalier is that sometimes you'll get in the car and you'll touch the brakes and the rear tires damn near lock up while the front does like nothing. After a quarter mile or so it goes away and may not do it for a month. But it'll do it again eventually. In the 5 or so years I owned my Sunfire I chased that problem forever and could never fix it. I have two friends with Sunfires and theirs do it as well. I borrowed a Cavalier once and it did the same damn thing.

There's also a coolant pipe made of steel that stretches across the top of the engine on them. They all corrode and eventually a pin hole develops and coolant comes out like a super soaker. Being the cheap bastard that I am I eventually cut out the worst part with a hacksaw and replaced with a hose. Eventually the parts I couldn't replace easily with a hose started doing the same thing. I probably patched 10 holes in various steel coolant components on my Sunfire using JB Weld.
 
Last edited:
jesse said:
I agree with the above. I currently have a '98 Accord. At one point I had a '98 Sunfire. Both pretty decent cars that you can run a long damn time. That said the Accord is definitely superior in fit and finish and IME has been less troublesome. Sunfire wasn't expensive to keep running but required a little more dicking with over the years.

Biggest thing that drives me crazy about the Sunfire and Cavalier is that sometimes you'll get in the car and you'll touch the brakes and the rear tires damn near lock up while the front does like nothing. After a quarter mile or so it goes away and may not do it for a month. But it'll do it again eventually. In the 5 or so years I owned my Sunfire I chased that problem forever and could never fix it. I have two friends with Sunfires and theirs do it as well. I borrowed a Cavalier once and it did the same damn thing.

There's also a coolant pipe made of steel that stretches across the top of the engine on them. They all corrode and eventually a pin hole develops and coolant comes out like a super soaker. Being the cheap bastard that I am I eventually cut out the worst part with a hacksaw and replaced with a hose. Eventually the parts I couldn't replace easily with a hose started doing the same thing. I probably patched 10 holes in various steel coolant components on my Sunfire using JB Weld.
Click to expand...

I had the convertible Cavalier and they had the 2.4L Z-24 drive assembly, I never had any of those problems on a 250,000 mile car. The only thing I ever replaced was the coil pack. I lost on of the packs on 95 in rush hour, and all of a sudden I'm in the left lane driving a golf cart.:lol: it's nice though, when you lose one pack, you lose a balanced set of cylinders so it still runs smooth, you just lost more than half your power. I pulled into Advanced Auto and drove out with a fresh system under the plate for like $90 with coils, distribution blocks, plugs, and all that I assembled on their counter in 15 minutes.

I don't expect old cars not to fail, I just want them designed to limp to the auto parts store.
 
The comment to check in with the auto recyclers also is valid.

I just got off of the phone with a guy who wants to sell me a 2001 Olds Alero that he says runs and drives fine, but has some light body damage and is a surplus car for him.

I passed on the purchase because I don't have any demand for the car, flattened car scrap prices are way down (passing through $165/ton and no bottom yet), and I'm full up on parts cars.

But if I had acquired it for the usual $250, I'd be thrilled to pass it on to someone for $500-600, especially if it was a fast flip.

So check with the local recyclers to see what they can do for you.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The comment to check in with the auto recyclers also is valid.

I just got off of the phone with a guy who wants to sell me a 2001 Olds Alero that he says runs and drives fine, but has some light body damage and is a surplus car for him.

I passed on the purchase because I don't have any demand for the car, flattened car scrap prices are way down (passing through $165/ton and no bottom yet), and I'm full up on parts cars.

But if I had acquired it for the usual $250, I'd be thrilled to pass it on to someone for $500-600, especially if it was a fast flip.

So check with the local recyclers to see what they can do for you.
Click to expand...


Well, you could start a car lot. You could even start an assembly shop. It used to be you could walk into a junkyard (back before they were recycling centers) and put yourself together a car for a few hundred dollars. I haven't seen a yard that would do that in a long time. That was when the depression era guys still owned the yards.
 
Henning said:
I had the convertible Cavalier and they had the 2.4L Z-24 drive assembly, I never had any of those problems on a 250,000 mile car. The only thing I ever replaced was the coil pack. I lost on of the packs on 95 in rush hour, and all of a sudden I'm in the left lane driving a golf cart.:lol: it's nice though, when you lose one pack, you lose a balanced set of cylinders so it still runs smooth, you just lost more than half your power. I pulled into Advanced Auto and drove out with a fresh system under the plate for like $90 with coils, distribution blocks, plugs, and all that I assembled on their counter in 15 minutes.

I don't expect old cars not to fail, I just want them designed to limp to the auto parts store.
Click to expand...

Yeah I lost the coil pack twice between 90,000 miles and 200,000 miles.
 
The book is called "Honda" as I recall. It tells his story. How Japan did not want him to start building cars and refused to help him. ( he only built motor cycles at that time) he refused to give up, took an old English austin engine, tore it apart , improved it drastically along with very careful BALANCING, which makes a world of difference. He explained to workers exactly how he wanted each car assembled and if they became careless he hit them or fired them. His early cars were big on the west coast but he had severe rust problems as he grew as he was not familiar with american winter salting. Interesting book and it explains how it is that they are still very reliable and run well. ( I've owned at least four over the years and two toyotas. All were trouble free and two were run very hard but serviced correctly......always. Other than oil change and a timing belt at eighty grand, drive on!
 
Henning said:
Well, you could start a car lot. You could even start an assembly shop. It used to be you could walk into a junkyard (back before they were recycling centers) and put yourself together a car for a few hundred dollars. I haven't seen a yard that would do that in a long time. That was when the depression era guys still owned the yards.
Click to expand...

They still have a few in Brooklyn and Queens, but yeah, they're getting rare.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
They still have a few in Brooklyn and Queens, but yeah, they're getting rare.

Rich
Click to expand...

I know 2 I could do it at in St Louis because I am still family friends, but it's no longer in their business model.:(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top