Originally Posted By: Turbo_Lemming
Define "beater."
Originally Posted By: Red91
A car that isn't all that nice, but is somewhat reliable and you drive it anyway.
Then my daily driver definitely qualifies.
Saab 900 turbo 16, bought in feb 2008 in a hurry - my trusty Merc 300d would be excluded from driving in Berlin or Munich due to totally [censored] up emissions regulation*. So I was in a hurry for a petrol engined car with catalytic converter. It had to be a classic (for style reasons), it had to be cheap, and it had to offer enough comfort for my long distance weekend commutes. I preferred Saab, Mercedes or BMW of the 80s or early 90s, because I had some experience with these and felt competent enough to judge them propperly befor I buy.
Found this offer, a white flatnose sedan with just 300.000km on the clock, just 200km away. Phoned the seller, and 3 hours later I had inspected and test driven and bought it. I knew it was screwed up mechanically: head gasked leaked (only externally, coolant looked and smelled ok, as did oil), the car accelerated sluggish and did not respond well to the throttle and the suspension was very mushy. The paint was shot, but the body was structurally very solid. And it was cheap - a tad over 1000 euros. I figured I might need another 2500€ to get her back into working order.
The car was then called Schneewittchen - "snow white", as she was pale, beautiful and nearly dead.
My estimate of initial repair bills was met nearly perfectly (and left room to improve the suspension a bit, including fitting of front and rear stabilizers), and since then the car has been my daily driver. Last week, the odometer crossed 580.000km.
Over the years, I spent a fortune at my mechanics - something around 27k€ (!) and the car still looks like [censored]. But I have driven 280.000km in the last 8 years, with total costs of just 25ct/km. That is significantly lower than what the tax autorities estimate (and which in turn is a lot lower than what most modern cars cost). So no complaints about that.
Significant repairs included nearly the entire chassis/suspension, some parts twice (bushings, shocks...), an engine rebuild at 410.000km (lost a piston ring due to a faulty Bosch LH-Jet controller which did not enrich enough under boost - rest of the engine looked like new...), new power steering and new alternator around 500.000, and a transmission rebuild at 534.000km. The trans repair is also the reason why the car has only run 580k - it sat still for eleven months until we sourced all parts. (Saab redesigned the gearbox several times, parts for earlier versions are getting very scarce.)
Oh, and the underside has been welded several times. Even though the car got rust-proofed with fluid film products repeatedly. The new salts they spray on the autobahn are absurdly aggressive, and the poor car does 30.000km every winter, immersed in this salt spray...
The left side is completely ugly. An Audi A6 took my right of way and crashed into the driver side, leaving the Audi with a ripped of front and the Saab with some impressions on both doors. Metal is bent sharply around the side impact protection structures, no point in repairing it, the doors are scrap and beyond repair. So I stopped bothering about corrosion protection/removal in them... Opponents insurance paid me quickly, but the problem ist to
find rustfree doors. I have finally managed to source two; will have to drive to Austria to collect them, though.
The right side looks much better.
* Cities were given the power to ban cars with petrol engines without catalytic converters and diesel engines without particulate filters within their boundaries in a vain attempt to compl with EU regulations concerning particulates in the air. Problem is, the majority of particulate emissions is from industry and house heating. Only 1/3rd of total particulate emissions stem from traffic, of which 2/3rd came from commercial trucks/buses. The remaining 1/3rd of 1/3rd is from cars. 2/3rd of particulate emissions from cars is actually tyre and brake wear and does not get tracked by emissions regulations/test (and would still be there, regardless of wehether you ban some vehicles and repalce them with "cleaner" designs or not).So we have 1/3rd of 1/3rd of 1/3rd total particulate emission due to cars exhaust gases. Even if they banned ALL combustion engined cars particulate emissions would drop by a mere 1/27th. Oviously not all combustion engined cars were banned, only a very small minority of older ones, about 5% of total, if I recall correctly. So they reduced particulate emissions by 5% of 1/27th... which zero for all practical purposes. As expected, air quality measurably did not improve. Yeah, this regulation was for health and environmetal reasons, not to spur new car sales. Totally.
I always hated how the back windows would only roll halfway down. My first car was a '74 Cutlass Supreme with no power anything and only an AM radio. I remember back then (early 80s) Chief Auto Parts carried a line of replacement parts called "Help" and they made replacement window crank handles.
