Mah new ride

[javacontour]

Saturn alloys.

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Pro tip, there's slop in all those throttle cables. Adjust it out.

I had an 02 and despite the hype it was plumb worn out and/or horribly maintained.

Stick shift, I assume?

Can anyone ID those alloy wheels?

 

[SatinSilver]

Wait a minute, eljefino isn't the OP of this thread???

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Originally Posted By: AZjeff
Man, honestly don't get the back-slapping kudos for buying a 275K $400 beater. Was thinking along the lines of hope things get better for you buddy....


First, the OP is in Canada. Cars are typically much more expensive up there, even if something is wrong with it.

So it's a $300 USD car. If it runs a month he's golden.

Second, it's a generally solid car that could likely be worked on to make a bit nicer if so inclined. That means more profit when selling eventually.

If it doesn't collapse from rust or have a major mechanical. How much would a guy invest in this car? Did the OP say it's a flipper?

Lastly, having a reliable car that drives far better than it looks can help avoid attention. Like if one owns rentals in a formerly nice part of town, rolling up in a "nice" car attracts the wrong sort of attention quickly. Rolling up in a reliable beater is nice for that reason.

We know the new owner is a landlord in a seedy part of his town? Calling this newly acquired 275k gem reliable is a bit premature maybe?

If the new owner is 16 then congrats and have fun working on it. Nick, you see the underhood photo? The underbody is worse.

You guys get excited pretty easily. Carry on.

 

[55Test]

Flipper? Nah, well not anymore. I used to buy turdboxes, drive 'em for a few months then sell it and buy something else. I realized years ago how much money I was wasting doing that, and my insurance company almost dropped me for changing vehicles so often. I don't really plan on investing any money into it (IMO cars are a stupid investment), just basic upkeep. As for reliability, hard to say but it's clear that when something goes wrong, it's gonna be a dang sight easier to fix than my previous Compass. The underbody is surprisingly fairly decent. There's an easily repairable hole in the floor about one inch square under where the drivers feet would rest. Rocker panels were repaired some time in the past, maybe not professionally done but whoever fixed them did a nice job with a tig welder and used strong metal for the repair. I graduate to age 37 in 2 weeks.

 

[AZjeff]

Sounds like these are your preferred level of cars. Good luck with it.

 

[53' Stude]

55Test: nice lil' car. The girlfriend was looking at a 2000 with a 5speed but it's gone already

. Good running little cars those Corollas are

 

[exranger06]

How is it that everyone congratulates the OP on this car which he paid $400 for, yet I post about a beater I got for FREE, AND has less miles than this car, and everyone berates me for buying a money pit?

 

[SatinSilver]

Simple, the Corolla runs and the Explorer doesn't.

Originally Posted By: exranger06
The no-start issue has me stumped. I made a thread about it on explorerforum, but haven't gotten a useful answer yet. I'm thinking it's a bad crank sensor, even though I just replaced it (cheap Autozone part, maybe defective?) I think I might order a Motorcraft sensor from Rockauto and hope that that fixes it.

But before I can get to that, I have to figure out how to open the hood. It opened fine last week, now it's apparently stuck. Pulling the lever under the dash doesn't do anything.

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Simple, the Corolla runs and the Explorer doesn't.

Originally Posted By: exranger06
The no-start issue has me stumped. I made a thread about it on explorerforum, but haven't gotten a useful answer yet. I'm thinking it's a bad crank sensor, even though I just replaced it (cheap Autozone part, maybe defective?) I think I might order a Motorcraft sensor from Rockauto and hope that that fixes it.

But before I can get to that, I have to figure out how to open the hood. It opened fine last week, now it's apparently stuck. Pulling the lever under the dash doesn't do anything.

I highly doubt it's going to take over $400 to get it running again. And when I do, what then? Then everyone changes their tune?

 

[SatinSilver]

There were only a couple naysayers in that thread. Most were positive comments. Buying a $400 fuel efficient beater with high miles that runs from a stranger is a pretty good deal. Usually something like that around here would go for 3x as much.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: exranger06

I highly doubt it's going to take over $400 to get it running again. And when I do, what then? Then everyone changes their tune?


But you are here posting, not out making the Explorer run. Get 'er done!

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
How is it that everyone congratulates the OP on this car which he paid $400 for, yet I post about a beater I got for FREE, AND has less miles than this car, and everyone berates me for buying a money pit?


Corolla's are much more reliable, fuel-efficient vehicles that can be fixed easily and can run for hundreds of thousands of problem-free miles.

Explorers are unreliable, gas-sucking monsters that at that age and mileage will never be reliable on a regular basis. You may never get any real use out of the Explorer for all the fixing it will take...

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Originally Posted By: exranger06
How is it that everyone congratulates the OP on this car which he paid $400 for, yet I post about a beater I got for FREE, AND has less miles than this car, and everyone berates me for buying a money pit?


Corolla's are much more reliable, fuel-efficient vehicles that can be fixed easily and can run for hundreds of thousands of problem-free miles.

Explorers are unreliable, gas-sucking monsters that at that age and mileage will never be reliable on a regular basis. You may never get any real use out of the Explorer for all the fixing it will take...

You're wrong. I have extensive experience with Explorers and they're very reliable even at this age.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Originally Posted By: exranger06
How is it that everyone congratulates the OP on this car which he paid $400 for, yet I post about a beater I got for FREE, AND has less miles than this car, and everyone berates me for buying a money pit?


Corolla's are much more reliable, fuel-efficient vehicles that can be fixed easily and can run for hundreds of thousands of problem-free miles.

Explorers are unreliable, gas-sucking monsters that at that age and mileage will never be reliable on a regular basis. You may never get any real use out of the Explorer for all the fixing it will take...


A family member of mine has a '94 Eddie Bauer closing in on 300K miles that begs to differ.

 

[addyguy]

We can debate reliability endlessly...yes, they generally were reliable trucks, fine.

You cannot debate the mileage...any ford 4-litre engine, OHC or OHV, sucks gas worse than even the larger 4.6 V-8 put in some models.

They are atrociously bad on gas.

 

[exranger06]

So what if they're bad on gas? What's your point? My Ranger has the SOHC 4.0 and it typically gets 17 mpg. My mother's 94 Explorer has the 4.0 OHV, which I drove all through high school and it typically got 17 mpg. (Still running, VERY reliably at 207k miles, I might add). I expect this 4.0 to also get 17 mpg. You're not telling me anything I don't already know.

 

[addyguy]

Fair enough.

Just a little 'burnt' from my experience with the Tribute/Escape...thought being a 'car-based' small SUV it would get great mileage, but it never did, and it just worse as the engine wore out. It probably got worse mileage that an Explorer!

Glad to be back in a 4-cylinder.