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Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
2/28/20 10:48 a.m.

Interestingly, flights to Milwaukee are just $200 from Lexington...

2002 Saturn SC 

eastsideTim
eastsideTim UberDork
2/28/20 11:30 a.m.

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

There was an Outback Sport for sale east of town, by the time I saw the ad, it was sale pending.  That would have been a great option for both fun to drive and good for trips to the cabin.

Stefan
Stefan GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
2/28/20 11:55 a.m.
Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
2/28/20 11:56 a.m.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Yeah, one of those is definitely something I wouldn't mind. Jeana would hate the fact it looks like (well, is...) a wagon but she's unlikely to be riding in whatever I get anyway.

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
2/28/20 12:51 p.m.
Stefan said:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/603917146614946/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2562274800724056/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2429166570739853/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/535570263690221/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/634560263987526/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/292516234749392/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2627979094088180/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/477577839581709/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3029555030408861/

 

'91 Talon TSI- I've looked that over a few times and have finally asked the seller just whether it currently runs and drives or not. Were I looking for a Challenge car that would likely have a LOT of potential, but as it is even if it does drive the 3rd gear problem might make it difficult to make work. If it does run and drive as-is it will likely be worth looking more into as at that price it's essentially got everything for a fun AWD challenge car that might be able to work for me to daily (uncomfortably, from what I heard when I asked about them a ways back) while working on the Infiniti.

2005 RX-8- Believe me, I wish that this ran and drove- I'd LOVE to have an RX-8 to drive and then potentially be able to pull and use the Renesis for the DMC. But as running and driving (or needing something really small and easily fixed, like the starter circuit on the SHO) is something I'm not compromising on given I promised the Dancer that I wasn't buying yet another car that was going to immediately need weeks worth of work.

'78 Porsche 924- Difficult to tell from the description whether it's streetable as is, but a 40-year-old restoration project isn't really what I had in mind.

'94 Celica- This is one that I have been eyeing. At $1800 it's a bit pricier than ideal, but would both likely be fun and it's out in the direction of the Gorge (where we'll be part of this weekend).

2004 Mini Cooper- Also toward the higher side price-wise, ironically right before this and another Mini showed up on my radar a co-worker who is also a car (and specifically, rotary...) guy was ranting about how much it was going to cost to change the battery on his fiancee's Mini because they apparently have a system that tries to compensate for an aging battery by boosting the output from the alternator and getting it reset when you put a new battery in apparently isn't something you can do yourself easily. Otherwise though, this was an interesting one despite being on the higher-end of the price.

'90 Beretta Indy Pace Car- Not going to lie, the Dancer would LOVE the color of this. And I do have a soft spot for Beretta's given my first car was a 4-banger Beretta. However needing new brake lines falls under the 'needs to run and drive' problem... and having for a while owned a HO Quad4 Beretta GTZ I fixed up for a graduation present for my brother, I think this would likely be a disappointment.

2003 VW Golf GL- Sort of falls into the same range as the Cavalier I posted- would likely work just fine (depending on the condition of the rest of it besides what the one picture shows) but not particularly inspiring/interesting.

'99 Civic (stanced)- Not running makes it a (no pun intended) non-starter for me at the moment.

'95 Mustang GT- At the top of what I'm looking at (but over anything I've talked with the Dancer about) at $2k, this is nonetheless one that I did pay a good bit of attention to. She's on the whole not fond of Mustangs (every time she's seen me looking at one her comment has been, "Does it come with a lifetime supply of Axe body spray and cheap beer?") but honestly I don't really have anything against them. Were it a convertible I'd likely already have called about it, and for some reason just don't like bright red musclecars...

 

 

ebonyandivory
ebonyandivory PowerDork
2/29/20 5:03 a.m.

Regarding the Mustang: the only way we can change the image they seem to have is to buy one and not power slide into a sidewalk full of bystanders.

Its your duty.

ChrisLS8
ChrisLS8 New Reader
2/29/20 11:06 a.m.

Have you looked into any of the SE-R flavors? 

91-94- B13, SR20, decent aftermarket, good group of enthusiasts, solid performer out the box, boxy appearance reminiscent of E30s. This chassis had issues with 5th gear popout which has repair kits available

95-99- all the above but a bubbly looking version. My personal preference. Transmissions were updated

2000-2006- 2000-2001 SE trims came with an SR, the rest came with a QR25. Torquey, low rev limit, early models had some issues with close coupled cats and harmonic balancer shaft problems. They also swallowed TB screws so locktite them. 

 

All the above are fun, tossible and cheap if you look around

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/2/20 9:30 a.m.

So, on Saturday morning I headed up to Cinci and met up with eastsideTim to try and find something in the larger market up there. Of like 15 cars I messaged about only 4 responded to try and set up to look at them, and in the end only got to look at one (a ZX2 that was just a bit too much of a beater for my taste...) and had arranged to see another but it sold before I was to look at it (which was annoying, because we passed on looking at the third because we would have been late to see the second).

So, complete failure at finding something over the weekend. Getting really annoyed at sellers not responding to messages about cars... I found something that was interesting located on the drive back from our cabin where we spend Saturday night and messaged the seller for more info and to see if they could meet up to see it and still haven't gotten a response.

Antihero
Antihero GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/2/20 9:37 a.m.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:

So, on Saturday morning I headed up to Cinci and met up with eastsideTim to try and find something in the larger market up there. Of like 15 cars I messaged about only 4 responded to try and set up to look at them, and in the end only got to look at one (a ZX2 that was just a bit too much of a beater for my taste...) and had arranged to see another but it sold before I was to look at it (which was annoying, because we passed on looking at the third because we would have been late to see the second).

So, complete failure at finding something over the weekend. Getting really annoyed at sellers not responding to messages about cars... I found something that was interesting located on the drive back from our cabin where we spend Saturday night and messaged the seller for more info and to see if they could meet up to see it and still haven't gotten a response.

Buying cars nowdays is a complete hassle, especially off Facebook.

 

Did you get to test drive the zx2?

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/2/20 10:23 a.m.
Antihero said:

Did you get to test drive the zx2?

Yes, I did. Its suspension was completely shot (which aided in the decision to not buy it) but I did enjoy driving it. The clutch on it was a bit more... binary? than I prefer- I don't like it when like 90% of the travel of the pedal does nothing. It was something that if I could find a better-condition one for a decent price that I think would work well.

Antihero
Antihero GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/2/20 11:01 a.m.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:
Antihero said:

Did you get to test drive the zx2?

Yes, I did. Its suspension was completely shot (which aided in the decision to not buy it) but I did enjoy driving it. The clutch on it was a bit more... binary? than I prefer- I don't like it when like 90% of the travel of the pedal does nothing. It was something that if I could find a better-condition one for a decent price that I think would work well.

I know what you are saying about binary, although I drove a couple and I think that one had a crap slave cylinder which made it like that. Mine needs a slave cylinder soon and does the same thing.

 

Others I test drove didn't though

ScottyB
ScottyB Reader
3/2/20 11:34 a.m.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:
2002 Impreza Sedan (non-turbo)
I rather like this one- mainly because I REALLY like the idea of having the AWD such that it should still make it up the hill to the cabin if I don't need the capacity of the Infiniti, but it's also solidly up there in the mileage and the seller already lists some thing that need done. At the same time, I do appreciate the information.
 
Thoughts? Suggestions? 
 

so i went this route for 10 years with my old 2005.  you can read more about it right hurr.

i liked mine enough to hang onto it for a while, obviously - i think i put about 110k miles on it myself.  proved to be very robust, easy to maintain, and pretty fun.  they don't suffer from a lot of the catastrophic driveline stuff the turbo models do, like spun bearings, broken ringlands, lunched transmissions, etc...likely due to the fact that the big 2.5L is relatively understressed for its power, and it doesn't have the oomph to hurt the gears.  being essentially a base model, they're very utilitarian and sparse, even for that time period.  i actually liked that though - less things to go wrong, and super simple when you have to troubleshoot.  i did lots of rallycross with it, and the AWD was quite effective and with the torque of the N/A engine it could scoot around well in 1st and 2nd.  it never gave me any trouble aside from a head gasket repair at 88,000 miles, when they were replaced with subaru Multi Layer Steel units...any shop worth their salt will know to retrofit these parts at this point instead of the factory single layer gasket which caused all the issues.  i had one rear wheel bearing go bad.  i did a self-made engine tune on it with opensource software because it ran like crap on 87, but that issue was particular to the 05-07 models.  the 02-04's ran a different, more conservative tune.  otherwise it was gas and go aside from regular maintenance.  i liked being able to pick up WRX parts for cheap to upgrade it (RSB, shocks/springs, wheels, etc etc).

the big flaws, first and foremost, will obviously be the head gasket.  if its not been changed, its gonna have to be sooner or later.  there's just no way around it, and don't waste your time dumping the subaru "head gasket conditioner" in the radiator to try to buy some time, because that junk is just glorified stop-leak and will gum up the whole cooling system.  figure $800 for a shop to do it, and you might as well do the timing belt while you're in there...so $1000 if you're lucky.

they don't suffer salt very well.  there's a TSB out on replacing the front control arms on account of they like to turn to dust after having bathed in salt spray for years and years.  you'll see rot in the fenders, mostly rear behind the door and at the bumper.  the subframes will likely look like hell too, particularly the front u-shaped crash brace.

the trans isn't great.  even with care, you might start getting center diff whine after a while and seeing trans fluid seeping out some of the seals.  at 135k miles my center diff was getting cranky and i was due to replace the input shaft bearing and a couple others as a big overhaul.  when they're fresh they shift decently enough though.

lastly, as you can imagine, its slow.   and it's fond of gas around town.  if you like engines that throw you back or ask to be taken to redline, this ain't it.  it wants to chug along between 2-5k RPM and burble like a tractor.

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/2/20 12:18 p.m.

Messaged the seller of the Cobalt SS to try and arrange to get down there and see just how bad the idle issue is on it and whether it could potentially be driven as-is until after I finished the work on the Infiniti.

Also emailed the seller of the blue Saturn S-series coupe (https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/d/milwaukee-2002-saturn/7077870383.html) up in Milwaukee for S&Gs to find out a bit more about it. It's a ridiculous option- but if I could get the price down a few hundred even if I took it to a shop and had them weld on a new exhaust pipe I could probably still get it back here for in the vicinity of $1200 or so. The SC isn't the most exciting car by a long shot (especially compared to the Cobalt SS) but at the same time I know for a fact S-series make great little cars and has the advantage of being something that I already know a LOT about and am quite comfortable with (and the Dancer would love it for the color alone).

Edit: Also messaged the seller of the Ion Redline from the first page- it's 4 hours away, but I could easily rent a car for less than $50 one-way, drive there, and then drive it back. 

EvanB
EvanB GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/2/20 12:19 p.m.

My Pickle (95 Impreza) might be up for sale soon as I got a new daily. Not sure if you would want it with the 1.8l engine and FWD though. 

Antihero
Antihero GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/2/20 4:54 p.m.

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

I actually considered a Saturn sc2 when it took me so long to get a zx2 but didn't get it because the diffpin likes to grenade the diff when driven in a fun manner for no reason and all will burn oil, it's just a matter of how much

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/2/20 9:14 p.m.

So, there's a new listing I'm hoping to get out and take a look at: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2662387977220180/

the seller works 2nd shift so I likely won't be able to get out to see it until Friday when I have the day off. The Dancer doesn't like it- she thinks the hood and stripes look too over-the-top for a daily driver. I'm less concerned with appearance (be it over-the-top if crappy paint) though, and if I did decide to take it to the challenge could potentially sell the hood and get a normal one. 

Antihero
Antihero GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/2/20 9:20 p.m.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:

So, there's a new listing I'm hoping to get out and take a look at: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2662387977220180/

the seller works 2nd shift so I likely won't be able to get out to see it until Friday when I have the day off. The Dancer doesn't like it- she thinks the hood and stripes look too over-the-top for a daily driver. I'm less concerned with appearance (be it over-the-top if crappy paint) though, and if I did decide to take it to the challenge could potentially sell the hood and get a normal one. 

That looks very nice and 81k miles is great. I'd jump on that for that price and it'll probably move very fast. $1400 is great for the shape and miles

 

It's a bit modified, like the 03 grill and such but it looks well done from pics.

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/2/20 11:11 p.m.

In reply to Antihero :

Yeah, it's a solid contender. Honestly though I'm more fond of the 2006 Ion Redline with the competition package (which puts in the LSD) at the moment though it would likely require renting a car one-way and driving about 4+ hours to get it and then driving it back. 

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/3/20 10:32 a.m.

So, there's a new top contender for me: 2001 E46 330ci

A 3-series convertible is pretty much right in the sweet spot for what I'd like- I've been wanting a convertible for a while, and the 3-series have enough of a back seat that the Dog can ride in it with us. 

Antihero
Antihero GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/3/20 10:54 a.m.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:

So, there's a new top contender for me: 2001 E46 330ci

A 3-series convertible is pretty much right in the sweet spot for what I'd like- I've been wanting a convertible for a while, and the 3-series have enough of a back seat that the Dog can ride in it with us. 

My dog is a bit bigger than yours and does fit pretty well in the zx2s backseat if that's a concern fyi

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/3/20 11:14 a.m.

In reply to Antihero :

Oh, I know ours would fit just fine in the ZX2- it's just that the usual convertible under consideration is an Answer which has NO back seat for him. :P

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/3/20 12:15 p.m.

Have arranged to go out and take a look at the 330ci this evening with KYAllroad, so if it ends up being as good of a buy as it sounds like I'll be able to just buy it and drive it back home. The Dancer's exact comment on it was, "That's cute!" so she at least generally approves of it. I'm kind of hoping that the interior isn't a complete disaster and that I can get the price down and not have to go back out to pull the apparently near-perfect interior from the parts car he has, but we'll see. 

ebonyandivory
ebonyandivory PowerDork
3/3/20 12:57 p.m.

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Good luck! That's something I'd drive all day, every day.

 

Ashyukun (Robert)
Ashyukun (Robert) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/3/20 1:30 p.m.

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Yeah- I've been saying for the last 2-3 years that I wanted to get a convertible to drive when the weather here is nice, since when it is nice it's perfect for a convertible, and this would be for my purposes even more versatile than an Answer- if it's not too low it might even make the climb up to the cabin in decent weather when the road has been recently graded.

KyAllroad (Jeremy)
KyAllroad (Jeremy) UltimaDork
3/3/20 9:50 p.m.

Everyone can relax.  Bob has a new car and can stop searching.

$1500 for some nifty Bavarian iron.  It needs a bit of of polishing around the edges but solid fundamentals and appears to have some good aftermarket suspension goodies.

Congrats on the purchase!

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