What Car, Truly Unkillable Beater Edition

You seem to have upset the automotive gods. The only way to know is for you to buy a 22R powered Toyota truck or a Slant-6 powered Mopar. If you kill those, you may want to consider buying a bicycle.

Duke wrote: Any Subaru with an EJ22 in it. When they start knocking, you add a quart of oil and drive it another 30,000 miles.

This.

If you tap you foot on the floor mat to your tunes, it drowns out the piston slap.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: 2. $600 98 Mitsubishi Mirage 5 speed, this was a stopgap for the Camry death, 17yr old me loved that car, had like 220k on it, I beat the crap out of it and sold it in the fall for $650 when I realized another winter and the rear upper control arms would pull out of the body. This car was somehow reliable.

My wife had a 2002 Mirage, and it was about the biggest piece of crap ever. Without any rust, the passenger door fell off. Just dropped off in the driveway one day. She babied it, and it just fell apart on a regular basis. (never stopped running though) Had I known that beating on it would improve it!

SilverFleet wrote: 1989 Nissan Maxima SE.

Had one and loved it. But the transmissions are known to be the weak link. Window regulators fail often but I got where i could replace them in about 30 minutes.

All of the cars you've listed have high miles and were probably treated as disposable by their previous owners. I always stuck to 80's sports cars as my beaters. They're not as economical, but people generally care about their RX-7's and MR2's.

EvanR wrote: '72 Dodge Dart. If you can kill that, your license should be revoked.

My wife killed a Slant Six once.

I don't let her drive the Valiant.

damn.. that is quite a list of killed cars.. and to think all my cars die due to rust.. and I have had some cars that could be considered quite reliable. (ie Fiats)

You need something that doesn't have rod bearings and loves to beat on mercilessly!

In reply to Javelin:

Jav, steal that for me........

Don't even try killing a Tempo or it will kill you.

Klayfish wrote: Corolla/Prizm. Good luck killing it.

Seconded. I had a crystal rose mica pearlcoat (pink) '93 Geo Prizm a few years ago. Bought it dirt cheap from my now ex GF and it had been neglected in the oil change department. Found a crashed one with 77k for $300 and swapped its motor into mine, and replaced the clutch and some suspension bits. Car would return 30MPG in the city and around 40MPG highway.

I ended up selling it to a buddy who beat the absolute piss out of it. Just for fun he threw on any cheap aftermarket part for a 7th gen Corolla he could find to make it more fun. Pretty much limited to Dropzone coilovers, ebay IHE and an ebay front strut bar...The car saw extensive daily visits to the rev limiter, powershifts, a couple of trips to the drag strip and street racing against oddball opponents. It once beat a malaise-era Corvette and got a thumbs up from the driver . It was also used numerous times to teach people how to drive a manual, and took abuse each time.

My buddy owned it for about four years, and it needed almost nothing but regular maintenance. Failures were few and far between, and cheap and easy to fix. IIRC, it was limited to a broken spring, a bad wheel bearing, broken tie rod end, and a seized brake caliper. That was it. I think with maintenance included, he spent well under $1k to keep it on the road for 4 years. It made him a lot of money too. He was a salesperson that went on a lot of roadtrips, and the company gave him a $500/month vehicle allowance to buy a car. He just kept driving the Geo, and put the money into his toy cars.

It held up well in an accident too. A kid that was mildly stoned turned left from oncoming traffic right in front of the Geo. My buddy was able to slow down to maybe 30, but ended up hitting the kids Ford Escort head on. The Escort was pissing coolant everywhere, but the Geo drove home perfectly fine. We straightened up the front end the best we could and tossed a junkyard hood on it and it was fine.

When he got rid of it the brakes needed some freshening up, it puffed some blue smoke and was rusty and ugly. But it ran and drove just fine, and still averaged over 30MPG.

I miss that car dearly. I'm shopping for a home right now and I want to give myself a longer commute so I have an excuse to get another one. It's a shame because for a while I had a '91 Prizm GSi at my disposal and wanted to swap the suspension and drivetrain to a 93-97. However, I never was able to allocate the time for it and didn't have space to perform the swap or store the GSi...

N Sperlo wrote: Don't even try killing a Tempo or it will kill you.

wait,.... is that an intercooler?

And a pressurized canister in the front of the car.....

N Sperlo wrote: Don't even try killing a Tempo or it will kill you.

Especially if you find one with a 3.0 Vulcan motor.

yamaha wrote: And a pressurized canister in the front of the car.....

That's just an oil filter relocation kit.

spitfirebill wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: 1989 Nissan Maxima SE.

Had one and loved it. But the transmissions are known to be the weak link. Window regulators fail often but I got where i could replace them in about 30 minutes.

Mine had an automatic. The 5 speed ones did have a few issues IIRC. But still, awesome cars.

rotard wrote: All of the cars you've listed have high miles and were probably treated as disposable by their previous owners. I always stuck to 80's sports cars as my beaters. They're not as economical, but people generally care about their RX-7's and MR2's.

The thing is, on the teardown, the blown engines always look to have been cared for well enough inside, the 5S-FE, a notorious sludger in its later years, was only mildly varnished. When I was in the valley of the 3800 S2 for the intake gaskets there was only minor crusty buildup on the pushrods. Looked like any other 3800 according to my dad, who has done hundreds.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I had one of these I got for free in 1990 for wiring up an outlet in a friends mother's house. So sexy was it that a girl I was "dating" refused to go out with me because it was too embarrassing. It was awesome - it had a hole in the floor you could spit your chaw, about 28 steroid fueled whorspowers and was way ahead of it's time on "patina". I drove it for 8000 miles, ran it with no oil, jumped it over an embankment so hard the shock towers blew out, rolled it on purpose using a wooden ramp at 15mph... shot it a few times with a .45... then drove it to the junkyard to collect $60 (with the front subframe throwing sparks the whole way!). Unkillable.

Hey man, nice 'Vette!

I'm shocked and amazed at the amount of punishment a Mazda BP will take and keep ticking. I'd look at Escort GT/BP powered Protege.

Get another cockroach Toyota.

SilverFleet wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: 1989 Nissan Maxima SE.

Had one and loved it. But the transmissions are known to be the weak link. Window regulators fail often but I got where i could replace them in about 30 minutes.

Mine had an automatic. The 5 speed ones did have a few issues IIRC. But still, awesome cars.

Ours was a slushbox. It cost big bucks to get fixed, but after that was fine. Just about my favorite car, but my wife's 96 Maxima was even more stout. Tranny was stronger to.

poopshovel wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I had one of these I got for free in 1990 for wiring up an outlet in a friends mother's house. So sexy was it that a girl I was "dating" refused to go out with me because it was too embarrassing. It was awesome - it had a hole in the floor you could spit your chaw, about 28 steroid fueled whorspowers and was way ahead of it's time on "patina". I drove it for 8000 miles, ran it with no oil, jumped it over an embankment so hard the shock towers blew out, rolled it on purpose using a wooden ramp at 15mph... shot it a few times with a .45... then drove it to the junkyard to collect $60 (with the front subframe throwing sparks the whole way!). Unkillable.

Hey man, nice 'Vette! I'm shocked and amazed at the amount of punishment a Mazda BP will take and keep ticking. I'd look at Escort GT/BP powered Protege.

This.

Our Escort GT has just under 300k miles on it and still ran acceptably well, despite never being cared for, and me beating the holy dog E36 M3 out of it every time i drove it. (Indicated 70mph in 2nd gear!)

I'm sure that now that i've put a new motor in it, it'll blow up on the dyno.

Anything Mazda F2 powered. B2200 truck, 88-92 Mazda 626/MX6/Probe. Think "BP on steroids." Even easier to work on than a FWD BP car, build quality is higher, parts are cheaper.

Anything with a Toyota 4a. I love the 5sfe, but you've already blown one. Try a 4a. AE92 Corolla GTS, AE101 Corolla with anything, 90-93 Celica ST, etc...

From the sound of it, you need an anvil with wheels.

In reply to SF1: I always did chuckle at how much oil your BP consumed.....

yamaha wrote: In reply to SF1: I always did chuckle at how much oil your BP consumed.....

I don't think it actually had valve seals anymore.

And a lot of that smoke was raw fuel. It was running really rich for some reason. A reason i didn't care enough to figure out.

slantvaliant wrote:

EvanR wrote: '72 Dodge Dart. If you can kill that, your license should be revoked.

My wife killed a Slant Six once.

How? How is that possible?