car advice

[waldosan]

i'm something of a motor head, so you can imagine my surprise and joy when i see a beautiful 70 something (i think it was a 76, i'll have to take a look at it again.) red corvette on my way to work for just over 10000 dollars asking price. it looks nice however someone's hit it with a door so there's some chipped paint and the hood doesn't sit flush so i'm thinking it was in a small fender bender or at least had some body work done. i haven't heard it run yet and to be honest the price screams that something is wrong with it. however i already own a chevy lumina that my father was wanting to buy back off of me whenever i do move on and with the money i get from it i could easily do the small superficial repairs. should i be worried about the engine condition or does 10 grand for a nice looking car sound like a good engine? or should i ask to hear it first, ah who am i kidding i'd do that anyways!

now here's my dilemma, i've always wanted a corvette of my own, either something brand new or something older than me, this mostly stems because i used to live in a tourist town in Missouri, called Branson. anyways mustangs down there were a dime a dozen especially the newer ones, so while wanting something good and at the same time not touching anything with a ford emblem i thought "hey, corvettes look pretty cool!" thus my love affair started. now after two years of living with my parents and trying to get back on my feet again i've recently decided to try and move back to said tourist trap town, i had a job there working on computers before i left that I'm almost sure i could get back and i was planning on leaving in February. but i really want this car.

so in your honest opinion should i buy this car and wait a year before i move halfway across America? or do i pass on the car and continue on into the sunset looking and waiting for the day that I'll own a corvette?

[Fairportfan]

My advice is NOT to be trusted in this matter.

Corvettes? Meh.

Brit sports cars? Check.

If i saw a Mk 2.5 Austin-Healey Sprite at a price i could just about manage by selling everything shy of my granddaughters ... i'd jump on it, even though these days i'm probably too fat to drive one.

Then i'd lose weight.

[Atomic]

Hmmm -- love or not, it still hangs on resource management:

Q - Do you have money enough to blow on a car that may die the next day/suck cash for endless fix-its/needs huge overhaul just to be a round-town ride?

Q - Do you have a solid plan on getting to where you want to go, and the cash arriving in time to get you there?

Q - Will the answer(s) to the first question disrupt the second question?

I've advised my children as they got out into the world to always have 90 days cash in the bank so no matter what happened, they could think about it for a while before making a big move, or before they absolutely have to. Good luck choosing your path!

[Dave]

Whenever you consider buying any used car, you should pay a local auto mechanic that you trust to do at least a basic inspection of the motor, power train, and body. What the mechanic tells you, may save you some nasty surprises in both the short and long term... it's well worth an hour or two of his/her rate.

Also, in many states, you can pull up some records on the vehicle (using the license or VIN as the key) and see if it has ever been declared "salvage" (i.e. damaged seriously enough that the insurance company chose to buy it from the owner for its market value, rather than pay for a repair).

If the current owner balks at letting you take the vehicle to your own mechanic for a look-over... say "Thank you" and walk away. Do not look back, lest you be turned into a pillar of Walt (he's the sucker who always gets taken).

Also, price out what it'll take to keep it running and insured properly.

Even if the car is a good deal (good value for the money) it sounds as if buying it might really have a serious personal cost for you... disrupting your move to an independent life. Buying it might be one of those things which could have been a good thing for you, if it had come along at a different time in your life, but could be a bad thing to do now no matter how badly you want it.

You might consider the lesson that readers of Something Positive learned from Rippy earlier this year

[Julie]

It's a good thing some of the people on these boards are rational creatures. My first instinct was "BUY IT!!!" But then, I've had a love affair with Corvettes my whole life, too (even if I will admit that other sports cars are "better"). However, I've always dreamed of a '69 Stingray. The Corvettes of the 70s have interesting body styles, but I'm not usually a fan of their inner workings.

[Fairportfan]

It's a good thing some of the people on these boards are rational creatures. My first instinct was "BUY IT!!!" But then, I've had a love affair with Corvettes my whole life, too (even if I will admit that other sports cars are "better"). However, I've always dreamed of a '69 Stingray. The Corvettes of the 70s have interesting body styles, but I'm not usually a fan of their inner workings.

The 1963 split-window is the only 'Vette i'd want.

With a 327.

[DinkyInky]

It's a good thing some of the people on these boards are rational creatures. My first instinct was "BUY IT!!!" But then, I've had a love affair with Corvettes my whole life, too (even if I will admit that other sports cars are "better"). However, I've always dreamed of a '69 Stingray. The Corvettes of the 70s have interesting body styles, but I'm not usually a fan of their inner workings.

My dad had a 60's "pop-top" vette with leather bucket seats for a while. I'd have taken his '73 Gran Torino over it any day. The mere fact that it was that fun fiery red gave it a bumper sticker of, "here I am, pull me over because I'm fancy!" Not to mention all the jealous SOB that keyed it because it was that fancy.

To the OP:

Don't buy it if it means you can't move and reboot your life. You'll regret it later(spoken from experience)...
My issue was Murphy got me again and again.

[Fairportfan]

Also, in many states, you can pull up some records on the vehicle (using the license or VIN as the key) and see if it has ever been declared "salvage" (i.e. damaged seriously enough that the insurance company chose to buy it from the owner for its market value, rather than pay for a repair).

In ALL states, you can buy a CarFax report that will tell you the vehicle's COMPLETE history - when it was sold/bought (and the reported mileage at the time), who owned it, whether it was salvaged, flooded, wrecked (and in what manner it was wrecked) USW.

I forget how much the report costs - less than fifty bucks, anyway. And, just as you should run, not walk away from a used car whoe seller won't let you take it to your mechanic, likewise you should do the same for one who doesn't want you to pull a CarFax report.

Inj fact, some reputable used-car dealers will furnish you with a copy of the CarFax report, free of charge

CarFax histories list:

Title Problems:
Severe Accident
Lemon
Flooded
Odometer Problems

Ownership History
How Many Owners
High Mileage
Rental
Fleet Car

Accidents & Service
Total Loss
Airbags Deployed
Frame Damage
Service Records

[ShneekeyTheLost]

To be honest, I'm not a gear head. I never saw the point in a muscle car. "Sure, it'll go zero to sixty... in the time it takes to empty the gas tank".

Give me something practical, with high gas milage and low maintenance costs. You know, about the polar opposite of a muscle car. As long as it can do highway speeds, I'm fine.

Honestly, I was drooling over the Tesla Motors Model X. Full electric, NO ENGINE, 300 mile range on a full charge, 5 door sedan. Plus doors the likes of which haven't been seen since Back to the Future. These hybrids being touted as electric cars or glorified golf carts that Detroit have been trying to foist off on the public are a sick joke.

[jwhouk]

If I would have had a spare $125k laying around a few years ago, a Tesla Roadster would have been MINE.

[Fairportfan]

Not impressed with the Tesla.

Less impressed since the fires.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Not impressed with the Tesla.

Less impressed since the fires.

An electric vehicle that out-performs a Mustang or a pasta rocket? Gee, what does it take, breaking the laws of thermodynamics?

[Geek_on_call]

Cars Suck! Where is the transporter room? Shut up, Bones!
Sorry, forget where I am. How does one "Piot"?

[Fairportfan]

Not impressed with the Tesla.

Less impressed since the fires.

An electric vehicle that out-performs a Mustang or a pasta rocket? Gee, what does it take, breaking the laws of thermodynamics?

Yep.

It's gonna require breaking the laws of thermodynamics to make it out-perform a Mustang in Real World driving.

Part of a post i did in another forum, explaining why the new Formula E racing circuit will run its races in heats, with each team fielding a different (theoretically identical) car in each heat, instead of just swapping out the battery pack like refueling a conventional car.

The figures apply to street cars, also:

Hmmm.

Judging by this page, the fuel capacity of the F1 cars is 150 litres, or in that vicinity. The Wikipedia article on gasoline says it masses about 710 to 770 grams/litre. Taking 750g/l, and multiplying, we get about 112 kg, or 252 lb for those of us who don't do metric.

Gasoline (still from the Wikipedia article) contains energy in the vicinity of 13kWh/kg (that's gonna be an average; F1 gas blends are gonna run higher. Being lazy, let's say about 15kWh/kg, or about 1685 - 1690 kWh in one F1 car's tank.

The battery used in the (now-discontinued) Tesla Roadster weighs 992 lb (450 kg), and stores about 53 kilowatt-hours. That's a high-performance electric car.

You're gonna need more than 53kW/h for even part of one of these races; i'm not sure if battery mass scales up directly with capacity, at a higher rate, or more slowly.

But i'm pretty sure they're not gonna be using snap-in battery packs for the race.

EDIT: Well, according to Kenku (who posted since i started on this) they're only talking about 60 kW/h, but even that's gonna be a lot to be switching in and out.

Also, ther 2013 Mustang Shelby 500, which is the nearest equivalent, out-performs the Tesla in speeds and times and likely in range. And it's a lot quicker to pump a tank of gas in a back-road station (that's fairly easy to find) than it is to find a charging point for your Tesla when you're two hundred or so miles from home.

And the Shelby (3.5 0 - 60, top speed in excess of 200 MPH, 11.8 quarter-mile, and about half-again the Tesla's range) was priced at less than $60K base, less than $65K with lots of extra go-fast stuff.

The Tesla is, so far as i can see, in the same category as the iPhone: "Even though your phone cost less than mine, and does everything better, it's not as cool as mine. Nyah!"

=====================

Interesting that the Tesla i found data on to reference was the Roadster.

Part of my mistrust of the thing has to do with the name - the only object of adoration of the "He Would Have Revolutionised The World If Only Jealous Rivals Hadn't Used Dirty Tricks To Pull Him Down" cult that is even more over-rated by his worsjipper than Sat Nikolai is Preston Tucker.

[jwhouk]

The difference is that Tesla Motors has sold a whole lot more in the way of cars than Tucker Motors ever did.

[Fairportfan]

The difference is that Tesla Motors has sold a whole lot more in the way of cars than Tucker Motors ever did.

I wasn't referring to Tesla Motors.

I was referring to the man. Anything using his name as a sales gimmick is automatically suspect.

And, to be honest, i suspect that the Tucker might well have been, in terms of its day and the available tech, a better all-round automobile.

(Wow. That hurt to admit.)

[jwhouk]

I dunno. Tucker, had he been born 70 years later, may very well have tried developing an electric car.

[Fairportfan]

I dunno. Tucker, had he been born 70 years later, may very well have tried developing an electric car.

Yeah, and he'd be about as ultimately successful as Tesla and all the others are gonna be.

Because an "electric" car is still a fossil-fuel car, with the added expenses and inefficiencies and inconveniences of the power grid added in.

Did you know that GM is losing $49K on every Volt plug-in hybrid they sell for $39,999?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I dunno. Tucker, had he been born 70 years later, may very well have tried developing an electric car.

Yeah, and he'd be about as ultimately successful as Tesla and all the others are gonna be.

Because an "electric" car is still a fossil-fuel car, with the added expenses and inefficiencies and inconveniences of the power grid added in.

Did you know that GM is losing $49K on every Volt plug-in hybrid they sell for $39,999?

Too bad the Volt isn't an electric car, or did you neglect to notice the half-ton ICE engine in front? It's a Hybrid with a lower efficiency because it converts the horridly inefficient ICE to electric when it hits it's absolutely PATHETIC 40 mile range. It's a glorified golf cart with a Geo Metro's engine crammed in. Worst of both worlds.

And I find that highly amusing considering Tesla is selling the Model S (the four door sedan) for that price, and has already paid back their initial investment debt to the government. So I guess there was a lot of sticky hands in that cash flow, or they deliberately wasted money to 'prove' how inefficient electric is.

A reasonable electric car is viable. Tesla proved that. Detroit is going to kill themselves by failing to change with the times. They offer this sick joke they call an 'electric car' as a way of building a strawman argument that 'electric cars don't work'. Hell, they've got access to off-the-shelf components that can put together a better electric car than the Volt. They just won't, because they're so far in Big Oil's pockets (and THIS from a Texan) that they need to pipe in air.

Also, solar paneled carport. What fossil fuels? Maybe stick a wind turbine or three up top, depending on your location. Assuming your local grid isn't powered by Hydro (Hoover or Niagara) or Nuclear to obviate your argument in the first place.

[Atomic]

Or, you can get simpler still and do it this way!