Help Me Choose A Car To Make Money On

"Jay Lauer" (thefaultinourcars)
01/05/2015 at 22:06 • Filed to: None

As of last Thursday, my S2000, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ....sold. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad to see it go. There isn't anything about it that I miss, but more the stuff I did in it; first autocross, first convertible experiences, etc.

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I sold it for a good price. It definitely was a lesson in my own stubbornness. If I'd been less stubborn on price, I would've sold it back in August for a grand or so more. Either way, I near tripled what I had in it, so I'm very pleased. I'm not Tavarish, so I won't disclose the numbers.

Now to the fun part. With this and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sold, I'm on the hunt now for another car to make money off of.

Some of you who I've talked to already know that I've got a healthy lust for a Subaru WRX STi. It's definitely the top of the list, but I haven't found any in the surrounding area that I can fix and flip. Preferably an 05-07, but I'll take any year.

My second most wanted car is a C5 Corvette, thanks to Jayhawk Jake. There's definitely a high demand for Corvettes here in Kansas, but the number of broken Corvettes needing mechanical fix-up is almost nil.

So, for those of you who love to hunt through Craigslist like me, I've laid out the criteria:

Feel free to post craigslist links of anything you've found. I've been searching forever, but I'm sure there's things I've missed.

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Budget of $15,000

350 radius of 67235 (Wichita, KS)

Blown engines, head gaskets, turbos and transmissions welcome

Zero or minimal body damage. I can buy replacement painted body parts, but I don't do body work.

Must be able to make 50-100% ROI.

Meaning a car for:

$15,000 car has to be able to be sold for $22,000-30,000.

$10,000 car has to be able to be sold for $15,000-20,000.

$5,000 car has to be able to be sold for $8,000-12,000

And so on.

Must be a car people want to buy (Excludes most Jaguars and Audis)

Reasonable miles (No more than 130,000)

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Personal Criteria:

No BMW's unless 335i or M cars.

No Audi's. Hard to work on. Personal preference.

Obviously, STI's and Corvettes are most welcome.

Anything with an LS motor welcome.

No rotaries unless FD RX7

Trucks & SUVs welcome

But sports cars preferred. The S2000 was my autocross car, so I'd like to buy something I can use for that again. Otherwise I have to autocross my Scion xB.

So here's basically a small list of cars and such the I generally look up due to their value and sellability.

WRX and STI.

Mitsubishi Evo

C5 Corvette

Jeep Wrangler

Toyota Tacoma (and various other mid-size pickups)

Mazda3 and Mazdaspeed3

Cobra Mustangs

SS Camaros

Cadillac CTS-V

Mini Cooper S

Golf GTI and R32

Anything with a diesel

Any sort of unicorn that appeals to more than 20 people.

Now that we've covered all the rules, let the suggestions begin. I'm eager to hear.

DISCUSSION (14)

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 22:10

TDI is always the answer!

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/cto/4814036889…

Nibby > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 22:18

Buy a car for $5k, give $10k to me. <3

E92M3 > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 22:29

Subaru's of any kind with a blown head gasket are great candidates to pickup cheap and flip if you don't mind fixing them. It can be time consuming though.

Jay Lauer > E92M3
01/05/2015 at 22:45

Head gaskets are actually one of the more easy things.

My first one had a blown clutch, which meant pulling the motor.

The second one had a blown piston, which was also pulling the motor, and then the head and then the piston.

Birddog > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 22:50

At 50-100% ROI you may have your sights set on the wrong cars.

Jay Lauer > Birddog
01/05/2015 at 23:32

What do you think I should be set on then?

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 23:39

I guess it should be said that finding parts for any Mustang (Especially new edges) is extremely easy. Not to mention cheap. They're also easy to work on and are usually in high demand. However I'm not sure you'll see a big return. Take my Mach, got it for 10,500 with just over 100K miles on it. For the most part the car was in great shape, it just needed some minor stuff. For the same price you will find a beat up GT or V6 with way more then 100K miles and in need a lot of work. These cars tend to be overpriced.

I just struggle to see where money can be made. But if you find the right deal and get one up and running by Spring or Summer you hopefully wouldn't have issues selling it all. A lot of these are first cars.

Birddog > Jay Lauer
01/05/2015 at 23:40

I'd reach low and flip a bunch of low cost cars that turn quck. Impalas, Grand Prix, any Buicks, even Camrys.

JasonStern911 > Jay Lauer
01/06/2015 at 00:17

Personal choice - find an IS300 with a broken timing belt and replace the motor with an imported JDM motor. They seem to command a premium, at least locally.

Big Bubba Ray > Jay Lauer
01/06/2015 at 02:11

Shit, I would sell you my Outback but it has more miles than you want and it's not too exciting haha

Jay Lauer > Birddog
01/06/2015 at 10:19

I already do that with a number of Saturns, Blazers, F150s, etc. You're right. They sell quick and it's an easy $1k-2k in profit.

But the bigger you gamble, the more you can make. I'm much more picky when it comes to the more expensive stuff because of that.

mazda616 > Jay Lauer
01/06/2015 at 11:09

I've had a first-gen Mazda3 hatchback for five years and it has been Rock solid reliable. No rust, either. If you can find a good deal on one of those, I'd snap it up. They're super easy to work on as well, compared to many cars of similar vintage.

Jay Lauer > mazda616
01/06/2015 at 11:10

Yup. Not sure if you saw in the top pic, but I had one just like yours.

I've been looking out for them again, but it's been a bit tricky. I almost got a Mazdaspeed3 with a blown transmission.

mazda616 > Jay Lauer
01/06/2015 at 11:15

Speed 3s are a lot fun but can be rather finicky at times. They have very specific problems which are usually very easy to diagnose, though.