What is the Cheapest Price You've Ever Paid for a Decent Car?

"Jesse Shaffer" (7esse) 10/18/2014 at 07:14 • Filed to: Car Flipping, GTI

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This is broken:

See the crankshaft? Oh, you do? Yeah, that's a problem. Here is the damage close-up. The silver thing at the top of the following picture is the exhaust heat shield... you can see straight through the block, to the firewall.

Car buying and selling is an art-form and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. There is so much emotion happening in a transaction of this magnitude that it opens up a psychological battlefield. Your knowledge is your armor and your mouth is your gun.

I was able to talk my way in to this '98 GTI | VR6 for $400. I was also able to talk AAA in to towing it home (they technically strictly tow road-legal, road-going cars... but if it's beside a road with a plate on it... you get the idea.)

We had agreed on a price of $600 through e-mail over an $800 list price on a Craigslist ad that showed a car that was in near-pristine aesthetic condition in-and-out with one simple-enough mechanical malady: the car lost oil pressure and threw part of a rod through the front of the block, and another part of that rod through the rear. What was waiting for me in Harrisburg when I arrived was this:

It had certainly been sitting still a lot longer than anyone told me. It didn't look too bad, but add in the fact that the interior was far from clean and missing things that I felt were important such as a radio... or speakers... or wiring for those things... It just wasn't the car that was described over the phone. Still, I could see a lot of potential in the black rabbit. So, I talked it down, talked it home, and got to work.

Cost: $400 - Car, $40 - Fuel to go get car, $120 - AAA Premium Account, $400 - parts.

Final Cost: $960 (about €750)

I lived with it for a few months.

I cleaned it up.

Then I sold it for: $2,200

and replaced it with this:

Running or not, what's the best automotive deal that you've been able to bargain?

xmarkedspot is Jesse Alan Shaffer, former Director of Information Technology and Network Analyst for Pittsburgh Technology Management, current starry-eyed-schmuch-trying-to-be-a-writer in NY, NY. @xmarkedspot

BATC42 > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 07:48

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Back in 2007 my father and I bought a 1989 Golf mkII GTI 16s for 700€. Sure the car had 275,000 km on the odometer, but otherwise it was in almost perfect condition. Not a single spot of rust, the engine ran like it was new. The changed the seats because they were shot, as well as the suspension which we replaced by a Bilstein kit.

When I got my licence, the car became mine. Sold it in 2011, because I needed a more fuel efficient car (350 km on 1 tank....) for 1500€ after having put 50,000 km on it.

Best bargain ever !

duurtlang > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 07:55

3

My current daily driver, a 2000 Peugeot 406 coupe, I bought for €3k in October 2012. I've driven it almost 60k km now, and besides regular maintenance it has needed €20 in parts (€5 exhaust mounting piece, €15 dipstick. Yes, a dipstick). That's a good deal, if you were to ask me.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 07:58

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1987 VW Golf GT...which was like a 4 door GTi but with rear drum brakes and a couple other little differences. I was being towed home by AAA along with my '83 Dodge Rampage, which had just suffered an engine fire (alternator, luckily I had a fire extinguisher), and the driver asked if I knew anybody looking for a car. He told me what it was, I asked how much, he said $50...runs and drives.

I handed him $50 right then for the car, sight unseen, and he dropped it off in my driveway the following morning. It smelled wetter than the ocean inside, and what I thought was a nickel on the floor behind the passenger seat was actually a hole in the carpet atop a hole in the floor, so I was seeing the concrete of my driveway through the window, but you can't beat that car for $50.

duurtlang > BATC42 10/18/2014 at 08:01

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350 km on a tank of gasoline? My mk2 Golf (a 1.3L, admittedly) got 600 km on a tank of gasoline. 40-42 liters for 600 km.

€700 for a rust free good running mk2 GTI 16v was a bargain by the way, I doubt you can get one like that for that little money nowadays.

BATC42 > duurtlang 10/18/2014 at 08:14

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To be fair the 350km on a tank was entirely because of the way I drove it. I used it to go to school and back each week, but the road to get there is mostly made of the same roads used by different rallies in the area. There's so much temptation a man can take (and it was so fun to drive on these twisty roads).

When we bought the car it hadn't run in 2 (yes TWO) years and was siting in the shadow of a tree, basically the car wasn't really white but had a weird green hue... Battery was dead, took the battery from another car he had lying around (an old 90's Maserati Ghibli), and the Golf started right up. Returned the week after with the Passat and a trailer, got the Golf onto it, drove home, cleaned the car. And that's it. When we sold it, the battery was still the same as the one we took from the Maserati.

And the Golf always fired up right away, even in winter when it was covered by snow and temperatures reaching -20°C. Awesome car. The only real issue I was when I forgot to cut off the lights one morning in high school and had to call someone to give me a jump, charged the battery that night and it was good to go.
It was also overheating a bit, summer of 2010 was really hot and start and stop traffic was the worst for the car. But I guess it's something you can expect for a car like this.

BJ > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 08:25

1

600 Euro for a red Golf II in Frankfurt while on vacation. Drove it for a year on export plates and sold it on ebay for 230 Euro. The buyer showed up with Polish plates and drove off... I'm not entirely sure about the legality of that, but it's not my problem!

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 08:27

1

$130 for a Volvo 940 GL. Ran perfectly until a it blew a fuse because the cigarette lighter refused to release and overloaded the system. Cheap replacement and it was back on it's feet in no time.

f86sabre > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 08:51

2

We got the 1991 Escort that we built into our LeMons car for $300. It was running when we got it, needed brakes and the heater core was leaking. Pulled the core, race prepped it and have run it 6 times. Been a great car.

Mustafaluigi > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 08:55

3

1995 firebird with an lt1, a 6 speed and an lsd out back with 96000 miles for $1200 because it needed a fuel pump and a new clutch since it's was slipping. Some new breaks, and some fresh non cracking tires and I have a fun as hell load cruiser that will put 11's on the road.

shop-teacher > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:21

1

I picked up a '93 Subaru Legacy wagon for $600 at an auction. It was front wheel drive, had a 5-speed trans, and somebody had thrown a lot of new parts at it. It had new Pirelli tires on it, new plugs, wires, air filter, etc. There was something wrong with it, as it could only muster 23 mpg highway. Oh yeah, and the exhaust was so freaking loud, it haunted my dreams for weeks.

A new throtle position sensor helped the gas mileage, I picked that and a new hood latch up from a junkyard for $35. I drove it for a few months, then traded it straight for an '89 S-10, which I sold for $1300 a few months after that.

Nobi > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:25

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$850 for my '91 Civic RT4WD. Sure it's got rust, and sure I've replaced the entire suspension, gas tank, filler neck, and various minor odds and ends, but mechanically it's been bulletproof. The original D series engine that only had it's distributor replaced by it's previous owner has almost 300k on it, and it runs like a champ.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:33

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Bought a 1990 fzr 600 for $700 that ran but always drained the battery...rode it home bought a $40 voltage regulator and sold it for $1400

Tremec, + 1 Yugo (aka the Blugo) > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:39

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Back in 2004, I bought a 1985 Corolla GT-S lift back from a used car dealership in a small town near my hometown for $600. They had no idea what it was. The car ran and drove fine, but was a bit rough cosmetically.

Pulled the AC components (didn't work anyway), upgraded the suspension, threw on some bolt-ons, new wheels and tires, and autocrossed the crap out of it for four years. Used quality parts, but on the cheap where I could (i.e., grabbing a set of 14x7 Celica Supra wheels from a salvage yard).

Eventually sold it for $4,000 - still cosmetically rough, but mechanically improved.

Jesse Shaffer > Nobi 10/18/2014 at 09:51

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Dizzy went out in my old "D" as well. I bought this one to run as a company car:

... but I lived where there were a lot of mountains, so the Civic didn't stick around too long... if only it was older, lighter, and equipped with four-wheel D

Coachrotte33 > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:56

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1997 oldsmobile silhouette for $925 in 2010. No rust, 150,000 mi, but all highway. Put 75,000 on it and sold it for 1200 in the spring of this year.

BrianNutter > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 09:56

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a 12 pack for a '68 datsun truck with a bad waterpump.

AthomSfere > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 10:27

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A mechanics special 97 Civic EX in '05 ish. It had been totaled out from hail damage, and then bought by a mechanic and body shop owner for his daughter. He fully repaired most of it, everything but the sheet metal. I bought it with 70k for $2500. I drove it until 2008 and sold it for $2500. Never had to do a single repair, not even swap tires.

stuttgartobsessed > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 10:45

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I paid $900 for a Mazda 626 ('88). Bought it from a friend. Put no money into it and drove it for a few months with no problems at all, save for the fact that I didn't really care for the gearbox as it wasn't as sporty as my Alfa, and then sold it to a kid who had saved up for a long time to buy a car that then turned into a lemon for $600.

Tohru > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 10:49

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Bought a running, driving, and badly smoking 1991 Mercury Tracer wagon for $250.

Had to pull all of the interior out and clean it because previous owner was a smoker - the windows were tinted yellow on the inside.

Replaced the front brake pads and rotors because they were bad.

Determined the engine smoking was due to too much oil in it. Previous owner took it to Walmart for an oil change. The "technician" rounded off the drain plug. To avoid losing his $8/hr. job, he put a new filter on it and put 4 quarts of oil in it... on top of the 4.5 quarts it already had in it. Got the drain plug out, brought the oil level to where it should be, and it quit smoking.

Drove it for two years and 30k miles until the transmission failed. Sold it to my neighbor to $250.

KirkyV > duurtlang 10/18/2014 at 10:50

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They're an even better deal over here in RHD-land. Our used market is one of the few upsides to sticking, stubbornly, to the left side of the road.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/ca…

Jesse Shaffer > Tohru 10/18/2014 at 10:54

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Finding that your car has a rounded-off engine oil drain plug is like finding a hair in your soup after three bites in. On your tongue.

Jesse Shaffer > Tohru 10/18/2014 at 11:03

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Car values do not have a true half-life. If you can keep it from rusting apart and rotting away, it will always have the value of the premium that it provides, its heart-beat, as what holds it's spot above the water of things less valued in the market. It moves your ass around for you, usually in a heat-able room with big windows and a great view (Unless you're trying to back-up an Avalanche.)

That'll always be worth whatever the modern equivalent is of a couple hundred bucks.

Tohru > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 11:12

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When I sold it, it was starting to rust in the rockers pretty good, and it had a mis-matched hood from a deer hit.

The neighbor kid swapped in the 5-speed from his non-running Escort wagon. The only problem was my neighbor was of the same mechanical aptitude as the Walmart lube guy and never bothered putting fluid in the trans once it was installed. Oh, and they forgot to put a pilot bushing in the end of the crankshaft.

They ended up going through 3 transmissions - they'd put one it, make it a couple hundred miles until it would fail, return it under warranty to whatever salvage yard they got them from, get a new one, let it sit a couple months until they got the ambition to work on it, rinse, lather, repeat.

Last time I saw it, it was sitting on jackstands behind his buddy's house.

Kanaric > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 11:20

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$100. It was a ford escort wagon and it was a great car.

Nobi > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 11:26

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Nothing revving the wee out of it won't fix. Even without VTEC, mine loves to rev to 7k

CaptDale - is secretly British > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 13:26

1

Remolded a bathroom (paint, flooring (which was already prepped), new fixtures, then some cleaning for a 1987 Jeep Wangler. Also bought a 1987 Fiero GT for $1000 and it needed a little work, but Its been a great DD.

ranwhenparked > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 15:20

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$5,000 for a 1991 Volvo in 2002, I kept it for 4 years, gave it to my younger brother, and he drove it for another 3 years, then it got cash for clunkered. I think I got my money's worth.

Jesse Shaffer > CaptDale - is secretly British 10/18/2014 at 15:31

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The barter system, the only one that actually works!

Nibbles > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 17:24

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Six bucks for a 1897 Chevy Cavalier with 40,000 miles on it. Next was the 2000 Focus ZX3 I bought for $600.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Jesse Shaffer 10/18/2014 at 22:33

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In 2003 I bought a running, driving 88 Isuzu pickup from a local electrical contractor. It had foil-tape racing stripes and a hole in the exhaust but it lasted 10 months and 22,000 miles before the engine shook itself apart one morning at 6 am on the way to work.

Jesse Shaffer > Nobi 10/19/2014 at 00:11

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I did like looking at an aluminum block under my hood for a change. Most of my other stuff has been iron.

bandi53 > Jesse Shaffer 10/20/2014 at 19:30

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An '86 325e. Got it for $300, drove it everywhere for 4 years- only time I ever had it break down was when the water pump grenaded. This ended up being a good thing as I realized my timing belt was ready to snap when I took it all apart. I loved this little car so much. It was totaled by a guy who was high as a kite driving a 911. He was never charged and never paid for the damages. My car was parked when he hit it.

Malforus > Jesse Shaffer 10/21/2014 at 10:18

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Bought a running 1992 Ford Escort LX for $1000, yes it had two flats and smelled like Phillip Morris QA room. But it had a manual transmission, got incredible gas mileage, ran like a top, and never let me down.

Was the most reliable car I owned, never had a problem and after plenty of cleaning and some new 13 inch tires (Rolling on dubs yo!) I had it for 2 years.

At which point I sold it for $1400 to the next owner who thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Eric Von > Jesse Shaffer 10/21/2014 at 14:16

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VW Fastback Type III, $600 and that included a broken bicycle. Fixed the bike and sold it for $400. Used the car for several years in college, then unloaded my primered pseudo porsche for $800. It was a fun car in 1st and 2nd, dual carbs, lowered suspension, dragged on everything. Heard from the new owner that he took it in for a tune couple months later and whole shop with the car in it was consumed by fire. RIP Type III

Autophile412 - what's the world got in store? > Jesse Shaffer 10/22/2014 at 11:23

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I once bought a 1987 Saab 900S for $500. It ran, had a manual transmission and no rust. I bought it with 197,000 miles and sold it for $800 with a broken steering rack and 220,000 miles about a year later.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Jesse Shaffer 10/23/2014 at 15:46

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My cheapest car purchase was a 1997 Jetta for $1500, it had 86,000 miles, it was a 2.0L I4, auto, GLS (it had all bells and whistles). I drove it for about 4 years and traded it in at 120,000 with a slipping transmission, blown airbags, broken grill, no stereo for $300. The engine was still running great though. But I thought $300 was fair, considering, haha.

jsn081 > Jesse Shaffer 10/23/2014 at 16:26

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In 2006 I was moving out of state and decided it was best to sell my 350z and get a pickup to move my stuff including my motorcycle. I wasn't going to keep it for very long so I scoured craigslist. Saw a guy advertising a relatively low mileage 1997 F150 that had posted several ads, each dropping the price. Smelling desperation, I called him up and set a time to meet near a train station (knowing I was probably going to drive it home). His final ad price was $2500. I arrived and it was clear that the truck had never been washed or vacuumed, was on mismatched bald tires, and had a broken front grille. What it did have going for it was that it had 70k and a factory installed replacement engine (at 45k - found paperwork buried under seat). I offered the guy a grand and he ended up taking $1300. I spent $200 for a set of Navigator alloys and tires, fixed the grill with jb weld and some rustoleum, and several hours with a hose, bucket, and porter cable and it was passable. My roommate jokingly slapped a "My other ride is your mom" bumper sticker on it and I drove it around for a few months, used it to move from DC to NY, and promptly sold it for $3500 to a guy on Long Island who wanted something to tow his jetskis.

I kind of miss that thing...

itranthelasttimeiparkedit > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 12/04/2014 at 22:55

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duuuuuuuuuude you had a rampage? bucket list car for me

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > itranthelasttimeiparkedit 12/05/2014 at 06:38

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Yup. Probably the nicest one in the world, actually. Red with black and red interior, my grandfather swapped in the engine/transmission/suspension/brakes from an '85 Shelby Charger. Quick little truck, handled surprisingly well too.

SantaRita > Jesse Shaffer 12/15/2014 at 11:51

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best so far: 1990 rx-7 ...traded for a laptop. it needs new oil seals, but runs and drives wonderfully minus the smokescreen. winter project time!