When your beaters are too nice

"Slant6" (slant-6) 01/21/2015 at 18:12 • Filed to: None

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I'm a high school student. I bought my own car. Hell, I've had 4 in the 2 years I've been driving. I have never spent more than $1400 to purchase a car. And they're all still running.

Ok, my first one was inherited and is currently in storage, so as of right now my 1965 Dodge Dart does not run. But it's a project for the future.

My first one that I bought was my 2000 Saab 9-5 wagon pictured above. I bought it with a modest 168,000 miles for $400. A disowned Swedish luxury wagon for the price of a Lemons car. She now has around 192,000 miles and is oddly enough my most reliable car. I did crash it drifting last year though. If you care enough to go back in time and find what I wrote about it then you can search for it. I'm too lazy to find the link. No body damage, I just made a rear wheel go like the hover car in Back to the future, you know horizontal. But she's all good now. I still drive her 25 miles to school every day. This car is a 5 speed manual.

Second car I bought was a 1999 Saab convertible. I bought this under the false assumtion that I knew Saabs. I don't, I just have one that is extremely well built. I bought the convertible for summer. $750 got me a 123,000 example of Saab's demise. I think it's possible that the 9-5 I loved was a much nicer car than the 9-3 convertible. It just felt cheap. And the roof once I got it to go down would always leak, and other things went wrong. I went to California for a trip and was able to find a parts car. I got hood struts (mine didn't work), a new glass lens for the head light and a AC unit. I also got some nice black leather seats from a Saab Facebook group in Philadelphia where my uncle was able to pick up the entire set for $50. I sold the car in October for $1500. I only made about $200 selling it but it was a fun car to have for the summer. I learned a lot wrenching on it. This car was also a 5 speed manual. I bought my next car the same day I sold this one.

3rd, and most recent vehicle I have bought is my 1995.5 Toyota Tacoma 4x4. This is the most expensive car I've owned, coming in at $1400. 214,000 miles and bald tires. The paint is gone on the hood and the drivers side fender has been hammered back to shape after an unfortunate encounter with a guard rail by it's previous owner. Still. This truck is awesome. It gets the same millage as my wagon and has way better visibility. I just love this Truck. I am worried about the white smoke on start up though (quite certain the head gasket is on it's way out). But I complained about it enough to my dad that in efforts to make me quiet he is giving me an extended warranty. The deal is he will pay for half of the repair/ parts (we could do an engine swap together, while head gasket is better done by someone with a machine shop) if something goes wrong before I hit 300,000 miles. I'm pretty happy with this deal. This truck is a 5 speed manual. I'll be taking the Taco up to college this fall.

This has been a brief collection of information about my cars.

Jonathan Harper > Slant6 01/21/2015 at 18:16

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You should know Aaron Brown.