Big Decisions

Allow me to be blunt. I am currently completely without personal vehicular transportation of any sort. Recently an old friend of mine has decided to sell her car (94 Cavalier). It's not the newest car on the block, and it definitely needs some work (nothing too serious, I hope anyway, I took it for a test drive and there were some very unhealthy sounds) but it is driveable in it's current state, and the price is somewhat reasonable ($1500). I told her I'd sleep on it and get back to her tomorrow. If I can talk her down to a grand I think I'm gonna take it, if not I'll have to sleep on it for a couple more nights.

In any case, for all those car nuts here (Dart, I'm looking in your direction) I wonder what advice you could give if any. A not-so-great car would still be a welcome change to no car at all, but if I'm gonna drive it straight from her place to a garage and have to shell out another $500-$1000 just to feel comfortable in it, I'm not sure if it would be worth it. Could I get something substantially better for $2000-$2500 up front?

I personally have never had good luck in selling or buying a car from or to a friend. I'd like to see myself as the minority on that.

First things first. When you test drive it, and feel any transmission issues (hard shiftf for an automatic, slippery engagement for standards) then walk away. Transmission trouble is twice as expensive to fix in comparison to engine work, and it's ten times as hard to find a good tranny guy to do a quality fix.

Any clicking while turning is a tell-tale sign of axle problems. It can be a somewhat expensive fix in the short run, but in the longrun it's less on the headache scale.

With brakes, I always do a brake job after buying a vehicle. It's been known that shady people will stuff wood blocks where brake pads go to save a few bucks ( a whopping $20 worth of pads!!). Cheap insurance.

Also, make sure the tires have sufficient tread, and are not dried out and nasty looking. Sidewall cracking, although most of the time is not much, can become a huge problem down the road. And of course irregular wear.

And obviously change the engine oil, tranny fluid, etc.

Now for the real question, is it worth it to pay $1500 just to drop another grand into it to make it reliable? I'd say so. Because there's no sense in paying $2500 for a car that needs the same amount of work.

Bottom line is every car on the road is in a constant state of decay, and will eventually need repairs. So don't get frustrated if you fix one thing and another goes.

Yeah, the transmission was definitely rough. I took it for a quick spin on the highway and 2nd to 3rd was not a smooth transition. I also talked it over with another friend of mine who was interested in the car. He figures if I can get it down to $1000 I might as well get it, but anything over that and I'd be better off putting that money towards a better car.

*sigh* I was really excited to have more than just a sturdy pair of Asic shoes to get me around, but the smart move here seems obvious.