Most of that generation of Camaros in the CL ad (at least the ones around here) were turned into dirt track race cars and most have met their end due to crashes and bad rollovers.
As mentioned, the value is creeping up on them but it can get very expensive when it comes to replacing trim and interior parts. Kick panels at 140 bucks, sail panels at 150, door panels at who knows what now.
The door pulls on the door panels always seem to give up on these things and pray the jack is in the trunk. These cars take an oddball special jack and I’ve seen used bumper jacks go for a couple hundred bucks on eBay.
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Back in the day, I had an almost new '77 Camaro RS and every time I used a jack on that car I was sweating bullets as the nub of the jack sticks through a tiny slot in the plastic bumpers. When the car starts coming off the ground the plastic starts distorting and one keeps expecting to hear the bumper cracking clean off any minute.
I think it’s amusing that you ask about seventies’ Fiats and Triumphs. When I was in high school I knew a few people who had such cars and everyone was sorry for them as they were constantly breaking down. Kids with more money drove older Mustangs and trucks. Mind you, I graduated from high school in 1980. Those Fiats haven’t gotten better with 35 years more wear on them. They were already looking pretty bad after five years.
Like others suggest, I wouldn’t consider anything more than twenty years old, or even fifteen. Plenty of ten year-old cars have 150,000 miles (or more) miles on them and buying something with more miles than that is usually false economy as they need so much work to keep them running. Those cars you’re seeing from the seventies have a lot more character, but cars back then needed far more regular maintenance and they were usually not good for much over 100,000 miles. That was when most of them were limping towards the scrap yard unless someone was giving them extraordinary care (and replacing major parts, like engines and transmissions).
More recent cars last a lot longer. They are more likely to end up in a wreck than have to be scrapped. Rust won’t be an issue for California cars, but remember that not every car starts where it ends up. I would just pass on any car that has meaningful rust anywhere on it, as there are plenty of essentially rust-free cars to choose from where you are. As you’ve probably noticed, Japanese cars go for a significant premium. They are on average more reliable, but for cars in your price range how well a car has been maintained is far more important than what it is, and there are perfectly good domestic cars that usually go for less.
https://modesto.craigslist.org/cto/4914870638.html
I haven’t been able to find anything else with this low mileage and from my humble experience BMW has a reputation for great cars- and all the other BMWs i have looked at on CL have over 200k miles which makes me think they are reliable. The only thing is I’ve heard parts are crazy expensive. Thoughts?
@Mitchy It is time for you to quit messing around. You have received good advice so to keep posting these ridiculous Craigslist nonsense is a waste of time. Come back when you are old enough to call yourself Mitch.
Yes @Mitchy a BMW will cost you more to own and maintain. I’m guessing that’s why it’s so cheap. The guy selling it found out he couldn’t afford to fix whatever is wrong with it right now, much less the DMV fees. Be very careful. If you decide to pursue this car, be sure to get it checked out by a BMW specialist.
@Mitchy I also see that the car has a dealer’s advertising tag on it. Does a dealer own it, or has the guy who bought it from the dealer chickened out on owning it? If the latter, can he legally sell it without titling it in his name? Does he have it on an “open title” with no buyer listed? In my state, that’s called “jumping a title” and it is strictly illegal. I’d be very leery of it if that’s the case.
Buying cheap is not the way to invest your money in a car.
Think of it this way. I once saw this sign at a grain and feed mill.
We understand that the price of oats is higher than you’d like to pay.
If you would like the cheaper oats we will need a little time to collect them.
They are always a little cheaper after going through the horse.
No, a BMW is not the way to go, nor any other European car. What high mileage tells you someone valued the car enough to keep pouring money into it, not necessarily that it’s a good car. As others have noted, this ad is full of warning signs. You do not want any car that needs explanation. Simple, boring, cheap to repair, not too old. Such cars do exist. They aren’t a lot of fun, but neither is getting stranded or paying large repair bills.
I still think that you could buy that t-bird and drive for at least a couple yrs without great expense, but it s probably sold buy now. Gas Monkey Garage has probably already ruined it…
What a terrible thought, WesW. They should only be allowed Grand Ams, Aleros, and Topazes. Junky cars they could actually improve. Nah, they’d still be worse than what they started with.
That BMW ad is now deleted. Snagged a sucker or the seller was possibly getting cold feet over odometer or title jumping issues.
For a young man and new driver my suggestion would be to look for boring commonality. This would mean a Crown Vic, Buick Century, etc.
Flashy? No; but they do the job for the time being without breaking the bank on repairs and insurance.
I can’t even imagine what insurance in CA would run on a 16 year old male for say a Mustang GT…
Yes, the Topaz and Tiempo are the same cars just like the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable or the older Ford Mustangs and Mercury Capris.
The Mercury badge insinuated that the car was a higher end car as compared to a Ford. I remember when the Ford Taurus first arrived on the scene back in the 80s. The Sable was approximately 400 dollars higher on the MSRP compared to the Taurus and the only difference other than badges was that the Sable was equipped with a tachometer. Kind of a pricy rev counter…
Yes, that center light panel was referred to as a “Laser Light” but it’s nothing more than half a dozen or so small push-in incandescent bulbs similar to those used in some park lights, etc.
The '87 Sable I had was fitted with that center light panel and back in the 90s those light panels were hard to find and expensive. Any salvage yard that had a good front clip would not want to separate the Laser Light from the rest of the clip and devalue it. I seem to remember some yards were getting about 300-400 bucks used and I think the Mercury dealer price was about 1000 dollars; way back then.
I know all of this because a dxxxxx overgrown rodent called a whitetail deer ran out if front of me one night just a couple of miles from Sooner Lake here in OK. The brakes were locked at 65 and my rough estimate is 55 when I hit it. Tore up both front fenders, hood, and almost all of the lighting including the Laser Light along with putting some serious flat spots on both front tires. One headlight kind of shining up was it and I made the 40 miles home in the dark, car shaking like crazy due to the tread being worn off in one spot on each front tire and doing 25 MPH by the light of the moon.
After I got out of the car I looked around for the deer and found it a 100 feet away down a 30 foot embankment; pretty torn up and on the way out of this world. I went and got my .357 out of the car and hurried the process along.
As to my car, I got lucky on the parts although it took me 2 weeks of searching. I found a small obscure yard in Newton, KS who said they had an entire clip including the Laser for 400 bucks. So I hitched the trailer to my Subaru and went after it. I was stunned when I saw that not only was the clip in the same paint code but it also had odd little add-on fender stripes on both front fenders which were identical to mine. Two thirds of a day of nuts/bolts and done.
