I have a question about an older car. My father is giving me a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire. He lives in Nova Scotia where his longest commute is 3 miles one way. The car only has 23,000 miles on it. The problem is that the car is in Nova Scotia and I am near Savannah GA, about 1700 miles away. I would have to fly up and drive it back. I got all the paper work done on this end for getting it into the US. The thing is the car does not have air conditioning and you need that in GA. I check around and found out it would cost about $2700 to put air conditioning in. So there is that plus some fees, hotel fees as it takes three days to drive back here. My question is a low millage older car worth it?? I was thinking that if the car lasts to 150,000 miles would the paint job look horrible? and other things may breakdown as well. My father has mild dementia now and can’t ship it, so my only option is to go up there and drive it back. We have a 2002 Sunfire here and had almost no trouble with it. My father would tell me that was the last good car in that model, that the 2003’s and newer are all trouble. My husband thinks it is not worth the hassle. Just wondering what others think on here. Thank You!!!
No AC is the killer. Sell it in Nova Scotia where people don’t mind not having AC. No point in bringing it down to GA. This car will have about $0 value in GA.
IBID. No value gained. For the cost of just getting it down - even since it’s free! - you could buy a used car. May not be a GREAT used car, but it’ll have everything you need.
I’m with the others.
Go ahead and take ownership, it’ll make selling it much easier.
Plan a nice visit with your dad.
Sell it in Nova Scotia, possibly to one of his neighbors or friends who are already aware of the car’s condition.
Agree; sell it in Nova Scotia, where it will be worth something, and will sell easily because of the low milerage…
Your husband is a wise man…at least on this topic.
It’s just not worth the money to put in an aftermarket AC in the car. It won’t look good and it likely won’t function as well as factory AC. Thank dad for the offer, but don’t bring the car back to GA. Sell it locally in Nova Scotia, or donate it to a church or a local charity.
“Your husband is a wise man…at least on this topic.”
Of course he’s a smart guy - he married Oldbluesunfire, didn’t he?
It used to be no problem to add accessories to a car, but that isn’t the case today. My late father-in-law bought a 1941 Chevrolet when he came home from service in WW II. The car didn’t have a radio, so he bought an aftermarket radio from Western Auto. When my wife and I were taking care of her parents’ estate, we found the radio in the attic. He had removed the radio when he traded the car. Car heaters were available from Sears, Western Auto and Montgomery Ward installed as an after market accessory. My first car, a 1947 Pontiac, didn’t have turning signals. I bought a turning signal kit from Montgomery Ward. Some years later, the Mitchell company marketed the Mark IV air conditioner for cars. It was a box that went under the dashboard. I added a cruise control to my 1978 Oldsmobile.
However, adding options isn’t feasible today. If a car doesn’t have cruise control, it is difficult to add one. If the car doesn’t have the sound system you want, it is very difficult on some cars to replace it. Adding air conditioning is practically impossible costwise.