Cheapest Car you ever owned

[wicked_sick]

$800 on a pink honda civic for a summer commuter. Hit a deer, wrote it off and took home a check for $1950 and got to keep the car. Sold what remained of the car for $600.

[MakersTeleMark]

$800 on a pink honda civic for a summer commuter. Hit a deer, wrote it off and took home a check for $1950 and got to keep the car. Sold what remained of the car for $600.

I like this spirit. Right arm.

[DasBlunt]

100$ cars, back in the 60s or 70s would seem like an 800 dollar car now…

in college, '95, 1966 Volvo Amazon for 350 or 450$, rust, steering issues, front shock issues, no brakes ( only e-brake and downshifting), slipping clutch, funny injector type things that sucked. I drove it all over the hudson valley, NYC/NJ for about 5 Months with California expired tags off of a different vehicle. Finally sold big red for profit and succumbed to a honda.

[splat]

When I was a Maui beach bum/wharf rat someone left an old beater ten speed bike in the harbor across from a booth where I sold fishing and sailing charters. After a few weeks I claimed it and rode it until I traded it for an Impala like Buster's above, but much sicker and rusted out. In other words, a perfect Maui cruiser. No license, no insurance. Drove it all over the island. It had one good tire, a Tiger Paw, and three slicks. So we named the car The Tiger Paw.

One day we took a drive out to the north shore to pick mushrooms, then we went up in the pineapple fields on the mountainside to trip on the view from the top. We noticed they had harvested the pineapples but there were still tons of them, ripe on the plants, that they'd missed. We cut one open and ate it. Best pineapple I ever ate. There has never been another pineapple that comes remotely close to the delicacy of that pineapple. I can't eat the stuff over here because I have had it so fresh and ripe, I'm spoiled for life. So we decided to pick a bunch and take them home to share with all our fiends and filled the trunk of the car with them.

The pineapple fields are kinda terraced. From the top they're like a giant staircase all the way down to the ocean. I decided it would be cool to just run the Impala down through the dirt terraces and catch air and shit. So I did. And we're all fucked up, bouncing all over the car and pineapples are bouncing off the windshield, and we're just trippin balls, laughing our asses off. I was slightly worried and amazed it didn't break something, cause the rear end was kinda dragging through the dirt on those terraces from the weight of all those pineapples we'd gathered. Eventually we made it back home to Lahaina and forgot all about the trunk full of pineapples. It sat out in the sun for four or five days before I needed to drive somewhere. The minute I sat in it, the smell enveloped me. I jumped out and opened the trunk and almost puked. All those pineapples had fermented into a weird yellow goo puddle of pure evil. It was so bad, I couldn't drive the Tiger Paw. I had no idea how to get that shit out of the trunk, so the car just sat there. Then, one day, someone offered me $50 for her and I figured I had done well by it all and took the money. That's how I remember The Tiger Paw.

[Skidog]

Pitching wedge for a Mitsubishi mirage aside from interior issues car worked great.

Sent from my GT-P3110 using TGR Forums

[huckbucket]

Splat FTMFW!

[gravitylover]

After having over 20 cars I've had a few cheapies that were memorable. At one point in the late 80's when I was delivering pizzas I had a rule never to get a car that cost more than I could make in a week. I went through a whole bunch of $300 beaters. I used to keep the title in the glove compartment so when the car died I could just sign it and leave it on the dashboard with the keys in the ignition and a window open. The best was the 72 Chevy Luv, what a great little truck. Uncomfortable as all get out but that thing took us all over the place to ride and to a bunch of Dead shows and I eventually sold it for the same $300 I bought it for. There was a 82 Celica GT that was fantastic off road but with a spider webbed windshield (with chunks missing out of it) it sucked to drive on a rainy or very bright sunny day. Thank goodness I blew up the motor on that one or I would have had to keep driving it for a while just to justify the cost of the 2 tires I put on it. I had a 79 Ford Fiesta that I traded for a 74 Ford van with a wasted motor. We got the motor to run pretty well when the guy came to look at it and we made the trade, a week later halfway between Austin and Fallon NV it retired on the guy. The car was great for me for for two years other than needing a new wiring harness and two clutches but it got 40+ mpg even when flogged hard.

[hooked]

In high school, 3 of us went in on a $100 Opel Kadett. It had to be push started to get it going. We paid too much.

[jgb@etree]

When I was a Maui beach bum/wharf rat someone left an old beater ten speed bike in the harbor across from a booth where I sold fishing and sailing charters. After a few weeks I claimed it and rode it until I traded it for an Impala like Buster's above, but much sicker and rusted out. In other words, a perfect Maui cruiser. No license, no insurance. Drove it all over the island. It had one good tire, a Tiger Paw, and three slicks. So we named the car The Tiger Paw.
...

I wouldn't drive the Tiger paw and had no idea how to get that shit out of the trunk, so the car just sat there. Then, one day, someone offered me $50 for her and I figured I had done well by it all and took the money. That's how I remember The Tiger Paw.

Awesome story. But here I was thinking that I had sent the Ghetto Glider to a good home. She's a good girl and wouldn't appreciate that kind of abuse. Have you rolled 300k with her yet?

[skiHOG]

'89 Subaru GL

Hand-me-down from my sister, but honestly, I loved the damn thing. Turbo charged, amazing fuel economy, and the thing let me beat the crap out of it and just kept going.

[Tippster]

mine.... high school junior. purchased a 68 VW 3 speed auto stick from my buddy for $25 cash and a 12r of Old Mill. Thing was a total POS and lasted only through winter. Bought in the fall and finally died on side of road in spring with leaking gas and small fire that burnt itself out. Walked away from the car and when the cops called about it I told them it was abandond. No floor boards, had to grab boxes from grocery store I worked at to re-floor it every week, but added bonus to just put empty beer cans through floor when sitting in parking lot. cardboard is actually pretty strong when you layer it up. No heat and I can remember freezing my ass off in the thing driving my buddies to school.... still beat walking.

Similar story for me, except mine was a '68 w/standard shift. 2x4s holding up the seats, driving in the rain soaked both driver and Front seat passenger.

My dad had it sitting in the car port after it stopped running on him. He gave it to me for my 16th birthday using the old "if you get it running..." line. My buddies and I took that whole Boxer motor apart, put it back together, had a couple nuts & bolts left over but the thing ran. Drove it for a year - besides a couple quarts of oil and of course gas the only money I spent on it was $20 for a windshield wiper motor from a junkyard. We also needed a muffler but the motherfucker wanted like $70 for it so instead I had the loudest car in my HS. Ended up giving it to Goodwill after it broke down on the Beltway and I got a $500 tax write-off for their trouble.

Bought a '97 Audi A4 off some dude in 2003 for $2500. Drove it for 8 years and sold it for $2000 when my kid outgrew the back seat. That was probably the best $/mile driven car I've owned.

Come to think of it I've never bought a new car, and only my current one (e350 wagon) came from a dealer; I bought it as a "Certified pre-owned" vehicle.

[splat]

Awesome story. But here I was thinking that I had sent the Ghetto Glider to a good home. She's a good girl and wouldn't appreciate that kind of abuse. Have you rolled 300k with her yet?

220K and many a wonderful trip.

[riser4]

I didn't know 'free' cars from family were fair game for this thread. $1 for an '81 diesel rabbit from my dad. It sucked but I took it to see the GD in Long Island for $10 in fuel round-trip from northern VT. And it made it there and back. I didn't have to use my screwdriver to take off the plates despite what everyone else thought would happen. $1 for a '76 Chevy Chevelle Malibu 4-door from my aunt. Ugly as sin, battleship grey and way under powered with the V6. The gas line rusting out was amusing. It didn't help the already shitty gas mileage.

[Rhyno]

Some real gems on here.

I'll play. '69 Chrysler Newport Custom, 4 door for $50. Bought it with some high school friends and ran it around town for about a month before the tranny went out. Thing was so big you could easily sit 4 abreast in the front seat and the brake pedal was big enough for both feet which was good because you need them both to stop.

Got $100 for it from the scrap yard so it was a win.

[riser4]

well.... sometimes life teaches you the lessons when you fail to listen to wisdom.

Yup. BTDT. Just not with my tags being used for a bank job.

[GeezerSteve]

$100 for a 1972 Ford Pinto w/ 1.6L, 4-on-the-floor. Drove the shit out of it, including three trips across the U.S., lots of nasty dirt roads, etc. 2-1/2 years after I bought it, the engine seized in a small town est. 100 miles from home. Within an hour I sold it to a used/junk car guy on the spot for $80. Hitch-hiked home, which was my plan from the moment I bought it: I always had the title in the glove compartment and a small backpack with gear to hitch home from wherever the Pinto died. Life was simple and good back then.

[Ted Striker]

I didn't know 'free' cars from family were fair game for this thread.

It wasn't just relatives. Free from friends, and even strangers. Right place, right time. I've given cars away too.

And damn, splat, that is hilarious.

Speaking of stinky cars, when I was about 8 my mother put a couple of grocery bags in the trunk of her oldsmobile, and one of them tipped over while driving home. Unbeknownst to her, a pound of butter rolled into an inaccessible part of the trunk, where it remained for the long hot summer. All attempts to locate the source of the stench were unsuccessful, so my parents decided to sell the car. Eventually, someone with a strong enough constitution made an offer on it, and when he returned with cash in hand he said something along the lines of "hmm, still smells even after I removed the rotten butter from the trunk". I'll bet that guy got a hellova deal.

[MMP]

69 dodge coronet w/383. $150. Ran out if gas 2x the first week. One of my teachers commented that it's just as easy to keep the top half of the tank full as the bottom. Funny what sticks with you.

[ill-advised strategy]

Neighbor in rural Taos outskirts had an ugly 78 Chevy sunk into the weeds.
like so:


I gave him $300, jumped it pouring gas down the carb, ran it just enough to drive it out of it's grave on 4 flats a few hundred yards back to my place where it got new fluids, a carb rebuild and fuel filter, and some free bald 33's from a volunteer fire dept. up the road. I drove it to the dump and lost the 70s camper shell, then fogged the thing flat in black barbeque paint and cut off the exhaust behind the headers.

I had to throttle down and turn the windshield wipers on high just to forge through the thick, nasty cloud of seething jealousy and throbbing butthurt whenever I drove that beast past the neighbor's house.

like so:


Then I drove it like I stole it for about 6 months and sold it for $900 and a full susp. bike.

hot damn, them were the days.

[splat]

Nice one, YetiMan!