About a week ago a guy driving by stopped in while I was out in the driveway piling firewood and asks me if I wanna sell the stinkin' Linkin'. With gasoline getting more expensive (it's at about $4/gallon right now and only looks to go up) and the fact that a Lincoln Town Car is quite possibly the single most boring car on earth to drive, I had previously halfheartedly considered selling it (even placed ads, with no replies). I told the guy I'd not really thought about it. He whips out $3k, so I sold it to him. I only paid $2k for it, so I made out quite well.
Selling it forced me to drive the F-150 for a week. With $4/gallon gas and a vehicle that swallows it like it's free beer I started seriously considering getting something easier on gas. Some of you may remember that was my original plan when I sold the Volvo. Today I kept that promise to myself and bought a new DD/beater.
It's a '96 Saturn SL-1. 5-speed and fully loaded as Saturns go (A/C, power windows, power locks, remote keyless entry, cruise, and power mirror - yes, that's MIRROR, as in singular - Saturns with the power pack only have one power mirror, the right one). Everything works, including the A/C. The only options it's missing are automatic tranny (thank God), sunroof, and anti lock brakes.
It's in excellent condition (thank you plastic panels) except the left rear quarter panel and tail light - they are broken and need replacement. Because it's plastic it's a bolt-on thing and I've already found the parts for $150 shipped. It also needs a tie rod end ($25) for safety inspection.
The best part of all: $400. The dealer I bought it from didn't realize that the quarter panels are replaceable on it and was asking $700. The previous owner made a really, really horrible attempt at repairing the panel with fiberglass, which makes it look much worse than it actually is. I made it seem like the quarter was a deal-breaker and offered him $400, and he took it! That makes this the cheapest car I've ever owned (my first and previously cheapest car was a $600 Trans Am).
Pics will follow tomorrow - it's too dark out right now. I think I'll enjoy 40 MPG with A/C, and I KNOW I'll enjoy the 5-speed :hick:
Whoa sweet dude. 40 MPG is waaaay better than anything I have ever gotten. Good job!
Theyre plastic?
Everything but the hood panle, trunklid and i think the roof.
Make sure you keep up on the oil changes on it. My buddy got one that was mint (except for the BLACK smoke pourin g out the tailpipe) for 300 bucks. We just rebuilt the motor last weekend...... probly only about 20 some hours spent on it total. the only reason it took that long is because we diddnt have it timed right on the first fire and ended up snapping two rocker arms and bending one valve like an S. EASY car to work on. The smoking turned out to be the piston rings were worn out. New rings, a hone and a good cleaning, and Viola!
40 MPG. For a grand total of 600 bucks. (300 for the car, 300 in parts and gaskets for the re-build) Nice little car.
Nice score for a DD.Can't wait to se the pics.My wife had a Saturn L300 a while back.I have to say,it would move pretty quick,and had plenty of all around power.Leather,heated seats,keyless,CD player,moonroof,and everything else.Great car.
Those are great little cars. My friend had one with the 5-speed and it gave no trouble at all. All the car required was regular maintenance.
Yes, as Birdman says, all vertical panels are plastic. "Different kind of car" and all that. Because they're plastic they are extremely easy to replace body panels (and because they're plastic they have HUGE panel gaps, which makes aligning new panels a cinch :hick:). They're also very easy to replace window regulators, door lock cylinders, etc - the door skins pop right off. Even the top of the dash panel comes off to allow access to the stuff behind the dash.
I was a mechanic at a Saturn dealership for six years - I know these things inside out, and I know how easy they are to work on (the term "gravy" was used in our shop regularly). I'm aware of the oil burning issue - I also know what causes it. Carbon - it builds up on the rings and makes 'em stick. When you replaced the rings in that engine I'd bet the old ones were hard to get out of the pistons because of carbon. Sometimes (but not always) an overnight soak after stalling the engine out with combustion chamber cleaner will free the rings up and reduce oil consumption. I would bet that this car burns oil (it's got close to 290k km or 180k miles on it) and have already loaded it up with cc cleaner as a preemptive strike. If it does end up using a bunch of oil but I end up liking the car I will find another engine, rebuild it, and stick it in. Time will tell...
I'd never been a fan of the big Saturns (L-series). The V6 used in them was the same one used in the late 90's Saabs, and anything even remotely associated with Saab is a bad thing (our dealership also sold Saabs and Isuzus, so I was also a Saab and Isuzu mechanic). I'd always felt that the L-series was the beginning of the end of Saturn actually being different from other GM divisions. Up until then Saturns used unique platforms, had unique engines & trannies, etc - starting with the L's they shared platforms and powertrains with other GM divisions, and then starting with the Ion there was nothing "Saturn" left about them at all. Now Saturns are just another GM division like Pontiac or Buick. It's no coincidence that Olds was killed off while Saturn was being "de-Saturned"...
...And now, the pics:
...ain't that quarter panel "repair" pretty? :hick:
I could do worse.... :hick:
Great deal, congrats...
nice beater. And i bet it looks so much better before the previous owner did that.... I dont get why people gaf things....
Paint those bumpers and get a better set of wheelcovers/wheels when you repair the quarter and it would actually look pretty good! Nice deal, can't argue with the price! ;)
That looks like a pretty solid daily driver. I would never buy a Saturn with an automatic transmission. For that matter, I would never buy a compact FWD with an automatic transmission, but I'm seeing the manual tranny slowly being whittled out of our society. I guess Americans are so lazy they don't even want to shift.
Drive in downtown Chicago in rush hour. Shifting gets old really fast:hick:
Nice pick up. I like how it's green like the Lincoln;) One of my friends has a Saturn just like it (with an auto). Her plate says "YUM 69" :tg:
Oh, so could I do worse. You guys have never seen my first car (and my first attempt at bodywork). The bondo was at LEAST 1/2" thick. It literally fell off when I hit a bump...
New wheels on the beater are so far down on the priority list it's not even registering. The car's got four brand new tires on it, and I'd be happy if the car outlasts the tires. If I decide I want to keep it I might, just MIGHT, install the sunroof I removed from the parts TC (No, the Saturns don't have that roof support in the way like T-Birds do)
I'd never buy a small car with an auto either. I've not noticed a big problem with Saturn automatics, but I simply don't like the way they drive - it seems that the automatic tranny magnifies the already rough feel of a Saturn. That was the one thing I was absolutely determined - I was gonna have a standard. If I'm going to drive a shiznitbox it's going to be a shiznitbox with at least a modicum of fun. The air, cruise, and power options are just gravy.
Dude, it ain't a pick up (that's in the background) ;) And the Lincoln was blue ;);)
I know it's not the
Pick-Up I meant it was a nice pick up as in find:D
I swear the Lincoln was Green. I must be color blind:hick:
I wonder if you could rattle-can the bumper covers with a flat black or dark grey. It would at least cover up the swirly nature of the plastic, which, I assume, is from the manufacturing process.
Did they look like that when they were new?
I remember seeing the black plastic bumpers on the then-new 1995 Cavaliers. Some of them had that swirly finish, and I could never understand why GM would let something like that hit the dealerships.
Indeed.
The bumpers were actually evenly black/dark grey coloured when new (the twin-cam models and two-doors had body colour bumpers) - I think it's a sun thing hat brings out the swirls, kinda like the porno red interiors in T-Birds and Cougars, and kinda like all those late 80's puppiesanese cars you see that were once red but are now pink.
I think I just may get a rattle can of flat black bumper paint and do 'em over - the rear one's gotta be replaced anyway.
My first NEW car was almost a Saturn. I had looked into purchasing a '98 SL-2 in November of '97. I found the Cougar and here I am. THey are great little cars. Enjoy!
*sniff*
A moment of silence for the luxo-barge.
So how well do you fit in a Saturn, Carm? Pix? ;)
I actually fit in them (the four-doors, anyway, and the seat's gotta be all the way back, as you can tell in the above pics - the seats are visible through the rear windows) rather well, and in some rather strange and painful positions I'd rather forget about. And no, I'm not talking about dirty things, you perverts - I mean when I was working on 'em for a living and stuffing myself up under the dash to do things like install cruise control. The module mounts on the pedal bracket and is exactly as fun to get at as anything on the pedal bracket in our cars. Anyone remember the Simpsons episode where Mr Burns went to the Mayo clinic and got jammed in the MRI machine? I can relate...
I did make it a better car today though - the horn wasn't working, so I installed one of the horns I salvaged out of my TC parts car. This involved adding a relay (Saturn horns are 3-wire, Ford horns are 1). Naturally I used a relay purloined from a Crown Vic cop car.
That's right... the Saturn now has two Ford parts on it :hick:
So I've done a bit of work to the car, and yesterday I had the single most important part added: A valid safety inspection sticker. That little piece of plastic alone tripled (at least) the value of the car.
The new quarter panel and tail light are on. Unfortunately the can of paint I had mixed up came out a bit too dark, but it still looks a helluva lot better than it did. Removing the old quarter panel was fun - since it was broken I didn't worry about silly things like nuts and bolts. I simply grabbed it and started tearing it off :hick:
Total cost of the car to bring it up to completely legal and safe status:
INITIAL COST OF CAR: $456 ($400 + 14% sales tax)
TRANSFER LINCOLN'S PLATE OVER: $11.40 ($10 plus tax)
NEW FRONT ROTORS: $22.80 ($10/apiece plus tax)
NEW FRONT PADS: $17.10 ($15 plus tax)
LEFT OUTER TIE ROD END: $17.10 ($15 plus tax)
LEFT QUARTER PANEL AND TAIL LIGHT: $150 shipped (from eBay)
PAINT FOR QUARTER PANEL: $22.80 ($20 plus tax to have a rattle can made up based on paint code)
REPAIR EXHAUST: $0 (I made two new s out of 3/16" plate steel, and made a new ler strap/hanger out of galvanized metal)
REPAIR HORN: $0 (repairs made with T-Bird horn and police car relay as mentioned above)
OIL & FILTER CHANGE: ~$15 (had a coupon, free filter with purchase of 4l jug of Valvoline oil)
RESTORE ENGINE OIL ADDITIVE (or as I call it, "Can o' Rings"): $5.70
SAFETY INSPECTION: $28.50 ($25 plus tax)
***********************************************
GRAND TOTAL: $746.40
Not too frickin' shabby, if I do say so myself :D
Pics of the car with the new quarter panel will come tomorrow.
That would be considered Saturnalia, lol.
As promised, and I can only imagine how much a bunch of T-Bird and Cougar guys were lookin' forward to seeing more pics of a mid 90's GM FWD econopoopster. The closeup photo makes the quarter panel look dented, but it isn't - that's just shadows. You can see the difference in both colour and texture of the new panel though - gotta colour sand it yet. Note the shiny new safety sticker in the windshield - did I mention that was the most important part?
that's a pretty decent car for the money, and you sure as hell can't argue with 40mpg.... but that patch job is nasty! lol. it's easily fixable though. nice score.
Looks good :D
Thank god for plastic eh?;)
My $650 Tempo got 36 mpg when I drove it to St. Louis, but I don't particularly enjoy driving it.
Althought it is a rusty POS, it's been fairly reliable, but I've had to put about $75 in it to get it back up again (new rear brake shoes, new ler, fuel filter, possible master cylinder & oil change coming up soon) and I still don't know if it'll be completely ready to drive after all that. I'm starting to wonder how much longer it'll last because while it runs & drives good, it makes some weird engine noises sometimes.
The car is white and the paint is pretty faded and dull. I've been contemplating a set of Sharpie flames for it but they don't last very long.