Need a cheap car

[sumpnz]

My '97 Camry finally died.  Not positive on the exact failure but when it starts there's a horrid squeaking rattle from the #3 or 4 cylinder and the engine shakes quite a bit.

Anyway, while I'll eventually pull the engine and rebuild it, I need a new ride.  I have a loaner from a friend, so not a panic situation, but I'd like to find something I can buy and do any maintenance work it needs by early-mid December.  Need to keep purchase price plus any (diy level) work under $3000.

What are some good candidate vehicles?  Local Craigslist isn't showing a lot.  There's an '05 Focus with 131k for $2500 and not a lot else that isn't a wreck, super high miles, or so old it's not worth buying.

Any idea of the Puget Sound contingent know of anyone selling such a car?

[charby]

Don't get a Chrysler 200, I had 2013 as my last work car. Blew a head gasket at 75k and liked to eat rear tires, even rotating every 5k, you were replacing tires every 25-30k. I drove it to 162k.

Ford Fusions seem to be ok, I have a 2018 with 45k on it. I see a lot of the older Fusions on the road.

Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix are long lived cars too.

[MillCreek]

If you are on Facebook join the Skagit and Snohomish county cars and trucks for sale. Lots of activity there.

[grampster]

We've been looking for a $3000.00 van or suv for over a month here in W. Michigan.  Hard to find one that's not 200,000 miles.

[French G.]

I bought a Focus for the same goal. It is okay, has cheap ford quirks. Crap plastic to name one. I went for it primarily for a manula transmission, i get about 10mpg better than my subarus were doing. Any Focus newer than 2010 is suspect, BS transmission.

[brimic]

Use FB marketplace, if not CL.

$3000 should get you a 10 year old Accord/Camry/Civic/Corolla with a lot of life left in them, with minimal risk of major problems.

[brimic]

Don't get a Chrysler 200, I had 2013 as my last work car. Blew a head gasket at 75k and liked to eat rear tires, even rotating every 5k, you were replacing tires every 25-30k. I drove it to 162k.

Ford Fusions seem to be ok, I have a 2018 with 45k on it. I see a lot of the older Fusions on the road.

Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix are long lived cars too.

All of that. I'd expand it to say "don't get a Chrysler product of any kind."

Fusions might be the only domestic car I'd consider buying.

[Brad Johnson]

https://skagit.craigslist.org/cto/d/eastsound-1963-corvair-rampside/7005875015.html

Brad

[brimic]

https://skagit.craigslist.org/cto/d/eastsound-1963-corvair-rampside/7005875015.html

Brad

That looks like it came right out of Fallout 4 in both style and condition.

[sumpnz]

Use FB marketplace, if not CL.

$3000 should get you a 10 year old Accord/Camry/Civic/Corolla with a lot of life left in them, with minimal risk of major problems.

What I'm seeing is $3k is more like a 15-20 year old Accord with 180-250k miles.  A few that are more like what you described, but those are the exception.

[BobR]

https://skagit.craigslist.org/cto/d/eastsound-1963-corvair-rampside/7005875015.html

Brad

It even registers a full tank of gas. :)

bob

[Brad Johnson]

I see an 02 Camry that appears to be in decent cosmetic condition. $2500

Also an 07 Elantra for $3250. Hyundai's have a pretty solid rep for reliability.

Brad

[zxcvbob]

https://skagit.craigslist.org/cto/d/eastsound-1963-corvair-rampside/7005875015.html

Brad

That actually would be an interesting and maybe fun project.  I don't think it's a "driver" anytime soon, though.  

I have a 2010 Focus and it's been a great car.  No problems with it at all yet.  The trim is all cheap plastic on the model I got, but I'm okay with that.  You also might look at mid-1990's era Cadillacs.  Those are sweet rides and ought to be pretty cheap by now.

[Brad Johnson]

That actually would be an interesting and maybe fun project.  I don't think it's a "driver" anytime soon, though.  

I have a 2010 Focus and it's been a great car.  No problems with it at all yet.  The trim is all cheap plastic on the model I got, but I'm okay with that.  You also might look at mid-1990's era Cadillacs.  Those are sweet rides and ought to be pretty cheap by now.

Just be sure not to get anything from that era with a NorthStar engine, especially the mid-late 90's models. Head gasket problems, bad ones. Pretty much a 100% failure rate on them. (If they've been rebuilt with proper parts, no worries, but most folks chose to junk the cars because engine rebuild costs often exceed the value of the car.)

Brad

[brimic]

Just be sure not to get anything from that era with a NorthStar engine, especially the mid-late 90's models. Head gasket problems, bad ones. Pretty much a 100% failure rate on them. (If they've been rebuilt with proper parts, no worries, but most folks chose to junk the cars because engine rebuild costs often exceed the value of the car.)

Brad

GM had a 100% failure rate on a lot of engines in that era for many different reasons- mine was EGR tube melting the intake manifold on a 3800 Series II

[zxcvbob]

Just be sure not to get anything from that era with a NorthStar engine, especially the mid-late 90's models. Head gasket problems, bad ones. Pretty much a 100% failure rate on them. (If they've been rebuilt with proper parts, no worries, but most folks chose to junk the cars because engine rebuild costs often exceed the value of the car.)

Brad

That's good to know.  Mine had the 4.9L non-NorthStar engine and I never had any problems with it.  I junked the car with 250K miles on it because of other problems, not engine related.

[Brad Johnson]

GM had a 100% failure rate on a lot of engines in that era for many different reasons- mine was EGR tube melting the intake manifold on a 3800 Series II

The 3800 was actually one of the more mechanically bulletproof GM engines, notwithstanding a few accessory issues like yours. Properly maintained they will easily top 300k and likely outlast the rest of the vehicle.

Brad

[Larry Ashcraft]

Hyundai's have a pretty solid rep for reliability.

Wife has a 2006 Hyundai Azera with 200,000 miles on it. Zero mechanical problems in the 130,000 miles she has put on it.  We're going to replace it soon because we want to take a road trip next summer for our 50th anniversary.  I figure we'll be doing good to get $2,000 out of it.

[brimic]

The 3800 was actually one of the more mechanically bulletproof GM engines, notwithstanding a few accessory issues like yours. Properly maintained they will easily top 300k and likely outlast the rest of the vehicle.

Brad

Yes. If you catch the itake manifold melting in time, it IS otherwise bulletproof. A lot of their smaller V-6s (2.6L?) would dump coolant into the cylinders unexpectantly and cause catastrophic failure because of the same issue.
I went through 2 manifolds in a little over 250k miles. The rest of the car was falling apart around it.

[HankB]

. . . Fusions might be the only domestic car I'd consider buying.

Domestic?

I thought I remember reading that Fusions were being built at Ford's plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, and are (or at least were initially) based on a Mazda platform.

[Brad Johnson]

Yes. If you catch the itake manifold melting in time, it IS otherwise bulletproof.

It was something to do with EGR tube temps and catalytic converters but it's been a long time since that info was assimilated. Details lost to time.

Brad

[sumpnz]

Ok, things changed a little.  The seizure mooted the need for a car for a while since I can't drive until late June anyway.

But then!

Minivan needed a new s-belt.  Ok, no biggie.  Did that and replaced the idler pullies.  Couldn't get the tensioner pulley out, but it was ok.  

SWMBO said she wasn't getting the heat to work right up front.  Hmmm.  Sounded like a servo for the air mixer.  But the lack of heat at all to the rear sounded more like low coolant.  Checked coolant.  Low.  Hmmm.  Topped it off.  A couple days later check again.  Hmmm.  Topped off again.  Poked around.  Looked like some fluid near the water pump.  Wasn't a big leak, but definitely a leak.  Started looking at parts, and figuring out the procedure to extract the pump (not too horrible).  Then today it apparently let go suddenly while swmbo was running the kids around.

Well, crap.  Nobody knew a good mechanic as they all did their own wrenching.  So, off to the stealership on the tow truck.  $1000 and we should be back on the road.  :(

Anyway, if we had another car I could have had the van towed home and dealt with it at my leisure.

Need something for the kids to drive probably before I get something else for myself.  SWMBO wants something with higher clearance than the old Camry.  When I filtered on prices up to $8000 and miles under 100k Ford Escapes were popping up quite a bit.  Higher miles brought up Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, etc.  

Are the Escapes decent?  Anything about the 2008-12 vintages to watch for?  

[MillCreek]

My 2005 Escape XLT Titanium was the bees' knees. Reliable as a tank and needed only routine maintenance in the 10 years I owned it.

[Brad Johnson]

Escapes have a well-deserved rep for reliability. The 3.0 V6 is pretty much indestructible. My cousin, who could kill cars just by looking at them, was only able to end her Escape's life by running it completely out of oil.

Unless 4WD is an absolute necessity, I'd be tempted to stick with 2WD just for simplicity's sake. Less to go wrong.

Brad

[brimic]

Looked like some fluid near the water pump.  Wasn't a big leak, but definitely a leak.

That's the weep hole telling you that the water pump's life clock is quickly ticking down, ie for future reference, when you see a small drip from the water pump, plan to fix it immediately.