I think it is uniquely American, what with our hostility to public transportation outside of the big cities, that we force the working poor to buy rotten old cars to shamble around in. My best thousand dollar car was a $500 canary yellow 1979 Pinto that I took all over the West in the summer of 1989. It was still running when I sold it in 1994.
On this Fourth of July let’s remember the tenuous grasp on Independence our less than reliable friends gave us long ago.
Tokyokie
Rather than $1000, my first car cost $1500 (in 1973) but it got me through college and law school, with its final demise coming Labor Day weekend of 1980. It was also the last automatic transmission I drove for any length of time. Standards that you can roll start are handy if your vehicle is a $1000 car.
Davis X. Machina
The demise of the thousand dollar car, or its inflation-adjusted equivalent, is one of the things that prevents a lot of people who could work, from working.
Vestigial public transportation, the switch from hub-and-spoke to circumferential commuting, and prohibitively expensive housing in the capture area of what little public transportation there actually is, all work together to keep a lot of marginalized people marginalized.
Mart
The Bottle Rockets are Festus Missouri’s finest.
NotMax
True story, circa 1972.
Friend was hitching a ride and was picked up by a middle-aged gentleman who promptly explained that he was on the way to the airport to leave the country forever (no further details given of which I’m aware) and once they got there he would sign over the title to the car. Which he did.
Don’t recall the make or model, but it wasn’t a junker by any means.
Davis X. Machina
@Tokyokie: I had a ’75 Pinto that went without a starter for months when I lived in the west end of Portland (ME). I’d drive around until I could find a spot I could gravity-roll out of, and pop the clutch to start. Didn’t get boxed in too often. Malls were tough, though. Pancake-flat parking lots make that trick tough.
schrodingers_cat
My first car was $600. Sounded like a small plane on the highway. I had it for 4 years. It was a white Subaru wagon.
skerry
My first car was a ’64 Corvair that I bought for $215 in 1976.
efgoldman
We had a $300 LeMans station wagon, ~1978.
Before we could put it on the road, we had to weld the gas tank in, and spend a day taking out the old, frozen ball joints.
.On Xmas morning (after we all stayed over at mrs efg’s mother’s house), temps ~0, it was the only car that would start.
But that didn’t mean it had heat.
Poor mrs efg, all the way home trying to wrap her too small coat around her seven-month pregnant belly.
sukabi
@Davis X. Machina: good thing you didn’t opt for a light push by car…would have turned into a bump and BOOM.
Michael Bersin
Last night in Jefferson City, Missouri a single protester held up a “Babies in Cages” sign and blocked the 4th of July parade. She was arrested for her patriotism:
On understanding what it is to be patriotic
Another badass activist in Missouri.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Actually pronounced “Lemons.”
Electric company is having a silent auction for ‘retired’ vehicles which I’m half seriously thinking of attending. As have little to no familiarity with cars these days, maybe someone here better informed might glance over the list and point out any of the models listed to avoid (the truck and the vans are not ones I would be interested in)? Checked the mileages for each of them and mostly in the 80 – 90k range. As it is an island, no hard driving miles. At this point in life I drive maybe 100 miles a month, tops, so the vehicle would not be getting heavy use.
;)
JWL
To this day, I remember the Pinto as being the bic lighter of automobiles. Ford might as well have presented each new owner with a complimentary bag of marshmallows…
efgoldman
@NotMax:
’71 (which this was) was a pretty good year. We also inherited my dad’s ’71 (he didn’t want to ship it) and drove it into the ground .
Alex Smith
@Davis X. Machina: I was lucky when i was broke to have family members and even friends give me $1000 cars. Of course maintaining $1000 cars is an expensive proposition…
@Davis X. Machina: “Can I push start this car on the flat?” is a question I’ve asked and answered: Yes. But one’s girlfriend must get out and push too. This is what you’re signing up for, darling!
@efgoldman: Driving with ice scraper in hand because of the frost on the inside.
Jager
I got my driver’s license at 14, the summer between the 8th and 9th grade. I’d been driving since I was 9, started on my grandfather’s farm when I could reach the pedals in a ’50 Ford F-1 pickup. The old man was in the car business, I went to the auction with his used car buyer. Bought a 50 Ford Tudor sedan for $75.00. Cleaned it up put fake whitewalls on it and dual exhausts, sold it for $200, bought a perfect 51 Chevy Belair 2 door hardtop from one of the mechanics for $300, sold it for 450. By the time 9th grade started I had a ’54 Ford, the hardtopl with the glass inset in the roof. Downside? I went to a Jr High and we couldn’t drive to school or school events, so I walked just like I did in the 8th grade. Worked my way up a ’57 Chevy post coupe, Power Pack stick when i was a senior. Never got a free car from the old man, always paid out of my pocket. Best overall bargain/buy the old man sold me a ’59 Porsche Convertible D (basically a speedster with roll up windows and a decent top) in 1965 for what he had in it, $1350. I kept it for 5 years. Today Convertible D’s are worth 300k on up if you can find one. Best bargain car, 88 Range Rover, one owner every RR problem solved in ’98 for 4k drove it a hundred thousand mile and only bought gas and oil and one set of tires.
Miss Bianca
I just bought an $1100 car. Truck, actually. 1996 Honda Passport, or an Isuzu Rodeo in disguise. Now I just need to replace the wiring that Luna the Wonder Husky tore thru’ in her quest to capture CHIPMUNK!!11!!
Tokyokie
@Davis X. Machina: I had to do that with the $1000 car (1965 VW square back) that replaced the original 1969 Pontiac Tempest. (I’m not counting the 1965 VW bug that a pizza-crazed real estate agent totaled.) But it was light enough that, given sufficient room, I could push-start it solo. And I only needed about 3 feet of incline to do the job as well. But it was the car that got me to start carrying jumper cables.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Had a ’71 Audi (successor to the beloved bought from the dealer ’72 Capri which was head-onned by a multi-ton station wagon) which, if asked what the model was, said was the Audi Limona. When it ran it was a delight to drive but it was prone to problems, frequently and repeatedly.
Litlebritdifrnt
I am driving around in such a vehicle now. Bought it for 500 quid a year ago. A Canary Yellow 2000 Hyundai Amica. We have absolutely stellar public transportation around here, trains, buses,taxis, etc., as well as the fact that a lot of people walk and/or bike. We also have stellar bike/walking paths. However, I like having the car to go on adventures further afield, such as the lakes and it is vital as I like to do one huge grocery shop a month where I stock up and then just do small top ups during the month. Put less than 2K miles on it last year and it got through its MOT with very few issues.
lgerard
Once again. the day belongs to Joey Chestnut
David Anderson
In 1997, I bought a 1981 brick red Toyota Tercel, stick shift and when factory fresh 64 horsepower for $50 (junk yard was offering a friend just a tow)
No reverese, non-working passenger side door and could not get above 65 downhill with a favorable wind. Got a good year out of her before I had to junk it because it would not pass inspection. Trained me to be a decent mechanic– replaced oil pump, brakes, tail pipe, stereo and timing belts.
Did not help me to get laid.
Another Scott
@NotMax: The white Civic hybrid looks interesting, but I’d be afraid that it would need a battery pack soon.
The Focus seems risky because it is so old. (Rubber rots, interiors fall apart, etc.)
I’d probably pass, myself, unless I had someone who knew what to look for in a particular car.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@NotMax
Thinking back on it, ’twas a ’71 Audi 100LS, which I told people stood for Limona Supreme.
Alex Smith
@Miss Bianca: The raccoons ate the wiring out of my uncle’s PT Cruiser, another car I inherited. The mechanics said this was a known problem. There was something about the coating on the wiring that was irresistible to raccoons. :O
NotMax
@Another Scott
Thanks for looking. I also note that the Civic listing does not include mileage, which is kind of a red flag.
Alex Smith
@Litlebritdifrnt: We have decent public transportation around here too. But my two jobs, janitor and musician, means I’ve got to have the means to haul stuff so…
@David Anderson: Great city car! You can park two Tercels where you cannot park one regular sized car.
James E Powell
My first two cars: 1964 Chevy II Nova $150, it ran, but needed tires – 1966 Mustang $250, a rust bucket, had to replace the clutch.
Would those be the 1973-1974 adjusted for inflation equivalents of thousand dollar cars? Never sure how to account for the differences in the cost of things, but at the time my take home pay was about $235 a week, my rent was $275.
Another Scott
The first car I bought was a $75 1966 Olds F-85 2-door around 1985. 330 CID V-8, 2-barrel carb, 2-speed automatic. AM radio. Heater. Drum brakes all around. That’s it. It all worked fine (after the battery was replaced). I did the usual maintenance things in the few years I had it. I got it up to ~ 80-90 MPH in Oklahoma one ungodly hot summer (but aren’t they all out there?) when we did a 2-3 week great circuit vacation in college (OH, MO, OK, TX, LA, GA, OH). I was afraid to test my luck in driving faster. Was a good little car and certainly a great bargain!
As DXM said, cheap cars are a necessity for people starting out and for people who need relatively cheap transportation. The 2009 “cash for clunkers” program after the housing crash had some good aspects, but it definitely cut the availability of cheap transportation.
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Michael Bersin:
Thank you. I love all your comments, and your blog (fellow Missourian).
Jager
Buy a decent Toyota or Honda, change the oil, don’t drive the shit out it. I had a kid who worked for me who had a 4th hand Civic with almost 500,000 miles on it. He bought it for 600 bucks, not attractive but it was decent transportation..
NotMax
@another Scott</a.
Whenever I see a reference to a Honda Civic cannot help but think of when they were originally marketed in America. Roughly the size of a pro basketball player's shoebox. Tiny enough to give someone with claustrophobia the vapors when looking at it from the outside.
Same with whatever that first model of Subaru marketed in the U.S. was. So small the tail lights were all the way up at the roof line.
Jager
@David Anderson:
I actually figured out how to get laid in the two seat Porsche, helped to have an inventive and flexible girlfriend, who didn’t mind her head bumping on the soft top.
efgoldman
The first car I remember owning was a ’59 or ’60 Crown Vic. Don’t remember where or when i got it, or for how much. Had a ’63 after that.
My all time favorite was a ’67 Dodge Coronet four-door, blue metalflake. I put many hundred of $$ in that car (power steering kept burning out – fun!) Finally got it all fixed and it threw a rod. Junked it out of frustration.Many a morning I had to pull over and stick a pencil in the carburetor to keep it going.
I found out when i bought a new Plymouth Satellite in ’74, it was not at all the same car as the ’67. Rustbucket piece of shit.
J R in WV
Our first car was when we got married. A $400 ’61 (or maybe a ’62, a long long time ago!) Plymouth Fury II. We didn’t have to do much, drove from our homeplaces where we got married to my home port in FL, then moved to Pascagoula, MS, then back to WV.
Had to replace a spring leaf that broke, in the gravel parking lot of our apartment house. Then on the road from southern FL to Pascagoula, with a UHaul trailer, the distributer filled itself with bits of eroded metal and shorted out. In ’72 that cost us like $25, including the short tow to the dealership, in the panhandle somewhere. That was a gift because I was in the service.
When we moved back north in Feb, everything froze and broke. The pushbutton transmission, the speedometer cable, we sold it for $100. So worked out well for us.
waratah
@Alex Smith: not only girlfriends but cousins. When my many male cousins got that first car they had to drive and pick me up for that first ride.
I learned to be an expert at pushing cars.
Jager
@NotMax:
Ever drive a early Subaru? The gear shift lever felt like it was stuck in a pound of butter.
John Cole
My first car was a 1983 chevy celebrity I bought from my grandmother’s estate in 1995 for a grand. It ran until 2006 until it finally died. By the time it was dead the lining on the ceiling was held up by thumbtacks. But the fucker ran like a champion and ALWAYS started until the very end.
A Ghost To Most
My first car was a new 1975 Honda Civic for $3200, when I got to my duty station (Offutt AFB).
zhena gogolia
Baby-blue VW beetle, standard transmission, I could see the road rushing by through the floor by the time I got rid of it.
Alex Smith
@John Cole: My Pinto was like that. An extraordinary individual specimen of its kind.
My guitars too. I own mostly mid-priced guitars that, for one reason or another, play amazingly. You get the pick of the litter when you work in guitar shops.
Jager
Speaking of motor vehicles…https://www.capjournal.com/news/south-dakota-tractor-tossed-by-twister-found-in-montana/article_85190646-7ee8-11e8-bfc0-1bf01ca31fe5.html
Alex Smith
@Jager: Cue X Files theme.
NotMax
@Jager
“I’m tellin’ you, Maw, I saw a tractor. And it was flyin’!”
“Poor child is touched in the head.”
JAFD
You jackals might want, some time, to look up the short story “The Magnificent Conspiracy” by (John) Spider Robinson – one possible solution to transportation for the impecunious.
Thought there was recording of reading of this story on the net somewhere, don’t see it in quick scan of Googl, good luck finding copy, Mr. Robinson’s publishing luck not the best.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
My first $500 car was a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the 350 Olds engine*, and the odometer had been flipped twice (over 200k miles).
The air conditioner didn’t work and the paint was rough, but it ran.
In the 3-4 years I owned it, the only mechanical problem was the timing chain slipping.
Ironically it cost more for a new chain and gears than I paid for the car. ?
*Back then each GM division made its own engines and a lot of late 70’s Pontiacs, Olds, Buicks, and Cadillacs used Chevy small block V8’s without GM publicizing the switch.
IIRC, there were several lawsuits over it.
Redshift
I don’t remember what my first car cost. I was a used 1981 (I think) manual Ford Escort. I liked it, but it was not a good car for reliability, and in particular it had a terrible engine design. It had a timing belt that had to be replaced at 50k miles (expensive.) Mine broke at 45k miles, and because of the lack of clearance above the belt, pretty much destroyed the engine.
Before I got to having to replace it a second time, it rusted out around the axle. (Nothing like having the shop point out tire prints on the inside of the wheel well, and advise you not to drive it anywhere.)
So, yeah, not a good car, but I still liked it.
Alex Smith
@Redshift: I had a 1984 Ford Escort. Put a new clutch in and four new tires and wrecked it the next month. It’s still burns me up to think about.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@John Cole:
That was a common problem with mid 70’s early 80’s GM vehicles with glued in headliners.
I remember reading somewhere that smoking in the vehicle was the cause.
Might be true, or it might be GM trying to weasel out of paying for out of warranty repairs.
James E Powell
@NotMax:
I remember those little Hondas. I had a Honda 350 at the time and it seemed like they had the same engine. A guy I knew in high school had one and it was the kind of car that when he went to a mall or other populated parking lot, a small crowd would gather to gawk at it.
Bess
There are a lot of used Nissan Leafs selling for less than $10,000. Some as low as $6,000.
More up front than a $1,000 banger but big fuel savings. No oil changes. No repair shop visits loading up the credit card. A used Leaf (or other EV) should pay for itself in a very few years.
If a low range EV fits your normal driving pattern you can always rent a car to take the family on the long drive to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving.
Michael Bersin
@JWL:
Back in the eighties I was at an orchestra gig and another musician dove up in a Pinto. The gas cap was missing, so the driver had stuffed a rag in its place. My ride commented to the driver as he got out, “I knew Pintos were bad, but I didn’t know they came with their own fuse.”
raven
When I came home from overseas a friend of my dad gave me a 64 Fairlane wagon that I drove into the ground.
Another Scott
@efgoldman: My mom had a 1960 Rambler that she bought for $200 around 1970. 3 on the tree shifter. There was something wrong with the linkage so it would often get hung up on shifting from 1 to 2. So, she’s have to pull over, lift the hood, free the linkage, close the hood and try again. The right front headlight would go out on going over certain kinds of bumps. The wipers didn’t work in the rain. Great! Car!!
:-/
But the front seats would recline absolutely flat and make a decent sized bed, so there was that…
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
Here’s my 62 GMC Shortbed with a 305 D V-6.
raven
Here’s my 56 GMC Panel Truck
raven
Here’s me in a M35A1 Multifuel Duece and a Half just like the one I drove in Asia.
efgoldman
@Another Scott:
My dad had one he bought in Germany thru the PX and brought home. Coincidentally, future mrs efg had one when we met ~1975. Drive shaft dropped out on the way to my place, her father (who I’d not met yet) had to tow it home.
rekoob
@NotMax:
The Nissan XTerra is a solid choice, as is the Civic Hybrid. I’d say go for the later model XTerra — capable off-road when needed, and Nissan V6’s are well-built.
chopper
91 ford escort wagon. red on the outside, red on the inside. my friends called it “the flying bordello”.
what a shitty car. cost me basically nothing which is exactly what it was worth when i got it.
mawado
In 1984, I bought a ’73 Chevelle Malibu with the 4 barrel 350. I threw everything I owned in the trunk and left Oregon for California. Basically lived in it for 4 months when I found out how much apartments cost in the Bay Area.
In 93, I’d passed it on to my girl friend. She got hit by a garbage truck. They had to tow the truck away. She threw the chrome that got knocked off in the trunk and drove home.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
The Focus or the Civic. Wouldn’t touch any of the others where you live, not at the prices I’d expect gas is.
Being as is, the prices would have to be good for your area. Try Kelly Blue Book for pricing/condition/reports of huge problems.
Ruckus
First car was a 1960 Plymouth Valiant. Third hand hand me down. Drove it for 1 yr, the front spindle broke, moving the car in the gas station I worked in during 1st semester senior yr HS. Also had a 1963 Chevy II 4 cyl/powerslide, till a run down 395 at 85 mph blew the head gasket. That was the extent of the problems other than std maintenance on both cars. From then on drove new cars, other than a very used Ford van in the mid/late 70s and another in the mid oughts. Sold the first one to a friend, he still owned it when he passed 2 yrs ago. Don’t think he’d driven it in a few years. The second was the best cheap vehicle I’ve ever owned. Had it 9 yrs, put a radiator in it, had to rebuild the entire front end, every moving piece was worn out. But I sold it for almost what I had in it, other than gas, which it inhaled in large bucket fulls. So least costly vehicle over all I’ve ever owned. Cost me about $1500 for 9 yrs of use.