Shark you sound like my brother :P
He blew all their transmissions though, and would get his one buddy to patch em up and sell em.
Personally I've owned 3
1992 Plymouth Acclaim
My 1st car paid $650 for it.
Truthfully the car went through hell physically. I bent the frame once, and another time I learned the hard way drifting in a FWD car is not a good idea on it (while blowing quarter sized holes through both front tires)
Ran pretty good tranny failed after a year got it repaired drove it close to another 2 years till I took it in for the emissions test.
The day I took it was like 100 degrees out, and the tester did NOT put a damn fan in front of it. They ran it for over 10 minutes till finally a piston siezed in it and broke its con-rod...
My parents took it and replaced the engine, car was in good shape (was like $900), and let my sister drive it till she completely seized that engine (she put a hole through the oil pan the size of a super big gulp), and drove it with no oil.
2nd car
1988 Delta 88 Royal
Great car. Roomy I miss it. Paid $600 cash for it.
Was a steal for the price, it only needed tires (which I got alum rims off a totaled park avenue for $90 for a full set with BRAND new tires at a junk yard
) And had to have all the brake lines replaced right away(they all split [:@]). But the car was sitting for around a year when I bought it. Other than that I don't think I had to repair a damn thing in the 2 or so years I owned it.
Only reason I got rid of it was some idiots tried to steal it and completely screwed up the steering column. The place I had it "repaired" by decided to give it a good check, and it never worked right after that. I had the car by another mechanic a month before and it was in perfect running condition... The place who "fixed" its column besides reaming me on the price, claimed a pile of parts were bad or needed replacing. Guy I sold it to that I know took it to another mechanic told him it wasn't put together right when it was repaired and that was the issue of the problems.
3rd car
1998 Monte Carlo
Paid $800 for it, person I know wanted to dump it fast cause they bought another car and its plates were due. Plus seeing my issues with the delta 88 I bought it
I can say I HATE this car. Seriously HATE it. Turns out the 1st owner must have been in a decent fender bender seeing the trunk doesn't line up right (plus its rusting bad where I always suspected it of being worked on). I know the 2nd owner didn't get into an accident with it seeing I saw the car pretty much at least once a week since they owned it.
Main reason I hate the car is that due to my height I have issues seeing stop lights if I'm the 1st car at the line due to how the windshield slopes. I have to bend over and put my head near the steering wheel, open the sun roof, or wait til the guy behind me honks
. I've driven a 85 camero, 92 mustang, 98 mustang, 93 camery, 98 Cadillac STS, 95 civic, 78 delta 88, and 4 other cars(forgot their models) and not had this issue. Looked it up a few years back seems I'm not the only person that has this issue with it.
Next car I want a 85 firebird or trans-am(I love how they look), another older GM car, or maybe a chevy volt (to save on gas) after they fix all the glitches (or if I find a totaled one so I can slap its parts in a different chassis
)