suggestions for cars that are under $10,000?

[1986nate]

Just a quick warning on most of the Ford V8's. The OEM spark plug is a 2 piece design, and are known for literally breaking in half leaving the rest of the plug needing to be drilled out carefully, and if not careful enough, you are in for a replacement head. Champion makes a 1 piece plug for them as do other brands I'm sure now, but it's something to check, anyone looking to buy a Ford. I believe this is mainly on the 4.6 and 5.4's but may be others. Just thought I'd chime in with that.

Also, watch the transmissions on the explorer's, they got better over the years but are still rather troublesome.

[92snowmachine]

the ford spark plug thing is mainly limited to the 3V triton engine. most of these are 5.4L. although on all of their engines the passenger rear plugs are run under a heater line that is prone to leaking and rusting the plug in place. two seperate issues but same outcome either way. also some of the expeditions pay 4 hours to do the plugs. that's $450 plus 8 plugs at $10-15 each. this is why so many are for sale that need plugs. no one wants to put in that kind of money for a tune up with the possibility of a couple grand in head work as well. this is why the resale value is low. stay away from any ford suv with an eight. also the materials are crappy and expensive to replace. look at the lower radiator hose on most ford suvs and it's a multiple outlet hose with a quick connect fitting to the radiator. either shill out the money for a ford hose (around $100) or cobble it together only to have future problems. just one of many examples of how you could spend a lot of dough doing the most basic maintenance.

however i have allways wanted the furd fteenthousand
http://www.f150forum.com/f15/ferd-fteenthousand-80145/

[1986nate]

Originally Posted by 92snowmachine

however i have allways wanted the furd fteenthousand
http://www.f150forum.com/f15/ferd-fteenthousand-80145/

WIN!!!


can't remember where I first saw it years ago

Anyone remember the old SNL commercial about some huge SUV from the late 90's? couldn't remember what they called it

[LastSVXintheChi]

Originally Posted by XT6Wagon

2002-2005 Explorer V8 4wd. **** resale so they are cheap. 4.6 in the real world gets the same milage as the v6 since you never have to flog it to make the car move. 4.6 routinely hit 500K miles in taxi duty.

if you want to stay subaru the 2005-2009 era of legacy is simply amazing, and the prices should be within your range. The turbo 2.5GT might be too much but the 2.5i gets awesome milage and still has most of the sweet toys inside.

i love the look of those! i was looking at them also

[XT6Wagon]

the 2 piece sparkplug issue is in the early 3v motors... like my 04 F150. Plugs are good to 100K and mechanics have figured out how to pull them without the huge labor bill now.

So far the 2v in my dad's 02 exploder has been flawless, and the only "transmission" issue we've seen is the auto 4wd controler burned up which is common. Fix was quite cheap at the dealer and the latest programing is sweet. really smooth now in engaging the front axle. With decent tires on pavement its nicely balanced with good traction and so we likely went over a year with the 4wd controler smoked without noticing. Just found out when we tried to put it in 4L for some engine braking out in the field. Its also the quickest shifting auto I've driven. Makes the subaru 4 and 5 speeds look like they were designed for a tractor or something. So much so that the 3v V8 with 6spd auto in the 2006-2010 explorers is no faster... with 40 more HP. I can't advise getting that era of explorer as while the drivetrain is nicer overall, the interior is beyond bad. 02-05 is simple and boring. 06-10 is actively working at being terrible.

[92snowmachine]

it's not really that mechanics have figured out how to get them out, more that now we know they are a problem and there are many tools out designed specifically for that engine. i would go about taking out spark plugs on a car that has sat for 50 years the same way i do these. have never broken a plug and have changed many. if you go about it the way you would expect a regular plug to come out you will break it. ford trucks are junk and have been for a long time, as evidenced by stepping onto a tool truck and seeing all of the special tools that say "ford spark plug extractor". the problem isn't really the two piece plug it's the cheap metal the head is made of. same way their door handles aren't a crappy design but are always broken because they are made of the cheapest plastic known to man. i service my friends fleet of 3 geo metros for his dog walking business, none of them have had the spark plugs or door handles break. if what is widely considered to be one of the cheapest and crappiest cars around is higher quality then your truck i bet it says ford on your steering wheel (unless that fell off to).

[SSSVX]

do u know the shadow machine is up for sale lol?

you can get a lot from a car for $10,000. your criteria is not clear and don't know what are you going to use as ur DD so don't know how to suggest lol.

my current dd is an old civic. i put almost 5000miles a month on it, for the past 4-5 months. 40 plus mpg on highway. ultra-reliable, super-cheap to fix. i like it.

[Green1995SVX]

Any early 00s audi is a great bet. The S8s like mine are now down below 10k, and are so much car for that money. That being said, I like my 4.2 A6 even better, and it was even less expensive.

Volvos are also a great bet. Their resale value drops like a rock, so you can get a lot of Volvo for 10k.

[XT6Wagon]

yah, the early S8 looks like an awesome deal. Its actualy reliable without needing the disclaimer "for an Audi", and the resale makes jag owners feel bad for S8 owners. From what I've read the 02-03 are the ones to have since they got better transmission programming and other nice stuff. S6 4.2L Avants are getting down there in price.

That said, I'm currently lusting after somethign that is likely hands down the stupidest car you can buy for $10K... but its so silly that I'm not sure I can resist. Like 12.8@114mph bone stock silly. Like a coil pack is $1100 silly.

[BoxerFanatic]

This is an interesting topic.

I am considering changing my garage's compliment of cars, and I have noticed that my Legacy is not lasting the way I thought it would, and I am having to put a significant amount of money into it, and one problem pops up after another is buttoned down, on a car with less than 90K miles.

I wonder if it is a first production year thing... (it is a 2005 GT limited), or a Lafayette-build issue, compared to other vehicles built at Gunma, Japan, or what.

Things like a failed window motor, torn suspension bushings, possibly a bad ball joint (in the car's defense the main highway around here beat a lot of cars into submission, it was ridiculously rough, and was just completely removed and re-created, not just re-paved.)
But also things like the e-brake boot and shift boot worn through, and the e-brake handle leather de-laminating, the steering wheel leather looking quite poor, and the soft-touch paint wearing off the inside door pulls.

And just a little while ago, it developed an intermittent fuel leak, when the tank is full, and the temperature falls from warm to cold. I have never had a car leak fuel before, and that seems pretty significant.

And I have needed a bit more cargo room, as well, so am thinking about a mid-size or compact AWD/4WD SUV.

Interesting that SnowMachine mentions that quality has fallen off drastically, I have been noticing that in doing research on my own, as well as my experience as well. Seems like inflation is taking it's toll, and feature list length trumps those features actually being robust and long-term reliable. Money going for the bragging rights without actually backing up those features with 200K-mile solid engineering and materials quality, with affordable maintenance.

[LastSVXintheChi]

from what everyone is saying it seems that late 90s to early 00s is they way to go anything "NEW" seems to not last....

anyone have a GOOD "NEW" car that hasn't broken yet?

[92snowmachine]

audis are nice cars but make sure you will have enough money left over from the purchase price to service it. they are expensive cars to own even if you only have to do the scheduled maintenance. dealers in denver used to make you prove that you made 60k+ in order to buy an a6 or better to make sure that you could afford maintenance on the car. my shop is currently being bought out by another shop that mainly services audis, the owner claims they cost about a thousand to 1500 a year if nothing goes wrong. this seems in line with what i currently see even though audis are a small percentage of our business.

[1986nate]

I don't like newer cars for the fact that build quality on everything seems to be diminishing. I also prefer not having car payments and can work on cars myself.
That being said, my parents have had an 02 Durango(4.7V8 and 4 spd auto trans) since 04 and 27k miles. It now has 150k miles and about 40k of those are towing and a great percentage of the rest are short trip driving. (less than 5 miles, Read:hardest driving on an engine) To date, upper ball joints were done under warranty, we replaced front wheel bearings at 140k miles, lower ball joints at 100k as well as front brakes(first time we had to do them), spark plugs at 75k (I need to do them again when I get a chance), had a TPS sensor go bad at about 135k ($30 new at advance auto), brake calipers and hoses around 110k(had one fail on one of my trips towing, and the other side did the same on another trip) front and rear brakes at 145k (fronts preventative and turns out the rears just needed adjusting truly)and it has a leaky power steering rack that doesn't leak out enough to matter, just causes the right front wheel to be coated with brake dust that sticks to the power steering fluid residue. That's some of the more non mainenance type stuff other than the brakes.
Other than that, oil changes every 3500-4500 miles. Trans fluid was changed at 85k, 110k and I need to do it again soon. 85k, the paper filter was replaced, 110k, the paper filter and internal spin on filter was replaced.

Also, it's had 2 window regulators fail(people trying to open the windows when they're frozen stuck). First one my parents went to dealer stupidly and were charged $400 or so. I replaced the second one that went for about $60 off ebay for a new one and has been fine since.

Overall, it's been great for my uses as well as my parents. Ours is an SXT version and came stock with 265/70 tires on 16" rims and is a hell of a lot of fun to take in the mud and offroad as well. You do get the cheap dodge interior unless you go with an SLT which can include leather and heated seats and even moonroof as well as the nice Infinity stereo. Depending on the year, the legendary 5.2 or 5.9 Magnum V8's are also available that have more torque than the 4.7 but worse gas mileage. The 4.7 typically gets 20-22 hwy mpg and I usually get about 15 towing with a full trailer loaded.
Also, they can be had pretty cheap at this point.

Sorry, that was a long post

[Green1995SVX]

Originally Posted by LastSVXintheChi

from what everyone is saying it seems that late 90s to early 00s is they way to go anything "NEW" seems to not last....

anyone have a GOOD "NEW" car that hasn't broken yet?

It seems like the build quality on later cars across the board is worse than it used to be. I'm a huge fan of cars in the year range you mentioned.

Mike

[LastSVXintheChi]

Originally Posted by Green1995SVX

It seems like the build quality on later cars across the board is worse than it used to be. I'm a huge fan of cars in the year range you mentioned.

Mike

yeah my dad had a 2003 RAM 1500 quad cab and we beat the **** out of that thing and it didn't go wrong until the radiator got a hole in it...then the mechanic some how messed up all 8 coils by changing the radiator! loved that truck it was a 5 speed too which was a plus