Need a new Beater

[ehsnils]

Half a million miles or so later...

[Platinum_Racing]

I had an aunt with an older Volvo 940 wagon. It was slow as hell and the stick axle RWD handled like poo with tons of body roll, but it was a pure tank. It looked just like this one, only green. The reason why it looks like a brick is because it is one.

 

http://www.montecitographics.com/sbauto/wp/wp-photos/20070704-164002-1.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I don't think it looked too bad. It had power everything 6 crappy speakers, sunroof, AC, heated seats, and a bunch of other features. The engine sounded like it came from a Bobcat, and it was probably a little slower than a dump truck to 60, but it was bullet proof. The brakes were pretty good too. 4 Decent sized disc brakes on all corners, with relatively big alloy wheels. (16 Inch? On a 1993)

 

She smashed that car three times. Once she got hit by a driver who ran a red light. That one tore everything in front of the sidemarker lights clean off the car. She drove it home, exposed radiator and missing bumper and headlights. No airbag deployment. Not totaled, but many thousands of dollars in damage.

 

Then she rear ended someone and needed all new plastic, hood and fenders up front. Drove away from that too. This time there was airbag deployment, and my aunt is the kind of person who sits 2 inches from the steering wheel. Her glasses got shoved into her face at about 300 miles per hour, but she was fine. Still not totaled.

 

Then her nephew was driving the car and spun out in the rain. He slid the car sideways into a curb, destroying two wheels, and almost ripping the tires off the rims. Accident bent one control arm. Airbag deployment, towed only because two rims were mangled with only one donut spare. If she happened to have 2 spare tires it would've driven away. STILL NOT TOTALED.

 

She's too old to drive now, but she sold the car to her daughter who still drives it to this day. It's got some scratches, no rust (In MA that's rare), and over 200,000 miles on it, but it still drives great.

 

 

 

I change my vote to a Volvo! The site I found this image at wants under $4K for this car, and it's a mint 1993 that's fully loaded. I bet you can find one in your area for about the same. Oh, and unless you want to paint things like the wiper arms and the center console you really can't mod this car. (Not that you'd want to. Yeah, it was that slow.)

[Boostin1657615274]

That's an awesome beater story. I may look into the Volvos, but they just dont provide the gas mileage I am looking for (~30 hwy)

[ehsnils]

On the other hand - the Volvo 740 is the only wagon that I know of that was able to load a Vax 11/750 and five passengers at the same time.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/VAX_11_750_Trondheim.jpg/800px-VAX_11_750_Trondheim.jpg

 

If the car looks like a box - you can load a large box too! (Or a pile of smaller).