Good cars to learn on?

[Blmpkn]

Yeah, as highway cars they sucked, like riding in a tin foil arrangement, terrible being next to a semi.
But they could be good as track cars, I won SCCA regional in one, but it had full cage, different suspension, tweaked engine, etc. They were popular for that.
It had headers and I believe straight pipe exhaust. It was registered and I ran it on the road... not sure you could do it today. Not much road use though it was set up for track.
Actually I won zero races and really didn't run that fast in the class, the only reason I won it was because I showed up to more of the races and finished them so, something to be said for 'suit up and show up'.
I think the Crown Vic suggestion is a good one there seem to be lots of them around. I was pretty much kidding about the Fiesta, they're cool in some ways but as a daily driver, no.

Got any pictures of the thing? Sounds fun.

 

[James Morse]

Probably do, but have to find/scan, it was long before digital (circa 1990). Will look.

 

[Ranger850]

My vote is for the Panther platform ( Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis, or Ford Crown Vic ) All the room a kid will ever need, plus can fit a ton of stuff in the trunk. My 95 Lincoln TC was probably my most favorite vehicle I've owned , next to the '08 Sport Trac.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Well looks like panthers are out.

This is a rant...so buckle up.

His mom and dad (whos not around, and has very little to do with him) had an absolute fit at the fact i was nudgeing him toward "outdated, unsafe, rear wheel drive junk"...

But they are totally ok with him buying a charger or challenger as long as its AWD. So much for learning how to wrench.

It just aggravates me to no end when people want my opinion/input then get pissed at me when i offer it.

So now he wants to go look at a charger...yes its awd, but its an ex cop car...which makes me nervous...and i flat out told him that things prolly had the shit whooped out of it and is gonna have issues.

Then its "but you said a crown vic cop car wouldnt be bad"....yeah...cause a vic can handle the abuse.

It is a 5.7L though...because that wont get him in trouble.

I basically told him to find what he wants and ill inspect it and make sure its not a turd.....so it looks like its gonna be an AWD mopar.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’ve stopped giving advise to family on vehicles. They never listen anyway. There is only one way they are going to learn (if they ever do) which is via the school of hard knocks.

After some frustration over an unreliable vehicle and a few hits to the bank account, they might be open to real advice rather than validation of what they want to get or already got.

Or, they can be like my girlfriend who just doesn’t know when to get rid of a P.O.S. money pit (the car, not me).

 

[Ranger850]

Well looks like panthers are out.

This is a rant...so buckle up.

His mom and dad (whos not around, and has very little to do with him) had an absolute fit at the fact i was nudgeing him toward "outdated, unsafe, rear wheel drive junk"...

But they are totally ok with him buying a charger or challenger as long as its AWD. So much for learning how to wrench.

It just aggravates me to no end when people want my opinion/input then get pissed at me when i offer it.

So now he wants to go look at a charger...yes its awd, but its an ex cop car...which makes me nervous...and i flat out told him that things prolly had the shit whooped out of it and is gonna have issues.

Then its "but you said a crown vic cop car wouldnt be bad"....yeah...cause a vic can handle the abuse.

It is a 5.7L though...because that wont get him in trouble.

I basically told him to find what he wants and ill inspect it and make sure its not a turd.....so it looks like its gonna be an AWD mopar.

That's about how it goes. My nephew asked me to help him find a good vehicle a while back. I told him to stay away from Chrylser products. A) I've never owned or worked on a Dodge. B) I don't like them. We looked at a Chevy Silverado and a few Ford Rangers. His dad has a Ram so he went and got an older Dodge Ram 1500 quad cab. Unfortonately/fortunately he totaled it before I ever had to wrench on it. Now his dad, my BI, wants me to help them again. I told him i was too busy for them to just ignore my advice and to get whatever the hell they want because that's what they're gonna do anyways, PLUS I will not be working on it.

 

[BroncLander]

What would you guys reccommend as a good car for a 20 yr old who has zero experence wrenching to learn on?

Hes my sisters youngest...he wants to learn and wants to buy something he can play with but also drive.

He picks up stuff fast from what we've done togther.

He has a budget (to buy) of around 5-6k.

He seems to like big sedans....vics, caprices etc. We went and looked at a really solid 86 Vic yesterday, but it needed more then he wanted to do (i think it was a confidence thing, it was normal 40 year old car stuff, fuel gauge didnt work, had some vacuum issues in the HVAC, needed exhaust etc).

I thought it woulda been a good choice but i didnt want to push him.

Any input?

I would go for a 20 yr old Mustang GT. For all the work a guy is going to do, might as well end up with something worth having. And it'll be a great memory as a first car/project. With plenty of aftermarket parts and easy to stay inspired on.

 

[Ranger850]

this is the crown vic we're looking for

 

[JohnnyO]

Thats the other issue though...ill be the primary teacher and i dont know about half that shit lol

Mid-80's 4 cyl Mustang. I got an '85 new, had it for 11 years and to this day the most trouble-free car I've ever owned. Assuming you can find a non-rusted one in MI. Easy to work on but the basics are all there.
Should be easy to find a clean low-mile Crown Vic owned by a little old lady who only drove it to church on Sunday though.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I would go for a 20 yr old Mustang GT. For all the work a guy is going to do, might as well end up with something worth having. And it'll be a great memory as a first car/project. With plenty of aftermarket parts and easy to stay inspired on.

Hard to find a decent priced stang around here thats not beat lol.

Well we did go look...the cop charger was gone (thankfully), we looked at another charger...it was....neglected to say the least. Salesman fired it up and it made some awful noises....like...zero oil pressure noises, and the body was beat up, so was the inside. I flat out told him to run from that one.

Then he looked at a taurus (barf) 2018...57k...still smelled new. Really nice car.

Then i FINALLY got him to atleast take a truck for a test drive...

He found an old man owned 2018 silverado. 4wd, red, 4.3L crewcab 35k miles.He took it for a drive and fell in love. Hes makes good money and has zero other bills so im sure he can afford it (mom went too).

He test drove a wrangler and hated it.

But im pretty sure if things work out he'll get that silverado.

 

[Roert42]

rear wheel drive junk

Lol ok.


I’ve got some choice words for anyone that can genuinely say that without sarcasm. Something along the lines of “what are you, a ******* ******** ********?”

 

[James Morse]

@Blmpkn finally scanned this old pic of the Fiesta. It ran at NH Speedway, which was brand new at the time. Ran at Lime Rock too. Both nice tracks, lot of fun.

 

[Josh B]

I miss the old days if buying a car, just watch the paper every day and look at the new ads, be the 1st one there and you might likely find a decent car

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I miss the old days if buying a car, just watch the paper every day and look at the new ads, be the 1st one there and you might likely find a decent car

I miss the old day prices.

 

[James Morse]

Plus the ads costed per word so you got a brief writeup not html pages of misleading crap.

$1 in 1970 equals almost $8 today and etc. for any year before now. It would take some maths, but I think in general if you normalize the dollars vs looking at the actual number, vehicles aren't really more expensive, or, not much.

But I still get blindsided by prices, you go to the grocery store, buy a few things like milk, eggs, bread, butter - maybe a small plastic bag or 2 of food - $50+. Used to be you couldn't even carry $50 of groceries without a cart.

I used to fly to Columbus OH every week for work, I'd get to the airport in time to get to the gate 5 minutes before they shut the door and walk on. Not so if I were doing it now.

I'm trying to think of things that I don't miss about the old days and I'm having a hard time coming up with any.