Anybody drive an old Chrysler

[Fed up]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

My suggestion would be to get on a plane and fly south for the winter, then drive a rust free eco- box home for the spring. Last year I bought my wife an 06 Neon with 45,000 for $4,500. perfectly strait and still runs like a champ. For my money i could care less if the thing gets door dings or wrecked, it is just a beater to get her through school. And the fact that it only takes 25 dollars to fill it up from empty, it is freaking awsome.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

$4500 and it is a beater! Geeze you guys have a completely different definition of what a beater is, than I do!, for my $4500 it better be a good running nice car!! Yikes!

 

[scipper77]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

related tangent but I sometimes look on the Arizona craigslists to find an old yukon/tahoe for a tow vehicle. It's so weird to me that an old beat up car down there looks like a cream puff up here. I figure if I'm only going to tow with it it will last a long time even if I buy it with high miles. So having a rust free, good looking rig means I can feel proud of my tow vehicle instead of embarrassed by the rusty POS you would get up here for the same $$.

 

[Fed up]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

The car was bought for my wife to go to school in, she frequently parks either on campus or on a public street. I did not want to get her a nice Volvo to get beat up by door dings and such. I have a couple of POS's they run great but look like week old crap...lol... The car was in great shape, I have spent $20 to tighten up the shifter cable, and now $314 to have the front end straitened out after an incident with an icy bridge.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

I think the title is a bit misleading...talking about a 1990s Omni as an "old Chrysler" is a questionable description. I am kind of surprised that JB let that one get by...

I checked out this thread thinking i might be sharing tales of the restoration of my wife's 1946 Dodge, but with these metrics I guess I'll have to wait until I see the "prehistoric Chrysler" thread...

 

[marktwainsonic]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

I thought a 30 year old Omni qualified as an "old" Chrysler (product). If it was about restoration, I probably would have said "classic"

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

I honestly have to say, when I saw the title of this thread, my first thoughts wandered back to my days as a young teen with one of his first cars, which was a 1962 dodge dart!

 

[Laddies]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Bob, don't think comparing 1982 auto to a 1990 auto of any manufacture is not much of a comparison. When comparing government vehicles with normal maintained vehicles, I have done many IG inspections while in the service, on government owned vehicles and know how sub standard some are maintained. Most are maintained by young people just out of high school and 8 weeks of wheeled vehicle school. that does not make them a mechanic, they are doing as well as possible. In the early 80s most small US built cars were having many growing pains. I owned a 1987 Chargers same platform as the Omni, same running gear we sold the car in 1995 with well over 100,000 miles on it, we replaced the brakes, changed the oil and filter and tires regularly, at about 35,000 miles Chrysler replaced the EGR valve under warranty and at 65,000 i had to replaced the timing belt at my expense less than $200 and one serpentine belt. I don't think that was excessive maintenance. I did not experience any of your horror stories even with two teenage sons driving the car, although they assure their mom and myself they would never abuse it.

 

[marktwainsonic]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Well, he sold it to some other sucker. Probably saved me a headache, but now I'm going to have to invest a little mor $$ to get to the next level.

Found a Ford Escort and Ford Focus listed over the weekend, so we'll move on to that.

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

If you're looking for fuel economy in a cheap car, Corolla, Geo/Chevy Prism is the way to go.

 

[642mx]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Don't overlook small trucks as gas savers too. I drive about 60 miles everyday to work and back. So I picked up a 1999 Mazda B2500 2WD, 4 cylinder, 5 speed (same as a Ford Ranger), I bought it with just under 100K miles for less than $3K and its been a tough little truck. It gets 27 mpg on average with my commute and I can haul small items with it.

I looked everywhere for a small Toyota or Nissan pickup (which would have been my first choice), but you just can't find them around here. The Rangers and Mazda's are a dime a dozen.

 

[marktwainsonic]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Thanks for the tips.

I did look at a couple of small trucks (Rangers are pretty common here), but mileage seems to dip into the upper teens when driven regularly in town (which is what I'm up against). If I'm going to take the gamble on a beater, I'm hoping for 22-25 mpg city -- don't care if it's a crackerbox.

For those who are continuing to pitch in advice (which I appreciate), the Omni was about a $1200 car. I'd kick another 500 in for something better, but 3-5K is not a beater for me.

Thanks!

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Actually I have also been looking for a small car fro driving around in the summer where I live, I have been surprised at some of the Kia as well as the Geo models, great milage, cheap to maintain and not to expensive to purchase used.

 

[642mx]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Thanks for the tips.

I did look at a couple of small trucks (Rangers are pretty common here), but mileage seems to dip into the upper teens when driven regularly in town (which is what I'm up against). If I'm going to take the gamble on a beater, I'm hoping for 22-25 mpg city -- don't care if it's a crackerbox.

For those who are continuing to pitch in advice (which I appreciate), the Omni was about a $1200 car. I'd kick another 500 in for something better, but 3-5K is not a beater for me.

Thanks!

You might be surprised. On my commute, I have to go thru 19 stop lights one way. That's 38 stop lights that I get to deal with everyday. Of course, sometimes they are green, but I have to stop at plenty of them too. The longest run I make is on the highway from Evansville to Mt Vernon which is about 13 miles at 60 mph (there is one light between the towns, but most of the time its green)... the rest of the commute is pretty much city traffic with all the lights.

Evansville Indiana is the stop light capital of the world....lol

 

[Fed up]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Edit

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Laddies....... I was reflecting on my experience of yes "long ago" however, they were all maintained mostly by dealer's. They were GSA cars and out in the general public (out in the general economy). They were not subjected to the motorpools. The recruiting command was also fortunate to test the first vehicles released with air bags in 1983 in our Ford Tempo's. They got special maintenance attentions since they were test vehicles (Thank you Ford Motor Company).

My vehicle experiences with GSA were great with only a few exceptions...... the "first run" of omni's, horizons and k cars had issues but so did the American Motor's AMC's we drove. Fords were good, the Chev's were good ....GSA treated us right. LOL we all carried a GSA credit card for repairs too.

BTW most were vinyl seats, crank windows, no AC and AM radio too

 

[NYBo]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

I thought a 30 year old Omni qualified as an "old" Chrysler (product). If it was about restoration, I probably would have said "classic"

You may wish to re-do the math.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

You may wish to re-do the math.

That was sort of my point....

 

[marktwainsonic]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Check on the bad math :redface:

Thought I hit the mother lode when I found an 85 Toyota pickup. Rumor is they are indestructible. Gas mileage doesn't seem to live up to the PO's claims though. Seems an Escort or Focus will still be better.

Thanks to everybody!

 

[NYBo]

Re: Anybody drive an old Chrysler

Beware the 2001 Focus! Lots of gremlins reside therein.