I have been enyoying Marc’s Saturday Cars Of A Lifetime (COAL) series. He recently recounted his experience with a Pontiac Acadian (Chevette to those of us not from Canada). Among is memories were the need for regular push starts and multiple other little niggling things that one must put up with when driving a $250 beater. This got me thinking of the things I willingly put up with in my own youth. The combination of old car and not a lot of cash made me quite OK with many things I would never deal with now.
My second car was a 16 year old 1963 Cadillac that cost me $400. The big black Cadillac’s primary capability was to require a $100 repair every 4-6 weeks. Which for a college freshman in 1978-79 was not nothing. And which was why I never fixed the windshield wipers. When the interior of the car was cold the wipers didn’t like to turn on. I would wiggle the switch every which way and they would finally start to wipe. And then would not turn off. Once the car started blowing good heat they would park themselves and all would be fine and dandy. A replacement switch from a junker didn’t fix it. They therefore stayed unfixed.
Later in 1979 I bought a 1959 Plymouth Fury. It was far from a beater, but was about as presentable as a 20 year old car in the rust belt could get. But it was not without its little problems. The heater controls were an early application of vacuum actuators for directing air flow. Pushing the button for “defrost” ducted air to the windshield. Pushing the button for “heat” changed nothing, so I got good at reaching under the dash to move the little lever that the vacuum system wouldn’t move.
I had to replace the gasket in the fuel tank sending unit to fix a leak. The wire into the sending unit had a dodgy connection and whenever it got damp (as from driving in the rain) the fuel gauge would swing to “full” no matter the actual fuel level. Easy, right? Just fill the tank and you’re fine. Except that there was a second leak from the rubber hose at the filler neck so I never filled it more than 3/4. My solution was a long wooden stick that I could run down the filler pipe until it hit the bottom of the tank. Sort of a dipstick, but for gasoline. Hey, isn’t that how they do it for the big tanks at the gas station?
In 1980 I paid $550 for a 1971 Plymouth Scamp. It was an interesting combination of worn and presentable, but it was a good one that set a 5 year length-of-ownership record I would not break for decades. In the big jobs of starting, stopping and steering, the Scamper was dead reliable. Reliable enough that a friend and I actually did a bunch of bodywork to it and gave it a paint job. Even when I was a broke kid I had some standards. But being a Chrysler product of the 1970s, some of the minor stuff was a little more of an issue.
Like the time a buddy and I decided to hook a small boat trailer onto the big hitch on the back. The there must have been a wiring issue with the trailer (or something wrong with the hookup on my car) because a tap on the brakes sent the ammeter diving to the bottom of the gauge – until something blew. It turned out to be not a fuse. I chased the short into the base of the steering column and was stopped by my inability to get the steering wheel off. For several months (until I had money for a puller and time to use it) every stop would be accompanied by a pull on the headlight switch to turn on the taillights (by day) or a couple of blinks of the emergency flashers (at night). This one actually turned out to be a burned out connection in the flasher switch, a problem that I actually fixed.
But I never replaced the passenger side sealed beam unit that could be turned on and off with a smack. Or a bump in the road. Once I discovered that a honk of the horn would create enough of a vibration to turn it back on after it blinked off, well, I just saw no need to fix a problem that could be controlled so easily.
I also never replaced the wiper arm. I probably sprung one of the little spring clips that held the wiper arm to the knurled hub at the base of the windshield when I took it off for painting. The problem was that use of the wipers let the arm work its way off the hub until the wiper arm would be flung from the side of the car and into the road. Always in the rain, mind you. Instead of buying another wiper arm I got into the habit of smacking the base of that wiper arm with my fist whenever I walked past it. Problem solved.
As I got older and drove better cars this sort of thing sort of stopped. At least until my ’93 Crown Victoria turned the corner from nice car to beater. Three teenage drivers in a row will do that to a car and now they can recall keeping a drivers window up with a plastic suction cup stuck to the glass until Dad found the cash to get the broken regulator fixed.
So what about you? I am quite sure that many of you put up with some really annoying idiosyncrasies with your cheap old beater and semi-beater cars. So let’s hear about them.
Oh boy, what DIDN’T I put up with during my student / early working years?
I guess the most significant one was the Torqueflite transmission in our 1972 AMC Matador. There was a variable lag before it would engage into reverse or 3rd gear.
Usually I would accelerate through 1st and 2nd, then coast for 2 or 3 seconds before feeling the gentle bump of 3rd engagement and continue. I drove it very gently so it wasn’t much of an issue. I did pull in front of approaching cars a couple of times and have to rev the engine to quickly reverse with a BANG as the gear engaged.
Once I got a different transmission out of a parts car that was the end of my transmission problems, and that tranny made it’s way into my 1980 Concord as well.
It wasn’t mine but my parents bought a ’86 Plymouth Turismo when I was learning to drive. It had a crack in the engine block so I had to refill the radiator everywhere I went. Just used a garden hose. Obviously did not work in winter so it was sold off after the summer.
I drove a Volvo 240 through most of the winter a couple years ago with a broken heater fan. So no heat in the passenger compartment.
Hey DS, how’s the Pontiac coming along?
Progress has slowed as the wife has decided that we would like to move house. I hope to get it on the road by the end of July.
Didn’t you have a beater 1988 Taurus for a while?
Yes had one of those. Only owned it for a few months as the wife refused to drive it. I didn’t mind it but it was certainly one ugly car (previous drove through a fence).
I’ve had lots of beaters 🙂 My current vehicle count is mid 50s. Half of those are probably clunkers of some kind.
Dave, I can’t tell if I’m catching up to you or if you’ve started to accelerate away again…. 🙂
I think I’ve slowed a bit. I’ve only bought a motorcycle so in 2018 …
My first car was a 1972 Gulf Green Heavy Chevy. I became the second owner in March ,1973. After I owned the car about 3 years the tin worm began making a meal out of the rocker panels and the lower corners of the rear window. The rust around the rear window got so bad that I had to sponge out the fender wells on each side of the trunk floor after any rainfall. I tried to stop water getting in to the trunk with RTV sealant and bathtub caulk but never could stop it.
All manner of fluid leaks were a persistent problem, and in some cases oil burning – the solutions to these issues were too costly to consider or involved to undertake so fluids were refilled as necessary. Stains on the road or parking lot a were never matters of concern. Generally I could repair minor mechanical problems myself so I tended not to tolerate those, and junkyard parts were plentiful.
One common issue with beaters was poor or mismatched tires. Decent rubber was often expensive in relation to the cars and out of my reach, so I was forced to accept worn or mismatched tires, and even run snow tires year round sometimes. As long as they held air and the treads weren’t separating I was willing to put up with it, until they became out and out dangerous. At that point I’d head over to a used tire place and do the best I could.
One thing I would never put up with was inoperative heaters – living in western Canada (like David Saunders) made that a non-starter with me and off I went to replace heater fans, heater cores or thermostats to ensure that I was somewhat warm and more importantly, the windows were clear.
While I had little money in those days, I was not often totally destitute and with simple cars and basic hand tools, one could keep a vehicle in somewhat reasonable operating condition, if not good physical shape.
My youth?
I drove the Dodge Chinook for over 15 years all over the West and Baja without a gas gauge, ever. And the temp gauge died quite a few years back too. Since it never overheated before, I had no reason to think it would start to overheat later.
The a/c compressor was frozen when I got it, and rather than fix it, I yanked out all the a/c components. In retrospect, that might not have been a good idea.
I could go on.
And right now: the F-100 has no turn signals; I use hand signals. I need to install that NOS signal cam one of these months… And the heater core finally started leaking this winter, so I bypassed that. Bit by bit, I’m slimming down all of its functions to only the most vital ones. Less to go wrong in the future! 🙂
And in the distant past: The starter in my Corvair died in the middle of the winter in Iowa in 1973. I had no warm place to replace it, so i just did without one, by always parking on a hill. Seriously. For a couple of months.
That did result in a very hairy moment when I crossed the big mainline Rock Island train tracks late one night, and the engine stalled right on the tracks! I could not push it off the rough track crossing. I saw the signal change and heard a horn in the far distance. I was just about to run and watch my car get smashed to smithereens, when I got an extra dose of adrenaline and gave it one more heave. Off it rolled, and quickly picked up steam as it went down the other sloped side of the crossing. I just barely managed to hang on and jump inside, otherwise another crash would have occurred.
I drove one of my Beetles without a front hood or fenders for a while after my accident.
I could go on….
You remind me that the Scamp’s oil pressure light never worked, either. I always kept an eye on the oil and it was fine. Maybe 5 or 6 years after I sold the car I saw it parked in one of those used car lots you wonder is really a lot or just some kind of collection. Nobody was around, so I opened the hood. Different engine. I wondered if the lack of an oil pressure light bit somebody.
Technically it was Dad’s car but I drove it and was responsible for killing it. Repeatedly.
A 67 Ford xl500 convertible passed from my aunt to my cousin and left at our place until we were told to do what we wanted to it.
My Dad was a mechanic and decided this would be a car to teach me mechanics on. Especially since it had a habit of killing motors.( It was the CAR ? it was always the car!!)
Since the motors came out of my teenage wallet it was more how cheap was it rather than how well it ran.
After the original 390, a 302, a 352, and two more 390’s he either figured I was hopeless or the car was and it was retired to the wreckers.
Since then I’ve never changed a motor. I’d rather change the car first.
When you drive a rig whose engine does not make enough power to hurt itself, you don’t need gauges. The 250 six in my ’75 Granada was a prime example….
My first few, cheaper cars were actually quite reliable and trouble-free. Well, my Vega did break a timing belt (interference free!), starter solenoid, and the pesky intake manifold coolant gasket which contributed to its oil consumption, and then a broken clutch pressure plate. But that really wasn’t bad compared to its reputation. It was quite a few cars down the road, the 3 year old ‘77 Scirocco which I picked up as a daily driver after ditching the Vega, when I also had a Fiesta which I was SCCA Showroom Stock racing, and I felt I needed a backup set of wheels. You know, crash (or blow up) on Sunday, need to go to work on Monday. Well, the Fiesta became the reliable backup and parts runner for the Scirocco. Almost 40 years ago, but I still remember the master cylinder, the ignition switch, the fuse box/circuit panel, the CV joint, the starter, and myriad bits of interior plastic which were (dys)functional, not just cosmetic. Since then we’ve owned three more VW’s, and still have one now, but for a long time that Scirocco gave Wolfsburg a bad name for me. The Vanagon which came ten years later didn’t help. When I finally dumped the Scirocco after six months, my shortest car ownership ever except for a few non-runners, I kept the reliable Fiesta for more than a year.
I have to agree with Paul above… “My Youth?” ;o)
My namesake here, at 11 model years old and 175,800+ on the clock has a few little niggling things…
The trunk unlock, while still working, makes a horrendous loud electric buzzing noise when I unlock it with the remote (and sometimes the key). Since it still works, I haven’t fixed it. Once in a while, it gets stuck open and won’t let me close the trunk. I put the key in old school and turn it. Sometimes with the loud noise, sometimes with just a click, but that opens the lock again and allows me to close the trunk.
The door panel trim keeps coming unglued. This is a common problem with the 2005 to 2009 S-197 Mustangs. I sure hope Mustang Rick reads this post and replies. He had an idea to fix it permanently (since he has a 2009 like my 2007), but I forget now what that was… Rick… if you read this, please help! Summertime, and the door panel is annoying….. (paraphrased with apologies to whomever wrote that jazz standard…)
Oh, and I smell coolant seeping from my overflow bottle’s cap. Probably a gasket gone bad on the cap. The car never overheats. It’s been two years, and the coolant level is still fine. That’s how slow it is seeping (as vapor presumably). I guess I should get around to fixing this one.
The wife’s Lancer? – Needs new front struts. She drives 4/10 of a mile to work at speeds not exceeding 25mph. This however is on the list as it’s a safety issue. It hasn’t
gotten that bad yet, however.
But in my youth, say up thru my 20(s) and my ’83 T-Bird… yeah, I put up with a LOT of things I would never let go now. Too many to list, some I’ve talked about on these pages before like a carburetor issue on my ’79 Futura. The most notable however was the broken recline mechanism on my ’83 T-Bird. I was on a Tri-State Tubing Trip (no kidding) to Harper’s Ferry, WV when the seat broke. To get home, I MacGyver’d a solution. I put one of the inner tubes behind the driver’s seat and inflated it just right. Whenever it got low on air, I’d just go to the gas station and pump it back up again. It stayed this way until I traded the car in on my ’88 T-Bird. ;o)
Super ratty spray can touch up paint job on a ‘69 VW beetle. Also, dripped one to two quarts of oil a week and ate up all my money during high school. Engine blew up and took my saving for college to rebuild. Dad came up with just enough money to get me in to school. Only good thing was it got about 22 MPG.
Soooo different compared to my ‘63 Beetle which was a dream till a Chrysler Córdoba sat on it.
Since then, have never entertained the idea of another VW.
As a freshman in college I had a 10 year old at the time 1988 Buick Electra Park Avenue. Technically my parents bought it for me. It was neither all that old nor cheap compared to what you described, so its problems were fewer, but it had them. First the air conditioner compressor developed a leak, and since this was the old ozone destroying refrigerant as I recall the shop was required to remove the Freon that was still in the system. Not wanting to spend the money to fix it properly, I just lived without air conditioning. In North Carolina. Oh, and did I mention the car had leather seats?
Then it developed a condition where, in hot weather, the engine would start running very rough and die when stopped at a red light. It always restarted right away, so I just lived with that, too. I never even diagnosed what the problem was.
That car got replaced with a 1995 Saturn SL1 in late 2000, which was actually a pretty reliable car. It never really had any noteworthy mechanical issues, just minor stuff like the cassette player not working, and the “fasten seat belt” light staying on all the time even when my seat belt was fastened. The most annoying thing with that car was that after I moved to California after college it would fail the smog test here in its first attempt every time, which is what led me to finally get rid of it.
After that I got a Corolla. And it’s every bit as reliable as it’s reputed to be. Except the manual transmission sometimes grinds a bit shifting into third when it’s cold.
In the 1965 Mustang Six convertible that I owned from 1974 to 1978 I had the following:
Dead voltage regulator: The only things that got electricity were the spark plugs. No lights, wipers, radio, or power top and I had to start the car by hot-wiring it. Apparently the previous owners did strange things with the wiring.
Three-speed shift linkage came adrift: No second gear.
Leaking hose somewhere in the dash: As the car warmed up, clouds of steam would pour out of the defroster vents for a while. Seems to have cured itself.
Driver’s window falling down into door. A big screwdriver jammed into the interior door panel fixed that.
Speedometer would sometimes jump around between 0 and 120 mph. No attempt to cure.
All this would imply that the Mustang was a lemon. Actually, it was quite reliable for the most part – enough so for my older brother and I to drive it all over the US and Mexico throughout the summer of ’76. The car was a champ the whole time – never failed us once. Also, when we shared a rented house later on, he would take my Mustang when he needed to go someplace for the weekend and leave me his ’74 Fiat 124 Spider. I didn’t mind so much given that I could bomb around in a cute red sports car.
I drove a wide variety of old dungas for many years, cheap disposable cars that were still plentifull to get parts from to keep my ones going or replace my ride with, Lucas electrics and SU carbs dont scare me, what ever can go wrong with them has happened to me in the past and I’ve either revived the car with another part or car or jury rigged it and kept going, out of all the British ones Rootes produced the most durable and reliable bombs which is why I rebuilt the old Hillman I still have rust was their biggest enemy mostly caused by poor quality sealant om windows allowing water in the rest of those cars is pretty bullet proof,
Aussie cars were a different kettle of fish, a good Holden body would see out two engines, a good Valiant the engine would out last two bodies, Falcons were unpredictable on what would die first often the trans more often the body decayed past a casual glance by a traffic cop, one ate two engines in one year. Gotta remember these cars were driven up and down Aussie Vic to FNQ every year measure that when you have time,
Jap cars, rust was the main enemy mechanical problems and they have many once they get old and worn, just needed another piece swapped in, though Japanese efforts did tend to just keep going untill the rest of it wasnt worth owning.
It all was fun looking back but I do like my PSA cars now comfort reliability handling all very hard to beat for the money used ones are worth here, I have paid around 10% of new price for each one Ive bought and but for one have provided reliable service though the one I have now is beyond my abilities if it does break.
Well do I remember the transmission problems with the XR Falcon. The column gear linkage would jam, and you’d be unable to get second or top. Climb out, lift the bonnet, wiggle the linkage until it freed, then hope you’d be able to make the ten miles home before it did it again! The body on Dad’s eventually rusted to the point where a dyed-in-the-wool early Falcon enthusiast we sold it to couldn’t resurrect it, and stripped it for parts.
Now that I think back on it, It seems Hillmans did last longer than other British cars – except perhaps Vanguards – but what young guy aspired to one of those? Hillmans weren’t flashy (usually), they didn’t catch your eye, but they were always there, like a faithful and obedient servant. Fifties Austins were notorious rustbuckets, and Dad never had a good word for the B-series engine, preferring the unbreakable sidevalve from his MO Oxford. Vauxhall bodies seemed to rust if you just looked at them out of the corner of your eye.
Our ’89 Magna lasted for eleven years, then everything seemed to let go at once: rings, CV joints…. Japanese parts designed to get through just enough of the dreaded Shaken inspections?
In college I had a 36 horsepower, 1960 Volkswagen Type 1 (Bug), given to me by my Godfather. I couldn’t knock the price!
The starter solenoid (1960 original?) needed to be changed; it would get sticky and not engage the starter. As I was fishing quarters and dimes out of the mall fountain for my discretionary spending money, it never got changed out.
I kept a broken antenna shaft, picked up in a parking lot, to tap-tap-tap under the rear tire, somewhere in the vicinity of the starter.
If I was lucky and tapped hard enough in the right place, it might freee up and the starter might engage.
If, after a couple of tapping sessions, nothing happened, I would push it across the dorm’s parking lot, jump in, put it in second gear and pop the clutch to start it, as my dorm buddies would shout out encouragement (or was it derision?) from the windows.
Like Paul, I drove a car without a starter for several months.
It was a 1973 Toyota Corolla S-5, so it was nice and light. I lived in Denver, so I typically could find a slope to park it on, and my younger self had little problem pushing it up to speed and then jumping in pop the clutch and head out. The 4:11 final drive ratio also gave me a big advantage.
HOWEVER, it also lacked a reverse gear, so backing it into blind parking spaces presented a problem. For several months, I nosed it into a right side parking space at work, and then let it coast back into a space on the left side of the lot. A water drainage channel graded into the center of the lot helped roll it from side to side, and also provided enough slope for start up at the end of the day (usually..).
I also found that if jammed the brakes as I pulled into the right side space, the springs would load up and give me a bit of a push back towards the other space.
I eventually discovered the starter issue stemmed from a easily repaired wiring issue with an inexpensive fix, rather than starter motor failure. C’est la vie…
When the starter failed on my Vega mentioned in my earlier comment, I disassembled the solenoid and found a broken heavy gauge copper contact. I “welded” it back together with the battery and carefully shorting it with a screwdriver. My only ever attempt at battery welding.
Oh boy, ’74 Super beetle without a gas heater. We kept an ice scraper on the dash to clear the window all winter long. The cables for the heater control broke so every October we tied the heat on full until May. In the dead of winter, trips under 30km the car would just begin to get warm once you reached your destination. Parkas, snow pants and heavy mits were the driving attire in January except for that 400km road trip when we had to stash it all in the trunk. The heat came belting out relentlessly on the highway and there we were. T-shirts and windows down motoring along the 401 sweating like a whore in church.
Then there was the ’72 Toyota corroded. Two speed toyoglide. It would stall at every traffic light and stop sign unless you pushed it into neutral. To pull away it was rug the go pedal while dropping it into L. Quarter mile times were measured with an egg timer. We could never just pull out into traffic. I took my driving test in that one. On the day of I cranked up the idle speed until it wouldn’t stall in drive and then practiced the shut off. Slam it into park and quickly turn the key before the revs pick up. Nailed it. The examiner was none the wiser.
First generation Honda Civics that had an appetite for head gaskets. Four drive trains and 2 bodies over 8 years. A dead reliable yet slow Hyundai Pony. See Toyota Corroded above except for the stalling part. They all had their quirks.
Oh, I’ve been there. Everything from having to open the hood and pull the sticking throttle manually before the car would start, to keeping the second foot on the gas during braking because it would stall at idle…
My ’62 Valiant wagon, bought in 1971 for $250: Wanted to overheat if I ran the aftermarket Mopar A/C. Had to constantly replenish the Freon, too. I ended up hardly ever using the A/C. Had to have the Torqueflite worked on in a big way at one point; the transmission guy managed to short out some wiring, causing a bunch of wires in a block to melt together. At least he, at his own time and expense, got the mess sorted out and the car ran OK then. At another point, my dad pulled the engine and had it rebuilt (it was anemic, even for a 170-cubic-inch six). It helped a bit, but it was still just plain underpowered. The most intractable thing about it was that it hated rain and going through wet streets. The brakes would just cease to have any stopping power if they were wet, and the ignition system would die. Next day, everything would be fine. Still, the car got me through three years of college, until another driver sailed through an intersection, hitting my car on the front left. We ended up transplanting the engine into a ’61 Dodge Lancer wagon with three-on-the-floor. Naturally, the engine headaches came along. The Lancer, though, had a surprise: rust in the floorpan. I was glad to eventually get rid of the thing and get a real car.
My first car at age 16 was a 1960 VW that cost $250 (seems like a common price here) – a good deal in 1966 but the car had some issues. A big one was that my Dad’s co-worker who sold the car to me had used it for hunting trips with a pack of dogs riding in the back. Took a lot of deep cleaning to get the smell of dog out of that car. The VW had several layers of paint with no sanding in between and big chunks were flaking off. No gas gauge and the reserve fuel lever was broken so carrying a stick to measure the fuel level was essential. The heater junction boxes were rusted out and fumes poured into the car during winter with the heat on – lowering the windows was required to maintain health. Good thing was that the little Bug ran and drove fairly well and with the help of my cousin’s body shop (Dad and I did the wet sanding) and some new VW paint in the original Indigo Blue, it ended up looking great.
A graduated stick actually came with them new, so you could dip the tank and know how much fuel remained, how many were still with the car for the second owner? probably none.
I had Austin Metros. they were built by British Leyland. They rusted. And had Lucas electrical equipment.
1986 s15 Jimmy – erratic cold weather behavior including stalling and delayed restarts
1991 lumina z34. – front end never aligned, paint bubbled off passenger door
All above occurred within warranty
I may win this. My second car; in 1965, was a 1957 Chevrolet Convertible with a nice top, good quarter panels and a decent interior. The cost was $70 from a Rambler dealer. Why so cheap? !) Missing freeze plug. 2) Broken Foxcraft floor shift conversion. 3) Dozens of used condoms in the back seat area.
A trip to Lovers Lane in the daytime with a staightened wire coat hanger anf they joined their cousins. Next stop was coin operated car wash. A few hours with the top down in the sun, and all was well. (To my low standards). Now it would be a Hazmat site.
Mopars on rainy days! “Driveability issues” due to water on the plug wires or getting under the dist. cap. Nothing helped.
My ’84 Econoline had a hot start issue, it would crank but not fire. A shot of ether always did the trick, which was terrifying on a hot engine right in the passenger compartment. I ALWAYS put the air filter cover back on before cranking.
Several of my cars have had “character”, but the first thing to come to,mind is the ’74 Dart I drove from 2008-14. The gas tank probably should have been replaced on day one, but somehow never made it to the top of the list.
If I kept it at least half full, everything was fine, but get into the bottom half, it would suck up crud and die. That was ok until rust made a pinhole near the top of the tank and it would drip if you filled it.
So for the last year I just stopped for gas every couple of days to keep it in the 4 gallon range that was usable.
Okay, you asked for it:
It wasn’t a beater when I bought it, but just a few years later after I’d bought a 3 year old 2000 Cavalier, I’d realized that it was a lemon, and it quickly degraded into a near beater status. The first major repair was a water pump, which was a very expensive job. The ABS went, and just the unit itself was 2 grand, and I’ve never been much of an ABS guy anyways, so I left it, as the car otherwise functioned fine. The passenger side seat adjuster/ rack ended up getting broken, and considering that it was just the passenger’s side, I decided to leave it. The struts were gone, and other than a more rough ride and some rattles, I’d left it for a couple of years before I’d repaired it. The rear defroster stopped working, so I thought that I can scrape the rear window in winter, no big deal. The car had the usual droopy rear muffler, as the hangers always seem to give out. No biggie, either……took a coat hanger and bent it, and it was fine.
Someone had punched the passenger’s side door lock to get in the car (they didn’t steal anything….), and by this time, some war wounds were piling up, and I didn’t feel that it was worth paying a deductible on. A year later, someone really mangled the driver’s side lock (to the point that it was usually hanging out the door). Again, I didn’t feel like the deductible was worth it.
On my Birthday, when I was walking out of the bank, someone had backed into my bumper on the passenger’s side, right in front of me. They took off before I could chase after them (they ended up going across traffic, south, and oncoming traffic was in the way).
The car was starting to overheat again just two years later after the first water pump replacement, and seemed to point to another water pump issue, and it was at that point that I realized I just couldn’t sink another $1000 into a water pump repair. The car’s dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree, with all the ABS/ check engine/ etc lights. To its credit, it did manage to make it to 2011, but it was pretty much totally done for. I didn’t drive it hard, and changed the oil and maintained it well, but the car was cursed.
I had more oddities with my late, lamented Toyota Matrix in its last years than with any of the cheap cars of my youth.
It didn’t like to shift into third until it warmed up.
The windshield washer system failed. I carried a bottle of Windex and just pulled over when I had to clear away stuff a passing car spit onto my windshield, such as after a rain or in the snow.
Eventually, the passenger side wiper arm quit wiping.
A small bin’s clasp grew weak. and every time I went over a bump the bin would fly open.
The hinge broke on the bin lid on the center console. Every time I opened it, the lid just came off.
Problems I put up with were everything because that was the best I could do, especially being perpetually financially strapped in high school and drove rusted-out junkers! I did manage to fix some stuff to keep my car drivable, plus many parts were free due to a problem for a few years in the late 1960s around St. Louis of an abundance of derelict cars.
When in the USAF, things changed because I had (some) money and fixed stuff and took better care of my car.
It wasn’t really a beater as it was only six years old when I got it but the 1963 Plymouth I drove in the late sixties/early seventies had some “quirks” that I would not put up with today but didn’t bother the 18 year old me. The automatic choke did not work at all; if the air temperature was 50 degrees or below it would not start, but would instead grind away until the battery went flat. Rather than fix the choke I learned that you could reach under the air cleaner and set the choke by hand, it was almost as if Chrysler anticipated this need and provided a handy work around. The choke would disengage on its own once the motor warmed up. The second winter I owned the car the heater fan died; it would still provide heat but there was no fan to move the heat about. At highway speeds it wasn’t too bad, there was enough air flow through the system to defog the windshield and warm the interior of the car. In town though it was just like driving a VW Beetle, you learned to carry a towel (for defogging) and to wear warm socks. Someone mentioned damp weather, for some reason Chrysler felt it necessary to put the distributor at the lower right front of the engine, were it was guaranteed to get soaked in a heavy dew. Even with all the niggling problems I enjoyed driving the Plymouth; it was seriously overpowered and was capable of lighting up the rear tires at the slightest provocation. It was really easy to wind the rear axle up against the leaf spring and get some serious wheel hopping started. One of life’s engaging mysteries is how I managed to avoid killing myself with that car.
Oh boy, I herded a lot of junk down the road in my youth: 73 Impala Caprice coupe that constantly overheated and had a completely worn out front end that wobbled fiercely between 35 & 50, 72 Maverick with a 3 speed floor shift that periodically unbolted itself from the transmission, 73 Chevelle with no trunk floor and would intermittently loose it’s electrical ground, 70 Triumph GT6 the PO had rewired himself – with a GM alternator and all red primary wire…all great fun in retrospect and I sure learned how to make simple, expedient repairs!
My first car was a 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado bought in 1979 Just after I turned 17. While I enjoyed the then novelty of FWD, the 455 engine sucked the gas, 10 mpg was generally the norm. The revolution in Iran in ‘79 made an excuse for big oi to double the price of gas, I believe it reached a high of $3.80 per gallon adjusted for inflation. Being a teenager earning minimum wage helped make me run out of gas – probably 10 times. I think this was the only car that I ever ran out of gas in.
My third car was a 1967 Pontiac LeMans, a real beauty purchased in 1981 before I turned 19. The LeMans had a 326 cid engine that got decent gas mileage. My first year with this car was trouble free except for the AC needing Freon to function. I can’t remember why, but the car developed a problem with the underside (I think due to my hitting something) causing excessive wear on one tire. I could not afford to fix this (in hindsight I should of got a loan) so I went through a lot of tires. Fortunately there was a place nearby that sold retread tires cheap. It got to the point I could change a tire like it was the Indianapolis 500.
I had a 78 Ford LTD landau sedan that I paid 600$ for. I drove it for 14 years. I put about 200 $ into it doing the brakes and changing the hoses and fluids, tune up and vacume lines. Got it running good and ran it into a Chevy Blazer which was destroyed. The spare on the Blazer wrecked the front. Car made it home. Replaced front with a 74 galaxie front end hood, header a fender and including radiator support from a 73 galaxie. Back in business. Painted it with Rust-Oleum blue. Car had plenty of power. Once I out ran a 77 transam. The car was always beat up looking. And was a work in progress that was never done. I remember back firing and blowing up a muffler at Reagan national airport parking garage. I remember the armrests disintegrated and the ceiling fell down. If you wanted heat you plugged in a vacume line under the glove box and no heat you plugged it off. Once it spilled over 100 $ worth of gas when the fuel tank spring a leak. It had to have a few minor things changed over the years but nothing major. I sold it to a friend for 325$ and she drove it 3 more years until she wrecked it.
One of the most “things I put up with” was with my first pickup truck, a 1980 F-150. It was a basic, strippo Ford truck. The 300-6 was mated to a 3-speed manual with a cheap floor mounted shifter, which replaced the factory floor shift 3-speed overdrive that had an internal shifter. I needed to replace the transmission, and friends said the factory overdrive tranny was problematic, so another 3-speed was sourced. But that shifter was…sloppy. So being cash poor after shelling out for the tranny and a new clutch assembly, my uncle gave me a pretty nice Hurst shifter. Never could get the rods to hook to the shifting ears on the tranny without rubbing, or something. So, the solution was, and I don’t really remember how we came to it, was this: reverse and 1st were as they should be; but the throw to 2nd was very short, to where 3rd should be; and 3rd was a long throw into 2nd’s supposed position. Drove it for 2 years like that.
VW Polo 1984
no power steering
no power anything
no A/C
40 hp
Loved it.
Would love to have an 84 Polo now. Certainly would get a lot of double takes
It was my dad’s car. It’s in running order but not presentable. 1993 Audi 80 TDi Avant.
-My brother got hit back in 2015, so the whole driver’s side is mangled.
-Worn steering wheel and driver’s seat
-Suspension is shot
-Falling headliner.
I’m now fixing it up, and already have most sheet metal at home.
Recently, this happened
Try this one….
1979 Datsun 310 (my second car). The starter went first (replaced like 4 times, but kept dying), but no matter, it was easy to push-start. Then the outside door handles broke (on both sides) and me being a broke college kid, had no funds to fix it. What to do? Yup, crawl in through the hatch. Once you wormed your way into the driver’s seat, you kinda had to use your shoulder to shove open the door. The modus operandi was always to find the biggest hill you could (to aid in push-starting)….
God, I miss that car.
’65 Malibu that I bought in ’71 for $550 – two big issues, rust (and more rust) and a four speed Muncie shifter that liked to engage both 2nd & 3rd gear at the same time.
In Phoenix Arizona, where summer high temps range from 105 to 120F, I spent several years driving cars with no AC and vinyl seats. Parking in the shade (when possible), open windows and cold drinks all help!
I endured a succession of hand-me-down beaters in my teens and college years. I’d get blamed when something broke (“it was running fine when I gave it to you”) and have to drive Mom’s Rabbit until mine either got fixed or replaced by another one. An example of a typical fix was that when the VW Ghia started running badly, it turned out to be a valve problem so all four barrels and both heads were replaced on a vw with 80 thousand miles. Of course when the bottom end lost oil pressure six months later, that was my fault also.
My Honda’s heater fan wouldn’t shut off or stop blowing on high, so in the spring, I’d route the heater hose back into the block and have Honda’s version of GM’s flow through ventilation. The window regulator was completely broken off the window, so I kept it propped up with bent coat hangers and used a board to keep the hatch from decapitating me when I opened it because the struts were bad. The stereo radio only had one speaker, the original Honda one in the dash.
The el Camino had a oil seal issue, so it lost a quart every 250 miles and the column shifter would get hung up when going from second to third. I’d have to get out and force them back into alignment with a screwdriver. The final straw on that one was when the tired block fell over on one side when a mount broke.
It would have been much, much cheaper to buy a new 1980 Datsun 210 by the time all the beaters (at least 5 come to mind) and associated repairs were added up from 1980 ’til I graduated and started working full time in 1989.
My first car had A/C for about 3 months, then it quit working. Also had a battery that wouldn’t start the mighty 305 when it was hot, and it leaked oil, burned it too. had rust holes in the trunk from rainwater collecting in there for 16 years, and you couldn;t put anything in there and expect it to stay dry or clean for long.
I drove that 76 Chevelle for 8 years in N. Texas without A/C and learned to put a quart of oil in it every gas stop, also learned how to fix cars with that one.
I owned two old Beetles in succession. Check all boxes cited above, plus I occasionally had to crawl under and use a pair of pliers to jump the starter solenoid. My then-fiancée not only did that once herself, but also gave me a pair of cylinder heads for my birthday. I married the right girl.
My first couple of cars had their quirks. Before it succumbed to rust my 78 Scirocco had a big toggle switch to turn on the discount store radio since I wasn’t skilled enough to find a switched circuit. The 81 Scirocco was a work in progress that the previous owner never fully finished, the aftermarket high beams were scorchingly bright but you could see the voltmeter drop when they were on and a long drive resulted in a melted headlight switch. Also the exhaust was too loud and bits and pieces occasionally needed re-engineering. After that the worst I put up with was a leak in my Jetta that flooded the rear footwells when it rained and Saturn reverse slam until our Saturn’s transaxle failed.
A friend in high school had a more dramatic headache, his VW Beetle had rusted out heater boxes and a leaky sunroof, so he go ice on the floors in the winter, still better than the guy with the Renault 15 that was incinerated by an electrical fire.
Late to the party here, and I think you’ll need a bigger blog if I recount everything… Just to throw one out, we got hit by a drunk driver in the ’71 Vega that would eventually be my first car – smashed the driver’s side door and rear quarter panel. Our car spun out, across two lanes of traffic, and ended up on its side in the ditch. Dad broke the driver’s side out (would not roll down with the crushed door) so we could climb out. Pushed the car over, bent the fender off the rear tire, and drove it home after the Police hauled the DD off.
This happened in the Spring, and that Autumn, Dad offered the car to the Auto Shop at the VocEd school he ran, and they did a nice job reskinning the rear quarter, replacing the door and repainting the car.
In-between – basically all summer – the car was my only source of transportation. Dad duck-taped some sheet plastic over the window, and as the door was jammed and would not open, I spent four months climbing in and out through the passenger side. Drive-throughs were right out.
I got in trouble when Dad noticed donut tracks in the back yard after school, too. With the car looking so rough, I must admit I treated it pretty poorly.
A few years later in college, I would get in another accident in the car that smashed the whole left side pretty good, and drove it with multi-colored panels for most of a year until I finally bondo’d the rear quarter and repainted the car yet again.
I had to laugh when I saw the “split” front bumper. That’s a good one. Hahahahaha.
My folks had a ‘72 Vega notchback, too, for about two years and 70k miles.. They claimed, at the time, it was one of the best cars they ever owned.
That kind of reminds me of my previous car…an ’86 VW GTi… I was in a fender bender at work in 1998 and they totaled it out, but I bought it back and fixed it up enough to drive for a couple of years until I bought my current (2000 VW Golf) car. Replaced one fender, hood, radiator core support, and bumper bar (reused my cover which was pre-monochromatic era so didn’t need paint) and drove the car a couple of years looking like the harlequin VW with mismatching paint.
My current car is 18 years old so it has its foibles….mostly the stupid power locks that keep failing….I’m too lazy to remove the window regulator to replace the locks, but hope I don’t get trapped outside sometime (2 of 4 doors don’t work now, though I still have the hatch in a pinch…though at 60 I’m no longer a scrambler and would have to fix at least one of the doors if it finally goes. The driver’s door needs to be “pushed” in slightly to unlatch it (seems to still be locked) but I don’t mind and it is something that might keep uninitiated from stealing it (not that they’d want to…but it is my only car). Lest one think that I’m just trying to milk as many miles as cheap as possible, I keep the other parts of the car up pretty good…it has complete new suspension (springs/struts/shocks, bearings)..and have replaced all coolant hoses (and coolant!)….it has had synthetic oil since the initial 500 mile change when new (my only car bought new). So though I don’t fix everything that goes wrong on the car, I do try to make sure the normal systems work OK. So far the only discretionary system on the car that is mandatory for me is Air conditioning, which it is for many people in the sunbelt (though it is also handy I’m sure for colder climates to defrost the windows). Oh, and “required” stuff like emissions control (had to replace the catalytic converter, but not yet the oxygen sensors). Guess you could say I have a “comfortable” car …works OK for me, but it has door dings and locking issues that keep it from being mistaken for a newer car..
Like most of us, I’ve had more of a beater car in college, but I lived up North then and had to have a pretty decent car just to withstand the vigors of winter (parked outside)….haven’t bought snow tires in years but needed those even on a student budget up North. My Father bought me a battery and a toolkit for one Christmas (battery is long gone, but I still have that toolkit!). He didn’t like to work on cars, but somewhere along the line I’ve hung around people to pick up enough of what I know about it.
Oh, I’d have to say the biggest thing I put up with when I was young I’d never put up with now is worn out, balding, weather-cracked, broken belted tires. So long as they were roundish I’d run them.
I shudder to think how lucky I was, really.
“Dude, your engine fell out.”
1982 Dodge Charger 2.2. My high school ride in 1986. It was laid up when I went off to college due to an unfortunate meeting with a tree stump just before the semester started. The following Summer after it had been cobbled back together I had some trouble shifting from first to second. Thought nothing of it until it wouldn’t engage any gear at all. When I called my High School friend Mikey to come flatbed it to the shop (this was a common occurrence, on a 4 year old car with less than 60k on it) he called me an hour later laughing like a fool to tell me all the motor mounts had finally given way and the engine literally fell out and was resting on the front-wheel-drive components and basically hanging by the shift linkage.
That car also had a passenger seat recline mechanism that would give way without warning, so anyone in that seat could find themselves in a prone position at any given moment. Eventually both exterior door handles gave up too, so I engaged a large key fob/bottle opener to wedge under the remaining stub that the driver side handle had once been welded to and pop the latch to gain access. No big deal, but interesting to explain to passersby.
Majorly slipping clutch, exhaust system that decided to bail and fell off in its entirety, gas tank that leaked out anything past 3/4 full, dieseling engine, no reverse, push start, no idle, drum brakes that woked mostly on 1 rear wheel, and would start rotate the car around when applied hard, brakes that needed 3 pumps before working, obsolete brake parts, no blinkers, hand throttle (broken obsolete accelerator cable with unique connection), sift style cooling system needing refilling before every trip, piston ring wear making compression so low it crated automatic 4 to 3-2 cylinder mode, no heat in 20 below, outer door panel that pulled out with the door handle, making a mound of rust debris under the car everytime shutting the door, bowling ball sized rust holes in all footwells, wheel bearings so worn only hard right turns would enable listening to the radio, winther tires so dry rotted each blowing out until only 1 left, and 3 summer tires in the snowy winther, and finally buying a cheap super low milage plumbers van with a cracked cylinder head, that when replaced, finally gave me 5 years of 100% trouble free motoring.
Best. Curbside. Article. Ever.
Let’s see….first car, 52 Ford flathead for $50. Month or two later, rod knock. Got really loud, so dropped the pan, bought inserts, buttoned it up and ran great for a month or two. Rod knock, loud. Gone.
Met a guy somewhere who was moving his entire family from NY to CA. If I drove him and his family to the airport, I could have his 54 Buick sedan. It had no trunk lid for some reason. Drove them all to the airport, went home with my “new” Buick and the next morning discovered the Dynaflow had no reverse. None. Went downhill from there. Gone.
Bought a 58 Cadillac. Burned oil. A lot. Recall buying “bottle oil” at the local gas station. It came in, yes, a quart bottle. They were lined up on the gas station floor. God only knows where it came from. Or out of. Neighbors started complaining. Gone.
Gas station 2 blocks from my house had a sharp looking black 55 Mercury convertible. Burned oil. Gas station guy said drive it home and bring me back the money. Pulled into the driveway not knowing my father happened to be looking out the window and noticed the cloud of oil smoke. Brought it back to the gas station. Gone.
Got a 63 Rambler Classic sedan. Nice car, ran very well. Except if it rained overnight. Even if it got damp, wouldn’t start. Cranked over, just wouldn’t start unless you jumped it. Plugs, points, cap, wires, rotor etc. Wouldn’t start if it rained. Guy at work offered to buy it, so a deal was made. Found out later he thought he had the answer…..new coil. First night it rained, next morning he was late for work. Gone.
Shortly after that, was invited to go to Vietnam for a few years, came home, got married, kids, got a good job and never had those kind of problems anymore. But oh, the memories!
Thanks!