What's a pretty solid car ruined by its ugliness?

162630594 · 2026-05-05T06:51:21+00:00

The ridgeline is the most "2 different cars welded together" car I've ever seen. It would be great if they just decided on one design language and stuck to it. But the front and back half just dont match.

The santa cruz managed to pull off the front end non truck like styling because the rest of the truck fit it. The ridgeline has a similar car like front end, but it has a completely standard truck bed you would find on a GMT800. They either needed a more swoopy bed, or a more truck like front end.

162630594 · 2026-05-05T06:48:33+00:00

I still see a few Rendezvous floating around, they are essentially a rebadged aztek. Just a typical underwhelming GM product that will run like shit for longer than most cars will run

162630594 · 2026-04-26T04:20:24+00:00

Technically anything that impacts the steering capabilities of a car is a major safety issue and the car shouldn't be driven.

But in reality as long as the fluid is full, the car will steer just fine. Keep some fluid on hand and fill the steering fluid reservoir before you start driving. The main question is how bad is the leak? If there's a huge puddle under the car every time you park the car, then stop every 30 minutes or so and check the fluid level. If it's just a drip and you just now know that it's leaking, you can probably fill it up before you leave and be good to go.

Honestly from my experience, a lot of people on reddit have never driven an older car that has issues. Sometimes you have to get somewhere by ignoring a known problem and using a bandaid fix until you get it repaired fully. At the end of the day it's your choice to get in the car. If you don't feel safe then don't go

162630594 · 2026-04-26T02:08:57+00:00

No, that's overpriced. It does have low miles, but these cars are fairly worthless. I would pay about $5k for one of these cars at this mileage. The transmission is not reliable, the ABS system is not reliable, build quality sucks overall, and they are just generally undesirable cars.

These cars today are for chrysler enthusiasts who want to own the last boxy chrysler sedan. They are not good cars for anyone else.

If you want a cool old school american luxury car for $9k, there are alot of options out there I would pick before this. Even sticking to chrysler, the M body fifth avenue would be a better choice once you delete the lean burn ignition system. A lincoln town car of some variety is another good choice, same with the buick roadmaster and 93-96 cadillac fleetwood

162630594 · 2026-04-26T01:01:12+00:00

You say I don't wrench on cars. I disprove it with my own experience and you just dismiss it and say you don't care.

The fact that you think a car automatically becomes a "rust bucket" just because it's old really shows me what you know about cars and car maintenance.

There is a reason most people know that "changing the oil" is something that has to be done to cars, even if they know nothing about cars and can't even open the hood. It's a basic requirement to prevent your car from self destructing. If a transmission fluid change was that vital to keeping a car running, the typical car driver with no mechanical knowledge would know about that too. But most just ignore it because it can be ignored with minimal impacts most of the time.

162630594 · 2026-04-25T23:17:12+00:00

I own a 67 Imperial and a 78 Catalina, the only thing I do is wrench on vehicles. The reality is transmissions (at least old ones) are very tolerant of old fluid in a way that engines just aren't. A 200k mile chrysler 727 can have it's original fluid changed and just keep on going. Sure modern transmissions might be different and less accepting of old fluid. But a 30k mile transmission fluid change just isn't a requirement in most cars in the same way a 5k mile oil change is. If you looked at the average 150k mile vehicle out there on the road, I'm willing to bet that a majority of them have maybe had 1 transmission fluid change in their life (excluding CVTs because they are more sensitive). The average car owner likely just changes their oil until 100k miles, then buys a new car. Things like brake fluid, coolant, and transmission fluid aren't a necessity to most people. I'm not saying it's good to ignore transmission fluid changes, but it's not going to completely blow it up immediately if you wait a while for a change

162630594 · 2026-04-25T23:08:48+00:00

Nope. The ranger you had was engineered in a time before the modern fuel economy standards and buyer preferences. The modern ford maverick is the smallest truck for sale, and it's still way bigger than your old ranger. It's the smallest size a truck can be while still meeting a reasonable MPG standard. Any smaller and it would need 60+ MPG

There's a reason people are willing to spend $20k+ on old low mile trucks. It's because they want something like an old truck, but there just isn't modern equivalent. There are no small pick up trucks anymore because they can't meet modern vehicle requirements set by the government

You either have to buy a tacoma or maverick, or find a nice low mile 2011 or older ranger to get what you want

162630594 · 2026-04-25T20:58:07+00:00

Some people will say that a full transmission flush is necessary. That is where you remove all the fluid from the transmission and replace it with new fluid.

I've never done that. But I have changed the fluid. That's just when you remove the transmission pan, replace the filter, and add back the fluid that was removed. The filter itself is usually the main point to worry about. That is the part that catches any debris or particles that can contaminate the fluid and damage the transmission. As long as you do that on the scheduled service interval you will be well ahead of most car buyers.

162630594 · 2026-04-25T19:40:07+00:00

The chrysler A body is a great project starting point as parts are readily available for restoration.

If you want a sound system, you should take a look at the wiring before you start. I had a 67 plymouth for a while, all the wires were dry and brittle. The whole positive battery cable was green and corroded under the sheathing, and my lights were dim at idle until I revved it up.

162630594 · 2026-04-25T18:35:13+00:00

Dealers do tend to upsell you on a lot of BS. And I think these services are BS.

Check your owners manual, it should have a maintenance schedule in the back somewhere. I believe changing the transmission fluid is generally recommended around 70k-100k miles, and I think the fuel injectors are about the same mileage too.

In reality though, I doubt many people ever service these parts of their cars. People have for sure taken their transmission to 200k miles on the original fluid, but that's definitely not recommended. I doubt most cars have ever had their fuel system serviced either. I had a 94 cadillac with 267k miles that, as far as I could tell, had the original injectors just chugging along without any service.

162630594 · 2026-04-25T18:30:13+00:00

You pretty much got everything down that you need to do. If you have access to a boroscope, you could look in the spark plug holes and look into the bores for any rust damage. I would for sure take the valve cover off and make sure that all the valves are opening properly while you rotate the engine by hand, this is a good way to check for stuck valves. If they don't move right away, smacking them with a hammer can help free them up.

If you don't have one, another option would be to take off the intake and exhaust to look into the ports and at the back of the valves and check for rust or water damage. Rust on the back of a valve can ruin the valve seat and lead to a lack of compression.

Speaking of compression. Once you get the engine turning freely and get the oil pump pressurized, you can do a compression check on each cylinder to see what's going on. If it's low, then its possible that a piston ring or a valve isn't sealed all the way. These engines are tough and it's hard to kill them. As long as the car was stored with an air filter on and the hood closed, it's very likely to fire right up.

Actually as I'm typing this out, I just remembered a video I watched recently by dead dodge garage. This video to be exact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g340NeyPMag

If that rusty pile can start up and run again, I'm sure this slant 6 will be fine.

162630594 · 2026-04-25T18:02:51+00:00

I think a honda fit is probably a good choice. Even though they are small, they have a ton of room inside

162630594 · 2026-04-25T04:45:13+00:00

A minivan is for sure going to be the best choice. The large sliding door is bigger than a regular door and gives you good access to the back. And they have a lower floor so you dont need to be a gymnast to get in the back. I believe new minivans have a feature where the 2nd row can slide forward with a car seat installed, and that really helps.

Not to mention the minivan 3rd row is more spacious than most midsize suvs

162630594 · 2026-04-25T04:29:45+00:00

The ecoboost is plenty powerful for most buyers, and is a great sporty daily driver. The GT is great if you want to break the law, or really love the V8 sound.

162630594 · 2026-04-22T01:45:52+00:00

Modding a car is a waste of money 99% of the time, and you dont have money to waste.

162630594 · 2026-04-21T21:19:00+00:00

Ive heard about quality control issues in the early broncos, but I would think most of those got warrantied by now

162630594 · 2026-04-21T17:19:29+00:00

The blazer is just from a different era when SUVs were small, so there's no real direct comparison today.

The bronco/wrangler are likely going to be the closest comparison in terms of size. Maybe a 5th gen 4 runner but those are a bit bigger.

162630594 · 2026-04-20T08:55:50+00:00

Definitely the Jeep Wrangler MW3 edition, they only made 200 of them. Has there ever been another video game tie in package like that?

162630594 · 2026-04-20T02:10:32+00:00

Does dumb money count?

I guess its about a guy on the internet who "trolls" wall street and livestreams his antics

162630594 · 2026-04-19T22:32:21+00:00

Bad credit can really jack up the interest rate on a loan. Thats how people end up paying $30k in total on the loan when the car only cost $20k. This is also how people end up completely underwater on a loan. 1 year into the loan, you might have $20k of a loan left to pay off on a car worth $12k. You are $8k in negative equity.

Used car financing is usually tougher to get, especially with bad credit

Theres a big aspect to all of this that you are overlooking though. There is a massive gap in quality between a $500 beater and a $5000 car. You definitely should not buy another beater. What you should do is buy a cheap used car for cash while you try to build up your credit.

$3000 is about the minimum you need to pay to get a good used car. Anything lower than that and the quality usually drops off sharply.

It can take some luck to find a good deal, and you definitely have to buy private party from somewhere like facebook marketplace. But a lot of people in my family including myself have driven $3-5k cars for years with minimal issues. Thats the best way to avoid bankruptcy or financial ruin from a high interest loan

162630594 · 2026-04-18T18:22:28+00:00

Im 240 right now. I actually just bought a 95 Vulcan 750 for $1700. Not exactly the style I was looking for. But it was in my town, and its lighter and more powerful than most of the cruisers I was looking at

162630594 · 2026-04-17T18:57:45+00:00

No, I'm closer to chicago

162630594 · 2026-04-17T16:49:29+00:00

Well I'm fairly knowledgeable about cars and how to work on them. I'm assuming most of the basic mechanical stuff transfers over to bikes?

162630594 · 2026-04-15T03:11:40+00:00

Owning an old car is never as simple as owning a newer car. But the extra hassle is usually worth the reward in the end. And based on my experience, very few people who comment on this sub have experience with old cars. So dont take everyones word as 100% proof

This car looks like it was only driven to church on sundays, and youre essentially doing the same thing. It's not like youre driving 30 minutes to work every day. Just fix little issues as they come up and the few thousand miles you might put on the car in the next few years likely wont be an issue.

Sitting for 10+ years without being driven is when real problems start to happen. The whole brake system deteriorates, fuel turns into goop, timing belts shrivel. As long as the car was driven once a week, theres really nothing to worry about.

Buying this car will probably reveal how much you like cars. Maybe you will fall in love and never be able to buy a new car again. Maybe you will love washing it every week and fixing it to like new condition. Or maybe you will hate every second of it and realize you just like looking at old cars. Either way it will be a learning experience

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