Rusted line no-one’s business? SR5s? You’re thinking of 2nd gen trucks, and I’m not sure why calling out a particular trim of 4Runner is relevant. This is a 3rd gen. The bodies have fantastic galvanization actually, but the frames on salt-belt trucks 20 years on are definitely worse for the wear and many have started…

A small-brained take if I ever saw one. These things have awesome sounding small Mazda 2.5l V6s and the basic chassis is very good with some minimal suspension work.  I saw one dominate at a Chump Car race in Watkins Glen a few years back.  Relative to the bloated and ugly crap of today, a probe GT for chump change is…

The ‘11-’14 that you could get with the 283hp Pentastar are in my mind a throwback to the Dodge Dusters of the early 90s that you could get with a 3.0L Mitsubishi V6, surprisingly quick cars for the time. Sort of a cheap and cheerful crappy sedan with a mig motor under the hood. The ‘11 interior update made it at…

Yeah a Toyota Corolla platform badged as a Pontiac, I wouldn’t be too worried actually.

Oh and here’s a pic of the before/after. Guy did and awesome job, rust-proofed it and everything, all for $500!

Yeah how silly is that. For the size of wheels on that Vibe, a decent set of value brand (thing Good year Viva or Kumho Solus at Walmart) tires is what, $300 for a set installed? That’s just crazy, who has that kind of money?! better spend $25k!

That thing looks freaking mint! Love the color combo. “jellybean” F150s are growing on me more and more by the day. And I 100% agree. My “main” car throughout all of my flipping hobby has been a ‘96 4Runner Limited, a baby at 150k miles. I trust it more than our new 2016 Town and Country to be honest. Have driven it…

Thanks! Yeah the Pilot was definitely a risk, but aside from that one small subframe mounting point (moisture trap), the rest of the body was rock solid in terms of corrosion, and the car in general was in fantastic shape aside from that and the tired struts, oh and one lower balljoint (replaced the entire lower arm…

Like I outlined above with 4 different examples (and there’s actually another old Ranger and an Audi A4 I didn’t list), every single one of those cars started up every morning, got me to work and back, didn’t skip a beat. Did it for 3 years split across them. Like I said, older cars are more reliable/resilient than a…

Not perfect, but much more serviceable and reliable and available than you seem to believe.  People need to stop acting so helpless “boo hoo I’m clueless the only way out is a new car payment!”  Ask around at work or in your church or family, there’s always going to be someone that is selling or knows a relative…

Just high off all the money I’m saving and putting to work for me instead.

No.  But you sound mad.

You must live in a state with inspections. Literally 75% of cheap older used cars in Indiana have the CEL on. As long as the engine runs smooth, no one shopping this category of cars gives a hoot. And the blower motor still worked fine, it was just missing a few intermediate speed settings. It still had low and high,…

“Bunch of money” = 2, maybe 3 car payment’s worth to do some basic repairs to set the car up for 2-3 years of trouble free motoring? Sounds like a smart move to me. And like I said above, if I really just wanted to run them ragged to get to and from work, I could have not put anything into them and still gotten around…

“You don’t need to go into crazy debt to have a reliable car. This is a stupid, stupid argument in this day and age.”

This a million times. People run their older cars into the ground, neglect even the most basic maintenance and safety items and run up a list of deferred repairs and then say “man, I need a new car!”…

“making the end result equal in the long run”

Very rarely the case.  The depreciation of new cars is simply too much for even fairly serious repairs on an older used car to catch up to, unless it’s something German maybe.  I will say in the rust belt the math is a bit different.  Once the rot sets in, you can be…

Literally all of these could have been ignored and I’d still have been getting around just fine. I was driving the Maxima with a hole in the y-pipe and CEL on the whole time, just like the previous owner was, and just like my buyer probably kept doing.  A few flips later I found that our local mom and pop muffler…

Nextdoor has the fewest curbstoners and most well kept cars in my neck of the woods. CL “by owner” is absolutely inundated with auction flippers these days unfortunately.  Facebook marketplace lands somewhere in the middle, more and more curbstoners popping up on there as well I’ve noticed.

How are they shitty? They got me to work every single day comfortably, never a single “oh shit” moment where they didn’t crank or made a weird noise, etc. If only the average American could be so frugal.

People climbing into ruinous debt for something that has the basic utility of A-B transportation that can be comfortably and relaibly handled by a “gussied up Camry” are stupid.