Note: None of the images in this post are of the actual car
When I arrived in the parking lot at work one morning, I met a co-worker who was getting out of his car. It was a 1982 Ford Escort and it had “For Sale” signs in the windows. The sign said “$300” so I asked him if he’d take $100 for it. He replied “No, I want the $300.” OK, so no sale and we both entered the building.
The car was a 2 door stripper model, with only power brakes and an AM/FM radio. Nothing else. 4 speed manual transmission and 1.6L engine. It was a two tone car, which seems to be a recurring theme for me in my COAL collection. It was dark gray metallic on the horizontal surfaces and light gray metallic on the vertical surfaces. Both front fenders had severe rust through over the wheels and the right door was dented with a piece of hard plastic taped over the window opening. The door opened, but didn’t look very good. The seats looked like the one in the picture above, but only the passenger seat was in good condition. The driver’s seat had a cheap indian blanket style seat cover to hide the fact that the stuffing was coming out of the upholstery. The question is: Why did I offer $100 for this car? I didn’t really want or need it, but there was always the possibility to flip it cheaply and make a few bucks.
Why indeed. The Escort was a big seller when it was new and there were still many on the road. About a week later, my co-worker approached me and asked “Will you still give me $100 for the car?” Sure, I replied. OK he said. I’ll deliver it to your house on Saturday morning. Wow! Not only did I get the car for my price, but it came with free delivery. Later, I found out that his family was having a high school graduation party that weekend and his wife demanded that he get rid of the car. Can’t say I blamed her, as it was not the most attractive car around. On Saturday morning, it was mine.
Naturally, a $100 car doesn’t come without issues. Once I figured out what all of them were, I proceeded to fix most of them. The fender rust was not a priority, but fixing the passenger door was. I removed the plastic panel that represented the window and took the door apart to see what the story was. Interestingly enough, the glass was still intact in the door. I removed it and using a bumper jack and a length of pipe, managed to pop the dent out of the door. Put the glass back in and everything was good. It certainly looked better than the plastic panel with duct tape.
Next on my list was the engine. Upon cold start, a blue cloud appeared at the rear of the car. Investigation revealed that the valve stem seals were shot. I removed each plug one at a time, attached a hose connected to my air compressor, and removed the spring to change the seal. Now the car didn’t smoke on cold starts. I had a set of used spark plugs left over from a flipper Ford Tempo and they looked better than the ones in the Escort, so I installed them. Engine ran fine so these efforts could be called success. Remember this later in the post, as these spark plugs would haunt me as I tried to sell the car.
Since the passenger seat was intact, I decided to switch it with the driver’s seat. It looked and felt much better. Now onto the next issues. When you drove the car, there was a low pitched rumble coming from the rear wheels.
Both rear wheel bearings were the source of the noise. I removed the drums to change them, but couldn’t get the old inner bearings off of the spindle. I had to take some crankshaft grinding tape that I had and polish the spindle until I could get the bearing off. After about an hour per wheel, I was successful. No more noise. At least from the rear of the car.
Once I got the car roadworthy to my car flipping standard (ie. no noises, no suspension issues, no major physical damage, everything functional within reason) I was ready to go to market. Before I started the marketing campaign, my wife’s car was damaged in an accident. In typical married life fashion, she commandeered my car for her use until her car was replaced. Since I had the Escort roadworthy, it was now my daily driver! I drove it for six months until her new car was received and it almost never let me down. Not bad for a $100 car. I never bothered to close the windows and lock the doors at work. Total freedom. During the time that I drove the car, my wife refused to ride in the car. Her father had insisted that she learn how to drive a stick shift and she still resented that. She also turned her nose at the looks of the car, figuring that I could do better than this piece of junk. Several co-workers told me the same thing. Wow, I had a true status symbol. Plus, it beat walking.
One thing that was interesting was the Motorcraft battery. On a $100 car, you don’t expect infinite battery life and the Escort didn’t let me down. As I attempted to leave work one afternoon, the car wouldn’t turn over. No lights either, so I knew it was time for a battery. I push started the car to get home and then went out to look for a cheap battery. Not so fast. What I didn’t know at the time was that the Motorcraft battery was the opposite of other OEM batteries. The location of the negative and positive terminals were reversed. You could turn the non-Motorcraft battery 180 degrees, but of course the battery cable for the ground would be too short. It also required that the battery cables be routed over the vent caps. Also, the Motorcraft battery had a lower profile to fit in the space. Other batteries were too tall to fit with the hood closed. So, I went to the auto parts store with a tape measure. I found the right size of battery to fit with the correct cranking amps. Then I reached into my stash of spare parts and found a longer battery ground cable. Problem solved at half the price of the Motorcraft battery. The FoMoCo boys must have thought this through to increase spare parts income.
Now, you may be wondering why there is a picture of a Plymouth Horizon TC3 in this post. It is related to way I sold this car and is probably the best part of this story. On the flipper side of my life, I acquired the Horizon for $100. Ran good, but the clutch slipped badly. So, I replaced the clutch and posted it on the local car trader newspaper for $500. Sold it to a young man who was planning to use it for a 200 mile per day commute. One drawback to the purchase was that he’d never driven a stick. He brought a friend along who did know how to drive it and they completed the purchase.
Simultaneously, my wife’s new car was in and the Escort needed to go. I used the car to park at the airport whenever I went on a business trip. I priced it at $500 to cover my repair costs and acquisition cost. Since the ad for the Horizon was still running and paid for, why not offer the callers my beloved Escort. Most callers didn’t care if I was selling a Plymouth or a Ford, the price was their prime interest. Upon arriving home late one Friday night from a business trip, my wife told me that she had good news and bad news for me. The good news? She sold my car! How did you managed to do that when the car was at the airport? The teenage girl who bought it was tired of looking and decided to take the next one that sounded good. In the $500 range, there aren’t many choices. The bad news? The purchaser was coming the next day to pick it up.
On Saturday morning, I went to get the last emissions test that this car would ever need. It was old enough to be time limited. Of course, Murphy being who he is, the car failed. Why was the question and what would it take to pass it? Early in ownership, I had an extra set of Motorcraft spark plugs left over from a flipper Ford Tempo. They looked OK so I figured what not install them in the Escort. The car ran fine, but obviously the plugs were the incorrect heat range. How did I get it to pass? I retarded the timing to the point that the car was almost undriveable and took it for a retest. It passed! In the service station parking lot, I then put the timing back to the correct position. The sale would go on!!
The buyer arrived later that afternoon with her father and her friend, who knew how to drive a stick. Didn’t the buyer know how to drive a stick? Of course not. When they arrived at my house, her father and her friend stopped to look the car over. The buyer ran up to my front door and told me not to tell her father that she had never seen the car until today! Her father looked the car over and proclaimed it good. I trusted the Escort and wished her well. Cash transferred and off they went.
The $100 beater is long a thing of the past, due to high Chinese scrap metal prices. The Escort filled my need for immediate transportation at a cheap cost. The ability to leave windows open and the car unlocked during the day was a plus. I never had to worry about someone scratching the paint or parking too close. Beaters have a lot of downside, but the joy of not having to worry about the car was wonderful.
LOL, just did a similar flip, but I paid $200 for a 97 Nissan Sentra 341,000 kms racked up it ran fine a wash and vacuum later it looked ok too a splash of armouall on the plastic then a WOF inspection it flew through 12 months rego it owed me $370, Got $900 from the first guy who drove it, and I kept the battery I swapped it with the one from my Hillman so it now has 550 CCA to spin its low compression four into life and the Nissan left with the cheap repco brand battery, I had a similar problem hooking the earth cable as you but a spare cable sorted that, I had the Sentra three weeks I was too busy working to get the inspection done earlier but I had to sell it having driven it a bit it was such a good car I was scared I’d end up keeping it.
That headline made me laugh! I helped my nice looking for a car back in ’88 or’89. We ended up buying an Escort of that generation after turning down a Tempo, a Datsun and another Japanese car. The Escort did its job quite well.
By the way, I had no idea you could polish bearing races.
Swapping front seat location is no longer an option with seat mounted belt buckles and side impact air bags.
I had to polish the spindle to get the race off. Sorry if I wasn’t quite clear.
You were clear. My caffeine hadn’t kicked in yet…
Your Escort was a “twin” to one my sister owned.
Not having a lot of disposable income, she bought her Escort as a late in the model year/almost new car leftover. She had had 2 or 3 cars her BIL had found at car auctions and was so glad to have a new car after 15 years of driving beaters. It would be traded after 10 years of generally trouble-free driving for a new 1999 Mustang. And yes, my sister’s Escort also had a manual transmission.
As an aside, just yesterday I found a 4 door Escort on Craigslist, about an 84, with a claimed 88,000 miles on it for $4,000. Manual transmission and A/C, if I remember correctly. Good thing I am currently out of town as it sure looked tempting.
Bought a car from a friend for a fair price. $500 for an accord with a badly stained interior and body damage and 250k and it was running rough. Installed a new cap and rotor and wires and drove it for two years. Sold it for $800 and felt guilty that I’d bought it for less than it was worth so I split the $300 profit with her.
The joy of the beater is something not to be overlooked. I experienced a vicarious thrill at your finding an intact window down in that door. I love little surprises like that.
Yeah, finding the window still in the door was pretty cool.
What wasn’t cool was the way Ford jerked around the battery so you had to buy the more expensive, OEM Motorcraft battery. It’s a real pisser when auto manufacturers do that kind of shit, i.e., making a model-specific, routine-maintenance, brand-name part which costs significantly more than a much lower cost, run-of-the-mill replacement aftermarket part.
My mom had an ‘84 Escort, much like you described save for it wasn’t as much of a beater. She got it in 1988 or 89. It was a stripper base car, 2 door, 4-speed, silver with red interior. An aftermarket cassette deck replaced the stock radio.
My grandfather had bought two Escorts to flip, the other was a better equipped wagon. Because of a bad deal where he sold her ‘77 Celica without her knowledge (long story) he let her have one of the Escorts. She close the stripper 2 door. Why? Because it was a 4-speed manual and the wagon was an automatic. To quote from my mother “Small cars are just supposed to be stick shifts. An automatic in a little car just seems wrong.” She had the car until the mid 90’s. I remember her letting me shift the gears for her when I was a kid.
Just an aside, my mother hasn’t changed much. She’s in her mid-50s and what does she drive now? A 2014 Ford Focus ST. I asked her why an ST, she said “Well the regular one had way less power and the ST I’m guaranteed a manual transmission because it only comes in a 6-speed.”
Your mother is awesome. My mother and sister still prefer to drive a stick shift (although my mum finally has an automatic) but I couldn’t see either of them in a Focus ST. Nice choice!
Also, every time I read a story where a father/husband/partner has sold his spouse or daughter’s car without their permission or knowledge, I quake with rage. I’ve read so many of those stories on here and I always feel sorry for the poor woman in them.
She was a young unmarried mother (of me) so he felt it was justified because they were helping her out money wise so she could stay home and take care of me (at their insistance though) Still, I think it was a little screwed up, seeing as she’d bought the car herself.
I loved when I was in high school and one of my girlfriends said “girls don’t drive stick shifts, that’s a guy thing” and I fired back with “Well, my mom taught me how to drive one, in HER CAR.”
My mom calls the ST her “mid life crisis car” haha
A friend used to say ‘there’s nothin’ sweeter than a beater’. I have to say I agree. Your Escort definitely fit the bill. Much like my p71 Vic does for me today. I too get questions from my co workers who wonder why I would drive it instead of my new Stang. I just smile and revel in the joy of the beater 🙂
One of my buddies had a sister who bought a brand spankin’ new ’82 Escort. Red interior, white exterior, 2 door, total bottom of the line except for AC and an auto trans.
She got the AC “for resale value” we were informed and she wasn’t kidding. Under no circumstances would she turn it on! 107 degree day in Bakersfield? No, I’m not turning on the AC, it ruins the gas mileage and wears it out.
And no, you’re not rolling down your window, that also ruins my gas mileage!
We’ll be there soon, quit complaining.
She kept that car, mostly trouble free, for most of the decade. I doubt the AC was ever turned on during her reign.
I had an ’82 Escort that I bought new when I got my first “real” job. It had A/C and 4-speed. Whenever the compressor cycled on I had to floor it in order to maintain my speed! Your friend’s sister was right, the A/C made a big impact on gas mileage, but its the price you pay for staying cool.
It seems that buying AC for the resale value might work if you plan on keeping a car only a couple of years, but if you’re going to keep it most of a decade it is pretty unlikely you’re going to get your money back even if it still works perfectly at the end. An odd strategy if you ask me.
I can top that. I know somebody who would specifically option cars with AC delete… in Australia… years after AC became common fitment… and even when told that’s a surefire way to lose resale value and why not just have the AC and keep it off….
Heath, I find people like that maddening. Being thrifty and frugal is fine, but suffering for some perceived benefit years down the line can become absurd. I know it’s probably a generational thing but my great grandmother could squeeze a penny and never, ever, ever enjoyed her savings. Well, when she finally passed in her 90s, her daughter inherited quite a bit of money and promptly started spending it. Why not? What good is money if you’re not ever going to use it? You can’t take it with you!
The original US Escort might have been the “right” car for the time but it suffered in looks by the overuse of glitz compared to the Euro models. That B-pillar trim is particularly annoying.
The US Escort 2-doors got slimmed-down B pillars without the silver trim piece circa 1986 making them look more like the European models. A very subtle change I doubt I would have noticed if not pointed out in one of the car buff mags at the time.
Right. The 1985.5 Escort/Lynx got a mid-year facelift and general cleaning up, including new flush headlights.
If your car is old and beat up you can leave the windows open and doors unlocked,Lucky you.Down here regardless of how old and crappy your car is you need to put clubs and lock the doors because it’s going to be stolen other wise.
When I had my tatty ’65 Mustang convertible in the 1970s, I left the doors unlocked. I’d rather have people crawling around in the car looking for (nonexistent) stuff to steal than having my convertible top sliced open for access.
One of the flipper cars I owned was a Dodge Omni. Sold it to a guy who said he worked for GM. So I asked why he wanted a Chrysler to drive to work. He said that if you drove a Chrysler product, you could pin $100 bills to the sun visor and no one would steal it.
While I did enjoy my time with a beater, I still never left it parked with the windows down. There’s a beater Mitsubishi Magna on my street that sits there every day with its windows down and all I can think is ewwww, what happens if it rains and it gets in the cabin and it gets all musty inside?
Driving and flipping old beaters can save you a lot of money. You can even make a buck or two. Although it’s good idea to keep an extra car around so you can be assured of getting to work. Since depreciation is one of the biggest losses during the early ownership of a new car, you can eliminate that completely by driving a totally depreciated car. Status symbols never had much appeal to me when I was younger, now they have even less. Many times the owner of an older, well kept car would rather spend their money on actual investments. Most cars are not an investment.
I think the beater scheme is directly correlated to how much mechanical skill and spare time one has. Reliability is not a beater strong suit and the process of keeping a beater running can be time consuming.
With that said, keeping a beater going can be a rewarding and cost-effective experience. While it’s kind of a shame Chinese scrap metal prices have wiped-out a significant number of them, OTOH, beaters aren’t exactly beautiful and at least the streets are better looking without them. It also goes a long way to explaining what happened to all the auto wrecking yards.
Discovered I don’t have the temperament to have a beater.
Picked up an 06 Focus a couple years ago. Bottom “S” trim, 5 speed, crank windows, mechanical joystick side mirrors. Perfect beater as, by modern standards, there was little to break. The old thing went really well and I started playing Nikki Lauda again as I wound it through the gears. The handling felt sort of mushy, but I discovered the Chinese “Headway” tires only had about 26lbs in them. Pumping them up to proper pressure did wonders for the handling. It had plenty of scars on it, but I discovered the left over “merlot” touch up paint from my Taurus X was a close enough match to the Focus’ “toreador red”. Driving down a street with a ripple in the asphalt produced an irritating rapid squeaksqueaksqueak. The net is a wonderful thing. Found the squeak was the e-brake cable conduit rubbing against the metal ring that holds it against the bottom of the car. A strip of plastic from my what-not box, inserted between the conduit and ring, secured with two zip ties, cured the squeak.
Then the worst possible thing happened, I started to really like it. Noticed the lights on the license plate were out, so a quick trip to the store for new bulbs. Then the corroded base of the radio antenna surrendered to the snow load and broke. A few mouse clicks on eBay and Chinese knockoff whip and base were in hand for installation. One of the Chinese aftermarket wheel covers did a Frisbee imitation when I hit a pothole and broke. More mouse clicks on eBay for a replacement wheel cover. Vibration has always been exceptional, cured with a new engine mount. I started shopping for new front struts, muffler, flexpipe and even considered having the a/c recharged.
Caught myself in the nick of time. Can’t stand having a car that can be improved, because I want to start throwing money at improvements. Parted with the Focus last fall.
Looks in really good shape for a beater. No obvious signs of rust, no visible paint peeling/fading. Headlights not yellowing and all major parts seem to be present and properly attached. Considering its age, a new muffler, AC recharge and some struts is not that big of a deal. Quick struts can be installed with basic hand tools. If the muffler is not welded on, it too can be easily replaced. It would be better if the AC was recharged professionally, but if on an extreme budget it can be recharged with auto part store ac coolant cans. Just try to avoid the ones with sealer in it.
I fell into that same trap with my 99 T&C. Though it had around 180k on the clock, there was no rust, shiny paint, drove right, so $1800 seemed perfect. But because it looked so good and drove so good I started treating it like a real car instead of like the beater I had intended to buy. The problem was that little by little I got way too much money into it.
I think the secret to successful beaters is that they have to look like beaters, at least for me.
I think the secret to successful beaters is that they have to look like beaters, at least for me.
Yup. Even though the Focus was a “20 foot car” ie looked nice enough when too far away to see all the dents and scratches, I still saw the basic goodness in it. To neglect a car the way a beater expects to be neglected, I have to dislike the car. Thing is, if I disliked a car, I wouldn’t have it in the first place. That Focus went like the hammers, couldn’t help but like it.
What saved me from myself was an unhealthy whine from the trans when cold, ie below 60, which turned into a mildly alarming squeal below 32, accompanied by increasing reluctance to engage a gear. Changing the trans oil had no effect. When thoroughly warmed up, or in warm weather, it was quiet and shifted slicker than snot on a doorknob.
Really pleased with myself over the fix for the e-brake cable conduit squeak. Fix was effective, with zero cost, as all the materials were already in my what-not box.
These early sealed beam escorts seem to be almost extinct these days, a bit surprising considering how many they sold.
Surprising how many of young drivers don’t know how to work a stick shift.
My older brother thought me on a floor mounted 3 speed on a Mercury Cougar and my older sister taught me the 4 speed on a Karmann Ghia. I taught my younger sister on a 4 speed manual Corolla.
I’m currently looking for a used Fiat 500 Pop with a 5 speed manual as a second car, yet there are none with a stick where I live. Looks like I will have to make a trek to Florida or California to find one.
Also, none of my nieces or nephews know to work a clutch and don’t seem the least interested.
So much for the art of the stick shift????????
I’m a middle-aged driver now (at 45), but when I was a 16-year-old aspiring driver in August 1989 my folks bought a car for me from model year 1964. A cheap car. However, it had an automatic transmission because my mother wisely figured I wouldn’t want to be bothered with shifting gears manually. She was right. I just wanted to put the car in ‘D’ and go. Fast forward to late 1996 when I had a girlfriend with who had a 1994 Ford Ranger that she’d bought new. It had a manual transmission and she tried to persuade me to learn to drive it. I said I thought there was something wrong with this picture; she had the 2-year-old truck and I had the cheap 32-year-old Ford . . . and I had the automatic tranny in my car. She said she thought driving a car (or truck, in her case) with a manual tranny was — and I quote — “the purest form of driving”. Whatever that means. I told her my mission in life when driving was to put my cheap sedan in ‘D’ and not think about shifting anything. Then one day she wanted to drive Cheapo Falcon with its two forward speeds . . . even though it wasn’t a pure form of driving.
I’ve just never been able to muster any interest in learning the art of the stick shift. I’ll concede to being a lazy driver. I just don’t wanna be arsed with it.
I’m frankly a little surprised, Carter, considering how often you talk about loving your cars on the basic, spartan side. An automatic transmission is practically a luxury!
I’ve done my time with manuals and while I love them, I’d only ever get a manual as a weekend car nowadays. But I feel like everybody should drive one once.
I reckon that’s my one concession to spartan cars, William. I cannot tell a lie. That’s why I find my humble old Ford to be as perfect a car as I’m ever likely to own and why I’ve kept it all these years. There is the 2-speed on the column and little else. Got a comfy bench seat, though. 😀
I agree it’s remarkable that a skill once so utterly universally relevant is now all but obsolete. Is it really surprising, though? I think it is not. The overwhelming majority of cars in North America have automatic transmission, and it’s been that way for multiple generations of new drivers. Heck, I wound up teaching my dad how to drive stick when I was 19. It was not taught in AAA driving school; I only knew because I was such a car geek that I’d had years of theoretical, imaginary practice with the concepts, then my neighor let me use his Audi 4000 to first apply those concepts. Mom and dad were going to France, and they were going to rent a car, and automatic transmission couldn’t be guaranteed, so he wanted to know how—he’d learnt to drive on his dad’s pushbutton ’56 Plymouth, and his every car since then had been automatic. He got to a point of functionally adequate competence with a manual transmission, but was never comfortable with it. Mom had learnt on her father’s ’50 Ford, and then there’d been a VW Beetle, but everything after that for her had an automatic.
I think manual shifting has been a specialty/niche skill for quite awhile here. It is very difficult to imagine a realistic situation wherein an inability to drive stick would practically limit one’s options or put one in a predicament, because we’re just so unlikely to encounter a stick-shift vehicle at all in North America, let alone as the only vehicle available.
I’ve not owned an automatic car since 1981 (when I sold my 1974 Datsun 710 I had in college). Probably like most people of my age I learned how to shift manual from my Father, who started buying automatic cars due to my Mother, who started driving her Dad’s 1951 Chrysler Windsor semi-automatic, but never really got comfortable with it. My twin sister does know how to drive manual, but my other 2 (younger) sisters never did. Back 30 years ago I did the good older brother bit and took my sisters looking for cheap used cars to take to school, but back then most small (economy) cars still had manual transmissions, which they never took to. I even tried to give my 1978 Scirocco to my youngest sister, but she turned it down because it was manual (also had no AC, compounding the problem).
As far as the Escort (and the Audi you mention)…one of my good friends had to get rid of his 1974 Audi Fox due to rust (the driver’s seat fell through the floor) but needed a cheap (new) car in 1981 when interest rates were still through the roof…hence the new car (interest rates were even higher for used cars)…and he bought a 1981 Ford Escort just when they first came out …brand new, but a stripper…not as nice as the Audi, but it was new and rust free.
Fast forward 6 years and my middle sister is looking for her first car…and it has to be automatic..as she doesn’t drive stick (still doesn’t)…I went shopping with her and we found her a silver 1984 Escort hatch, with automatic. She kept it for several years, put lots of miles on it since she had a pretty long commute out of our city to a job she had in the middle of a park (working on Cancer research). The car was carburated, but had fuel pump problems…a mechanic added a 2nd fuel pump to help out, but it was still in and out of shops…she borrowed my Dad’s 2 year old Dodge 600 and totaled it in an accident…not only is her car down, but my Dad has to go car shopping to replace the 600. He ended up buying the first of 3 Mercury Sables he owned in a row.
I was a big stick shift fan. I learned a bit later in my driving career. Having driven 2 automatic cars first, I learned how to drive stick on my 1990 Escort I bought for $1000 in 1999.
Since then I have always owned at least 2 cars at the same time. My last new/modern car with a stick was my 2012 Fiesta. My last beater/part time/spare car with a stick was my 1994 Probe. The Fiesta was replaced with a couple of cars until I got my 2011 Chevy Colorado with an automatic trans. My beater car was replaced by a 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport van with an automatic trans. I will probably never get another car with a stick. I commute on the beltway(95/495) and the BW Parkway, it is start and stop traffic all tjhe time.Having a car that shifts it’s own gears means that I have one less thing to worry about while going to work
For the seasoned beater buyer/driver, (i.e, me) these things take some serious beating. One of the few old school cars you can buy for next to nothing-they hit the bottom of the depreciation curve a looong time ago-with stupidly high mileage, and still realistically expect it to still be running well in years rather than months.
The last of the RWD traditional “brick”volvos, the 940 is the ultimate development of the uber-tough and over engineered line that started with the 240. Wear and tear items aside, I’ve hardly had to spend any spanner time on mine in 5 years. It’s on 270k miles now, and probably still worth the same as I paid for it.
Beware the Bosch Motronic…..
’81 Escort is the top pic, and the only models without a Blue Oval Ford logo.
I’ve driven all sorts of beaters, and enjoyed MOST of them. My main concern with recent beaters has been fluid leaks…my wife simply can’t deal with stains on the driveway, so if a car “marks its territory” it has to stay in the street or be rolled onto a sheet of cardboard to protect the driveway or garage floor.
The latest generation of beaters is becoming too elaborate for me to DIY repair beyond really simple stuff…even the jump from my Volvo V90 wagon to the C70 convertible was daunting. I’m driving a leased Jetta now so I don’t have to mess with car repair.
Hello, Does anyone remember, the company in Austin Texas, called, JET INDUSTRIES, that bought, “GLIDERS” from Ford, and converted Ford Escorts on all electric cars????? There seems to be a Facebook Group, called JET INDUSTRIES Facebook. I am on the look out for on of these Electric Ford Escorts, and will give anyone a $$ 500.00 finders fee REWARD for finding me one. John Iozza Boston Please call , 978 930 7435, cell, 617 499 7741, voice mail. With any info, THANK YOU