The best picture of the car I could find.
After moving in together with my then-girlfriend, I felt I no longer had any need for a “good” car, so I sold my ’05 Civic. I’d had the ’86 Ranger but promptly managed to finish it off by sliding into the side of our house. I decided I was going to get a cheap car for back and forth to work and get something decent in the spring. Another “winter beater”.
I had a look at the trusty old Maritime Merchant, and although there were undoubtedly other cars for cheap, I always preferred a Chrysler product for an inexpensive car. I went to look at it, it started and ran well, and it was mine for $300. This little Shadow had a valid motor vehicle inspection until summer 2008. That’d get me through the winter, so long as the car held out.
Not bad for $300…
A few things had to be attended to. The heater didn’t work, and it ended up being the plug going to the resistor block for the fan. It was all melted, and was patched up with a good replacement plug. The car was also filthy inside, so it got a good cleaning. I had a look underneath. The brake lines were OK, but there was quite a bit of rust and corrosion in the area around the fuel tank and above the axle. It’d do for the winter, but it doomed the car to being scrapped if anything major failed. Now as far as the car went, here was nothing fancy about it…it was about as plain as it got. The 2.2 was reliable, and the Torqueflite shifted smoothly. It always started during the winter, and was good in the snow too. The heater now worked well, and the stereo worked as well.
The headlights on this car were very poor.
I don’t have a lot to say about the car. It was cheap, and served the purpose. They certainly weren’t perfect – head gaskets were a weak point on the 2.2/2.5 engines. How often do you hear of a head gasket failing these days? The valve cover gasket as well were known to leak. Improvements in gasket design and materials have made failures a rarity nowadays. Headlights on these, and even on the Spirit and Caravan I owned previously were really, really bad. They just didn’t project much light anywhere. Even so, this car still doesn’t instill me with the disgust that the J-cars I’d owned did. The seats were more comfortable, the interiors nicer, the powertrain more refined, and the chassis was more solid in the Shadow.
The car’s end came in May of 2008. It started going down on antifreeze and overheating. Checking the overflow bottle and seeing bubbles confirmed it to be a failed head gasket. Combined with the fact it was getting pretty rotten underneath, I decided to send it to the scrapyard. I’d decided that it was time for something different, and with a child on the way, something safer and roomier. A pre-approved loan was arranged, and off to Halifax I went…
Sorry, mate I don’t get your method of operation. You move in with your girlfriend, so you immediately sell your good car because it’s not an absolute necessity, and buy a POS junker to get around?
Having reliable transportation that you don’t have to worry about is an unnecessary luxury? You’re so cash starved (and your time is so unvaluable) that it’s preferable to be doing a constant series of repairs to a piece of junk that has you quietly wondering if it’ll start every time you get in it?
Sorry mate, I can’t operate like that. After a warm, dry roof over my head and a filled fridge, priority number three in my life is a vehicle that starts every time, and other than taking care of preventative maintenance works 24/7/365 – and is repaired immediately on the rare occasions it doesn’t.
Unreliable cars to me had better be play toys, and there for something besides transportation. And they’re the additional vehicle in the garage, not the main one.
I haven’t had to deal with a tow truck since I sold my last vintage British motorcycle (an original 69 Triumph Bonneville) back in 2013.
Don’t be so harsh, Syke. With a kid on the way Marc’s priorities are changing. It’ not that easy to give up the problems a person is used to deal with. It’s called a comfort zone. Having a beater with a heater is a piece of juvenile freedom or carelessness. Marc’s window for something like this was closing.
I see both points. For a guy who has a good car available and who has the time/ability to deal with issues that may arise (and the experience to pick a car to avoid those issues) a $300 outlay for something to get to work for 6-8 months might not be a bad thing.
I also understand that every winter beater is like sitting down for a hand of poker where skill and experience don’t always get the job done.
Finances are different in Nova Scotia.
Sorry, I don’t get the criticism when you don’t know the entire situation.
He moved in with his girlfriend. Odds are she had a good car. And, from what Marc has alluded to previously, he was within a short distance of work. So the need for two good cars likely wasn’t that strong and the money in his Honda could be redirected toward his looming offspring.
It makes a fair amount of sense for what we know of his situation. And there’s undoubtedly more that he hasn’t disclosed, which is Marc’s prerogative.
Apparently you don’t understand the concept of a winter beater, the difference between a beater and an unreliable car, the value of one’s time, or that the priorities of a person change as they get older.
Fact is that the winters in some areas are very harsh on vehicles and they may get ugly due to the rust and other damage long before they stop being something than can be counted on to get you to work, which may be a very short distance for some.
I frequently drive what most would call a beater, an 05 CVPI with peeling white paint. Just renewed the tabs on Tue marking 3 years of ownership. In that time I’ve done virtually nothing to it other than change the oil a couple of times and put on some good used tires. It has only failed to start for me once and that was fully my fault due leaving on the ticket writing light and not driving the car for a couple of days. I have other nicer vehicles but some times it is nice to have a car that you don’t care if it gets dirty, gathers a few dents or scratches and really not have to worry about it. In the last 3 years the total cost less fuel and insurance, including 2 sets of nice Mustang wheels and tires is under $2500 and if it was a write off tomorrow, I’d still be able to get a minimum of $500 out of it in scrap value and those tires and wheels. So about $55 a month. Of course the fact is as it sits I’ could get $1500 in an instant and another $400 for the extra wheels, selling it with the perfectly serviceable tires and wheels it came with, making my total cost under $20 per month or under 2 cents per mile. Plus as a beater insurance is cheaper with liability only. The other side of the equation is I put 12,000 fewer miles on the good car reducing the depreciation and wear much more than $20 or even $55 per month.
Many people think that their free time is as valuable their work time. That just isn’t the case for the vast majority of people. If you are paid by the hour chances are that there are only so many hours that you can get paid for in a week. Sure some places do have OT available but even that has its limits in most cases. If you are a salaried employee then working more hours only reduces the value of your other working hours.
So unless it causes you to loose working hours and the pay for those hours, spending your time fixing your beater costs you a whopping $0 per hour.
This becomes much more apparent when you have multiple income sources from multiple “jobs”. If I were to try to value my time based on what I earn per hour which rate should I use? I get a fixed stipend for my coaching gig. If I only worked the minimum required hours I’d make $60/hr. However in the average year I put in twice the minimum so the real compensation for that time is only $30/hr. Should I include my commuting time in that because if I did that would reduce it to under $20/hr. I also have another salaried position working for a non profit that nets me about $22/hr. In both cases I don’t do those things because of the money, I do it because I enjoy it, believe in the mission of the organization and know that I am making a difference. Now in my business I’ve made less than any of those numbers above or many multiples of them.
So does working on my beater (If I actually had to) cost me $18/hr, $22/hr, $30/hr, $60/hr, $100/hr $500/hr? Of course the true cost is $0/hr, because doing so does not cost me any pay. In fact when you factor in the reduced depreciation and wear on my good car I am in fact earning money by working on my beater, if you subscribe to the old saying that a penny saved is a penny earned. Of course on the other end of the scale you could say that working those jobs where I don’t average what I do in my businesses is actually costing me money and a better use of my time would be to chase more clients and more deals, in hopes that I’ll land the one that nets me that $x00/hr out of the ones that go no where and nets met $0/hr.
You obviously did not bother to read his COAL about the Honda. At the end of it he stated that he sold it for what he still owed on it. This means he had a car note. Dumping that car note saves money. Not having a note frees up a good amount of cash. $300 plus a little more for repairs and a little bit of time invested is much better then a car payment each month. Plus it got him through the winter like he wanted.
Coupled by the fact that his girlfriend had a good car(Mazda3) and that they took that everywhere seems to suggest that he did not need that “good” car.
I once dumped a reliable car that I was making payments on(Honda) in favor of a beater Chevy Beretta that I paid a whopping $800($300 for the car and the rest for inspection/tags) for it. The car had its issues and there were about 3 times the car left me stranded before I finally found the cause(bad coil packs) but after that it just needed regular maintenance. I kept it for 5 years and put the money I would have had to spend on a “good car” with a car note in a special bank account and at the end of those 5 years, i went out and bought a new reliable car with cash and no car note. So there I was. I put up with a beater car and its little issues for 5 years and in return I was able to buy a brand new car that was reliable and owed NOTHING on the car. So I made out very well. Plus I saved money on my car insurance by not having a car that I had to make payments on.
I really didn’t know how to reply to this. I’ve usually had one reliable car, and some old car I can tinker with on the side, or fix up and sell. At the time of this story (and remember, it was over 10 years ago), I figured I’d get rid of my two-year old, 5-speed Civic that she couldn’t drive, drive the Ranger till spring (which was reliable), and then get a good used car with a smaller payment. I smashed the Ranger – so I bought something cheap to get me through till the weather got nicer.
A few things –
I get bored of most cars quickly. It might sound stupid – and I may be – but I can’t be the only one. It was a chance to pound the piss out of a cheap car.
I wasn’t car-poor – but I am terribly scotchy – and I couldn’t see spending two big car payments for us. She needed and still needs a good reliable car, so we’ll always have one for her. I don’t have a big commute, so as long as it’s reliable and safe, I am content.
You are right, Syke – about having a reliable car – and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that my time’s more valuable than I have valued it in the past. Once something gets to be a nuisance, it’s gone. I don’t mind working on stuff on my own terms, but when it’s too much, no way.
I hope this clears things up. Thanks.
I appreciate the love of automotive adventure and the devil-may-care attitude.
It’s lessened over the years, but still somewhat present. That’ll become apparent soon enough!
Headgasket failures are commonplace still, Alluminium heads coupled with barely adequate cooling systems and reliable cars that alledgedly dont need regular maintenance produce them in big numbers,
A friend had one of these in the late ’90s, and ’89 model. It replaced his aged 1980 Chev Malibu sedan. I remember it had comfy front seats, a joke of a back seat (Chrysler addressed this with a much better full-depth seat in 1991) and that the engine vibrated a lot at idle. Lots of cheap hard plastic inside too, but he seemed to really like it.
Not comfortable putting all my fate on a $300 beater.
Priority is one good, reliable, primary car.
The beater can be a “second” or “third” fun to work on, distraction from life type car. No rush to fix, something that I can tinker with in my spare time.
But his soon to be wife had the one good reliable primary car and that was all he felt was needed at that point in his life.
This is exactly what I felt at the time. Thank you.
It was much easier to buy a good cheap beater “back in the day” when big rwd cars ruled the world and gas was reasonable, although we’ve always preferred to pay the gas tab and own at least one large family car, regardless of fuel expenses. One day my ’71 Pinto wagon was rear ended and totaled on the way home from work (with no explosion resulting, as it seem it was only sedans with that incendiary problem, most fortunately). So with safety and size in mind we bought a clean ’71 Fury III sedan with 318 and 100k miles parked in a grocery store lot with a sign on it, from an old fellow for a paltry $300, this was in 1982. The car had always had frequent oil changes and came with all it’s repair records since new, but also had some rust along the bottoms of the fenders and the dogleg, hence the pricetag However on further examination the underside turned out to be quite solid. Bought a can of bondo and matching green spray paint from NAPA, filled the holes, and sprayed a can of undercoat on the vulnerable areas after a quick wire brushing the underneath, a job redone every year.
Subsequently, that car was driven on a daily 80 mile round trip commute into Baltimore for 5 years, with belts, brake pads, tires, battery and exhaust being the only items or repairs ever needed; even the infamous ballast resistor went untouched, although there was always a spare in the glovebox. It felt perfectly safe driving our 3 children around to lessons, or letting my wife drive it on her 100 mile round trip commute into Johns Hopkins Bayview campus in Highlandtown when her Volvo was unavailable. We finally sold it, still running perfectly well at 190k miles, to a young and indigent single mother who wanted safe transport for her baby, for $300 in 1987.
That great Fury was replaced by a lower mile ’77 Gran Fury Broughamn 360V8 (no Lean Burn) that we then drove for the next 10 years, even pulling horse trailers and boats around with nary a complaint. I pine for the days when these kind of great, durable, cheap US beaters were still around and easy to find! They were the kind of over-built cars that US manufacturers had always excelled in making, and moving away from them was their fatal mistake … imo! To this day there’s a low mile original ’68 Caprice in our garage which serves to bring back those halcyon days for us!
BTW when looking to buy a really nice example of what US cars had been once-upon-a-time in the 1967-1971-ish time-frame (pretty well built, relatively non-smog stifled, and with dual brake cylinders and collapsible steering columns for safety’s sake) we looked for an excellent ’71 Fury III sedan, but nothing exemplary was available out there. One hopes that they haven’t become victims of the serial car destroyers, aka demo derbiests!
When my daughter needed another car while in college, we bought a Shadow very similar to this one. It had the Mitsubishi V-6/automatic combination, and had been gone over mechanically by the seller, a former Chrysler dealership mechanic.
The car served her very well, until either a head gasket failed or it developed a major coolant leak, and the engine died while she was on the interstate in Ohio to visit her dad.
Off to the scrapyard it went; it wasn’t worth fixing.
Brother-in-law found the low price of the Dodge Shadow America to be attractive. So he bought one. A two-door, 2.2L, manual transmission, air conditioning and not much else. On the second day he had it, he went for a drive in the Pennsylvania horse country and got a bit too enthusiastic on a blind curve, running left of center. Yup. Another car was coming the other direction. They sideswiped, tearing off the driver’s door of the Shadow. The insurance adjuster could fix it or total it. It was close but he allowed for less depreciation than normal since the car had only been off the dealer’s lot Such a short time, so it got fixed. The repairs were done well except that sparks from the welder’s torch managed to pockmark the upholstery in the rear seat.
The Shadow lasted over 150,000 miles in five-days-a-week commute use of 40-50 miles each way, with Chrysler’s recommended maintenance and nary a mechanical whimper. If anything it was more reliable than the Subaru they also owned. It was getting loose in the suspension by then, but he got his money’s worth (and the insurance company’s) out of it and finally gave it, still running, to a neighbor.
My parents had a 92 Sundance 2.2L 3-spd as their second vehicle, which lasted 12 years and 130k km before my brother rear-ended someone and wrote it off. Maybe my family’s was a dud, but warming up and defrosting took ages in prairie winters and it had the same creaky, about to fall apart feeling that you get in Japanese vehicles when temps dipped below -10. Plus it had no ABS and had pretty thin sheetmetal. Sure, it would start reliably every time, but man… not my first choice for a winter beater.
Kudos to you for making it through winter with a beat 16 year old example though.
When I got really looking back for next week’s COAL, it only made it till about March!