I have a buddy that is looking to buy his first car, and learn to drive, at the age of 24. He has pretty much settled on a new Golf Sportwagen 1.8tsi with the 5spd, but he wants to get a beater for a month or two and learn to drive a bit before making that purchase. He has the cash to do this, and is fine with losing it if it means he has some time to gain familiarity with driving before picking up the shiny new car.
Anyway, there is a running/driving 99 mercury tracer with under 100k on his local craigslist. The inspection sticker is good through october, which gives him plenty of time to get some use out of the car. It is an auto with the 2.0 SPI.
I know there are some escort fans on here, so I just wanted to know if there was any reason he should run away for $1200? Keep in mind, this is only going to be used for a couple of months. If he lived close to me, we could probably pick up a cheaper car and I could get it running, but he is not mechanically inclined so paying a bit more upfront is worth it.
Nah, nothing that would matter for a couple of months of driving around.
Just sign up with AAA and make sure they have a cell phone on them to call if it breaks down.
In reply to turboswede:
That's what I was thinking, just wanted to ask here in case there were any glaring issues.
2.0 SPI is the slightly larger, updated version of the old 1.9 CVH motor used in Escorts and Tracers forever and a day. They were even turbocharged over in Europe in 1.6L form and there was a bit of a following on modifying them.
Generally though they aren't very good motors, the SPI was a stopgap, bottom rung motor, especially when compared to Mazda's DOHC motor which was available in the Escort/Tracer. If he were looking to hold onto to the car or perhaps modify or race it, then I'd suggest holding out for one with a DOHC under the hood.
In reply to turboswede:
He is not going to modify or race it at all, it will just be a stopgap so he can learn to drive and get his license. Hopefully he won't even have to do any maintenance, and sell it for the same price in a month or two.
Rust is about it.
Perfectly serviceable for a couple months.
In reply to Swank Force One:
Yeah, it has a little bit of rust but not too much, especially for an east coast car. How does the price of 1200 sound? It is an auto SPI, with apparently only 83,000 miles.
Should be fine for a couple months, I'd want to pay more like $1000 even for it though if it has rust.
it seems to have very little rust.
They are known to drop valve seats into the combustion chamber without warning.
This reminded me. I have a complete bolt in suspension that will fit. Has about 35K miles on it.
Well he bought it today, got it for 1k. Hopefully the valve seats don't become an issue; he only really needs a few thousand miles of learning on it, so I'll hope for the best.
