Life…

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Thanks.
Kinda silly it took me several weeks to remember where to ask for a cheap beater!!! But I made it. 
Truly blessed! He was not hurt, I was not, AND , we didn't hurt anyone else as we slid all over the interstate. 

The "Life" part gets more fun. I did have good friends / family bring my truck up, and made it to start the contract on time. And found a hotel with a vacancy (hard to do during an outage there) 

But, on way home from work, a car was stopped to turn left. Without her foot on brake, and no turn signal, the car in front turned; I assume she was going straight. Bad assumption. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and my ugly cow catcher off road bumper,did get a minor scratch. Her car didn't make it 

Again, blessed. No one was hurt. 
 

As I got out of truck, to run up and make sure no one was hurt, I was actually sobbing. And, as I've mentioned, I'm not a guy the gets shook up by stuff. 
As long as nobody got hurt, all is good. 

Going to look at this after work, but $500 might get too expensive to own ! 
$500

its sad, but with average current ads , she mentions it does have a key!!!

In reply to Mr_Asa :

1998

for a frame swap, it's fine. If ya need just the front al. subframe too old (03 up)

Welcome back.  Sorry about the accident and glad you're OK

AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:

Glad to see back. Been wondering what happened. I say get a beater 2nd generation Prius, but I know that's not your style.

I too am a fanboy of the Gen2, '04-'09 Prius.  They are easy to maintain for a GRMer. 

There are some common and well documented "problems" with these cars that make it so they can be bought cheap and repaired even cheaper.  

Im not sure exactly where you are but I looked for cheap Prius in GA and I came across this one, asking $1,500?  
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/715908250144928/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3Aa36b53a9-07e3-4f5f-a681-ac4f3d68ce76

Seller writes: "...has ignition issues. Sometimes it cranks up and sometimes it won’t."  I'll bet dollars to donuts that the whole problem can be repair for $0 with just a jumper wire.  This is a well documented problem.  

This video will tell you more.  The first half of the video is just him proving his battery is good.  The jumper wire comes at about 2:15.
Not mentioned in the video, the jumper wire should be placed to the passenger side of the fuse (as shown in the video.)  If the jumper wire goes to the drivers side of the fuse you'll get power but you have bypassed the fuse (no safety protection.)  

If you are interested I'd recommend getting the seller to tell you what the middle screen says when it wont work.  Make sure it is that P-Lock statement.  If it is then make very lamenting statements about "re-wiring" and lots of parts and delays, etc...offer $1k.  

In reply to John Welsh :

That's a good car. Would be a bit of a learning curve for me, but I need to learn some of that stuff anyway!

Sadly, my budget for the moment is WAY below current beater car prices. I miss the days when I could find a $500 car, and drive it to work a few months!

Im in the middle of ga right now, but we're only working 40 - 50 hrs, so I've got time for a small trip to get something. 
Thanks. 

Glad to hear you're OK, that accident must have been scary!  Good luck with the beater search, hoping you find something quick that meets your needs.  I'm glad to see you're a couple ahead of me in line for the Jetta Sportswagen, I hope you get it!

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks. 
Thankfully , I finally heard from the correct guy from his insurance company, last night. Blue book on the highlander is only 1800-2200. Yea, find one that actually runs for that! Camper is 1500... I've got $6500 in mine. Found one almost as nice as mine for 10K, asking. (he won't get that, but asking!)

We don't HAVE to have a beater; I'd just feel better leaving my wife with the Merc, in case of problems with the Sunday car. 
If insurance plays halfway nice, I'll be after a $2900 Mazda5 

03Panther said:

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks. 
Thankfully , I finally heard from the correct guy from his insurance company, last night. Blue book on the highlander is only 1800-2200. Yea, find one that actually runs for that! Camper is 1500... I've got $6500 in mine. Found one almost as nice as mine for 10K, asking. (he won't get that, but asking!)

We don't HAVE to have a beater; I'd just feel better leaving my wife with the Merc, in case of problems with the Sunday car. 
If insurance plays halfway nice, I'll be after a $2900 Mazda5 

One of the benefits of the crazy new and used car market is that values are higher.  That literally saved my Rav4 when I was rear-ended a year ago, the higher value was the only reason it was fixable instead of being totaled out.  Hopefully you can find some good comps for the Highlander to raise the payout to something more in-line with the actual value.  The key is preparing the comps so you can fight the valuation.  Hope it all works out!

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

The offer made on the Toyota, was better than the book value... closer to real cost than book, in fact. It still can't be replaced with anything half as good shape, for that price,and I doubt there gonna budge. 
The camper is gonna be the bad part. 
if I'd been a "normal" American, I'd of pretended I was hurt so I could sue. But I've got this honesty problem. 
I don't hold out much hope of success. I imagine I'll end up using the camper money, plus the car money, just to replace the highlander, and start from scratch building up to a decent camper. 
I did get donated a starting point for a camper; just gotta get time to finish the repairs. 
If I don't let myself get down about how bad this will be on finances, I still remember I'm not homeless, or car less... just broke 

Good (ish) news in the "life" department. Insurance finally quit dragging their feet, and gave me a semi reasonable settlement offer, on the Toyota, and the camper. It's still mighty low, but it's better than where it was going. 
It will thanks half of that and the next check (first week came in) and we will be back to not paying interest on CC. 

The other half will buy her a car about half as nice as the Toyota. (Yes, there is a reason people on here talk bad about insurance)

Leaves me no money for the next camper, but as a life long scrounge, I'll be ok. 
The AirB&B im in now, for this job, is about the same price as the local campgrounds, and this job is looking pretty good for a contract job through the winter

Wife intends to not buy anything for her till her daughters car comes up, but we are still talking about that. 
Gotta check on the Mazda5 - and convince my wife she need to try it.

In reply to 03Panther :

One step at a time right?  You able to get a better deal on the Airbnb if you rent it long term?

In reply to Stampie :

The per night rate goes down a little, and the fees a bit more. Plus, it's much nicer than the older camper I'm fixing water damage on. 20 minutes from one of the plants I'm here for maintenance; 40 min. from the other.