Help!!

Well, we looked at a lot today and I can't say I'm thoroughly impressed with most of it. My dad was talking about this Jaguar S-Type he saw yesterday for $7,950. It was the 4.0 V8 which is what scared him off yesterday but we looked it up and had no reports of any issues with it. Gas mileage is questionable though, we can't find any accurate reports for it. Nice thing about the Jag - 7 year, 100,000 mile warranty from the dealer when you buy it. Here it is:
2000 Jaguar S-Type 4.0

This may also be a possibility (My mom isn't totally sold on it though I'm working on it). We haven't seen it to see condition but this seems like a pretty good deal. You'd never guess the car from my normal opinion on them...
Mystery Car

I'm partially interested in the latter because somehow that could maybe be mine once in awhile. lol, think my parents know me too well though. My dad drives pretty far to work every day in start stop so it wouldn't be sensible for him to drive. Would be okay for my mom but she goes to the grocery and wouldn't hold as much as her Aurora. Which leaves me - the person who could essentially drive the most impractical car we own! Oh darn, that'd mean I'd have to drive it - shucks!

Also saw this, but my mom can't drive a clutch and she won't let my dad teach her (He yelled at her last time he tried to teach her). I'm not totally down on how to drive clutches (Not done it enough, know how to do it though) but I would say I would teach her. She'd be more opposed to this since she can't drive a manual though but it looks nice too.
Mystery Car 2


Ryan, it always does that it's a character in their link that breaks it. You have to copy and paste them like you said.

1st: Too old, I showed it too him and he hates that body style (I'm not much of a fan either)

2nd: Saw that one, same problem as the first.

3rd: I've heard nightmare stories about the V12s and we've already had bad luck with the 740iLs we looked at. I don't think my dad is much on the 7-series anymore but that seems like a nice deal. Even getting over that, it's a damn V12 and it would guzzle gas like no ones business!

4th: One word: Northstar. We've heard nothing but bad about Northstars from everyone we ask about them. Every salesman we ask about them generally says "Oh no, you don't want a Northstar" unless they have one on their lot. It sucks because I love their power and the Eldorado looks great IMO. That's really high for what it is though, the '98 Riv I found for $5,995 would be better and it had like 93k miles. (In Cincy though and my dad needs a car soon and we aren't going that far - just too unreasonable).

5th: Same as the 4th, Brown Bros is the local high priced Caddy dealer so they charge a premium for everything they ever get. Get this - we saw a '98 Deville once with 64k miles for $5,000 or maybe even less. This was months ago - maybe even a year. We said no for some reason (I think a service light was on). I'll always remember the lot because the nice old man who owned it said "I think I've got a car your son will like" to my dad and it was a damn old Dodge Avenger. I nicely said "Nah, too small" but in my head I was thinking What a piece of crap, I would never drive this crappy car! I like cars more like this old man would like - like big Lincolns, Caddys, Buicks and all that! Heh, because most young people don't know a good car don't mean we all don't!

6th: We did see this but my dad and I are both not fans of Chrysler in any degree. The warranty is nice (Same place the Jag is at) but my dad said he hated that gold color (I'm not a real fan of it either). Thing is, that would depreciate like crazy and then even if it ran good it'd be worthless to anyone but us. You guys said it before - the 300M is overengineered and can barely be modded and I don't like the thought of that.

7th: Same as the 6th. More unreasonable though because of higher miles. Now that I think of it, the 300M has a horrible safety rating too. Check it out here. Don't get it, but that scares me!

8th: We looked at this and it was really nice. Not quite sure the reason we didn't do anything more with it though, I think my dad thought it was too much for an as-is car. Bob Morris has got us spoiled on those warranties which makes everyone elses cars look crappy.

9th: Damn!! $8k for a Solara? A '99 Solara? Blech, I always thought they were rip-offs of the Riv that were much more Camryish and boring looking. Personally I think that's way too pricey for what it is.

10th: Better but still damn! We've noticed all these friggin' Toyotas and Hondas are through the roof! We saw a nice clean two door Honda Civic EX that was an '02 with 84k miles - $8950. Oh no no, not for a Civic! This would be better than that other one but still pricey for a Solara and I don't think they're very powerful (The Aurora likes to eat Solaras and it's the slowest car we've got).

Really appreciate you taking the time to search for cars, you seem to be pretty close in mind to the kinds of cars we like! They don't need to be expensive though, in fact it'd be much better if they were not!

The BMW and the Solara's were a joke, I wanted to poke fun at you.

I would like to say that you shouldn't be scared of Northstars. My mom has an '02 SLS and has about 145k miles on it without a problem. It's true that mechanics don't like working on them because it's a hassle to work around, but I've seen plenty of good things about the Northstar. Of course, I've heard the negative too, but it shows that if you take care of them, they last.

I saw the Park Aves and just thought it was a pretty good deal with pretty low miles. I wasn't a huge fan either, but it would be a good car to have.

I have some time on my hands and I like car shopping, so it's not a huge deal.

I found another great deal (IMO)
2000 Volvo S80

My dad says it's probably the 2.9 with 197 hp (Oh god that's so slow ). He also pointed out the dent on the passenger fenderwell and the dents and dings (He thinks that means it's an ugly POS). Who cares!!! Dents and dings don't make a car bad, and it doesn't sound major at all! It's pissing me off now, he pretty much wants another damn GTP and I don't think he should get another (You see his mod history, he'd probably just carry everything over - NOT good). At this point I wish he would get something like that S80 and I'd just drive the damn thing! I think S80s are very nice and I'd love to have something like that! Don't get me wrong, I like the Riv but something like the S80 or an Acura TL are all very nice cars to drive that I'd have no opposition to.

I also found this Volvo
'96 Volvo 850 Turbo

No idea on miles but it's cheap. I swear, he's really pissing me off. He's nitpicking all these cars when he really just needs to find something! He seems to have no concept of "Hey, I'm borrowing my wife's car and making it REALLY hard on everyone else" because it's not inconveniencing him. I'd pressure him to buy something more but he'll do something stupid like buy this POS '97 Ranger we looked at today with dents and dings all over it and it looked like a work truck with a rebuilt title and it had manual locks and windows, a clutch and it bounced and beat you everywhere (Gave me a headache) for $3,250. That's the shit he'd do...any tips?

I think that the jag sounds pretty cool and knowing your style of cars if your dad is anything like you I think it would be a good fit.

Go with the Jag. $8,000 for a Jag with 85,000 miles and a small V8. Test drive it, take a good look, and don't let this one slip away. Hurry, it'll go fast!

Grasshopper Curmodgeon(Kevin)




After driving SC3800's I dont think you or your dad are ever going to learn to like the Volvo.
And after driving a Luxury car you will have a difficult time settling for anything but a luxury car.

Bert

Here is a 99 GS with no problems 99,000 miles, well maintained in SE Ohio...
http://www.regalgs.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=56777

Bert

Seems decent.

Another one.

No mileage listed.

This could be fun, but a little out of your range.

May be able to talk him down.

Cool!!


All I found today.

He bought a clean red '95 Ford F150 XL with 108k and the 4.9L Inline six. It reads 85 mph tops. Crank windows, no power locks, big cloth bench seat, driver side airbag only, cheapest radio ever. I fought him getting it up until we drove away. We were also looking at a '00 Lincoln Town Car Signature for $4800 with 110k miles that was very nice.

The dealer said what would you pay? He said $4500. They came back with $7250. He said "Tell me when the Lincoln is ready" (Was not ready for sale yet). They said to hold on, went back and came out with $5625. He said "Tell me when the Lincoln is ready okay?". They go away talk a minute - another random salesman comes up and says we'll do it for $4500 out the door. NOOOOOO!!!!! I screamed in my mind!

We didn't say we wouldn't buy a car, we wanted the Lincoln dammit!! No! It had side airbags and a cushy ride and decent power and it was nice! Not this damned old truck! I go with him when he looks at cars to prevent this stupidness! Since when do dealers actually make a deal with you? The Lincoln was $300 more! And that was the asking price!

Thanks for trying. Now we have a stupid truck. Sure it's useful - but dammit it has no features at all. And now as I told my dad the crank windows sucked my fucking power window on the driver side broke. Now lets see how much shit I can hear about power windows being crap.

That f150 is a very solid truck. I have a 96 f150 xlt that is the same body style and such only has the power options and such. They are not anything special to look at but they are very dependable.

I figured as much - it runs good and everything is good on it. Does have pretty low miles for a truck and everything works. It's nothing fancy (Not even a headliner) but it's clean and it is a nice pretty red.

I feel your pain. Those trucks are good vehicles and dependable and handy, but they are boring as hell.
I think I saw on here where you can remove the power window switch and clean/reverse it maybe, and might solve the problem.

I know the write up to remove the door panel is on here. Maybe just order a new used switch from Ed Morad before removing the door panel.

Good Luck

Bert

I've been thinking and may have a nefarious idea. The GTP needs a motor basically. It's blown, no doubt about it. To get a used one with a good warranty is $2,400 or so. To get a new one is $3,500 or $3,600. Everything else on it is pretty much new - it just needs the motor now.

Stick with me here - if I sold the Riv for $3,500 that would be enough to get a brand new motor put in the GTP to go with it's nearly brand new tranny. While I love the Riv, the GTP isn't that bad (Other than being blown up...). The only other bad thing on the GTP is that chunk of rust undeneath the kickplate. If I did this, I would have a car two years newer with basically all brand new parts. It's had that tranny rebuilt/replaced (I forget which they did - works good though), the front shocks and struts have been replaced, one of the calipers is new, it has the 3" DP, it's had quite a bit of things done to it.

Just something I had pondered the other day. Not saying I'd do it but it's certainly something to think about.

Nefarious is not the word I would use to describe that idea Grasshopper...

Forget about it.


Bert

Is your dad sticking with just the truck or is he getting the lincoln you talked about as well. Perhaps he is considering fixing the gtp as well.

Current plan - keep the truck, sell GTP as parts, keep everything else. Besides, the Riv doesn't run the same as the other 3800s I've seen. It makes funny noises and when I rev it it doesn't sound like the other 3800s I hear. The GTP route would get me a new or good condition motor and a car with a lot of other new parts that's newer too.

How about this... its posted on V8buick.com

I have a 98 GTP SC3800 L67 Engine & 4T65eHD Tranny now for sale. Plus the wiring, ECM and inner axle stubs.

My brother considered buying the car, but they wanted a bit too much for the whole thing. Now, it's being parted out.

I know it runs good....started & heard it myself. It's got 110k on it.

Need to move it quickly...price is $1000. Typically, I've gotten a whisker more than that for just the engine/wiring/ECM. This will be including the tranny and the inner axle stubs too.

There are other things on this car that would be good with this swap, such as the dual electric fans and/or the radiator. If you're good with wiring, it's even got a Head Up Display.

(Great swap for Mike Bucy's 87 T-Type LeSabre that needs an engine!!) Also good for a Fiero swap, or just a GS/GTP/etc. engine replacement.
https://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d191/GSXMEN/97%20GS%20L67%20and%204T65e%2086k/98%20GTP%20L67%20and%204T65eHD%20110k/


Bert