Well, now that it's been almost two years since I've bothered to touch this, might as well start with this:
As of this past Sunday I became the proud second(!) owner of this lovely Dark Toreador Metallic 1999 Oldsmobile Aurora. The past few winters have taken their toll on the old Buick, and the rust was just getting worse and worse. Even looking back at pictures from when I first bought it, the section above the passenger rear tire didn't look nearly as bad as it does now. And the exhaust fell apart twice (to be fair it
was all original). And both the valve cover and intake gaskets started leaking. But the main reason I began looking for something new was this:
That's what's left of the rear bumper support and end of the trunk floor. As a matter of fact, if you look underneath the spare tire cover you can see what looks like a crack going straight to the ground. Keep in mind that this photo is from
last August too. This also means the rear bumper will more or less inevitably fall off; the Swiss cheese support also causes the sagging visible on the exterior. (For reference, the chrome trim should be more or less flush with the taillight).
So, over the past few months I've been searching high and low for something within my budget afforded by my job, but also tickled my fancy. Let me tell you, finding a cheap Wisconsin car that isn't rusted to hell and/or beaten within an inch of it's life proved near impossible, almost to the point of giving up. Here's a rundown of the vehicles I looked at:
1990 Ford Thunderbird SC (January)-The first car I seriously looked at. Located an hour away in Illinois, ended up being a waste of time with hacked up wiring and rust bad enough poke the carpets through the floor pan.
1996 Buick Park Avenue Ultra (March)- Waited a while to save up some more to buy something nicer. Found at a local used car lot, ended up having a spot of rust just starting to go bad, and the awful practice of not allowing us to test drive unless we were in "Shut up and take my money!" mode.
1996 Buick Park Avenue/2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT (April)- Both were trade-ins at a local dealer, and I went with the intention to only see the Buick. Even though it was listed at $3,000 on their website, I couldn't test drive it due to major frame rust, along with completely shot rockers not shown in the ad. The Grand Prix happened to be sitting nearby, and after chasing some aggressive geese away, got the chance to drive THE. WORST. GRAND PRIX. EVER. It had 208,000 miles, rust galore, trashed interior, an exhaust leak, ABS light, and an awful whining sound that I assume was the transmission on it's last legs. I was shocked it made the five mile test drive, but overall it was a waste of my time. The best part is that they eventually listed (it wasn't when I drove it) the Pontiac for $2,400, and there is no
possible way someone couldn't see major mechanical faults with that car. /rant
2003 Buick Regal GS (April)- Found on Craigslist by dad. Car turns out to be almost as bad as the Grand Prix, with a dim digital dash display, misfire that made it sound more like a P51 Mustang, leaking intake manifold gasket, and atrocious rust.
2001 Volvo C70 (April)- Back to another used lot, and overall it was OK. Mechanically and structurally healthy, though there was a shake in the wheel under acceleration, and the radio was on the fritz. Didn't care for the terrible rear visibility and non-existent trunk space.
2005 Pontiac Grand Prixs (May)-Drove two different third-gen W-body Grand Prixs, one a base model and the other a GTP. They were nice enough, but the seat bottom on both was annoyingly hard, and honestly prevented me from enjoying them fully. The GTP also had broken A/C, which was a must-have item for me, coupled with the seat and I didn't really want it anymore. It seems like there's a cosmic force telling me to stay away from W-Bodies.
1998 Oldsmobile 88 (May)- I was head over heels for this one initially, truth be told. It was like riding in a V6 powered La-Z-Boy, and there was absolutely no rust on it. Once again, the A/C didn't work, it needed new tires, the trunk release worked intermittently, the power antenna didn't work, and there was a vibration in the steering rack likely caused by dried seals from the vehicle sitting on the lot for a while. I was mostly turned off after considering all the issues, and moved on from it after I couldn't get the dealer to come down $100 to my bottom line price. Honestly happy I moved on from it, looking back now.
2006 Buick Lacrosse/Mazda5/Mazda6/Kia Forte(May)- You would think I'd have learned my lesson in looking at cheap, older trade-ins at dealers after the previous time, but I fell for it once more. It was almost an exact repeat of the Park Avenue: navy blue Buick looks OK in the ad, turns out to have a major issue that prevents a test drive (in this case a failed power steering system that they quoted $3,000 to fix, on top of the $4,000 for the car), not to mention the beginning of rocker rust, a number of clear coat cracks, and a nasty residue from a botched repair for the driver's door weather stripping. Test drive a few more expensive cars on the lot that I would've had to finance (which I was willing to do), and only found interest in the 6, which was a 2011 model. However, I found that I couldn't afford to do both the monthly payments and full-coverage insurance, so financing was a no-go (I was quoted at ~$1,000 for six months on the 6, a 2.5i auto no less; oh the fun of being a 19 year-old male).
1998 Buick LeSabre (May)- The final car I looked at prior to the Aurora. I was initially all about it, however I saw the ad for the Aurora before I looked at the Buick, so I went in already itching for something else. It was an incredibly clean car, no rust (was sold new in Wisconsin and then driven in Florida most of it's life), everything working, and the only blemish being matching dents on the hood from when it flew open on the freeway after not being latched properly. And, just like the 88, I walked from the deal over $150 difference from what I was willing to pay. Which leads us to my new toy...that I'll properly introduce in my next post here since this wall of text is big enough as it is.
Anyways, thanks for reading all of this if you did. More to come very soon.