It never rains but it pours.

[seanan_mcguire]

My mother called me last night just before nine o'clock. "I thought I should let you know," she said. "My car threw a rod today."

Not being a driver myself (which is why there are so many entries that include the phrase "and then Mom drove me to..."), I asked naively if this was a bad thing. She explained that yes, it was a bad thing, and that further, given the age of her car (a third-hand station wagon we bought in early 2010, when her prior car, a fifth-hand station wagon that I think she bought from evil gnomes), it would be cheaper and safer to buy a new car than it would be to buy a new engine.

Well, crap.

So now we need to find a car. As cheaply as possible, since the money isn't exactly flowing like water around here. My mother gets me to the majority of my book events, as well as needing a vehicle to, you know, work. (One of the sad ironies of our current culture: She can't afford to live where there's good, dependable public transit, so she lives in a place where you have to have a car, but she can pay the rent. Take away her car, she has to move to where there's dependable public transit. Only she can't do that, because there is no more dependable public transit in even semi-affordable places. So she needs a car...)

If you know of anyone in the Bay Area who is selling a vehicle and not too wedded to using the money to buy a boat, please let me know? A station wagon would be preferred, since Mom regularly hauls a lot of crap around, including me.

I swear, it never rains but it pours.

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I spent a summer in college working the office at an auto auction.

If possible, I advise her to buy a Honda Civic. Those cars run well past 200,000 miles and repairs are super cheap because the cars are designed to have interchangeable parts. The downside is that they get stolen a *lot* to be stripped for said parts.

If she can't find anything made by Honda, Toyota and then Volkswagen are the next best choices. Whatever she does, make sure she does not buy a KIA. Those cars are designed to be cheap and disposable, and when they die, they DIE.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I wish I could do more. Best of luck in finding her another car!

[mariadkins.livejournal.com]

I second the Honda Civic. My youngest son got one while he was still in high school two years ago. He fixed (ie: souped) it up real nice and has run it absolutely to death. He's in Okinawa with the Marines right now, and his dad has been driving the car since August; I thought this was a bad plan, because David is hard on cars. But if something breaks, it's cheap to fix, and he's up and running again in no time. There's a shitton of Civics out there so parts are easy to come by - parts dealer or junkyard. Very seriously thought about getting a Civic the next time I buy.

[archangelbeth]

I've done well with Nissan and Subaru as well, but the Nissans that I remember fondly are, like, from 20 years ago or something. (Well, 15.......? um, no, closer to 20. *facepalm* It was like a 1992 model or something.) They're also more likely to be expensive, compared to Honda and Toyota, but if you can get a good deal...

[loki-dip.livejournal.com]

We picked up a Nissan Micra for £800 ($1200). It was old but it was a wonderful car, incredibly reliable. Til a 13 year old decided to attempt suicide in front of it at least.

Plus it was small and fit into almost any parking space. *g*

[dave-ifversen.livejournal.com]

I've had very good luck with Subarus (but, avoid the '85 through '89 model years - those had problems with head gaskets). Most of the Subarus I've had have gone well in excess of 200K miles and were strong runners.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

I had good luck with my Kia until a deer killed it around the time when you start to expect things to fail anyways. My wife's is doing fairly well too other than the car or my wife tend to destroy the transmission. Her's is a kia rio, which is substantially smaller than what you are looking for anyways.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I do love "death by deer."