NEW PRICE: Now $300, need gone by Saturday AM
1991 Buick Regal Limited
<125k miles, 4 Door, Automatic, Pics to follow
Pros
Runs and shifts good
3.8L V6
Car has been in my family since new
Has been my daily driver for the past 5 years and has never stranded me
Stops fine, though spongy
New (this past winter) front tires
New (this past winter) Radio with 30 pin iPod/iPhone dock and AUX input (I'll knock $50 off the price and put the factory stereo back in, if you want)
Comfortable when you don't need AC
Daytime running lights which might get you a small insurance discount
Choose your own adventure! This car could make an decent beater daily driver, Lemons racer, sand rail donor, or Fiero powertrain donor
Cons
Needs the right rear knuckle replaced to be safely (and quietly) drivable - about a $400 repair using used parts with labor done at a local garage, significantly cheaper if you can do it yourself
Underbody rust, which contributed to the above failure
AC does not work
Emergency parking brake pedal does not engage (transmission parking brake works just fine, so it's not going to roll away unless you park it on a particularly steep incline)
Indifferent?
This is a Canadian car, so the big numbers on the gauges are all metric. MPH is on the speedometer in little numbers - you get used to it pretty fast.
Description
Moves under its own power, but needs the right rear knuckle (where the leaf spring attaches to the strut and the hub) replaced. The leaf spring is currently dragging on the ground, so it will noisily make it on to your trailer or down the street if you are adventurous. A local shop I trust told me it would be about $400 to repair with a used part, but I believe most of that is labor, so it should be significantly cheaper if you can do it yourself and you'd have a decent, cheap, reliable beater. If the knuckle were fixed, I would not hesitate to drive this car cross country (which perhaps says more about me than the condition of the car, however). The only reason I'm not fixing it myself is we bought my wife a new car, I'm now driving her old one, and I don't have the time or space to mess with this one.
This car has been my daily driver for the past 5 years and has never stranded me. As I said, it runs and shifts nicely. It has two tires which were new this past winter up front, the rear two tires could stand to be replaced before winter. I did the front brake pads a couple of summers ago. The AC does not work - the compressor sounds terrible when it tries to engage, but the system does hold pressure. I removed the AC relay and stuffed it in the glove box to keep the compressor from trying to kick on.
There is enough underbody rust to send southern GRMers running away screaming, which almost certainly contributed to the failure of the right rear knuckle. The left rear knuckle is in better shape, partially due to the fact the the left rear strut was leaking oil before I replaced it. I will post pictures of all this once I get a chance.
