A friend emailed me yesterday and asked if I wanted a free car that hasn't run since mid 2016 and has a broken windshield. We transferred the title before I ever even saw the thing. Now it's in my garage, and it's so berkeleying hideous that I feel like I paid too much:
It's a 98 Camry with less than 100k miles on it. And I made it run already. It is by far the least cool thing I have ever owned. Hooray?
Clean up and flip?
Did you buy Mark's yellow MR2 out of Ohio? Cool.
For the Camry, if it runs it will sell quickly. If it doesn't run, it will sell quickly too, just for much less.
In reply to Ian F :
With a thorough once-over, that's the plan. Maybe drive for a while if something else in the fleet takes a dump.
In reply to John Welsh :
It is indeed that MR2, and it has been excellent- I plan to fix what little rust it has and continue enjoying it. You're basically looking at the "Toyotas I paid the right amount for" section of the garage 
I sold one for my daughter. It had 200k on it and had been t-boned. The driver's side door opened and it drove OK. Put it on Craigslist and sold it the next day for $400.
Whiteline front and rear sway bars and call it a day. Mine was lowered on Eibach springs with KYBs and it handled far better than a grocery getter should.
Toyotas must have gold plating somewhere that everyone else in the world is aware of except for me. I once sold a Matrix with 150k miles that had been run out of oil and wouldn't go more than 10 mph, and the dashboard was lit up like the Griswold house, for $1500.
My sister had a base model 94 Camry (manual locks/windows , no cruise, etc.). Bought from a family friend for $1000. Car blew a head gasket (ran fine, no coolant in oil but drank coolant). Sold for $1100 with issues disclosed.
When I was getting people wanting the wrecked pos the day after I posted it I figured I didn't ask enough money for it.I based my price on what I thought I would get at the junk yard. Who knew?
It certainly seems that if a car is under a certain amount of asking price it will bring out the flippers right and left. It seems to be somewhere south of 1k depending on your location. I paid 800 for a 2000 f150 with about 190k miles on it, put new tires and a new front end on it myself, new brake rotors and pads and front bearings, would have gotten out of it ok except the junkyard trans it came with went out about 5000 miles later. after a 1500 dollar rebuilt trans I sold it for 1500 bucks. I had bought a used wheel and put on of the junk tires it had on it as a spare and about 6 months before I sold it some crackhead clipped the retention clip on the spare holder and walked off with it. I left the can of fix a flat in the cab of the truck that I bought just in case after that incident. At least when I sold it the truck went to a guy that just needed a cheap truck for construction work. That made me feel good.
We all know you like the oddball stuff. Clearly this is just your master plan to build a 98 Camry stage rally car, because that would be far weirder than a merkur.
EDIT: use it for recce at WMWR.
Chris's to-do list:
Edit: Indy-Guy made the perfect suggestion below!
...or go ice racing.
Gambler 500 for the win !
In reply to Indy-Guy :
That is a great idea!
Engine swap with the MR2?
So... how much easier is it to sell a boring, normal people car than an interesting weirdo car? Here's a comparison of the last two cars I sold, both with an initial asking price of $2500:
1995 BMW 318ti
187k miles
Manual transmission
Time to sell: 6 months
Sale price: $1700
1998 Toyota Camry
96k miles
Automatic transmission
Time to sell: -1 day (literally sold as I was taking pictures to list it)
Sale price: $2000
Yes, the Camry sold before I could even list it- the mechanic who inspected it pulled up as I was taking photos, asked how much I was asking for it, then asked if I would take $2k. Car literally sold in negative one day.
How do you say "Volkswagen" in Japanese?
NICE!
Not a surprise that a manual transmission car with twice the mileage that doesn't have the rock like reliability of a Camry took much longer to sell...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:So... how much easier is it to sell a boring, normal people car than an interesting weirdo car? Here's a comparison of the last two cars I sold, both with an initial asking price of $2500:
1995 BMW 318ti
187k miles
Manual transmission
Time to sell: 6 months
Sale price: $17001998 Toyota Camry
96k miles
Automatic transmission
Time to sell: -1 day (literally sold as I was taking pictures to list it)
Sale price: $2000Yes, the Camry sold before I could even list it- the mechanic who inspected it pulled up as I was taking photos, asked how much I was asking for it, then asked if I would take $2k. Car literally sold in negative one day.
Your garage looks much better now without the Camry parked there :)
Who would've thought 5 or even 10 years ago that a 98 Camry would be worth more than scrap metal 21 years later?
You'll need to log in to post.
