Help me pick between festivas.

[taxcider]

Hi,

Noob here, just dumped an 11mpg supercharged cobra, and am about to purchase a 40mpg festiva. I'd like some feedback on two potential machines.

Both 93 L models.

Red one:
115K miles
new clutch
new tires
new axle spindles/bearings in the rear
Needs brakes soon, and muffler is going.
Clear title, regist through 06, smogs fine.
Asking $800 and is pretty firm about it.

Blue one:
124K miles
new struts
new tires
brakes are okay
engine and tranny good
salvage title. (from cosmetic body damage, allegedly)
Asking $850 but very flexible.

I am about to go test drive and look at both of them, but I'd really like some input if you have any. I just want a reliable beater for intown use.

[Tim]

hmmm...

I'd say go for the red one.


Regards,

Tim

[gdawgs]

Either one's probably a good choice. I'd probably go with the first one since it has new clutch, spindles and bearings.

Mufflers go out on these all the time, so just get a lifetime muffler take it back every year or two for the free replacement.

Brakes are cheap and easy to do yourself.

For the money, you can't go wrong. They both have low mileage on them.

If you really can't decide, buy them both :lol:

[25Horseplay]

I'd pick the red one. but if one looks better in appearance than the other maybe I'd go by that because they both seem to be in good mechanical condition.

[Safety Guy]

Look for corrosion, although the '93s aren't as bad about this. First place I look is the hard brake lines where they meet the hoses.

Test drive them both and a clear winner may appear.

If not, see if the blue one can be had below $600. Check that front end really well for bent stuff.

Two years ago I bought my red '93GL for $600 out the door from a dealer who just wanted to get rid of it. It needed rear wheel bearings, a good interior cleaning and eventually it leaked coolant, but I felt it was a great deal. Bought it with almost 160K miles and I'm finishing up a B6 swap on her now.

Karl

[Silv3rBull3t]

Red, red is always faster than blue! :lol:

[taxcider]

Well, I test drove the blue one.

Had a bit of a rust issue with the exhaust up front... it hadn't broken through yet, but it looked pretty well eaten. Also, there was some oil around the valve cover gasket (I think it was the valve cover gasket, I'm no gearhead :? ). Don't worry, I plan on buying some manuals asap! :lol:

No CV joint issues, and the coolant looked okay. I forgot to check the brake lines. I didn't see any abnormal bends or warping in the engine compartment, and the cosmetic damage on the sides didn't seem bad, so the salvage title does seem a bit curious.

I'll be checking out (and likely purchasing) the red one tomorrow, prior to getting fat on turkey and cornbread stuffing. Whoot!

Thanks for the input - feel free to offer more.

[jofo]

Salvage titles are a pain in the rear end.

[taxcider]

Okay, now I've test driven the red one.

The muffler is needed right now. The brakes are pretty badly shot, they stop the car, but they grind the whole time during driving (this would be the drums maybe?). The coolant was brown and kinda sludgey in the overflow container. Is that the "milkshake"? It mainly looked like rust in there.

There were a few wires that looked a bit rigged up. Apparently, there was some alarm system added to the car at some point. The electric seat belts actually moved in this car (the blue car's did not move), but the belts themselves were kinda torn up. I heard a few clicks doing a slow tight turn (checking for CV joint issues).

The engine compartment in general was much dirtier than the blue one's was, and the heat shield(?) on the front part of the engine was pretty rusty. The blue car had no rust on this part.

So, the red car has already had a lot of stuff fixed (in original post), but will need new brakes and muffler immediately (dollar estimates anyone?). He will go to 700 on it, and offered to do the brakes himself if I buy it for 800 (not sure how I feel about that).

The blue car seems to need no work right now, and I don't have a solid figure, but imagine I could get it for 700. My worry with this one is, how much will bearings/spindles be if I have them done? Also, potentially I may need that exhaust tube replaced up front.

I'm not too worried about the salvage title, geico says it's not an issue for them, and if I'm paying that little for the car, I don't mind (am I missing some other important aspect of salvage titles?).

The speedo needles on both cars twitched a bit, the blue car's was worse. I'm leaning towards the blue one now, but would like a few opinions on the latest data.

Thanks a lot for any tips - I'm actually getting stoked about getting one of these critters and eventually getting a little greasy (on my own terms)!

[Fastiva55]

red or blue

Wow..after hearing all of that about the red one, I think that the blue one sounds like a WAY better choice.

[Safety Guy]

Get the blue one if it drives right and then do the Aspire suspension swap for better brakes and handling.

Just check it out thoroughly. Should be okay if it's not been submerged or in a bad wreck.

Karl

[aithanmier]

lol well if it still drives then who cares if it was submerged? i'd be more worried about structural damage. it's alot cheaper to replace carpet than to have the unibody repaired. just my .02 but not that i mentioned it you might wanna peek under the carpet for floorpan or subframe rust. i went for years thinking mine didn't have any, now it's gonna take longer to fix lol.

[Pgh5spd]

Welcome to great mileage and great handling.

Buy whichever one has the better body, especially parts that don't unbolt. Places they start to rust first: subframe under floor, rocker panel-to-floor seam, leading and trailing end of rear wheel opening, below radiator. Unboltable parts: bottom of hatch, door sills, leading edge of hood. And then, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but one I bought with a real nice body shell but the door window rails were essentially rusted thru in front of the rearview mirrors. Really strange, I've never seen another one like it, but on this one both doors were shot while the sills weren't bad.

I've never bought one that didn't need brake attention, and changing halfshafts isn't a big deal. Emergency brake cables also tend either to be shot or to have been recently replaced.

First suggestion after you get it on the road: unless you are closely affiliated with more than one other person, remove back seat. It's amazing how much you can haul without it, and people rarely want to ride back there.

[taxcider]

Tomorrow I'm having another look at the blue (I actually stand corrected, I believe the proper name for this color is "aqua" :lol: ) one. Going to have another peek for rust and bent stuff, then assuming that's okay, I'll have it smogged, negotiate a price, and bring it home.

I like the fact that the blue (I mean aqua) one currently runs without any issues - no money out of my pocket immediately to fix anything. Maybe down the road I'll regret this, but I hope not.

Should I be freaking out about the oil around the valve cover gasket?
I'm attaching pix of the engine of both blue and red, plus the exhaust worry on the blue. Thanks for all the advice so far!

[FB71]

first off, they're both cleaner than the one I'm driving! Secondly, a valve cover gasket is about $20 in parts and 2 hours of your time, if you've never worked on cars before. The rust through in the pic appears to only be the heat shield, not the actual pipe. If that's the case, don't even worry about it.