Bought a car for my son today

[blkfordsedan]

Well, my 20yr old son broke up with his Girlfriend again (hopefully for the last time) and she took car again. Back around Thanksgiving I tried to find him basic transportation of his own for around $1000, but everything in that price range was junk. Today I bought a really nice Mercury Tracer for $800 cash. It has the 1.9L with an auto. 144K miles, runs like a top, no rust, no oil leaks and a perfect interior. The only real issues are a cracked windshield and warped front rotors.

[Charlie1717]

I hope he's grateful. Looks like a nice car!

[1988festivazoom]

Good buy! Too bad its not a 1.8

[91blufestiva]

If he treats it right, that car will last a LONG time. My girlfriend has had an Escort 1.9 auto for about 2 years now and all that's been wrong with it is an altenator, and those are easy to change on those motors, right on top! I like the white too! Nice buy!

[ejp2fast]

parts are also very abundant for the 1.9!!

[hckrphil]

What a nice father you are.......but maybe if you made him feel the pain of having to buy one on his own he wouldn't let it go so easily haha After all, he is 20 now Sounds like a great buy......... hell, $800 bucks, can't go wrong there

After looking at the pics again, I've actually owned the exact same car...... my tranny went at about 100k, fixed it with a junk yard tranny...... at 125k it was going again so I traded it in..... other than that, fantastic car!

[Safety Guy]

Nice looker!

Now make sure he knows it's his to take care of. You can teach him, but he needs to do his part and LEARN.

And appreciate his nice car providing father!

Karl

[htchbck]

Nice clean car, love the wheels too. My wife and I are looking for a 'scort/tracer either 4door or wagon so she can have a spare automatic car (she doesn't like my stick cars). They are good little cars and will run forever as long as you don't beat them into the ground. Problem is most for sale around here have been beaten into the ground

[blkfordsedan]

What a nice father you are.......but maybe if you made him feel the pain of having to buy one on his own he wouldn't let it go so easily haha After all, he is 20 now Sounds like a great buy......... hell, $800 bucks, can't go wrong there

After looking at the pics again, I've actually owned the exact same car...... my tranny went at about 100k, fixed it with a junk yard tranny...... at 125k it was going again so I traded it in..... other than that, fantastic car!

It's a long story. His long time girlfriend took out a loan and bought a Dodge Magnum several years ago. She had her father co-sign and titled it in her name only. She didn't want to continue making the payments, so my son made the payments for her and in exchange got to use the car as his own. They broke up, he moved out and gave the car back, and now she has to deal with it. He's off the hook with no liability. Actually, I thought he did pretty good! The factory he worked at closed, so now he's only working part time at WalMart

I put the new Tracer in my name and I will let him drive it as long as he needs to. He wants to pay me back, so i told him once he gets back on his feet financially, I will either let him buy it from me or he can find something else he likes better and I'll keep it. $800 is cheap for a spare car to keep around, even if I only need it for a year or so. The people I bought it from bought it new and always did regular maintenance. The trans fluid, oil, etc. all looked really good. If I can get another 25K miles out of it, I'll be happy.

[Charlie1717]

It's a long story. His long time girlfriend took out a loan and bought a Dodge Magnum several years ago. She had her father co-sign and titled it in her name only. She didn't want to continue making the payments, so my son made the payments for her and in exchange got to use the car as his own. They broke up, he moved out and gave the car back, and now she has to deal with it. He's off the hook with no liability. Actually, I thought he did pretty good! The factory he worked at closed, so now he's only working part time at WalMart

I put the new Tracer in my name and I will let him drive it as long as he needs to. He wants to pay me back, so i told him once he gets back on his feet financially, I will either let him buy it from me or he can find something else he likes better and I'll keep it. $800 is cheap for a spare car to keep around, even if I only need it for a year or so. The people I bought it from bought it new and always did regular maintenance. The trans fluid, oil, etc. all looked really good. If I can get another 25K miles out of it, I'll be happy.

Sounds like he's trying to do it right. Good luck to your son! And I'm sure if taken care of the tracer will last.

[Lannis]

I'm doing that exact same thing for a friend, trying to find cheap transportation that will hold up for a while.

I can tell you that it's not easy ... anything advertised on the "open market" for $800 is generally uninspectable, non-running junk.

The typical running $750 car has a cracked windshield, non-working instruments, and needs about $750 in parts to get it on the road.

Getting help through friends is the only thing that's been working for me. Classified ads and craigslist are a vast automotive junkyard below $900 ....

Lannis

[htchbck]

The people I bought it from bought it new and always did regular maintenance. The trans fluid, oil, etc. all looked really good. If I can get another 25K miles out of it, I'll be happy.

I bought my MX-6 from the original owners about this time last year with 257K on the clock. Rolled it over 277K on the way home from work yesterday. They took great care of it, and I'm doing the same. They said when (WHEN not IF, lol) it hits 500K they want me to bring it back by and show it to them. Oh, and there are decent cars on CL under the $750 mark... you just have to look very very often and be very patient, and as soon as something does come up, call in sick to work and go buy it. They don't last long.

[neanderpaul]

Good buy! Too bad its not a 1.8

Although the mazda BP is a great beast the 1.9 is an extremely durable motor as well. A friend is driving one with 250k on it and the engine has never been touched.

You done good dad. Tell him I said to respect it and to thank you.

[blkfordsedan]

Drove the car home today (50 miles on the highway). I was impressed! Once I got 35psi in all the tires, it drove nice & straight. I did find some small rust spots under the rear wheel lips, but you have to search for them. The rotors and brakes aren't as bad as I thought (still tolerable) and it wasn't as underpowerd as I remembered. Probably due to the low tire pressure when I test drove it. The only issue that needs immediate attention are the tires. They need balanced bad and 2 of them leak air. Since they only have about 20% tread left, I think I'll just go to WalMart and have 4 new tires installed. I plan on driving it myself for a month until my Festy is back on the road and let him drive my truck. It runs & drives like the Protege I used to have (no surprise there) and the speedo even makes rattling noises like the Protege did.
My son already wants to install his CD player, amps and giant sub-woofer this weekend. I told him if he "rices" it out I'll beat him profusely.