>I young student side-swiped our car a few days ago totaling it. We > need a new one. I can do everything on a bike, but Blanche cannot. > Michael Perelman
--------------- Do what I did. Look for a low milage, 90s Toyota pick up with a rear Leer or equivalent camper shell. I found one after a few weeks looking on Craig's list. Look at the undercarriage for little or no mud or gravel, look at a plastic bed liner for few scratches, check the tires for brand and tread wear. Open the bonnet and look at the engine, should be moderately clean, but not fresh steamed. Check the oil with the oil stick. It should look brown and not recently changed. If you have a spark plug socket, take it with a rachet and check the plugs. They should be gray-brown. I wanted a four speed manual trans, but settled for the automatic. I took the truck for a drive and checked the acceleration, braking, and general handling. I rev'ed it up several times but only saw gray brown exhaust. You Check the papers, pinkslip, smog cert, etc. Talk to the sellar about the truck and get the truck story. See if you believe him, try him a little. I found the guy mostly honest. It was funny, he was completely tone deaf to any mechanical language. He couldn't change a tire on kid's bicycle. I asked when he last changed the oil, since it looked filthy. I never changed the oil. Wow. I noticed a giant oil splash on the the underside of the hood (aka bonnet). I realized somebody had left the oil cap off the valve cover where you put in oil. There are a lot of advantages to a use car or truck. Look around for some model that has remained popular like Toyota or Honda. They delivered a lot of good engineering, and saved on less meaningful things like interiors and and stupid options. Their best models are mostly stripped of convienences My seller inherited the truck from his father in law and used it for his job as a local sports reporter. Newspaper parking stickers were in the front window corner where they could be easily seen by parking lot attendents, cops, etc. I asked him what camera he used. Cannon digital. I went inside for a meet with his wife who made most of the finance decisions with good reason. She was a harder bargin. I decided on principle to make a low bid of 5 hundred less, even if the asking price was theorectically fixed. You never know. I got some off the 4k asking price for the oil smear, a couple of dents, and a small star fracture on the windshield. I think the kicker was the hundreds in green backs cash in hand. I brought 4k, but stuffed 5 hundred in my pocket, to be taken out on demand one by one. I was happy, they were happy. The one thing I forgot was the battery. Of course it died about nine months after I bought the truck. It was some off-brand, shit battery probably resurrected from the dead after a bout of long term storage. This year I dreaded the dreaded smog check at a smog check only station. It passed. I had done nothing but put in gas. No oil, no plugs, nada. Well think about it. CG _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
