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Mar. 22nd, 2010 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogSo, about my new car.
I've been looking for a sort of a beater used car with a stick shift for a long time. I want one I can learn to drive stick with and, if I blow up the transmission, it wouldn't be that big a deal. Ideally, it would also be small, a hatchback, Asian, and cute.
I got all but one of those things! Mechanic Juan and I drove out to check out a '94 Suzuki Swift I found on Craig's List. I'd looked at one of these a ways back, before I bought the Aveo. It was awesome! A little purple hatchback that was so very cute! But Juan tells me that these are very much prone to the frame rusting out under the front wheels, and that one was no exception so I had to turn it down.
This one, though, has a great, solid body and frame. It has a few other issues, but nothing major. Juan's estimation is that the most pressing issue is completely rebuilding the rear brakes. It has a hole in the exhaust, and it's running too rich (probably a bad O2 sensor). It may need a new timing belt and serpentine belt. It leaks coolant very slowly, which might be a radiator leak. Juan tells me that even if it's a head gasket, the engine is so small that a head gasket isn't that bad a job.
It's small, cute, and Asian. It's not a hatchback; it's the four door sedan. But I can live with that. I hope to get around 50MPG with its 1.3 liter engine and five speed manual. I would have preferred the 1 liter three cylinder over the 1.3 four, but that's ok too. I really do like it.
So with Juan's opinion that it was a really good deal, and with it being basically exactly what I've been looking for for some time, I bought it. I then spent fifteen minutes with Juan in the passenger seat as he taught me how to drive it. I stalled it out more than a few times and I'm sure I'll do it again, but at this point I feel fairly confident in being able to get from point A to point B with it, and I drove it home from the north side of Racine. I'll get it titled when I get paid again, and Juan and I are going to invest some time in it when the weather gets better. I'm going to hold off on licensing it until it's running happily, but I think I'm going to make it my daily driver once it is. I love driving a stick so much!!
I've been looking for a sort of a beater used car with a stick shift for a long time. I want one I can learn to drive stick with and, if I blow up the transmission, it wouldn't be that big a deal. Ideally, it would also be small, a hatchback, Asian, and cute.
I got all but one of those things! Mechanic Juan and I drove out to check out a '94 Suzuki Swift I found on Craig's List. I'd looked at one of these a ways back, before I bought the Aveo. It was awesome! A little purple hatchback that was so very cute! But Juan tells me that these are very much prone to the frame rusting out under the front wheels, and that one was no exception so I had to turn it down.
This one, though, has a great, solid body and frame. It has a few other issues, but nothing major. Juan's estimation is that the most pressing issue is completely rebuilding the rear brakes. It has a hole in the exhaust, and it's running too rich (probably a bad O2 sensor). It may need a new timing belt and serpentine belt. It leaks coolant very slowly, which might be a radiator leak. Juan tells me that even if it's a head gasket, the engine is so small that a head gasket isn't that bad a job.
It's small, cute, and Asian. It's not a hatchback; it's the four door sedan. But I can live with that. I hope to get around 50MPG with its 1.3 liter engine and five speed manual. I would have preferred the 1 liter three cylinder over the 1.3 four, but that's ok too. I really do like it.
So with Juan's opinion that it was a really good deal, and with it being basically exactly what I've been looking for for some time, I bought it. I then spent fifteen minutes with Juan in the passenger seat as he taught me how to drive it. I stalled it out more than a few times and I'm sure I'll do it again, but at this point I feel fairly confident in being able to get from point A to point B with it, and I drove it home from the north side of Racine. I'll get it titled when I get paid again, and Juan and I are going to invest some time in it when the weather gets better. I'm going to hold off on licensing it until it's running happily, but I think I'm going to make it my daily driver once it is. I love driving a stick so much!!
