Good morning! I hope you all had a good weekend. And I hope you didn’t come here looking for nice clean used cars, because we don’t have any of those today. Both of today’s entrants are actually sort of impressively rusty. I don’t expect you to actually want either of them, but I do hope you enjoy gazing in rapt wonder at the huge chunks of them that are just plain gone.
On Friday, I asked a serious question, and from all appearances, most of you are just as baffled as I am. Why would anyone pay twenty grand for a car that’s essentially the same as one that can be bought for a fifth of that? And yes, I understand that it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, with the salvage title on the California car and all, but honestly, to me, even that one seems too expensive.
One other thing that stuck out to me in the comments were quite a few mentions of residual/resale value. This is something I’ve honestly never taken into consideration when buying a car, or anything short of a house, really. The thing costs what it costs, and I’m either willing and able to pay it, or I’m not. And if I sell it later, I check to see what other people are selling similar ones for, and undercut them a little bit. What I initially paid doesn’t even factor into the equation; that money is gone. It’s not worth what I paid for it; it’s worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. In any event, the consensus seems to be that the imported Integra is not worth the asking price.
So, let’s move on. Rust, as our buddy Neil Young once sang, never sleeps. In the case of today’s two cars, it slammed a bottle of No-Doz and washed it down with a two-liter of Mountain Dew. The oxidation process has been very busy on these two, but the good news is that they’re both excellent runners and drivers according to the sellers. Does it matter, though? You be the judge.
1990 Subaru Legacy – $2,450
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter overhead cam flat 4, four-speed automatic, AWD
Location: Madison, WI
Odometer reading: 97,000 miles
Runs/drives? Runs great!
All-wheel-drive Subarus are popular cars in snowy parts of the country, and Madison certainly counts. The ability to just plow through snowdrifts is a wonderful thing, especially in a cheap car that you don’t have to care about. The trouble, of course, is that the snow isn’t hard on cars – but the salt used to clear it away is murder on them, sometimes literally.
This first-generation Legacy sedan has fewer than 100,000 miles on its odometer, but it looks like all of them were acquired during the winter. Road salt has made such a meal of this thing that the entire rear door sill corner is eaten away on the passenger’s side. Both rocker panels are Swiss cheese, the lower portions of both front fenders are absent, and the bottoms of the doors aren’t too far behind. Someone has attempted to disguise the damage, or maybe just distract from it, with some half-assed spray painting, but somehow that just makes it worse.
It runs great, the seller says, and has had a bunch of recent work done. The timing belt, head gaskets, exhaust, radiator, and rear brakes are all new. My question isn’t why they did all that work to such a rusty car, but how. I had a Honda Accord once that was so rusty I couldn’t put it on a lift to replace a blown rear brake cylinder. I ended up junking it because I just couldn’t safely get it off the ground. And this one looks a lot worse. How in the hell were they able to do a brake job and exhaust on this thing without it breaking in two?
But since it’s all been done, it could make a decent winter beater, though there’s no way of knowing how many winters it has left in it. I do find it amusing that the seller points out that there are no child seat anchors; who in their right mind would let their baby anywhere near this thing?
2004 Ford Ranger – $1,350
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3 liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Palm Beach County, FL
Odometer reading: 150,000 miles
Runs/drives? “Perfect”
Full disclosure: If you click on the link above for this truck, you’ll discover that it has already been sold. The listing was two hours old when I downloaded the photos at noon on Sunday, and by 7:00 PM, it was gone. This rusty-ass Ford Ranger sold in just nine hours. I’m writing this based on what I remember of the listing, but the photos tell most of the tale.
LIke the Subaru, this one has big chunks that simply aren’t there any more. The rear cab corners are completely rusted away, as are the rocker panels, and the rear wheel arches are certainly not the shape they were when it left the factory. Both the front and rear bumpers are rusted through from the inside out as well. It has a plastic bedliner that I think is probably structural at this point.
The seller did say it runs “perfect,” and the air conditioning is “ice cold,” so it’s got that going for it. Mechanically, these little Rangers are hard to kill anyway, and with only 150,000 miles on it, I wouldn’t expect much to have gone wrong. It’s usually rust that kills these trucks in the Midwest, but you don’t expect to see one so eaten away in Florida. The only thing I can think of is that it spent a lot of time in proximity to salt water, driving on the beach or something. The Baywatch trucks probably look like this by now, too.
I get why it sold so quickly – these are great little trucks, and what’s left of this one could probably still be useful. But man, you almost feel like you need a tetanus booster just looking at it.
Since moving to the west coast eighteen years ago, I haven’t given much thought to rust on cars. It just isn’t much of an issue out here. Sure, cars out on the coast, exposed to a lot of sea spray, get rusty, but usually in places you can see; they don’t rot from the inside out, slowly shedding chunks of rocker panels and floor pans. But frankly, most of the cars I had when I lived in the midwest weren’t this bad, either. But sometimes it’s fun to look at the extreme cases, because it’s actually impressive just how rusty cars can get without buckling under their own weight. I don’t envy the buyer of the truck, and I’m not suggesting that any of you rush out and buy the Legacy, but if you did have to choose one, which would it be: all-wheel-drive traction and comfy seats, or heavy-duty hauling capacity?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
One would like to assume that the frame in the truck might protect you in a crash, and you might only be harmed, instead of killed in the Subaru
The Ford is dangerous, but the Subaru is murderous
In the land of the rusted out shitboxes, the full-framed vehicle is king.
I dunno, I’ve seen plenty of full-framed vehicles where you could pull a protractor out of your pocket and see exactly what angle the departed midsection had created.
For sure, they all have their limits. This Ranger isn’t there YET. Its time is limited, no doubt. Forced to chose between these two, the Ranger is the clear winner IMO.
Neither but that truck purchase is probably for parts or farm use out in Loxahatchee.
The Ranger has a better chance of not folding up like a moist banana but I wouldn’t load too much depleted uranium in it
Hard pass on both.
Neither of these vehicles belong on any road or track.
You could get some life out of the Ranger as a farm truck, maybe…. Or it could be worth $1300 to use for some YouTube stunt?
I certainly hope whoever bought it has enough respect for the lives of people around them not to drive it on public streets.
On the Ranger, not only the body rusts, but the brake lines, and the rear spring hangers, these are pretty common fail points. The spring hanger isn’t very expensive, but on the driver’s side you either need to pull the bed and gas tank (maybe not too bad a job, but you probably have rust fasteners to deal with) or do what I did and twist some fine wire around the bolt threads and snake them up through the frame.
Anyway, point is, at some point rust goes beyond cosmetic and become a safety/reliability issue. Don’t know where or how that kicks in here on the Subie, but anyway, if looking for a winter beater I would take the Subaru, which will get through snow much better than the light rear ended two wheel drive truck. If I want to haul stuff occasionally probably the truck, but the Subaru is trashed enough I would feel bad about throwing whatever inside the hatch, so having worked through it, I think the Subie wins on versatility.
I was going to say the same things about the rust areas on the Ranger, and that pulling the bed to fix them becomes very problematic when the bed is also made of rust. When I lived in the Great Lakes region, I had a friend whose Ranger had two odd rust breaks on each rear fender wells from trying to lift the bed off to fix the springs – the bed sides gave way to our hands rather than lift the bed. Trying to lift lower was even worse, so more people were called in and it was lifted off from underneath. It was a pain.
It’s not rust, it’s weight reduction. I voted for the truck but going back and looking a closer look at the photos, it looks like it’s about the break in half like those rusty Toyota trucks put on a lift. It’s still cheaper so I’ll stick with it.
Call me weird, but I love this generation of Legacy. But I still voted for the Ranger.
I saw the comment earlier about these Rangers suffering from rusted out frames, but I think I’d be willing to take my chances.
I’m 100% with you—that’s one of the all-time great greenhouses. But that spraypaint nonsense is just too much on top of the rust.
Rust in FLORIDA? 😮
I still voted for it over the even-worse Subaru
Probably spent time driving on the beach, I see that a lot in coastal NC too. It is common to see trucks with clean front ends and rotten rear areas too from backing boats down the ramps.
How did they do the brakes and exhaust on the Subaru? Easy, you jack it up on the rear diff in back, and then the transmission in the front. You don’t jack the whole car up, just one end at a time.
You might say this isn’t safe, but in looking at this Legacy, safety doesn’t seem paramount at this point.
I’ll take Ranger because it has a convenient place to toss all the rust chunks it sheds.
Oh, rust and smoke!
The heater’s broke,
The door just blew away!
I light a match
To see the dash,
And then I start to pray!
https://genius.com/Da-yoopers-rusty-chevrolet-lyrics
Da Yoopers? Haven’t heard or thought about them in years!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Lived in Illinois years ago, several friends were Upper Peninsula ex-pats, they introduced me to Da Yoopers; really funny stuff, you have to spend some time up in that part of Michigan to really appreciate!
Now I’m craving Cornish pasties..
That Subaru looks like it was a background decoration for a post-apocalyptic tv show when they needed to show rotting cars. $245 would barely be a fair price.
I wouldn’t pay tree fiddy for the Loch Ness monster.
Well the Ranger is cheaper and may get you a few more $ when you scrap it (based on weight), which should be soon.
Well, since “Neither” is not an option, I went with the one that will keep an extra 11 Benjamins in my pocket.
The Ranger is a project truck. You have a home or garden project that requires frequent hauling, but you don’t want to trash your daily’s interior to get it done. So you buy a clapped out old truck and will it to live long enough to complete the project. Then you sell it for a small loss and forget that it ever existed.
Yep. I can do 2 10 day temp permits without a valid safety where I live. A little foresight and planning and that is 3 weekends of work I could get out of it.
You’ll end up buying a second project truck to haul the broken pieces of this one out of your garden after it breaks in half when you try to haul anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04cwo850t3o
Ranger is as bad or worse than the Sub- Rangers have a rep for rusted out frames and the mismatched horizontal lines on the body is a dead giveaway.
Even so it still wins. A worthless pile of rust for $1350 is still a better deal than a worthless pile of rust for $2450.
When I was a kid my old man would take his cars to the 25 cent high pressure car wash about once a week and just blow all the shit off the undersides to get the salt and stuff off.
His cars never rusted.
I still don’t get why 60 years later why most people don’t do that. It’s not frickin brain surgery, just common sense. But hey this is America and we reserve the right to be idiots. YMMV.
Ranger for the win, but I live next to Fla., and can smell this pice of crap hundreds of miles away.
Some of my favorite memories are when the sprayers were stuck on the SOAP cycle, or broken. Or when the bastard ran out of quarters to rinse it off. Good times…
Well most people don’t want to operate a car wash when it’s 5 degrees outside, for one thing.
Yeah. Get that. That’s when he would make his kids do it for him.
Why do you think I called him a bastard? /s
Where I am they close a -20c
Am thinking the rust does sleep when it gets that cold?
Seems to me that liquid water on metal is more corrosive that solid water, but am not a metallurgist..
What are your thoughts?
No, solid water sticks to the metal. The salt turns snow into slush, and that slush coats the entire lower half of the car and sticks to it.
I thought the same thing. For example, parking a car in a heated garage every night would melt the crust and activate the salt. I’ve heard that washing your car prevents rust (as Col Lingus said) and I’ve heard the exact opposite. Also that undercoats work, and that undercoats are bullshit.
The real solution is to lease a new car every 3 years.
If you do, try to put a layer of cloth gloves underneath the waterproof layer. I found that out using deep freezers at work. You sweat under rubber gloves, so it makes things feel cold really fast without a cloth layer.
It’s even easier now that they have non-touch carwashes with underbody sprayers. Don’t even need to get out to spray the salt off.
Except where I live, these are usually also fucked up and just coat the vehicle with soap. Life in Alabama just sucks sometimes.
Happy Turkey Day to all.
’cause now the high pressure car wash costs $19.50, if you can even find one that gets underneath and doesn’t buff the paint off your car with “all cloth” full of the sand and dirt from the previous guy’s car.
Maybe because those 25 cent wash areas are now $10. So I bought a pressure sprayer.
Did that 20 years ago. But it’s a pain in the ass.
I’ll let you know once I put it together. It has being over a year. Aah procrastination where would I be without you?
Statistics show that even paying $12 every few weeks for an automated car wash will pay off for the long-term value of your automobile.
Life shows me that washing it by hand pays off even more. The last auto car wash ripped off 6 feet of window weatherstrip. Of course my car is probably as old as you are! /s (2009)
Ha! The temps where I live have approached freezing every night for the last couple of weeks. Also, I have clothing I wear which is older than your car. (Not proud, not ashamed. It’s still comfortable!)
Choosing your automated car wash is tricky. I discovered our previous wash wasn’t giving a proper under body spray. The nozzles could have just been dirty that week, but it was worth it to check. I haven’t been back to test again.
Bless you man. Yeah as an old fart I have t shirts that are over 30 years old.
Happy Holidays amigo.
I guess it’s Ranger if I have to choose. I can’t believe someone spent the time and money to do all that engine work to the Legacy and it seems like they are trying to get the money from that bad decision out of the buyer. There’s also an extra 0 on that price.
You don’t want to put kids in the back seat because the extra 40 pounds of a car-seat and kid will probably fold that unibody to the ground.
Body On Frame W/ chronic rust is leagues better than a unibody with chronic rust. Factor in the Ranger is nearly half as old and its parts have some value and most importantly, HALF THE PRICE, yeah Ranger all day every day. Also bonus points for photos not being taken on a 15 year old potato point and shoot.
Danger Ranger!
For $1,350 I’d have poked at the frame, cab & suspension mounts, and definitely the brake lines. If all that seemed mostly sound, eh, why not? These feel not quick, but almost eager—like a happy puppy, so can be a fun beater
Since neither one can be driven on the road (where I live) I’m looking at what would be better to use around the yard/woods, and that’s the pickup.
The ranger is body-on-frame, the subaru is not. Thus, even with the body returning the earth, the ranger has a higher likelihood of being structurally sound.
Also, https://youtu.be/OFvL8263dc4?si=yS5z37sAaMwp9Frx
I don’t know any subaru songs.
Theres plenty of Subaru songs. Making Love in a Subaru is one.
There’s always Crying In My Subaru.
https://youtu.be/JL7iyqTcQF4?si=oHyhLZyBMauLJDkO