Good morning! Today for your viewing pleasure, I have two station wagons. One is a garage ornament, and the other is, well, you’ll see.
But first, let’s see which scooter you chose on Friday:
Yep, I suspected as much. And I agree. But to the commenter who voted for the Honda and invoked The Legend of Billie Jean in doing so, bravo. Fair is, indeed, fair.
Now, to new business. You all like station wagons, right? How about broken ones? How about, um, colorful ones? Well, you’re in luck, because that’s what we’ve got today.
2005 Dodge Magnum R/T – $2,100
Engine/drivetrain: 5.7 liter OHV V8, 5 speed automatic, RWD
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Odometer reading: 110,000 miles
Runs/drives? Nope, blown head gasket, and has been sitting for years
The Dodge Magnum seems so good on paper. A rear-wheel-drive station wagon with a Hemi V8, and Mercedes-derived suspension? Where do I sign up, right? But the styling is weird. It always looked sort of squashed, like the front is too big for the rear, and the roofline is too low.
While lesser Magnums had either 2.7 or 3.5 liter V6s, this R/T model features eight hemispherical combustion chambers under its oddly-shaped hood. Unfortunately, this Hemi isn’t going to be lighting up any tires anytime soon; it has an unspecified leak in a head gasket, and has been parked in that state for a couple of years. I can’t imagine what leaving a car to sit with water in the oil for “a year or two” does to it, but I can’t imagine it’s anything good.
This car is also filthy inside, and the exposed speaker wires (or whatever they are) don’t speak too highly of its condition either. It’s all fixable, I imagine, but is it worth it? You decide.
But first you’ll have to extricate it from a garage full of crap.
[Ed note: A V8 wagon for $2,100. Hot damn. I’d almost be willing to deal with cave-wall-hard interior plastics. -DT].
2001 Ford Focus Wagon – $1,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter inline 4, 4 speed automatic, FWD
Location: Decatur, GA
Odometer reading: 138,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep, great!
You don’t see too many Focus wagons. And it’s kind of a shame, because they’re a good useful size: not too big and not too small. The Focus’s styling isn’t to everyone’s taste, but it doesn’t look nearly as weird today as it did when it first came out.
At least, most Focus wagons don’t look weird. This one? Well, as you can see, it features an interesting custom paint job. Someone attacked it with three cans of Krylon, and the results are not attractive. I thought maybe the colors were meant to represent some country’s flag, but to what end I can’t be sure. Food delivery, perhaps? But is it likely there is a Guinean restaurant in Georgia that delivers? In any event, you’re not likely to lose it in a parking lot.
Okay, you’re thinking: Yes, it’s painted in three different colors, including the rear windows. I can live with that. You can’t see the crazy colors from the inside, right?
Guess again. Whoever painted this thing was dedicated.
The good news is that it runs well, has low miles, and is a just-right-sized wagon. You just have to accept a little spray paint in your life. But hey, at least it isn’t beige, right?
One of them could be fun to drive, but doesn’t run. The other runs great and is very practical, but hurts to look at. Sorry, you gotta choose one. What will it be?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
The focus is only a case of black spraypaint away from being a cool shitbox.
I love my own Focus of this gen, so it’s an easy vote for me.
But aside – is that really all the space there is in the Magnum’s engine compartment? If so, wow…seems like working on it would be extra annoying.
I guess Focus, but this might be one of the worst faceoffs so far.
The cold air intake, the exposed wires probably going back to some shitty Pep Boys subs, the shit on the seat. I feel like the Magnum may have some serious problems from past abuse and neglect. Be prepared to need to do extensive repairs beyond the so-called head gasket.
The Focus. It runs, it has that going for it. The spray paint is bad. The spray paint on the interior is worse. Those extensive cigarette burns are just the cherry on top. Maybe if I could score it for $200. Scrape the paint off the windows. Rattle can it black or something and put a dash cover on it.
$200 is about right. As others have commented, even with a crap-ton of elbow grease and solvent, you are still left with a $1500 vehicle.
I can’t believe it’s this close… Sure the Magnum has a “reputation” but fix the engine, don some tyvek, clean the interior and you have an $6-8k vehicle. Clean the paint off the outside and inside of the Focus and you have a… huh, $1499 vehicle, that smells like acetone and cost you $500 in solvent.
“fix the engine”
I think the word you’re looking for is “replace”
Is that Focus really at a dealer?? Any dealer that desperate is probably not someone you want to buy anything from…
That Focus is beyond fucked. I couldn’t give a shit less if that thing runs or not. Even without the deranged interior paint job, it is GROSS. There is just too much to set right. I have been bit by Chryslers of this era, but the Magnum will actually be a real car when you are done with it, and worth throwing a bit of money/time at as they have a following.
Hard Core Crack Pipe. I vote for none of the above, just like Brewster’s Millions.
I’ll take the Focus. It looks like a low budget Golf Harlequin.
Ugh at least the Harlequin is purpose built.
Both of these are bad. I was on Team Focus until I saw the interior. The Magnum is not embarrassing and has spent at least one night in a garage. If my job isn’t depending on working transportation, I’d throw in with the Magnum.
Like Dirty Harry, give me the Magnum. It is fixable vs rattle can mess that is the focus.
If it wasn’t for the paint, the focus would be a contender.
I really wanted to vote for the Magnum. Those are great. This particular one is all but wrecked. Head gasket would be the least of that long-suffering vehicle’s problems.
I voted Focus. It would be a splendid car to make people drive for a week when they lose bets. I know I am in the minority.
That Magnum has literal shit smeared on the seat. Who knows what that biohazard smells like inside it! I’ll take the Focus and rattle can over their rattle can job.
You keep saying that but it is clearly not the case, it’s just the grey dye wearing off. Seen this many times in Chrysler products of this era.
It’s just shit… it’s like sprinkles on ice cream…
https://youtu.be/Ft4kEk5CHrE?t=172
Man, you Focus fans are weird. Well, not really. You can like Foci all you want without shame. But I really don’t get the Magnum hatred among people that profess to be Car People. Especially ones who purport to like station wagons. (Though I’ll never understand the brown manual wagon schtick… is it just because there are maybe twelve of ’em out there at any given moment?)
And Mark… my man, you know better than this: “But the styling is weird. It always looked sort of squashed, like the front is too big for the rear, and the roofline is too low.” I know the kids hereabouts are too young to appreciate a chopped top, but you should at least recognize where this look comes from:
https://www.google.com/search?q=chop+top+chevy+nomad&hl=en&authuser=0&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ALiCzsYi6uXfLyvHhZUmaqa4cSXCoy_9lg%3A1667844331441&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=929&ei=60hpY4GDF82uqtsPm_mG2AI&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAY2lW-0qpxxNHpWFVfoCdvlcdV2nF5jeQ&ved=0ahUKEwjBpKan1Jz7AhVNl2oFHZu8ASsQ4dUDCAc&uact=5&oq=chop+top+chevy+nomad&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoFCAAQgAQ6CAgAEIAEELEDOggIABCxAxCDAToLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6BwgAEIAEEAM6BggAEAgQHjoECAAQHlAAWPEyYNo1aABwAHgAgAGpAogBpBySAQYwLjEzLjeYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img
I’ve wanted a Magnum since they were new, and this one is intensely fixable. People with more experience specific to this engine than I currently possess might argue, but to me “blown head gasket” does not automatically translate to “needs engine swap.” Ask David Tracy. And yeah, it could use carpet and seat upholstery, but the interior was never any good, and this could look sharp indeed with a new custom interior. Which you’d totally have to do on the Focus anyway, because all the soap and razor blades in your medicine cabinet are not going to salvage that Ford’s interior… and THEN you have to address the exterior too. That Focus is permanently ugly, unless you’re prepared to put in much more work than the car was ever worth. To be fair, its condition doesn’t scare me. I’ve happily driven things just as ugly. But I would never pick it over the Magnum, certainly not by thinking it would be easier to set right.
There’s nothing really wrong with Magnums besides being a product of that era of DaimlerChrysler (i.e. poor build, crappy interior plastics, etc.) so it’s basically a ‘could have been great’ if it wasn’t cost-cut to hell and back. I really wish it had continued production into the FCA era so it could receive the improvements the Charger and 300 got. Meanwhile, the first-gen Focus was genuinely a revelation amongst compacts when it first came out by driving and feeling more solid than basically any of its competitors. Sure today it’s just a ‘crappy old small car’ but no doubt people are nostalgic for the gen1 Focus because of its contemporary excellence, and I think the New Edge styling has dated incredibly well (when not covered in various shades of spray paint).
I know where it comes from. Never been a fan of chopped tops.
Whilst that Focus does resemble the Ethiopian flag the most, I associate the colors with Jamaica due to Rastafarianism. I feel like I’ve seen more than one Jamaican restaurant use those colors because of that association.
Guinea or Mali are more correct (depending on what side you’re facing), but those specific colors tend to be used in many African flags, because they’re the colors of the Pan African movement.
I thought this might be a different sort of delivery vehicle, if you smell what I’m smokin’. Ethiopian restaurant makes a lot more sense in Atlanta, obviously.
Still, nothing you can’t scrape off and rattle-can over – that Focus could be a fine driver after a weekend of scraping and huffing fumes (paint on the outside, thinner and/or other Nasty Solvents on the inside) and would be a fantastic LeMons car at half the asking price. The Magnum could be cool, but it could also be a frustrating money pit.
Man… FUCK whoever did that paintjob to that poor car. Why would you do that to the inside?
Looks like the work of an ex girlfriend
Exposed speaker wires = lazy
Rattle-can paint job INSIDE the car = deranged
Cheaper, runs and drives, would probably look OK after a Comet wash? Focus is the clear winner.
That Magnum is going to eat its price again just to get on the road, and even then it’ll still look like a Magnum after.
It’s also got literal shit on the driver’s seat!
When I was a senior in college, I managed to persuade the local CDJR dealer to let me test drive one of their Magnum R/Ts unaccompanied. I explained I’d be graduating soon and was thinking about a fun, but reliable vehicle to commute to my first job. They either didn’t care or, somehow, actually believed me. Maybe it’d because I was dressed up. Anyway, I pushed that about as hard as I was willing (sorta, not really) and for as long as I believed was safe and reasonable (not very). But for the time I drove it, it was very fun. Having come from a 2000 Corolla with the 3 speed auto, it felt like a carnival ride. Very cool car, but I can confirm, even new, I knew that the interior was pretty bad. I’d buy this one.
Today’s showdown is like voting for President, I don’t like either of the options.
These both look like good vehicles for jumping off ramps.
I for one always loved the Magnum, despite it being Mopar. I have a long history with the short end of Mopar design..
I went with the Focus because of lower mileage and the fact that it runs. Primer and a razor blade would clean up the exterior. The inside would be a challenge, but that is what vinyl/leather dye kits are for.
It would be a lot cheaper to clean this mess up than rebuilding/replacing the V8 in the Magnum…and then would still need the interior dealt with.
“this R/T model features eight hemispherical combustion chambers under its oddly-shaped hood.”
Except… modern “Hemi’s” don’t actually have hemispherical chambers, do they?
No, they aren’t true hemispheres for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that with modern engine tech, hemi heads are demonstrably worse than a lot of other configurations.
They do if you look at them through the eyes of marketing….
https://www.motortrend.com/news/hemi-engine/
Call it poetic license. There are enough engineers on this site already.
From what I can tell, when you talk Chrysler Hemi’s, the only ‘actual’ Hemi is the 2nd generation 426. The original production Hemi and the current Hemi’s might share something with an actual Hemi design, but I think they retain too much of a standard wedge-motor design to be classified as Hemi in anything but Chrysler marketing.
Could be wrong though.
There are actually several Ethiopian restaurants in Metro Atlanta (my wife loves Ethiopian food and we’ve eaten at several of them when visiting the great Hell Hole that is modern ATL).
But I would take the Dodge any day. Its worth saving.
If you’re looking to buy any car for about 2 grand, it’s probably because you need transportation NOW, and not some project involving a V8 swap.
My vote goes to the running Focus.
I don’t know if you can assume a vehicle that has not just been neglected, but purposely defaced is ship-shape mechanically and ready for a state inspection…I’m pretty sure even people desperate for a set of wheels are not looking at either of these.
The Magnum every day, and twice on Sunday. It deserves to be saved from the current meth- I mean, owner, and it’ll actually be worth something once you put all that effort in.
Also, Mark’s take on the Magnum’s styling is bad and he should feel bad. ::storms out in a huff to go take a rip around the block in my red ’05 Magnum R/T::
As probably the sole commenter who has heard of Guinea, much less living currently in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, I had to vote for the Ford. If it’s in fact the Malian or Senegalese flag (but missing the star, of course), my vote changes to the Magnum.