Which is none unless you're willing to drop 5k on one that was either a barely used detective car, a demo police unit, or one owned by someone's grandparents that's only driven to the supermarket and church. For decent USDM first cars, i'd probably point people more towards a Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Ford Taurus, or Nissan Altima. Pretty reliable cars, and will last a long time new or used provided you don't beat the piss out of them.
Pickings are pretty slim for ones that havent seen taxi/ heavy police use and need transmissions, and also ones that havent been donked.
Go with a 1992-2012 Ford Crown Victoria, i highly suggest getting ones that aren't beaten to death or ex-emergency vehicles.
You know, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the FIA isn't literally evil. My reasoning stems from the death of GT1 and maybe GT2 (may be GTE now, not sure). What rose to take their place as the top level of international GT racing? GT4 and GT3, BoP-strangled "gentleman racer" classes that are all about the show, all about the close racing, all about making everything fair as if it was a video game and not real life. Racing the way it used to be, you had a set of rules for each class, you had rules for what had to be shared between the racing and production versions, and you had minimum production quantities for the road versions, and the result was, as manufacturers vied to come up with the fastest car, racing technology tricked down into road cars, making them better and faster. Now, anything your engineers giveth, the FIA will taketh away in the interests of competitive balance. On top of which, P2 is a borderline spec class now. The stated rationale for F1 going to the turbo V6 formula was to boost production-relevance, but I think it's a sad day when only turbos are production-relevant. Note also their heavy promotion of electric and even autonomous cars. Food for thought. Good thing we here in the States still have the SCCA; it's almost all privateer until you get to the top levels and, except for Spec Miata, Spec Racer Ford, and to some degree American Sedan, it's pretty much BoP-free too.
Yeah it can be pretty random. I think they put the heating on in summer to help the engine keep cool (like putting the heater on in your car when it is overheating) as sometimes the buses can overheat (especially with double deckers) as the rear engines only have the side intake for air. Where I am there are no buses with airconditioning. Sometimes coaches have it (rare). But when i'm on the bus it's around 4pm and the bus has already covered about 5 miles of stop and go traffic (and they probably are on a cycle anyway). I was on a bus and near where the radiator (heater) is there was a cover that was left off (or broken) and well there was a standard TRV like you would see on any other radiator! I turned it up and away it went heating up the bus! But the cover was quite useless as it would block the TRV from sensing the temperature. Also seen some buses with weird ventilation. So basically on almost all of the buses I am on, there are holes ontop of the windows and a fan is forcing air through these to try and mitigate the misting (this isn't heated air-that is on the floor by the sides). But once I was on a bus and it was pretty cool (radiator not on) but very humid. I'm not sure if the driver was controlling it but the fan would kind of be like this: woosh *lights and other electrics cut for a second* WOOOSHHHH And then the cycle would repeat. Never seen anything like it since.
To quote Oasis, "You make me laugh". 2 guys I know well recently bought decent-mileage 2004 Mercury Grand Marquisses (same car as CV, just a bit more upscale) for less than $3k. If you're willing to go older and more luxurious, another guy I know bought a 1994 $2k Lincoln Town Car in absolutely top trim, with a good mileage reading, and spent some $600 to make it one of the best on the road. --- Post updated --- Then just a damn Grand Marquis. Also, knock off that obnoxious posting style. --- Post updated --- Mercury Grand Marquis, Ford Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car, Toyota Sienna, Mercury Villager, Nissan Quest, Buick Park Avenue/LeSabre, Oldsmobile 88/98, Pontiac Bonneville, Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima.
Just saw an ad for the Eclipse Cross. It made me cringe. "Bringing back a classic" they said. Yeah, in the form of yet another shitty crossover!
Except that today's crossovers are like yesterday's coupes - tarted-up sedans and hatchbacks. Say, early Mustang and Escape. One was a tarted-up Ford compact, the Falcon, the other is the same, but on a Focus. Or VW Scirocco and Tiguan. One is a tarted-up Golf, the other is... well, the same.
Im aware of this, though I was mostly focusing on the Crown Vic itself, seeing as I live in a city where they are the most common panther body you'll see on the street. Here, specifically it's a bit more difficult to find non-molested panthers less than $3-5k, versus other places outside of the city/ out of state where you can find decent ones much cheap. Though, I guess i don't know where xBeTox is, or his ability to travel, so I can't really speak on that. no, u
It's difficult to find any nice, unmolested car for less than $3-5k. If he wants to spend under $3k he'll have to settle for something that isn't in perfect condition, but that money will go a lot further with a panther than most other cars. People seem to think that when you're buying old police cars there's nothing between mint detectives cars and worn out patrol cars. Just because it's white and saw patrol use doesn't mean it's worthless junk.
Too bad you said 2000 or older, because I would have recommended a 2003 3.2CL Type-S, based solely on the fact that it's an interesting not-so-little tuner that pretty much no one paid attention to at the time, let alone remembers now, and it looks good with some light rice. Before that? I don't know. They didn't make many cars earlier in their history, so you're likely to get a lot of basic answers and not much else.
Okay, I made an error with that. I should've said "younger" instead. The CL seems like an good choice for an 21st century coupe, might get that later in the future.
Well, that's an good thing. Any SUV suggestions? (Can't be the CDX, since it's Chinese only, and isn't allowed to be exported yet.)
