Tips For Buying A Beater

August 11th, 2010 by ComputerBob

I think the cheapest car my wife and I ever bought was back in the late 1970s, when we spent $200 on a 1966 Volkwagen Beetle — the last of the 6-volt Beetles — that wouldn’t even start.

That was all we could afford at the time, so that was what we bought.

I learned a lot about fixing cars — and more specifically, fixing Volkswagens — from that “bug.”

Of course, the first thing I had to learn was how to replace the starter, which was located on the front of the rear-mounted engine, underneath the car.

The second thing I learned was that there was nothing wrong with the old starter. The only reason it hadn’t been able to “turn over” was because, unlike the “sealed” starter motors on just about every other type of car, the starter motor on the 1966 Volkswagen Beetle had an open-ended motor whose exposed shaft fit into an inch-long sleeve bearing that was mounted on the engine itself — and that car’s sleeve bearing was worn into an oblong shape that allowed the insides of the starter motor to scrape against the inside of the motor’s case.

So all that car really needed was for me to remove the worn sleeve bearing and install a new one that only cost a couple of dollars.

I returned the new starter for a refund — the old one worked perfectly, once I replaced that sleeve bearing.

For years after that, by necessity, my wife and I owned several other old cars — each with its own unique opportunities for me to learn more about auto repair.

Unless it’s your dream to learn a whole lot about auto repair, my best advice to you is to spend as much as you can afford to buy the most reliable car you can find.

If you can’t afford very much at all, here are Eleven Tips For Buying A $1,000 Beater On Craigslist.