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WWCRD - Cheap "beach car" for second home (Irma kicked my car!)


zeitgeist57

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Last but not least jaguar xj. I have several friends and families with houses in Florida and keep these down there as they car for when they come down. https://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/d/1995-jaguar-xj6-vogue-tires/6241308695.html

 

FiL has a 1999 XJ8L I found for him to keep at their condo in our same building complex. It's a great runner, but MAN...the electrical gremlins have been a pain. $1500 starter repair (he took it to a Jag dealer:rolleyes:), RockAuto alternator I replaced, eats batteries, mysterious turn signal indicator death that I cannot trace back to a fuse....the thing has 5 FUSE BLOCKS throughout the underhood, dash, under-seat, and trunk!

 

I like that Lexus though.

 

What happened to the Lincoln? That'll be perfect for Florida. Well, Cadillac but Lincoln is close second.

 

The Lincoln and my BMW convertible are a little more temperamental...both run great, but need a good amount of maintenance. Plus, for the Lincoln the big thing is the A/C doesn't work. Plus, I just love the Lincoln too much to send it down to FL where it will die a fiery death under the sun.

 

Why not search for something down there? You won't have to worry about rust damage that way, especially with having to put brake lines on that Cavalier.

 

Definitely keeping my eyes open. I almost bought a Lexus ES300, but couldn't dump my Cavalier on CL before I left last time I was down there in July. Tried to get $1400 for my Cavy, and the guy wanted me to do some sort of payment plan. I was like "Dude...first, NO...secondly, I've got a 9pm flight this evening." :lol:

 

For FL, you still get some rust, but what you get a lot more of for non-garaged cars is serious sun damage to paint and interiors. It would be a great blend to get a relatively low rust Ohio car that's already up here so I can fix up whatever's needed.

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Clay - so you didn't buy that white ES300? If that's the case, can you throw it my way?

 

CPA ended up trading it in last month. It was a mess...200k miles and he hadn't done any maintenance since 120k. Shocks were blown, brakes bad, tires bad, timing belt would have to be done, oil leaks. I would've gotten it if I sold the Cavalier, but happy I didn't.

 

It ran well, but jiggled on the highway like it was going to fall apart. I was hoping that he had MAINTAINED it up to 200k miles, but I was wrong. :lol:

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*sips coffee*

 

Convertibles would be great (Saab, Chrysler come to mind as cheap cruisers that look good) but I worry about the tops getting damaged in storms, and the ones I see parked outside definitely do get tattered pretty quickly. I see some interesting folks driving around in a beat-up 15yo convertible with mismatched wheels and duct tape on the soft top...not a good look.

 

My other problem is I'll never forget my first trip when I began working in Naples for 5/3 Bank in 2005. I was 27 and happily rented a convertible (ooh! Look at me enjoying the corporate card!:lol::lol:). It was a Chrysler Sebring (of course. It's Florida) and the thing was...THE. WORST. DRIVING. CAR. EVER.

 

I thought it was a 4cyl, with what gutless performance it had. Opened the hood? 2.7L V6. I tried manually shifting the automatic. It was depressing to put this much effort into an automatic and not get anything in return. Plus, the cowl shake - on flat roads, mind you - was terrible. Lastly, the interior was OK, but the visibility was horrendous.

 

That said, a $2000 Sebring would be about all I'd want to spend on one, and NB's post looks pretty good! I can heat-gun the Camry Bump in the rear bumper and push most of it out.

 

FiL and MiL are going down tomorrow afternoon to assess damage to their unit, our unit, and SiL's unit (we are all in the same building complex). He's going to look at my Cavalier. It's got a full tank of gas so I told him to siphon it out for his XJ8L as necessary. :D We'll see if Caddilier is trashed or not.

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been on conference calls with people in FLA all day. Hearing them talk about Naples like it's a mad max movie set because it still doesn't have power. flooding I am hearing is less than expected though.

 

That being said, why not just wait and see if the cav survived. Chances are it's probably fine and just has a few dents and scrapes.

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been on conference calls with people in FLA all day. Hearing them talk about Naples like it's a mad max movie set because it still doesn't have power. flooding I am hearing is less than expected though.

 

That being said, why not just wait and see if the cav survived. Chances are it's probably fine and just has a few dents and scrapes.

 

Yup. Oddly enough our buildings all have power (close to the beach) even though nicer areas further inland are going to be without electricity for another 5-10 days.

 

I told my FiL he shouldn't go down, but they want to see what's up anyway. Will figure out what the Cavy looks like.

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1) Did NB just suggest a Daimler-Chrysler and an awful one at that? :eek:

2) lol VW.

3) lol 2.7.

4) lol @ "seeing if the cav survived" when OP clearly stated the wife hates it and he prefers it just go anyway.

5) FL lol.

6) Best of lick Clay. You'll find something. You always do.

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Interested in an 03 Civic? 130k+ miles drives like a brand new car. AC is colder than the BMW, sun roof...ect. Was owned by an old lady who drove like an old lady and dealer services since 06 or 07. Clean for a Cleveland car!

 

I'll be listing it soon on C list for $3000 CR price $2500

 

http://www.2040-cars.com/_content/cars/images/96/426196/007.jpg

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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

 

My in-laws went down to Naples this weekend to check things out.

 

My Cavalier took some palm debris damage to the body, light stuff. It never flooded where I parked it but he didn't get my keys to start it up. However, he said there really wasn't any indication that the car wouldn't be fine.

 

I'm going to hold off until I go down for Thanksgiving to confirm it's operational. Sounds like it should be. No need for me to plan on buying another car anytime soon. Thanks again!

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