Least drama beater commuter car?

[pauldun170]

A lot - 108k. Every car in my ridiculous low budget was 100k plus anyways. Funny thing is that the odometer malfunctioned so they swapped it, and now it read 3k But he was completely honest and showed me the carfax stating the actual mileage - I suspect this is why he sold it for as low as he did, dealers would never accept it as a trade in with an incorrect mileage reading.

Service/ maintenance - this kid was a pre-med nerd who loves cars and trained with his dad (who i met), he really went above and beyond documenting when recall issues were resolved, saved every service receipt, etc - I'm fairly confident that I have little to worry about, but I didn't specifically ask the timing belt question because I don't know what a timing belt is

Googling BCM, thanks for the heads up. Paint - I'm going to get a good wasH and wax and start from there. I doubt I'll paint it but, with some TLC the thing will look new. 90 pound nerd without a girlfriend means the seats are still like new and the interior lovely (i mean that as a compliment, he's a really nice guy). He's the 2nd owner, the first being his sister and he was helping her maintain it back then too.

Oh- one defect he told me about - passenger side window needs a new regular, which is no big deal because our nissan had that problem less than 2 years into ownership and it cost like 60 bucks to repair. is regulator what it's called? I obviously don't know what i'm talking about

108K is actually low miles considering the age of the car.

The 2.7 in your Hyundai is an interference engine and if that belt breaks, engine will be toast. The timing belt in your car should be changed every 60K. On Hyundais of that era, you should assume it will break at EXACTLY 60,000 miles. Dig through the receipts and confirm it was done. If not you are looking at 550-700 Timing belt replacement this month. If it was done when it was supposed to be done, you are looking at 550-700 timing belt replacement in 12,000 miles.
At 108K, I'd also be ready for O2 sensors going flaky.

Window regulators should be fairly simple. As you change them, you can at least know that somewhere, there is a old VW\Audi\Mercedes owner doing the same thing.

Don't trust "gear heads".
A lot of "gear heads" toss pointless shit on their car and then neglect items that they judge to be unworthy of fast and furious ("I gotta CEL but its just some emissions crap so I just ignore it").

 

[slackerinabox]

thank you! ill def get it checked out then.

aftet getting a painting estimate, yeah, ill give buffing a try

unless anyone has anything good to say avout maco...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

... car dealers are pretentious at times.

Depends what you're doing for the car dealership, and what management is like.

Most of the car dealerships around here, the mechanics and other non-sales employees drive a mix of beater cars of different brands. (Because that's what they can afford) They usually park 'em in the back, but if you see a cluster of rusty Cavaliers, Accords and Corollas behind the Acura dealership, well, duh.

OTOH, if you're working a sales job for a BMW dealership, I'd assume that they expect you to have first hand knowledge of how the cars drive/handle/etc.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

108K is actually low miles considering the age of the car.

NYC car. You gotta calculate those miles like dog years.

 

[slackerinabox]

actually upstate ny miles, i doubt i could find that deal locally

 

[sontakke]

unless anyone has anything good to say avout maco...

A real paint job will cost you tens of thousands of dollars, probably even more in NYC. I bet somebody is going to argue against it and provide URL for a guy roller painting his car. OK but OP is not the guy who will or has the ability to paint his own car.

JUST FORGET ABOUT REPAINTING THE CAR.

 

[Yuriman]

A real paint job will cost you tens of thousands of dollars, probably even more in NYC. I bet somebody is going to argue against it and provide URL for a guy roller painting his car. OK but OP is not the guy who will or has the ability to paint his own car.

JUST FORGET ABOUT REPAINTING THE CAR.

Agreed. In 2 or 3 years, that $500 paint job is going to flake off, leaving the car looking worse than when you started.

 

[sontakke]

The best option is try the Meguairs by hand on a small 1 foot x 1 foot section. If there is amazing difference, you can consider getting random orbital and pads and then completing the car with that or just use your elbow grease but it would be physically exhausting to manually bring the shine back.

Alternatively, start hanging around on web where enthusiastic detailers are found and get a recommendation for a place which will detail your car. For few hundred dollars, he can make your car look like new if the paint is salvageable. If the clear coat is peeling off, then you have to forget about the looks. That is NOT fixable (for reasonable amount of money).

GET MAACO OUT OF YOUR HEAD

 

[pauldun170]

The best option is try the Meguairs by hand on a small 1 foot x 1 foot section. If there is amazing difference, you can consider getting random orbital and pads and then completing the car with that or just use your elbow grease but it would be physically exhausting to manually bring the shine back.

Alternatively, start hanging around on web where enthusiastic detailers are found and get a recommendation for a place which will detail your car. For few hundred dollars, he can make your car look like new if the paint is salvageable. If the clear coat is peeling off, then you have to forget about the looks. That is NOT fixable (for reasonable amount of money).

GET MAACO OUT OF YOUR HEAD

Agreed.
This is a 13 year old Hyundai on the verge of some significant maintenance items(timing belt\sensors) that was purchased as a beater commuter car.
Budget was 2K-3K and car was purchased at 2200.
Any money saved on the purchase price should be put towards keeping this on the road legally or other things.

Detail the car your self (clean\polish\wax) and leave it at that.
Also...get a cheapo obdii scanner