From: mchaffee@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (REAL LIFE?!?!  HA!!)
Subject: Re: Q: what's the EASIEST car to work on? (novice mechanic wannabe)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 02:11:30 GMT

eric@eeco.cba.ufl.edu (Eric E.C. Olson) writes:


>I need to get another car, strictly for in-town commuting.  I'd like to get 
>something that's EASY & Cheap to work on myself.  I have a decent amount of 
>knowledge about "how" various systems work, and am basically familiar with 
>the various parts, but haven't done a lot of actual working myself.  I want 
>this to change!

>Could the net gods offer their wisdom on this matter?

I can't call myself a net "god", but I have a few ideas anyway.

>I was thinking something simple... like probably no fuel injection, older 
>with minimal pollution control eqpt, something straightforward to work on.
>Maybe VW Bug?  American honest-to-gosh V-8 vehicle (which one, though)?

You don't mention what your price range is, so here goes:

Here comes the biased plug:

If you don't mind doing A LOT of work yourself, consider an old British car.
I have an MG Midget that I used for commuting for about a year.  It's currently
shut down for a full body restoration.  There are an awful lot of drawbacks to
an old British car, though.  For starters (no pun intended) they're not ter-
ribly reliable, but their reliability is underrated.  The only area on my
Midget that has ever stranded me is the fuel pump.  The original electric fuel
pump fitted to the British cars in the late 60s and early 70s is a joke; it
uses a breaker-points system that gums up readily.  But once I replaced my
pump with a modern AC induction rotary pump, the car has been wonderfully
trustworthy; it has never failed to start and it almost always runs beauti-
fully.  Best of all, the thing's incredibly easy to work on (thank God 'cause
I've done enough work on it) and parts are quite cheap.  If you plan to do a
lot of highway driving, though, it's a bit of a pain.  One thing you might 
want to do if this interests you at all is call Victoria British at 1-800-
255-0088 and ask for MGB and Midget/Sprite catalogues.  Both cars are cheapish
to buy, and the VB catalogues will give you a good idea of parts costs.

As for American V-8 cars, look at one from the late '60s/early '70s.  I have
ansolutely no idea what these are going for, but I did a lot of work on a
friend's '69 Camaro over the summer.  Again, easy to work on and parts are
cheap.  The biggest drawbacks are gas mileage and insurance.  I assume you
don't want an aircraft carrier, so look at Camaros, Mustangs, and whatever
the sports model from Chrysler was at the time.

And as for the Bug, look in rec.autos.vw for ideas, suggestions, etc.  A Bug
would not be as easy to work on as a front-engine car, but from my (limited)
working-on-Bugs experience, it's still not too bad.

In any case, if you don't mind an older car, I'd look for a pre-emissions
model.  I can't speak for Florida, but in Illinois, if your car's pre-'69, you
have absolutely nothing to worry about.  Not only are the emissions devices a
pain to work around, but if you remove the emissions crap or fail to keep the
engine tuned just so, you run into some nasty problems with Big Brother.

Anyway, though, make sure you buy a car you like, i.e. one that is fun to
drive (Another advantage to an MG plugplugplug) and make sure it isn't rusty.
A rust problem takes an utterly unbelievable amount of really heavy work to
fix, and in many cases, the rust, even if it looks insignificant, is a threat
to safety.

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE GET A CAR WITH A MANUAL!!!!  Sorry to sound so vehement
about that, but not only are automatics no fun to drive, they're a pain to 
work on.  If you end up doing transmission work, you want it to be a manual
you're working on.  Besides, in my experience, stickshifts are tougher anyway.

Best of luck; feel free to email me questions.
===
Michael T. Chaffee        |******BOYCOTT COLORADO******|  ______    
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