3 Best Cars to Buy When You're Broke

today i'm going to talk about the perfect beater work car in this case it's a 2004 toyota corolla that a customer mine just bought for that very purpose for fifteen hundred dollars now as you can see the hubcaps are gone we go inside the cover for the lock's gone it still works but the cover's gone and we get inside not all that works for wear normally these are all torn up there's only done it a little and the back seats aren't in that bad shape really now as you can see here the weather stripping is ripped and these are all gogs people obviously have been breaking into the car using those jimmies to open it up somebody either locked themselves in or tried stealing the car but what makes it the perfect beater work car is under the hood and yes the prop that holds the hood open is gone so we use this piece of plastic tubing here nice and strong but these four cylinder toyota engines can last forever yes can the automatic transmission in this 2004 it's really not all that different from the transmission in my old cell because it's got 230 some odd thousand miles on it they're very dependable vehicles i'm sure the emblems all worn out but hey this thing's only got 120 2 690 miles that's not much for a corolla now there's no saying how many owners the 16 year old corolla has since they're so reliable you don't have to worry about buying just a one owner one like with some other cars these things can just go and go now in the case of this corolla customer just bought it he wants me to tune it up and give him an overall checkup so the first thing we're gonna do is pop out the spark plugs that'll give us really good idea what kind of shape the engine is in the stupid beauty cover doesn't serve any real purpose then we'll pop out the spark plugs loosen all the nuts that hold the coil on plugs in take them out one at a time then we'll take out the spark plugs no one knows what kind of shape this thing's going to be until we take it apart and outcomes as we analyze it we can see they're tan colored which is what you want there's a little bit of oil burning residue which is typical in a worn engine we're going to change them out but they're the right color the engine's firing good it just burns a little oil which you can expect on an older engine of course you're going to check the air filter pop it out it's really dirty as you can see needs an air filter too so the first thing you're going to do is get new spark plugs and an air filter now when i scanned it with a computer at a code for small evap leaks so i'm going to change the gas cap too it could easily have a leaking gas can so we'll pop the gas cap open it up take off the old one and put the new one on makes a nice click and the other one's got a torn gasket so that makes sense well normally you put spark plugs in dry but i'm using some of this all in one oil and i'm going to lubricate the threads a little bit here because if you remember when we tried to get it out you could hear it was really tight this one we want a little lube because we don't want to ruin the aluminum heads if they're a little bit corroded and you put them in you can have problems so in this case we don't normally do it but on this i'm putting a little oil on the threads so then when we put them in our magnetic socket that holds it in when it goes in it's going to go in smoother you can see i can even do it by hand most of the way then we'll get it snug with a ratchet and as we do the other three we're going to inspect those plugs too and here's number two it looks the same as number one it's the right color got a little bit of oil burning on it but like i said it's normal for an engine like this with this kind of mileage ah here goes number three wiggle it a little to get it out this one's stuck this one's going to require a little prying so i get out the giant screwdriver put it onto the lip and wow that one's really stuck there we go finally it came off let's hope it doesn't have any problems inside oh it comes looks the same as the other ones but you can see the top the rubber kind of melted on goof from the years these plugs were in there sometimes they'll stick like that just keep wiggling and prying you'll get them off now we put this one back in with a new plug and then do the last one number four and we'll inspect this and it's also the same it's the right color it's got a little bit of oil burning nothing outrageous they've been in there a long time so we'll put the last plug in then we'll stick all the coil assemblies back on don't forget the hold down bolts for each one of them and you'll put the stupid beauty cover back on not that it does anything and of course pop the new air filter in gotta wiggle it quite a bit then it snaps on now due to age and probably lack of proper maintenance the oil seals on the front of the engine are leaking a little bit of oil rather than tear the whole engine apart on this beater car i'm gonna stick some of this at 205 reseal it can rejuvenate rubber seals you just pour it in the engine oil take off the cap pour the whole bottle in and it goes then we start her up and warm it up and while i'm warming up i noticed the coolest little low so i'll use some of this pink toyota coolant because you realize when you buy a beater car it's the type of car you check the oil every so often the coolant you just make chunks of stuff because it's going to leak a little while it's obviously using a little bit of cooling you just keep topping that stuff up being a corolla it can still last for years and years if you keep up with the fluids and now we'll take it for a spin hey it accelerates pretty good one of these corollas now you notice the airbag light is on heck the airbags on these things who knows how many times this thing's been wrecked and yeah the ride's a little bouncy when you hit bumps because the struts are worn but hey it gets you down the road it's a good work car for 1500 bucks could last for years then yeah if you hit the brakes hard at higher speeds the steering wheel shakes a little because the rotors are somewhat warped but what the heck it still stops the car you can put new rotors and pads on if you want but i doubt if this guy didn't even care because he's going to college now and he got himself a good college beater car and look the power door locks still work you can't beat this 99 mercury grand marquis now a customer of mine just bought this thing from the original little old lady owner and it's only got 55 000 miles on it look it still looks as sharp as it did the day it was made now we check on the hood it's got the big old dependable v8 engine this particular one's a 4.6 extremely strong engine big engine you'd think it'd be a big gas hawk but these things really weren't this thing gets about 17 in town and it gets a whopping 28 on the highway because the way they're set up the rpms are pretty low when you're going 60 miles an hour it's set up for cruising you can drive these things all day long and check the inside still in immaculate shape and it's got semi-bucket seats it's not the old bench seats like they had when i was a kid no the back's a little more couchy but you can see man there's some serious leg room in this thing and this one's unique because it's got the digital dash it's still working perfectly fine too of course it is power everything radio's got a lot of set buttons on it for something this old 1999 it's pretty well set up and look the wood dash is still in good shape tons of headroom for you big people look i still got a whole bunch of room before my head hits it check out the back seat a lot of leg room in these things close the door nice solid door too hey there's a lot of room inside this thing it is not small and of course the trunk it is gigantic just goes and goes and goes and check out the original wheels 21 years old man they're still shining look at that it's amazing let's just say they don't make them like they used to i see modern cars they're three years old and the allied wheels are already pitting they made things well back in the day and if you do need to fix things look at the working room you never see that anymore the ac is still blowing ice cold power steering's still working the abs is still working they did start to put beauty covers on these things i don't know why they bothered but you know even back in 99 now with this overbuilt engine and a solid transmissions these things can basically run forever if you take care of them but this one will stir up starts right off it's only got 55 000 miles on it check it out this baby isn't even broken in yet see these things with 300 000 miles on it it's a 21 year old car that's only got 55 000 miles on it even the rear defroster still works and check out the digital readout not something you need a science degree to operate look you want to check the things you just push a button it goes to the different ones you don't have to think oh which button do i push then what do i do simple to use as you can see here i just turned the overdrive off with the overdrive turned on he's getting in the high 20s on the highway in this thing and realized it's a classic rear wheel drive car they handle the best people that are real serious about driving they almost always want rear wheel drive car there's a reason race cars are rear-wheel drive they just handle better this thing is the classic rear-wheel drive i've seen the differential still working fine even with 300 000 miles on them pretty much you take care of it with normal oil changes and regular maintenance they can last forever so let's start it up start right up take it for a little spin now realize they are kind of like land yachts when you drive them you more or less point and sail they are a cushy ride but you know they're not tight handling it's an old design and with that big old v8 engine oh wait all these people are out of the way so i don't scare them you punch it it gets up and goes and the ride hey it's smooth even though it's 21 years old you had bumps all this weight absorbs most of the bumps and it's not that sloppy when you're cornering that's strangely enough my customer is a teenager this is his first car so you know it goes from the old generation to the young generation and there's a lot of people buying these things now a lot of younger guys are suiting them up some of them turn them into low riders it's a giant platform you can do whatever you want with it now odds are you're not going to find too many 21 year old ones that only have 55 000 miles on it from the original owner but there are a lot of elderly people that buy these the crown vics a lot of them don't drive that much anymore luckily had good control the car's not full of dings i get quite a few of them come over here that they're still running good but man they got a lot of bashes in them from running the stuff in parking lots but this one's whistle clean hard finding one with that kind of low mileage but even if they had a hundred thousand miles on it i've seen these things go over 300 000 miles you just pay less money that's all but if you find a cherry one like this somebody's asking five grand odds are it's gonna sell for five grand don't try to argue him down real far and then the next guy comes in with five grand and buys it from under you so really if you're looking for a family cruiser or you're like my customer a teenager just likes old big american cars you really can't go wrong with one of these can you get a car that actually runs good and makes a great work car for 400 this guy seemed to have done it and yes it's missing a few side molding and the bottom of the bumper here is held on with a zip tie and the seller didn't tell him until he got there that well the interior was kind of gutted but really that makes for carrying things a lot easier you can put all kinds of stuff in here here's the perspective from the back there's a lot of space in there now but hey all four doors still work and sure the paint's faded away a little but it is a honda here we go this guy owns a lot of hondas [Music] starts right up and sure the airbag system doesn't work anymore but the seat belts do and they work perfectly fine now this thing does have 377 832 miles on it but listen to the engine it's just humming along these honda engines honda really is probably the best mass production company for engines in the world all that mileage is it clinging and clacking no it isn't [Music] the only noise you really hurt was the cold air intake because when you put them on it will make a car noisier that's why a lot of guys do it it will make more sound that way the box in most cars the air box is also to keep cars quiet most people want quiet cars but with these hondas a lot of guys soup them up now granted this battery came from another car he paid 125 for that entire car and this battery came in it so he put this in his driving car that's one of the big advantages of hondas you got choices so many parts there are so many interchangeable things you can get you can always go to a salvage yard and you can have fun and don't have to spend much money if you remember the video i made a few weeks ago on a mazda miata he bought the miata in a junkyard but it had ugly wheels so what did he put on it he put beautiful honda alloy wheels on it which the guy in the junkyard gave him because he was buying the car so not only do honda parts with hondas they fished some other cars too now how can these things last so long well you know how check out the sticker made in japan by honda motor company and sure back then the japanese maybe they weren't so hot at painting cars this bmw the same year kind of a difference in the paint there now this little bitty engine may only have 102 horsepower and a whopping 98 pound-feet of torque you rev them up in a light car like this they're still fun to drive now of course this is a work car and as a work car you're not going to be doing drag racing in it you really don't care it's going to get you where you're going is going to be ultra dependable even with all this mileage on it because it's a honda now back in the day when i was a young mechanic people would say i'm not buying one of them foreign cars you can't get parts for them huh let's say the starter brakes on this well one it's a standard transmission so you can push start it anyways if you have to but you can go to any autozone odds are they'll have a starter sitting on a shelf to hand to you they're not hard to get parts for they don't cost much this is like the ultimate 400 dollar transportation car not just like oh it's a stopgack i'll buy this maybe it'll last me a couple of months this thing might last another 10 years who knows and of course if you want to go crazy you could take the shell and you could soup it all up you could do whatever you wanted you could put another engine a supercharger and have a real sleeper car because they're set up that if you change the suspension a little bigger engine it would be one screaming car but in this case it's a transportation car this thing can run all over the place and it still gets 40 miles a gallon if you want to drive on a highway but just normal driving you get 30 32 miles a gallon and the thing hey you can't argue with that the owner just told me the best gas mileage he ever got he was driving in texas to tennessee he was doing about 90 miles an hour and he calculated it when he filled it up going back and forth that he got 42 miles a gallon going 90 miles an hour they have these things really well built there's no arguing that i mean let's face the facts would you buy a 400 car and drive it 90 miles an hour from texas to tennessee and back well if it's a honda it obviously didn't here's the proof it's sitting right here and you're certainly not going to attract the police's attention in this thing it's not a red screamin or orange or yellow sports car let's take it for a spin starts right up it even makes it up hills look at this now what shocks me is even in the twisties this thing still handles good and it really doesn't ride all that bad listen to it go all those miles it's still got guts in it here it goes from a standing start [Music] not bad for a 400 car is it this is still a fun country driving car take it out have a little fun you can't beat it for 400 okay now comes the big question yes it's a 400 car but how long is a 400 car gonna last he bought it for 400. three years ago and you just went for a ride in this thing you hear how it still hums don't think it's oh well you know oh it might last a couple weeks hey sometimes when i rented a car in boston at the airport to visit my son there i had to pay 700 bucks to rent a car for five days the 60-hole for three years for 400 bucks and has it broken down well truthfully it broke down once the distributor stopped sending fire it broke it's typical on these oh and it's such a hard job to change here's the distributor there's a bulb here here and here that's it what did the owner do he went to an o'reilly it's an old car right guess what they had a brand new one in stock for about 165 bucks he didn't even have to order it you get a mass-produced car that's as well made as a honda they're still extremely dependable transportation so there you have it a 400 car three years later and yeah it's got a few dings in it but are you gonna worry about this thing when you take it to the walmart parking lot no you aren't so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that bell [Music]

Channel: Scotty Kilmer

Views: 793,188

Keywords: auto, auto repair, car, car diy, car repair, cars, diy, how to, mechanic, repair, scotty kilmer, car review, best cars, best used cars, best used cars to buy, buy, car buying, cars to buy, cars you should buy, good cars, good cars to buy, most reliable cars, reliable cars, reliable used cars, top 5, top most reliable cars, used, used cars, used cars to buy, used cars you should buy, vehicles, broke, broke people, broke people buying cars, 3 best cars to buy when you're broke

Id: T-jgfpkqVSQ

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 11 2022