Fucking. Finally.

But it wasn't as easy as that!

According to Facebook I put the Jaaaaaag, my 2004 S-Type R, up for sale on December 14th, 2021. OVER A YEAR AGO. Fourteen days later, a man named Ron messages me asking questions and seemingly interested in buying it. Little did I know this would set in motion over a year of on-again off-again messages and negotiations that finally ended in this.

His wife paid in 20s.

And was very drunk.

It was.... taxing.

To roll it back slightly, on Wednesday I marked the Jaaaaaag as "pending" on Facebook marketplace, not because I had a buyer but because this weekend I was planning on starting the work needed to get it "BaT ready" and sell it at auction. Basically I needed to take it off the market to commit to doing the work.

And, of course, this guy messages me.

Like... wat? You were planning on making the six hour drive today, without actually like... talking to me first?

This was not the weirdest part.

So after trading a few messages I was relativly convinced he wasn't coming.

And then I get the message today

Like... what? You're heading this way but didn't think to like... ask me if I was available? Agree on a price or terms? Get my name, address, or phone number?

Cool dude. Cool.

So I call him... his wife answers, and hangs up.

Ok well uhh... imma get on with my day and like... whatever...

After a great meeting with the Alfa club I get a phone call... dude is about three hours out and was on the way to Tulsa.

Ok. Sure.

So I gave him my address and told him I'd see him soon...?

And, sure enough, four hours later a white suburban rolls up and two people pile out. No... wait... three? There appears to be a young child or... person with special needs in the back?

Oh god it is his wife...

Ok ok ok... so they're all kind of a handful bug against all odds came armed with battery powered shop lights and immidiatly descended upon the car, going over every inch of it.

Good! I was 100% honest with this guy and had nothing to hide.

He wife proceeded to gush about the color, leather, and look of it... like you would do because it is beautiful.

After a short test drive, they checked the codes, completely blocking the road and worrying the neighbors in the process, and everything came up as expected.

Ok... so did we have a deal?

WE DID!

And now came the hard part...

His wife, who had been acting very... strange up until then. Talking over people, moving excessively, just generally being... odd.

Then, as she was intensely looking for a bill of sale, I went over to the car they arrived in and OH MY. That was a lot of empties plus a half full Corona.

Cool. I mean... if I was passenging for a six hour drive I guess I'd like to do it that way too...

So then we started counting money...

And counting...

And counting...

And re-counting...

And starting over...

And oh god why is this taking so long!?

Well... because they insisted in paying in fucking 20s.

And she was drunk.

Terrific.

A thousand hours later, we finally got the money counted, the title exchanged, the bill of sale signed, and, most importantly, them and the Jag out of my driveway.

Success!

Oh god I need a drink...

By the time I got the phone call he was already gone.

Late last night my partner discovered my 12 year old dog, of my avatar, sleeping in his bed. After failing to rouse him, he found him unresponsive and didn't appear to be breathing. He carried him downstairs to our friend who rents the garage apartment, a former zoo keeper, and after attempting rescue breathing drove to the emergency vet.

I, of course, am/was out of town for work. I got the call at 11:50. My partner was at the emergency vet and they were looking after him. Shortly after he explained the situation, the vet came in and gave the prognosis: based on body temperature they could attempt CPR but the likihood of bringing him back was slim to none. I declined, not wanting to put anyone through that, and that was the end of the very best boy.

No one is really sure what happened. Apparently he had a normal day, played, watched squirrels, and hung around. At some point he went upstairs to nap, normal for him, and... never woke up. Best we can tell it was an undetected heart problem or... something. No use speculating so, and I can't stress this enough, lets not.

I am devastated, but take some comfort in knowing he went peacefully in his sleep and we didn't have to watch him have a long decline in heath or have to make the very hard decision I knew I was coming eventually.

I didn't get much sleep last night and have not cried that hard in my life. I got to experience all the tropes. The numbness, the hollowed out feeling, the pain in my chest, the feeling of sliding into a pit not sure if I was afraid to hit the bottom or afraid I wouldn't...

As for what to do now, I have no idea. We have another week of work to do, my whole team is here and what we're doing is very important. On the flip side, I don't think anyone would blink if I loaded up the car and drove the 8 hours home today. On the other, going home and spending the next week without much work to do (as stated, everyone is here) and the empty spot in my office here he usually lays... doesn't sound ideal.

I'm inclined to stay and my partner is cool with that, but I'm about to meet with my boss and see what he thinks.

"Dog A" as I refer to him on here, his actual name being Miles, was my first dog as an adult. I picked him up in 2011 while on a job in southern Kansas. He was cute and weird and we had an instant bond, so when the sheriff came to round him on my last day on the job, up I threw him in the back of the work truck and he has been my best bud ever since.

He was quirky and stubborn and smart and just the best dog I'd ever had the privilege of spending time with.

He will be greatly missed.

How does a fresh-off-the-line R1T compete with our eclectic mix of off-roaders both on and off the road? The answer likely won't surprise you Oppo.

For better or worse I decided to post the details of our shenanigans over at the Oppo Drivetribe. If anyone wants to share it to the offroad tribes you'd be doing me a solid for sure. Right now I'm sitting at a frankly pitiful number of view and I don't know if that is because I posted to the Oppo tribe or because it is early yet.

All that said, as a treat to Oppo and to encourage you to click through, how about some Oppo exclusive content that didn't make it into the main article?

Some details on R1T problems

Still going to be a little vague because these are all issues I expect will be fixed soon, if they haven't already. Basically Andrew had a number of software issues. For us, the two big ones were his speedo reading incorrectly and his fugging brake lights.

The former we suspect was his car not doing the math right to calculate speed. Basically felt like he'd been fitted with larger wheels and tires (which I think is true for the offroad package?) and the speedo was off. He checked the settings and it was indeed programmed with the right tires, so something was off in the code. This was mostly annoying because we spent a lot of the trip with him in the lead and as a result going 5 under the speed limit on the highway.

Speaking of annoying things with the Rivian in the lead, the adaptive cruise suffers from the same problem as many of the other systems I've used: the following distance is laughable. The Rivian's system, in a lot of ways, is better than most. I recall being in a rental Camry and having it routinely come up behind someone on the highway only to slam on the brakes right before I started to change lanes to pass. The Rivian at least is very gradual in its slowing down, but for those of us following that means Andrew would lose 5-7 MPH before he started to pass. For him, no big deal, for me in my old Rover regaining that speed while going 60+ MPH is a process. (The Rover is great and almost peppy at the low end but suffers on the highway.) Unclear if this is just how these systems work or if this is something they're going to fix in the future. For my part I've encouraged Andrew to have them look into it. But (again) in my experiance this isn't abnormal and at least a lot smoother than most systems. Just not great for a convoy or a semi-inattentive driver. (I suspect Andrew drives a lot slower when we're not around...)

The last and most silly problem was with the brake lights. No, they work great... sort of, but when in cruise (or possibly all the time? I wasn't clear) the brake lights activate when the car goes into regen. Basically this is the equivalent of an ICE car turning on its brake lights every time you let fully off the gas and begin engine braking. While yes, an electric car can do a whole bunch of engine braking and any amount of hard regen should activate the brake lights, this was any amount of regen, the net result being his brake lights would turn on all the time and we learned to ignore them. Andrew very much knows this is a problem and I expect they'll tweak it soon.

Nice things about the Rivian

The last bit was that Rivian as a company was very chill and supportive through the process. Admittedly Andrew very much has an "in" with them, but like... when shown the write ups about this trip their response was "nice photos!" Additionally I know Andrew received at least one patch early in the trip to fix some issues he was having.

In a lot of ways it was really cool to be part of... ugh I never know what to say here. The car isn't in beta and it isn't a prerelease but like... clearly Rivian was getting a ton of data from this trip and it was cool to be a part of that early feedback process. My impression is up until now yes they've had a ton of people driving and road testing, but this one of the longer trips they had no control over. I mean... if nothing else it was an over 4,000 mile trip (for him) with a healthy mix of terrains, speeds, and temperatures AND he had three car nuts tagging along. I believe he briefly had the highest mileage customer delivered car too. Anyway, all that is to say it was super cool to be part of that process and be able to give feedback on what I actually believe is a really really cool EV.

Anyway, I am super looking forward to seeing Rivian succeed and put out more killer products in the future.

Other stuff

Uhh so I took this photo but didn't have the hear to make the required dad joke about breaking down/ checking the oil:

Our hotel in Death Valley was also crazy expensive but very pretty:

I did get in a "fight" with an employee which was "fun". We rolled in after a looooooong day and could not for the life of us figure out where the front desk was. Finally we ventured up a tiny narrow driveway to discover this was (probably) check-in! Neat. But there was nowhere to pull over or park. Not neat. So I just... parked... only to have an employee that was lounging in a golf cart near by come and start barking at me. Like dude... I get it.... I bet people do this all the time and cause huge problems. But also I suspect it is literally your job to prevent me from doing what I just did. I was clearly confused and sort of looking around... maybe like... come over and help? Direct me where to park? Or like PUT UP A FUCKING SIGN THAT SAYS WHERE TO CHECK IN AND WHERE TO PARK TO CHECK IN?

But I'm totally over it.... :ahem:

Anyway... here are some other random photos that I like but didn't make the cut: (cc: @Photography )

Anyway... main article is here on Drivetribe! Hopefully this was enough of a bribe to get you to click through!

So imagine this... it is 2007, you've just graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, and the would is your oyster. You have no ties to your college town and could move anywhere. However, you'd just started dating someone a few months ago and things are going pretty well, but they're still in school for another two years. Long distance is a no-go and you're not sure you want to put down roots in your college town.

What do you do? Why... get a masters degree of course!

So, two years later, it is 2009, you graduate and everything has gone to shit. Job market is shit. Economy is shit. The future looks grim.

So... you don't want a PhD and are very over school, so you must wade into a job market that has almost no jobs and will almost gaurentee your lifetime earnings will be lower than your peers before and after.

Terrific.

So you apply to every job you can find. In town, out of town, across the country. You apply, cold call, write letters, send out resumes, and try every other trick in the book to get an interview. You do get a few, but why would a company hire a newb at a time when so many experienced workers are on the market.

May comes around and you have to move out of your on-campus apartment. You've already picked out a loft apartment to move in to with your significant other, a big step in your now two year old relationship, but still no job in sight.

Getting desparate, you continue spraying out your resume, interviewing where you can, and following up with those you've interviewed with. One company you notice you've not recived a yes or no from desipte your interview being a few months back. You follow up again and... they offer you a job!

An hourly field service position.

Still. A job. You take it.

The job is... unexpected. It is at a power services company. Half the time you're in the office doing compliance calculations and modeling, the other half of the time you're in the middle of nowhere cleaning and servicing power equipment in large manufacturing plants. It isn't that bad but staying in $60/night hotels (though at least you get your own) and working into the wee hours doing manual labor you can't help but think "I have a fucking masters degree in electrical engineering... how did I get here?"

However, due to the manual labor of it, you start acquiring tools and the knowledge of how to use them. You know how to solder, but now you're learning about wiring, crimp terminals, zip tie guns, nut drivers, impacts, tap and die sets, and all sorts of stuff that is far from a multimeter and oscilloscope. It is fun!

Two years in you've amassed a modest tool collection and the knowledge of how to use them, but are deeply tired of the job. Long nights and surprise travel are wearing thin and impacting your social life and relationship. You're making a hell of a lot more than you did when you started, especially factoring in overtime, but you're ready to get a desk job.

So you start the applications and whoring process that is trying to find a job during an oil downturn. Still, you manage to leverage your mechanical knowledge and degrees to get a comfortable desk job designing and testing large power electronics! Hooray!

However now you have all these tools, knowledge of how to use them, and money. Maybe it is time to think about getting a project car...?

And that is pretty much how it started! I bought a project car, sold it, bought another, and so on and so forth and now I'm here. Four or five project cars deep on a weirdo car forum that I've been engaged with, in some form or another, for six years.

It is weird to think back to that crappy job and wonder what would have happened if I'd got a desk job instead. Would I have eventually learned how to use tools and bought a project car anyway? Would I still do my own wrenching? Would I still be here?

Furthermore, I've 100% leveraged my knowledge of power and electronics into my next two or three jobs and even to some extent to my current career switch into "cyber".

And, of course, this was the job at which I picked up a stray that ended up being the very best dog anyone could ask for. Ok... he was really more like a roommate that didn't pay rent, but I miss him dearly.

Years later I'm glad I took that crappy, crappy job and also very glad I'm not doing it anymore. It showed me a part of the world I didn't know existed and gave me a knowledge set few seem to have. But it was hard, unsafe, and stressful work that didn't leave much room for routine, friendships, or mental health.

Not really sure where I was going with this, just thinking about what might have been and how, despite everything, I'm happy with most of my choices to date.

@Tripper 's recent post reminded me of the car badge + trash can thing I think I'm right in saying @e90m3 started?

Anyway... I was a little tipsy and got on eBay and later will be presenting my partner with a new trash can...

I've never done a write up of that trip, but for our 2019 cheap car challenge he bought a Tracker, loved it and then it took all his money and left him stranded.

Things I learned from this project:

1. The Tracker badge is HUGE
2. I am out of trim tape
3. Hot glue is garbage
4. I shouldn't get on eBay drunk

Things that were on the top of my "To Don't" list this week: Driving through an ice storm.

What did I do today? Drove through an ice storm.

Welp.

So I've been out of town for an extremely important work project since Monday of last week (yes, Valentines Day.) Thing did not go to plan as a family tragedy emerged on Friday (in my post history for the morbidly curious, please do not ask about or discuss it here please). With the project incomplete and nothing I could do about what had happened, my partner and I decided we'd deal with it when I got home and push on with our weeks/lives until then.

Well, yesterday I concluded my part of the project and the current geopolitical madness put the rest in jeopardy (long story) so I was staring down a possibly extremely unproductive day today and a 500 mile drive with an ice storm threatening to move into Oklahoma. After conferring with my partner and bosses, it was decided I'd leg it this morning in an attempt to get in before the weather hit.

That... did not go to plan.

Just outside of Little Rock, about halfway into the drive, it started to rain.

Then snow.

Then ice.

It wasn't too bad... but traffic kept getting slower.

And slower.

Every time I nutted up to make a pass it was always a 2WD sedan leading the slow pack in the right lane with wildly fishtailing pickup trucks attempting, but failing, to pass.

It would have been comical it it hadn't been so arrogant and dangerous.

Anyway... finally came to a halt after one of the mad "I can drive through anything" semi trucks failed to make a pass and crashed into the median, blocking our side of the highway. Best I could tell from a distance any chance at going around was blocked by vehicles that got stuck attempting to go around.

Fucking typical.

To its credit, my rented Jeep Cherokee on bald-ass rental tires was a fucking champ through all of this and didn't have any issues. I considered attempting to bypass the stuck traffic, and might have given it a go but the wreck was eventually cleared and we were on the way again.

All in all it took a little under 11 hours to make the 7 hour drive and I am still shaking from the adrenaline.

But I am home.

Thank you, you stupid little Jeep. You got me through unharmed and I am very grateful.

EDIT: Wow... just coming down off the adrenaline. Shakes.

Well I am happy to report that I remain Studebaker-less and that is a good thing.

I posted earlier in the week there was a trash can of a 1951 Studebaker for sale "near" me that had captured my interest. It was certainly rough, but was rocking a 5-speed and engine swap from a Ford Ranger, which to me said "a 50s car that might actually be drivable".

Knowing myself, I'd rather waste a tank of gas and look at it than have it be yet another regret, so a friend and I hopped in the Volvo and drove the 230 miles down to rural Texas, Wolfe City to be specific, to see it.

Along the way I re-learned that rural Texas is no place for a low riding Volvo, as while exiting a charming, recently restored main square the Volvo bottomed out on the transition between brick and pavement, earning me yet another scar on my aftermarket skid plate.

That thing is certainly earning its keep!

So when we rolled up the the seller's house the Studebaker didn't look too bad.

Until I got closer.

It was so very bad.

Immediately I could tell I was not going to be buying this car. The body looked OK in photos and the seller had indicated that it had "some bondo." The seller did not, however, indicate that the body was mostly bondo. The paint looked like a textured wall of a 90s house and there were cracks in the bodywork in places that there should not be cracks on anything. Small areas here and there hinted at the horrors that may lie beneath, with some swiss cheese body showing from behind the bondo. For all its faults, however, the floorboards did seem solid!

The interior was a complete mess, with a missing gas pedal and overlapping clutch and brake pedals. All of the window seals were shot and all of the front glass needed replaced. There were no door seals and about 20% of the ridge they were meant to attach to was rusted away. Random wires were strewn about, indicating a likely need for a complete re-wire of the electrics. The back seat was just carpet over what I assume was the support for where the back seat used to be.

Thought the transplanted Ranger engine started and ran well with a new Weber carburetor from eBay, that was where the good stopped. The battery was grounded to the exhaust manifold, the heater lines had been cut, the air clearer was two hub caps with a filter between, and the motor mounts were... not. The motor was just bolted to the frame. The master cylinder was, thankfully, a dual chamber unit from the donor Ranger, but located behind the engine in such a way that I can't imagine it wouldn't cook on a long drive.

Around the back the trunk hinges were shot and while the trunk would open, it was a chore to close. Inside revealed a small marine fuel tank, probably 2-3 gallons, as the non-factory replacement tank that had apparently necessitated relocating the filler neck was leaking.

I won't lie, seeing the acres of intact chome and fantastic detailing on it almost made me want to throw a lowball offer out, but no. Never. No. Not even for $1000 would I have the time and energy to put this right.

So we turned the little blue Volvo around and settled in for the second half of a very long drive.

Wow even in those photos it looks... fine. It was not.

I'm glad I went and looked, but also glad it didn't come home with me.

The downside of all of this is, in my mind, it has raised the bar for whatever I do end up getting for this road trip. This thing is/was so wacky and wild, I'm going to have to work hard for whatever I do end up with to not feel like a disappointing compromise.

But I feel like I'm up to the challenge of finding something crazy, but fun crazy not crazy crazy.

That is how much I hated that Dyson.

Specifically a Dyson DC28 Animal, bought two days after we closed on this house in 2012.

"Buy a Dyson!" they said. "They're great!" they also said.

From day one I've disliked this thing, but I convinced myself that it was because the vacuum was too good. I even gave away my perfectly adequate 90s vacuum because I was sure this was going to be my one and only.

It wasn't that the mechanism to move it into vacuum mode was poorly designed and gummed up from use, it was that I wasn't cleaning the vacuum enough! It wasn't that the filters clogged up extremely quickly and took a full 24 hours to dry after cleaning it was that my house was too dusty! It wasn't that the container was so small I had to empty it six time when vacuuming the den, it was that I wasn't vacuuming enough! The accessory wand wasn't cumbersome and unwieldly with a comically short cord, it was that I clearly didn't buy enough accessories!

So yeah... maybe a little Stockholm syndrome? Or sunk cost fallacy? Apparently the Dyson Animal was known for being particularly terrible, but I was already in so...

Either way, this all came to a head when we were about to have people over and I pulled out the vacuum for the first time in a couple of months (we have a housekeeper now) and... it was broken. Again.

It uses some weird little clockwork mechanism to shift from accessory mode to floor mode and if it gets dusty (which is something vacuums never do) it fails to operate and you can't use it to do the floors. I got it unstuck long enough to get the room presentable, but not as good as I wanted, but I was over it.

The quest for a new vacuum began and immediately hit a wall. Obviously I wanted to buy something that actually did its job well, but all of the reviews I found online felt like fluff pieces or were just comparing based on specs rather than actual use or performance.

Oh right. I have a housekeeper. Seems like the type of thing she'll have an opinion about. And she did! She really likes the Shark NV501, but after dealing with bagless for 10 years I really didn't want to go that route. After slightly too many conversations about different options, I let it drop.

Then... we went to a magical wonderland known as my local electronics recycler. It was a life changing experience. So much cheap tech! No shipping costs! Be still my heart!! (No photos, sadly, so here is one ganked from their site!)

Anyway, they had an old Oreck from 2012 there for a reasonable but not great price. I wasn't convinced I wanted to go that route... but then I bought it a week later.

Photo stolen from eBay but basically that.

It was old and sad and dirty but reviews said for an absolutely no-frills vacuum it worked well and was extremely simple. I cleaned it up, loaded up a bag, turned it on and was generally impressed with how it did. Obviously since it is bagged it is hard to see how much stuff it is pulling up... what is that smell?

Oh shit I installed the bag wrong.

Ok after cleaning up THAT mess and recleaning the vacuum, I swapped the old automotive incandescent guide lights for some rad 6000K LEDs and we're good to go. Sidenote: bumper restorer is great on old plastic like this!

Then today I called a scrap dealer to come pick up my shockingly heavy ceiling fans, some tie rods, a muffler, a driveshaft, and some other random household stuff.

While he was loading up I was like "OH WAIT! You want a vacuum!?" and he took it.

And now it is gone.

I'm so happy.

Yeah yeah I could have sold it for like $50 or something but... no. I don't have the cycles for it right now. Better to just have it gone.

Doggo for your time.

He was very nice about it but hoooboy his car has issues.

So I'm onboarding a new employee today and while talking with him, he mentioned his car had catastrophically failed and... I had to ask.

Turns out it is a Suzuki of some ilk Forenza that he got for cheap about 7 years ago and has done... nothing to. He said the check engine light had been on for a long time, the battery died, and he thinks there is a problem with the TPS. Also the windshield wipers don't work and one of the windows is stuck down. Also he hasn't changed the oil in years.

The final issue was after jumping it he could only get it to drive in reverse until after it had warmed up, after which he can't get it to go over about 20MPH.

So... I went with "wow that sucks (and sounds like you might need to check the transmission fluid)" and left it at that. Not my pig, not my farm.

And yes I do sort of see this as a red flag. How could I not? Ahh well...

Poor car...

For conext, four of us are embarking on a 2800 mile road trip to visit some of our favorites offroady bits in Death Valley and the Arizona Strip, one of us in a Rivian that he just took delivery of.

Today we made our way out of Death Valley and to Mesquite, NV, from which we'll set out into the Arizona Strip/ North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Sadly, as there is no electricity, let alone EV chargers, this is the point at which the Rivian (and its owner) will leave us. It has been a ton of fun and generated a ton of hashtag content.

Going to be offline for the next few days as we'll be well and truly off-grid until Friday.

Wish us luck!

@facw said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

@AkioOhtori Oh, I thought you were planning on selling at the destination again? Did the pricey car market make a destination fire sale too risky?

I'll probably put it up for sale but I'm not counting on selling whatever it is

@facw said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

from KC to Oregon though

(and back )

@glemon said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

Is this the same trip that you were planning the route across Nebraska and South Dakota?

Indeed!

@partypooper2012 I'ved F##'d in the shower before. The conclusion is the best part. (I'm sorry I have the mental age of a teenager and couldn't resist)

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

@AkioOhtori
This tactic is not confined to Italian cars...

lol yes I suppose that is how the French design and build cars too, isn't it

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

@ITA97 said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

The Italians as often as not just offer madness.

You say this like it's a bad thing

I don't remember where I read it, but at some point shortly after I bought my Alfa I read something along the lines of: "If ever you're working on an Italian car and wonder 'what where they thinking!?' you need to sit down, drink a bottle of wine and eat some carbs, take a little nap, and then look at it again."

@Black-Villain said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

@AkioOhtori I'd be less concerned with it. From my understanding, the Turbo's are considerably more reliable than the non-turbos, I see plenty in the 250k mile range, and know lots of people who use them for towing and off road rigs.

Obviously there's some stuff that needs addressed, like the plastic coolant hoses under the intake and the air suspension and other little stuff, but they seem to be pretty reliable all things considered, and there's enough of them out there to make parts availability fairly easy (unlike the BiTurbo)

Well this was an interesting rabbit hole to go down..

https://wichita.craigslist.org/ctd/d/benton-2000-porsche-boxster-convertible/7595831327.html

I uhh... might go look at some of these

@Black-Villain said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

2000's Cayenne Turbo (which i've also coincidentally been cross shopping with a Maserati)

Is it weird that I find the idea of buying a cheap, newer Porsche more intimidating than a cheap, older Maserati?

@facw said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

Luxury! With mysterious heater issues! And a rebuilt title!

Not to mentioned (what looks like) collapsed air suspension!

(I did look at that one and I might actually call on it depending)

@Dr-Zoidberg said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

@AkioOhtori said in My cheap car search might be down to two candidates:

The biggest issue by far, however, is the price. They're currently asking $13k for this 180k mile Mitsubishi with deferred maintenance and a lot of corrosion.

Wow, they can't sell it and they RAISED the price

doh you're right. It is listed for $12k. I'll update the post