So i have had some pretty good advice from this page and so i am going to ask a question for my friend in need of help
Sorry this is long but i like telling stories so sorry to the people with short attention spands.
So accually this is his girlfriends car but since they live together they both share the car. They own a 94 ford tempo and they has somewhat good luck with it. It has been through a lot
She bought it first for 1500 and with that it had a fresh rebuilt engine.
The first incident was a front collision accedent which they replaced the radiator front end a fender bumper and all this cost them about 1000
A year later (She can't drive on ice very well) She turns a left hand corner on an icy night and doesn't make it and the passenger side tire runs into the curb at 15mph bending the frame runing a strut and the baring. Cause of this was also to believe bald tires (i blame driver more but eh...)
So my friend calls me and tells me whats going on and he tells me the auto shop that he took it to would charge him 600 to fix most of the stuff and also buy 2 new tires for the front
so at the time (this is before i knew the frame was bent) thought that wasn't too bad (a little pricy) I suggested to him maybe the car wasn't worth it to put the money into but he thought the car was still a deal considering that the engine was still new and now the radiator and some other things.
So they drove (i am from MN) From minnesota st paul to wisconson with the car like that and he calls me when he is over there and tells me white smoke is coming from the engine. He took it to a mechanic and he said it may be a head gasket has blown and would charge him 1000 dallars. So I went to wisconson to go check on his car (in my recently purchised 93 mitsubishi eclipse which if anyone remembers my previous form what kind of car should i buy (I have to say that i just love the car!!)!) back to the story
He wanted me to look at the car because he didn't have the 1000 dallars after his previous fix bill. I looked at his car engine and non of the signs of a head gasket being blown was there. Radiator fluid was clean and level and other stuff that i checked. I took it for a drive and there wasn't any smoke but i noticed that the alignment of the wheels was really off. I took it on the highway and no smoke. I pulled the car over and looked at the engine and it looked clean
HOWEVER the alignment really bothered me and i was right. The driver side (new) tire was completely bald on one side. Looking at both tires they were really out of alignment. What he saw was the tire smoke and not the engine smoke.
So I caught him in his kind of lies because he didn't tell me that the frame was bent which after confronting him about this problem he said the mechanic shop did tell him that and told him it would fall out of allignment again if the frame wasn't fixed (but didn't tell him how much it would cost to get the frame fixed)
Second he said that he took it to a mechanic shop and he looked at it and said it was for sure the head gasket later getting out of him that he never took the car to the shop but more went over to the shop and asked him what it would cause that problem.
So the final question is after all of that is what should he do with the car?
It has a new rebuilt engine in it and now front suspension peaces. He doesn't want to junk it but i suspect that straightening the frame is going to cost more then the cars worth.
I have never been fond of tempos or fords in general because of cheepness of the parts and work and reliablility but that is me. What would you recomend for a car that is reliable and cheep and can take accidents every so often?
I am thinking Volvo but i want other opinions first
Also they don't like SUV so think college hippy like
Thanks for your answers and if you have made it this far thank you for your attention spand
I needed to vent this out to someone.
If you have other stories like this add it on
Sorry this is long but i like telling stories so sorry to the people with short attention spands.
So accually this is his girlfriends car but since they live together they both share the car. They own a 94 ford tempo and they has somewhat good luck with it. It has been through a lot
She bought it first for 1500 and with that it had a fresh rebuilt engine.
The first incident was a front collision accedent which they replaced the radiator front end a fender bumper and all this cost them about 1000
A year later (She can't drive on ice very well) She turns a left hand corner on an icy night and doesn't make it and the passenger side tire runs into the curb at 15mph bending the frame runing a strut and the baring. Cause of this was also to believe bald tires (i blame driver more but eh...)
So my friend calls me and tells me whats going on and he tells me the auto shop that he took it to would charge him 600 to fix most of the stuff and also buy 2 new tires for the front
so at the time (this is before i knew the frame was bent) thought that wasn't too bad (a little pricy) I suggested to him maybe the car wasn't worth it to put the money into but he thought the car was still a deal considering that the engine was still new and now the radiator and some other things.
So they drove (i am from MN) From minnesota st paul to wisconson with the car like that and he calls me when he is over there and tells me white smoke is coming from the engine. He took it to a mechanic and he said it may be a head gasket has blown and would charge him 1000 dallars. So I went to wisconson to go check on his car (in my recently purchised 93 mitsubishi eclipse which if anyone remembers my previous form what kind of car should i buy (I have to say that i just love the car!!)!) back to the story
He wanted me to look at the car because he didn't have the 1000 dallars after his previous fix bill. I looked at his car engine and non of the signs of a head gasket being blown was there. Radiator fluid was clean and level and other stuff that i checked. I took it for a drive and there wasn't any smoke but i noticed that the alignment of the wheels was really off. I took it on the highway and no smoke. I pulled the car over and looked at the engine and it looked clean
HOWEVER the alignment really bothered me and i was right. The driver side (new) tire was completely bald on one side. Looking at both tires they were really out of alignment. What he saw was the tire smoke and not the engine smoke.
So I caught him in his kind of lies because he didn't tell me that the frame was bent which after confronting him about this problem he said the mechanic shop did tell him that and told him it would fall out of allignment again if the frame wasn't fixed (but didn't tell him how much it would cost to get the frame fixed)
Second he said that he took it to a mechanic shop and he looked at it and said it was for sure the head gasket later getting out of him that he never took the car to the shop but more went over to the shop and asked him what it would cause that problem.
So the final question is after all of that is what should he do with the car?
It has a new rebuilt engine in it and now front suspension peaces. He doesn't want to junk it but i suspect that straightening the frame is going to cost more then the cars worth.
I have never been fond of tempos or fords in general because of cheepness of the parts and work and reliablility but that is me. What would you recomend for a car that is reliable and cheep and can take accidents every so often?
I am thinking Volvo but i want other opinions first
Also they don't like SUV so think college hippy like
Thanks for your answers and if you have made it this far thank you for your attention spand
I needed to vent this out to someone.
If you have other stories like this add it on