Best car on Craigslist for under $1500?

Angus

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Oct 12, 2007
11,796
862
HHI, SC
If you go with an explorer/mountaineer, I would say go with a v8 equipped one as the v6's have sone issues and are paired with the weaker trans. [MENTION=126]Dasfinc[/MENTION] knows more on this and can correct me as well. But for what it's worth, I've been happy with my $1500 mountaineer and it does great in the snow with the awd. Gas milage suffers though... good luck.
 

Boss

Boss
Dec 9, 2011
157
6
Chicago
If you go with an explorer/mountaineer, I would say go with a v8 equipped one as the v6's have sone issues and are paired with the weaker trans. [MENTION=126]Dasfinc[/MENTION] knows more on this and can correct me as well. But for what it's worth, I've been happy with my $1500 mountaineer and it does great in the snow with the awd. Gas milage suffers though... good luck.

Cooool thanks for the info!!
 

Dasfinc

Ready for the EVlution
Sep 28, 2007
20,919
1,321
Wheaton, IL
Ohv powered explorers will run until the wheels fall off (literally).

Any ford 4.0 SOHC V6 you should steer clear of until 2005 (they fixed the tensioner issue then)

I bought a 97 explorer sport with the OHV motor and a manual transmission for $650 a few years back, needed a headlight and a hood, served me well for like 2 years with no serious failures (had an odd miss resolved with a new coil pack)

I would buy a 95-01 OHV or V8 explorer again in a heartbeat if I needed a beater.

edit

Watch the rockers for rot, otherwise they dont have any unusual rust issues.
 

Lead Pipe

TCG Sub-par Member
TCG Premium
Nov 4, 2010
17,615
12,913
OHC 4.0 explorers are tanks, I don't care what people say. If you find one with over 130,000 miles and it's not ticking then the tensioner has been changed or is good. The tensioner issue is hit or miss. I had 2 hand would buy another in a heart beat. They have a lot more power than the OHV ones.
 

Intel

TCG Elite Member
Oct 28, 2009
5,889
3,357
Palatine
Can't beat a maxima. My buddy's got a 2000 auto maxima with 270k on it. Besides normal maintenance he had to put control arms and axles in it. We are about to replace the lower radiator support though, since that's rotted totally away

If you have air available I would recommend an air chisel. I replaced mine on my Maxima it was less than fun.



 

Boss

Boss
Dec 9, 2011
157
6
Chicago
get a Honda if you want it to last forever and be under $1500 plenty on CL and also look on JDM Slutlist on Facebook they always got dumb broke people looking to make stupid deals last minute for bills and tickets and whatnot...

I don't like Hondas...

Found a vw golf that I wanna look at stick shift and all looks decent.

I'm Gonna have to wait till next week, maybe a stick shift maxima will pop up.
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant. Consider starting a new thread to get fresh replies.

Thread Info