So far this week, we’ve been looking at cars that are in desperate need of some cosmetic attention. Today we’re going to alter course very slightly, and check out two old cars that have already been repainted – but not particularly well. They look all right at first glance, but the devil, as they say, is in the details.
Yesterday’s Chevies were not much of a contest; you’d have to be in need of a Gambler-ready vehicle to want that Astro, because it’s really the only thing it’s good for anymore. The Camaro is a much more viable project, and while many of you weren’t thrilled about its price relative to its condition, it cruised to an easy win.
This was an easy one for me; I actually really like third-gen Camaros, and I have ever since they first appeared. I built a 1/8 scale Monogram model kit of one when I was young, and I have another such kit now that I just recently started to build. I’m not sure I have any use for a real one, but a big plastic one to admire on the shelf? Hell yeah.
Repainting a car is a sure-fire way to make it look good – if it is done well. The trouble is that doing it well is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and therefore expensive if you pay someone else to do it. Can you have it done cheaper? Sure, and some of you may remember that once upon a time, a guy named Earl Scheib made a whole career out of cheap paint jobs. I’ve borne witness to quite a few Scheib paint jobs over the years, and let’s just say you get what you pay for. Cheap DIY painting methods have gained popularity in recent years and can yield some good results if you take your time. I suspect that one of today’s cars is a cheap Earl Scheib-style respray, and the other is probably DIY. They both look better than they probably did before the paint job, at least. Let’s check them out.
1993 Ford Probe SE – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter overhead cam inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Tucson, AZ
Odometer reading: 171,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
I get it, naming cars is tough. And I know this car was supposed to be the Ford Mustang before Mustang fans threw a hissy-fit and made Ford reconsider at the last moment. But I still think Ford could have come up with something better, less smirk-inducing, something that would not have required an embarrased young mechanic working in St Paul, Minnesota in the 1990s to have to walk into a service garage waiting room and say to an attractive woman, “Ma’am, your Probe is ready.”
The Probe is, of course, basically just a Mazda 626. The body and interior are unique to Ford, but the chassis, suspension, engine, and transmission are the same. This Probe has the basic 2.0-liter four-cylinder, backed by a four-speed automatic transmission. That transmission has caused 626, MX-6, and Probe owners a lot of grief over the years, but this one has been rebuilt recently. It also has had a bunch of brake and suspension work, and the seller says it runs and drives well.
Ford toned down the weirdness of the interior for the second-generation Probe; gone were the odd side pods on either side of the instrument cluster and the cool but hard-to-read digital dash. The seating position is also lower, which was a trend in sporty coupes in the 90s that I never liked. This one looks like it’s in decent shape inside, but it is faded and dusty. The seller says neither the heat nor the air conditioner works; I’m going to be optimistic and say that’s only because the blower motor doesn’t work.
I actually like the color they chose to paint it, but I do wish they had painted the door and trunk sills. The car used to be red, and the red sills look awful. And I have a feeling that the paint job is better in photos than it is in person. But it does have those great directional three-spoke wheels.
1996 Geo Metro – $3,300
Engine/drivetrain: 1.0-liter overhead cam inline 3, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Tucson, AZ
Odometer reading: 173,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
What is it about small, economical “people’s cars” that makes them so endearing? Sentimentality and familiarity account for some of it, but not all; I get the warm fuzzies from humble cars that I’ve never driven, like 2CVs and Renault 4s and Skoda 110s. There’s just something charming about them that makes me want to drive them, more so than exotics and supercars, even. I know they’re probably slow, and crude, and uncomfortable, but also probably a hell of a lot of fun in spite of that. I know that, because this people’s car I know pretty well, and it’s slow, and crude, and uncomfortable, and a hell of a lot of fun.
The second-generation Metro is a little less tin-canny than the first, but it’s still clearly an economy car, with the same one-liter three-cylinder engine driving the front wheels. Fifty horsepower isn’t much, despite what Jason says, but it is fun to be able to wring out every last bit of power a car has to give and still barely break the speed limit. And the Metro’s engine does like to rev, which makes running through the gears of its five-speed transmission more fun than it should be. This one runs and drives well, and the seller says his grandfather drives it “everywhere.”
We only get one photo of the interior, and it’s, um, disturbing. Not because of the interior’s condition, but because of its contents. The legs and feet of a doll or a mannequin are just visible on the passenger’s seat; I have a feeling it’s one of those awful “time out” dolls that some folks like to put on cars at car shows. Or maybe Grandpa is a ventriloquist. Either way, it would be better if it weren’t in the photo. And actually, now that I look closer, you can see the creepy-ass thing looking out the window in the photo below.
I like the color choices here too, though I do question where they chose to make the two-tone split. Why right across the hood like that? It looks strange. I also hope they used the right primer on the gray plastic bumpers, or else that paint is going to fall right off. The white wheels are a perfect touch, though.
If you need a cheap car, I guess a sketchily-repainted twenty-footer holds more appeal than something rusty or faded or mismatched – as long as it runs well, and these both seem to. In fact, they both seem like pretty good, honest, old cars to me. A little expensive, maybe, but maybe the shiny paint is worth a little more. What do you think? Which one appeals to you?
It’s just gonna be a firm, hard nope on either one, today. I’d rather walk or take an Uber/Lyft. Or Fly to SFO and take BART. That’s how much I don’t like either of these.
I’ll take the creepy doll car. And the creepy doll is in the images for the listing, so it’d better be included in the sale, or I’m walkin!
Im leaning toward the Metro because I can hyper mill it. Got to do Craig Vetter proud.
Going Probe despite the transmission and the HVAC issue. I always liked the looks of those and the Metro is just a bit too tinny for me. (And yes, I’d probably end up regretting that choice but why stop making regrettable choices now?)
That’s actually the famous ghost Tucson Timmy, who died in 1948 while playing hide and seek after he hid in a refrigerator and got trapped. He’s always turning up in small enclosed spaces now.
If that Probe was manual, it would have gotten my vote as the manual is a Mazda transmission and the automatics are a Ford design and not nearly as durable or robust.
So the Metro gets my vote.
I picked the Metro, and they’re both in my home state of Arizona. That said, it only takes one bro-dog in a stupid jacked up bro-dozer driving it like a sports car (as is common here) to absolutely crush something Metro-sized like a stomped aluminum can.
The Probe name came from a long-running group of Ford concept cars. The name plays much better with the Roman numerals that the concepts had – Probe VI would manage to sound at least a little more scifi as intended.
I love that blue (I usually refer to it as “Ford Euro Blue,” as it was commonly available on Ford’s UK and continental models decades before it was offered stateside), but the juxtaposition with the red interior would always bother me. So small but mighty Metro it is.
Neither for those prices! But Metro, I guess.
I voted for the Metro because it’s cool and has a lot of room inside 🙂
Awesome mpg, and people hate on them for no reason.
The Probe is cool, and blue cars with red interiors are awesome, but I had to vote for the Metro today. However, the Probe is the best car Ford offered in its USDM lineup at the time.
Too bad you couldn’t find an Aspire. It was also available in a similar color.
This was surprisingly tougher than I expected. . .figured the probe would run away with it. I voted for the Geo (based on manual transmission and the so basic and simple it is cool thought). Really surprised at the time of my vote, the Geo was wining.
The Metro! Owned one as my first car that I bought with credit. I drove it for two years, crashed it into a truck at a light, fixed it, sold it. Body shop never pained the new hood. But you know what? I saw that metro with the primer hood driving around the region the next 15 years. Cheap, but good.
I actually like the Metro. The Ford red door sills are seriously jarring. Might as well shop for a blue car and sell your red one than do this.
Who says it’s a doll and not a creepy child? That is some anti-doll propaganda!
Also, since you pointed out the directional wheels on the Probe, did everyone notice the fronts are spinning the opposite direction of the rears?
The Probe would be a great car for someone with color blindness.
I’ll take the Metro.
My ’64 F100 coach-built crewcab got an Earl Scheib paint job after an accident somethime in the 70’s. It finally started flaking off around the year 2000, so it has had a good run.
My ’67 squareback got a MAACO paint job in 1978 and other than a few spots of flaking it is still in decent condition.
Neither vehicle had post-cheap-paint-job patin maintenance for very long, but they have lasted a long time.
The Geo Metro is now officially an “enthusiast car” and that example might actually be worth the ask.
Also, does anyone else misread “Earl Scheib” as “Earl Scheiß”?
Everyone bitches and moans about how cars don’t come in real colors anymore but when offered that classic combo of electric sky blue with red accents over a maroon interior nobody steps up – this is why we can’t have nice things.
You get a well deserved up vote.
Multichromatic > Monochromatic
Sentimental vote for the Probe–I was smitten with an unattainable girl who drove a new one. Red, even, but a darker shade, so this can’t quite be hers…
Oh calm down! That “doll” is just an Arizona Trunk Monkey.
I’ll go with the Metro, obviously possessed murder doll and all. Hopefully gramps won’t be too offended when I have a priest dunk his doll in holy water right before I toss it into a bonfire.