Cars that “just need” a little work can seem like really good deals at first glance, especially if the parts are included, or the seller already has a line on them. But like everything, you have to read the fine print. So today, our venerable PT Cruiser is going up against a battered BMW that “just needs” a few junkyard body parts swapped onto it, and we’ll see if it’s worth the effort.
The blue Cruiser won handily yesterday, as I suspected it might. That particular Cadillac Allante is just too far gone to be any fun. If you really want one, look for one a couple years newer, with the much-improved 4500 engine, and shiny paint, for not a whole lot more money. They’re not all that hard to find.
Honestly, though, even if the Allante were nice, I’d rather deal with the PT Cruiser. I still have burn scars on my forearm from transverse Cadillac exhaust manifolds – if you’ve never seen where they put the oil filters in these things, you wouldn’t believe it. Despite knowing that, I actually bought a FWD Coupe DeVille a few years ago. It was a fine car, until you had to work on something. Access to the PT Cruiser’s guts is harder than it has to be, too, but at least it’s just a four-cylinder.
Self-service junkyards are a boon to do-it-yourselfers who prefer cheap cars. Pay your two bucks or whatever, go dig around in a car almost but not quite exactly like yours, find the part you need, and as a bonus, you get to practice disassembling it so you know what not to do on your own car. Body panels are sometimes hard to find; a lot of cars end up in junkyards due to accidents, but if your car is already banged up, you might as well go look. If you’re really lucky, sometimes you can find a car that’s not only the same make and model, but the same color as yours. But is it worth it? Let’s find out.
1999 BMW 328i Sport – $1,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.8-liter DOHC inline 6, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Torrance, CA
Odometer reading: 119,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, but needs some work
The E46 3 Series BMW is one of those cars I really want to like, but it’s way better as a concept than as an actual vehicle. On paper it’s great: a nice smooth inline six, excellent balance and handling, and that delightful German precision that made BMW famous, all at an affordable price. But in practice, it’s a nightmare of oil leaks, coolant leaks, broken window regulators, possible torn rear subframes, and a host of other little ticking time bombs. My wife and I owned one, briefly, and it was a great car to drive – but it made me pay for it in garage time. It just wasn’t worth the hassle.
This is similar to the one we had, just a little older; it’s a 328i Sport model, with a 2.8-liter M52 inline six good for 190 horsepower and a GM-built five-speed automatic. It only has 119,000 miles on it, and the seller says it runs great. However, it was involved in a scary-sounding accident: it got hit in a parking lot, and the seller was pinned between it and another car and injured. Understandably, they don’t want the car anymore. It has some body damage that we’ll get to in a minute, but they say it also needs a low-pressure power steering line, and a wheel alignment. Whether those are related to the accident or not, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they might be. Hopefully it only needs an alignment, and not suspension work.
It’s in typical old, cheap BMW condition inside: generally all right, but a little rough around the edges. Expect some of the power features to not work, and I’m sure it has at least a few dead pixels in the information center in the dash. But there’s nothing frightening inside, and I’m sure it’s still plenty comfy.
The damage is on the driver’s side, with the driver’s door and front fender getting the worst of it. The door is tweaked pretty badly, and I think the window is broken. I believe that’s the spare tire on the left front, which is what worries me about the suspension. The seller found another dark blue E46 in a nearby junkyard and claims that the parts will run you about $300. Replacing a door and a fender is about a half-day job on a Dodge Caravan (I’ve done it before), so I would expect this to be similar. The seller plans to do the work next weekend, if nobody buys the car before then, and after that, the price will go up. So if you want it for cheap and can fix it yourself, act now.
2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT – $1,000
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: San Diego, CA
Odometer reading: 221,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
I want to clear something up about our friend the PT Cruiser GT: this is indeed the all-singing, all-dancing, 215-horsepower engine from the Neon SRT-4. Two different turbocharged engines were available for the Cruiser: if you got the standard model and checked the “turbo” box on the order form, you got 180 horses. But if you selected the GT model, you got the full-fat version – along with an “Autostick” manual-ish mode for the Ultradrive automatic. It’s no substitute for a true manual, but it gives you something to play with, I suppose.
There were also some questions about the seller’s claims that the top is in excellent shape, so I wanted to make sure to include a photo of it in the up position today. Looks pretty good to me. It’s got blind spots the size of Oklahoma, but it’s by no means unique in that regard.
Like the old VW Cabriolet and Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible, the PT Cruiser has a fixed basket-handle rollbar that stays in place when you drop the top. Honestly, I’m surprised all convertibles don’t have this. I know some people don’t like the obstructed view, but it helps with the structural rigidity, which is so often lacking in unibody convertibles.
Chrysler made just over a million PT Cruisers, but there can’t have been too many GT convertibles included in that figure. And like it or not, these things will be considered classics someday, especially the uncommon ones like this. That doesn’t mean you should buy this one and restore it as an investment, but it does mean that if you want to be able to say you had one once upon a time, this is a good opportunity.
From this point forward, I’m going to treat this week as a sudden-death elimination: if the Cruiser wins again today, you’ll see it again tomorrow, but if you choose the BMW, then it will face off against the absolutely absurd vehicle I have lined up for tomorrow. So the choice is yours: fix up the E46 yourself and save, or stick with the PT?
Voted for the BMW. I already voted, begrudgingly, for a PT Crapper yesterday and will not cast another vote for it. I can’t wait for the Tesla Cybertruck to show up on ShitBox ShowDown likely pitted against a Dempster Dumpster, as they appear similar in design, especially from behind. Considering the over the cliff depreciation of Elmo’s nightmare, possibly 5 more years until we see it here?
Anyone else think sometimes these u pull it yards could be a little more careful with the cars they take in? I think they have fun trashing them so you need to find two if you need more than one part. The Beemer needs to be a convertible to win my heart.
In conclusion anyone else think convertibles should have been called coupes because it rhymes with toupee
I’m old enough that I don’t GAF about my image so PT it is. Cheap to run, cheap to insure. If it breaks, if it gets door dings, it’s $1,000, so who cares.
I have a PT which I bought because it was cheap and my 175,000 Saturn succumbed to the rust of its native Wisconsin during the Covid panic. (when your car has two different wheelbases it’s time for another car) Except for its gutlessness (I can’t imagine how slow an automatic is) I love the car. Been ferrying around a handicapped person all week, all his stuff fits where the back seat would be and there is still a luggage area that swallows a week’s groceries – all at just under 30 to a gallon. I have an old injury and I can easily get in and out of it. PTs are underrated.
But I write to address the oil filter placement in the Cadillac. I have frequently had a fantasy during such contortion-inducing wrenching: Wouldn’t it be nice to get the engineer who designed the car over to perform the work while you drink beer and laugh when he burns himself/loses the socket again/or whatever? Bet cars would get easier to wrench on if we could do that.
I can see how inflicting the oil filter ritual you described could be rewarding.
There’s no routine maintenance procedure I have personally done that wishes it on someone else out of spite.
Ah, well, replacing the halogen bulb in the left front headlight was a total PITA with the battery right behind it. They could’ve given me another inch to get my hand in and out and rotate.
Some stuff seems just crazy. A lady friend of mine whose hands never got dirty told me some parts store was offering a very good price on a battery – but you had to install it. It was some small Chrysler product, so I told her no sweat, opened the hood, and discovered – no battery, just places to jump it. Plenty of room for it, but it’s not there. Poked around in the trunk – nope. Under the back seat? Couldn’t be. To the internet!
Behind a door in the left rear wheel well. No sweat, in my dry garage with a floor jack and air gun. Wouldn’t want to try it in the driveway after the car had been driven in snow for a while.
Who the hell thought of that? “Let’s make minor adjustments to the weight distribution on Aunt Mildred’s grocery getter. As a bonus, we get to add needless complexity.”
My younger brother was a Lexus mechanic. He told me that Toyota, in the design process had mechanics involved. Not sure if it was true but as a person who once owned a VW squareback: F U VW
My Dad had one. I second your FUVW
I should have mentioned that the headlight bulb replacement PITA was on a VW Jetta. Maybe it was right front. It’s been so long I can’t remember. But it wasn’t fun. So, yeah. Thank you, VW.
Now it’s time to pop the hood on my transverse V6 Accord and see what they made difficult to do.
I’d sooner set $1k on fire than be stuck with either of these.
Give me the $1K and I’ll do it for you and send you the video. -Nigerian Prince.
I’m scared of the 328 I had one that was horrific to get rid of. I bet the trans is unhappy and various other problems stupid like problems that will turn it in to a $3k to $5k car. The windows down like that seem like that also going to be a problem. So pt it is
I don’t want either one, and know it’s the worse decision financially, but I chose the Bimmer since it’s pretty.
You keep making the PT Cruiser the correct choice.
I kinda hate that.
This game has s rigged!
This may be shaping up to be my favorite Showdown Week Evah.
Mark, I’m going with the PT mostly to see if you can come up with five days worth of nice things to write about it.
At that price, the Bimmer could be a fun LeMons car.
I bet you could make money on the BMW at $5 per swing of a sledgehammer
A few weeks ago someone tapped me at a red light just enough to crack the plastic on the rear bumper. Neither of us felt like dealing with insurance and body shops. I went on eBay figuring I could get a new plastic bumper panel for cheap. I looked at like 20. Every.single.one was in worse shape than the one I was trying to fix. So, yeah…have fun hunting around junkyards for body panels in your color that aren’t in crap condition. Eventually you’ll give up and pull one off that “isn’t too bad.” And you’ll hate yourself (and your life choices) every time you see it on your car.
Well, that’s a bummer. The left rear door of my ’17 Accord has sustained some damage, and I don’t know whether it’s even worth fixing. The window can still go up and down. But I don’t even know what a nine-year-old Accord is worth these days. It’s the last year of the V6, with <75K miles on it, but it’s an automatic. So, I have no idea.
Depending on the color, you can get a 2017 Accord left rear door for under $500 on eBay.
If you were willing to go pull your own, a salvage yard would probably be significantly lower. Since it’s a painted metal body part, it usually isn’t subjected to the same kind of deterioration as plastic lenses and trim type pieces that tend to disintegrate with age.
Gorilla glue
I discovered the art of “plastic welding.” The guys on YouTube can do an incredible job. I cannot. Hence, stick on bumper guard.
Gold duct tape is the answer
The actual answer was one of those stick-on rubber bumper guards
I just read the Bimmer ad:
“I won’t have my kids next weekend so the plan is to gather all the lil parts thruout the week and then slap it all together Sat/Sun….It’s got hella Low Miles and only has superficial cosmetic dings. you can do it yourself and save a lot of doe”
Hella low miles! Save some DOE before I slap this shit together in a great big hurry and then charge the big bucks!
Geez.
Oy. I thought this was satire till I reread it.
That’s some questionable logic there: “I can more than 3x the sales price and it’ll only take a couple hours of the easiest work you can imagine but rather than do that, I’m gonna do this instead because I hate free money.”
Sounds like something a con man would say.
Yup. “Make me an offer now before I come to my senses!”
Three outta four wheels ain’t good.
And I’m not a PT hater, the salvage title, mileage and paint-can bodywork leaves something to be desired.
It’s a Neither day again.
I love an E46, but only one that has been owned by me for an extended period of time so I know all of the work that has been done and needs to be done. This one feels more like buying a parts car than one that will reliably drive again under its own power. So even though the PT isn’t really my cup of tea, it’s a clear as day winner again.
Hard pass on the E46. In my experience, BMWs can be somewhat reliable if you keep up with the (admittedly ridiculous) maintenance requirements. Once they’ve been ‘let go’, it becomes a losing battle to bring them back to spec.
This one looks like it’s been let go, crashed into, then let go again. Used car sellers always chalk the issues with their car up to the easiest possible fix. Check engine light? Oh, it just needs an new Oxygen sensor. Car doesn’t drive straight? Oh yeah – it just needs an alignment, just haven’t gotten to it yet. Humming noise while driving? The tires are just out of round, it’s been sitting a while. Just air them up and they’ll round themselves out again.
In my experience sellers are almost always wrong – whether due to ignorance or dishonesty. I tend to believe that they have a hunch that something much worse is wrong, and don’t bother getting it checked out by a mechanic. That way they have plausible deniability. Even if the check engine light is caused by something as simple as an 02 sensor, do you really want to buy a car from someone who neglected one of the easiest and cheapest auto repairs possible?
Especially applicable with older German cars – as routine maintenance is often far more expensive and involved than most non-car people would expect. The person who neglected to align their car before selling it is not going to be reinforcing their subframe or servicing VANOS pumps.
I voted for the Chrysler because $1,000 running, drivable cars are a unicorn in 2026.
It would be hard to find a non-stolen non-on-fire modern-ish transportation appliance in good condition that is so undesirable I wouldn’t think it was worth $1,000. The 78 people who have voted for the BMW thus far are being intentionally obtuse. There is a right answer here, and it is unfortunately it is PT Cruiser.
I would have gone with “both” if that option were available, though. “How much body work do you feel like doing?” is the wrong question – I’d slap some clear plastic wrap over the driver side window of the BMW and drive it as-is (or at least after fixing the suspension – I doubt it drives well as-is). I’m not sure why, but I love terrible examples of cool cars, and all pre-Bangle BMWs were cool.
My instinct is telling me the BMW seller is full of shit. I have to wonder how the seller getting pinned between the driver door and another car caused the front PASSENGER SIDE headlight and hood to get so badly misaligned.
Also, if it’s sooooo easy to fix, why didn’t the seller do it already and get more money for the car?
Nahhh… I can smell the bullshit all the way to Canada.
So the PT Cruiser gets my vote again.
I think they meant they were pinned inside the car.
Which, on a hard enough driver’s side hit, could happen… but no airbag activation? Did these not have airbags?
If he was inside the car, given the small dent, I fail to see how he was ‘pinned’ and couldn’t get out on the passenger side.
That’s the only way I can see that kind of hit causing major body damage and NOT killing the person involved.
Maybe the driver in the BMW is a really big person. Maybe the dent in the door has already been pulled out some (this happens a lot, just to get the door to close).
I’d worry about the steering and suspension on the BMW after that hit as well. If it was a hard enough to blow the tire, it could have damaged a lot more than the sheet metal.
PT again. It’s not dented and with that motor it isn’t slow. The Cruiser fan forums paying you to inflate the reputation of their car Mark?
I think the best way to own a 20-year old BMW is to have purchased it long before 100K miles, before any maintenance could be deferred, and then religiously keep up on all of the cheap crap that breaks, spending bit by bit to keep it in good shape. Getting hit with all of that at once by buying a 20-year old example on Craigslist seems like a bad idea. It’s slushbox anyway, it’s not worth headaches.
One thing I’ll say for that BMW, the purchase price is the smallest bite it’ll take out of your wallet. Another thing I’ll say for it, the automatic removes any lingering regrets.
I had a ‘97 E36 323i Coupe (with a 2.5 straight six because BMW loves to lie with badges) and it was glorious.
When it worked.
Every week something would go wrong, or fall off, or start to intermittently work (god I hate those faults). The heater only blew hot, the windows didn’t open. It was summer.
I was beautiful, and the engine sounded amazing, when it wasn’t misfiring or refusing to start, but I swore off BMWs for about ten years after that.
My sixth and final BMW is currently for sale.
That said: I really hate convertibles, so I vote for more pain.
Isn’t that what the heater is supposed to do? Myself I use the AC in the summer.
AC can also blow hot. Which was the only temperature available. Hot but dry air, perfect for a baking August drive with the windows stuck up.
“I found the part in the junkyard.”
Yeah, surely it’s still there and perfect.
PT Cruiser for sure.
Ok, you got me. I’ll take the salvage title PT Cruiser over a wrecked BMW. This is a twisted experiment.
Does anyone else think that the BMW isn’t going to be a salvage title as well
A little blue hot basket vs a car that tried to eat its owner and will eat your wallet. Easy.
Edit: someone agreed, as the PT is sold.
Does that mean Mark can’t keep using the PT?
Not interested in body work of any kind. PT today I guess.