Spring has finally sprung where I am. I got to drive around a bit this weekend with the windows down and the sunroof open, and it got me thinking about convertibles again. And as luck would have it, Stephen Walter Gossin and I were talking about convertibles via Slack as well. He’s selling one of today’s cars, and suggested the other one.
On Friday, I showed you a couple of ’70s coupes that have been sitting around far too long. I expected the Datsun 200SX to do better, but its condition, lackluster handling, and face only a mother could love were no match for the tiny Italian doorstop. The Fiat X1/9 won this round handily, despite being more expensive.
I can’t say I disagree. The X1/9 is another one of those cars I’ve loved since I was a kid, and this is the best example I’ve seen for a reasonable price in a long time. Yes, it’s irritating that $8,500 is a “reasonable price” for an X1/9 these days, but that’s where we are. I should have bought that $600 one back in college. Ah well.
In this age when increasing complexity and encroaching rules make it ever harder to take care of your own stuff, us DIYers have to stick together. So when my partner-in-grime Stephen suggested that I feature another one of his cars in order to boost its signal a little bit and maybe help it find a buyer, I was happy to oblige. And lest you think this is another case of me picking a fall guy to put up against one of Stephen’s cars, he picked the competitor this time, not me. Though I must say, if I had a little more time and money to play with, it’s something I’d consider as a toy for myself. Let’s take a look at them.
1986 Chevrolet Cavalier RS convertible – $800
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter OHV inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Youngsville, NC
Odometer reading: 222,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, but needs a battery
I have a checkered history with the first-generation General Motors J platform. I’ve had some good experiences with them, and some not so good. But overall, I’m fond of the little buggers, and I always enjoy seeing one, especially since they’re getting really thin on the ground these days. This Cavalier convertible never was all that common of a sight, certainly more rare than its steel-roofed bretheren. But it’s practically a unicorn now, especially in functional condition for a price this low.
Since this Cavalier is an RS instead of a Z24, it has the “little” engine: a 2.0-liter inline 4. It’s not powerful, or refined, but it gets reasonable gas mileage and it’s tough as nails. I spun a rod bearing in one of these engines, and dropped a valve in another, and they both still ran – poorly, obviously. This one has a lot of miles on it, and it has been sitting for a bit, but the seller says it fires right up and runs fine. It does need a new battery, though; right now you have to jump-start it. On the plus side, it has the good transmission: a five-speed manual, a rarity in the convertible.
Also, since it’s an RS, it has a bit of ’80s coolness: a digital dash. It also has power windows and locks, and a power top, and it all works – except for the HVAC blower fan. That shouldn’t be too hard to fix. It has covers on the seats, dash, and steering wheel, so there’s no telling what kind of condition they’re in. But it looks livable inside, at least.
The seller chose to take photos at night, so it’s a little hard to tell what condition it’s in outside. But it’s an eight hundred dollar car that runs and drives; how much does it really matter? The seller says there’s a small hole in the top, but that’s what duct tape is for. As long as it isn’t rusty underneath – and it shouldn’t be, where it is – you’re in business.
2003 Mercedes-Benz SL 500 – $5,995
Engine/drivetrain: 5.0-liter OHC V8, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Wilmington, NC
Odometer reading: 67,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Just in case you’re new here, allow me to introduce you to one of my co-contributors: Stephen Walter Gossin. Stephen buys, fixes, and sells a lot of cars. Many of them are suffering from some minor but labor-intensive malady that would otherwise have sent them to the junkyard. He fixes them up, sells them on, and repeats the process. There’s an environmental and altruistic aspect to this, keeping materials out of landfills and providing someone with a good cheap set of wheels, but I think mostly he just enjoys the process. He must – almost every day in Slack there’s a new crop of junkyard photos featuring a smiling Stephen pulling parts off some derelict car. This Mercedes SL500 is one of his more recent finished projects.
The Mercedes SL is a tremendously complicated car. It has a five-liter V8 engine and a five-speed automatic transmission, and a fiendish and failure-prone self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension system that Mercedes calls “Active Body Control.” That system was the thing that grounded (no pun intended) this car, so Stephen yanked it out and replaced it with traditional coil-over shock absorbers. Sometimes old ways are the best ways. It now runs and drives fine, though it occasionally throws a code for a lean condition, which may just be due to old gas. If so, it should take care of itself; a lot of cars that have been sidelined for a while could benefit from a good “Italian tuneup.” Even the German ones.
It looks pretty good inside, and the air conditioning is nice and cold. It also has an aftermarket stereo with CarPlay and all that good stuff. The power locks do not work; they’re vacuum-operated as on a lot of German luxury cars, and known to fail after a while. But it’s a two-door. Just lean over and unlock the passenger’s side manually.
It wears nice AMG wheels with new tires. The paint isn’t great; it has some chips and faded spots. It’s one of the problems with a black car: every little blemish shows. You can have someone touch it up, or wrap it, or just live with it. One other thing to consider, and it’s a big one: the power folding top is not currently power-operated. You can raise and lower it manually, but there’s a leak in the hydraulics. Stephen is working on it, and should have it sorted out soon.
I know this is kind of a strange comparison, but it’s also an interesting thought experiment. On one hand, you have a cheap and simple car that’s never going to be very nice, but won’t take much to keep it going. On the other, you have a very nice car that has the potential to need quite a lot of care and feeding. Is one really worth seven and a half times as much money as the other? That’s what you have to decide.
There’s a guy in our neighborhood with a black SL500, and I always give that car a good, long look when I walk by. I’m not much for most of what Mercedes makes and has made but I do like that one. Against a Cavalier?? No question – Benz all the way, future reliability be damned!
Once upon a time, there was a SWG-treated Dynasty versus a generic early ’90s Cadillac in Shitbox Showdown. I chose poorly that day. The Dynasty should have been the winner in all its Iacocca goodness.
I shall not make the same mistake twice. Benz!
Excellent memory! That was my old New Yorker – easily confused with its sister car, the Dynasty. Both “Extended K-Cars”, both awesome.
Thanks for the kind words!
https://www.theautopian.com/one-more-cross-country-showdown-1993-chrysler-new-yorker-vs-1993-cadillac-sixty-special/
A well sorted Benz can unsort itself quickly and expensively.
Depends on your situation. If you’re already in the poorhouse, go for the Cavalier. If you want to end up there, get the SL.
Honestly a tough choice.
The Cavalier is terrible, but it has a three digit price tag and appears to be neither stolen nor actively on fire. I think I could easily get $800 worth of enjoyment out of this thing before abandoning it.
The Benz looks like a very nice car for the price. It is a semi-affordable way to have a luxury convertible, even if repairs won’t be cheap or infrequent. I’m genuinely curious what SWG paid for this thing to be selling it for $6k after repairs. Maybe SWG is secretly a billionaire who sells these cars at a loss as some kind of weird philanthropic thing? It seems improbable, but I don’t know him, so maybe?
I voted for the Benz. Cheap cars are always a crapshoot – I’m at least confident SWG either will have fixed this car right or will be honest about its flaws. If I were equally confident about the seller of the Cavalier I probably would have voted for that instead. For $800, why not?
Thank you for the good faith and kind words!
I will say that the AMG wheels (~$200ea), set of new tires (staggered, $800), new passenger door panel ($150), new/used rear-left brake caliper ($100), new touchscreen center stack infotainment unit ($125), replacement glovebox ($150), a new/used headlamp switch ($100) and a few other interior pieces and panels added up quickly!
When you count my time/labor, yes, this car is being sold at a loss. Not counting that, I’m just about breaking even with the expectation that a buyer will try and offer a slightly lower purchase price offer.
You learn with each rescue job you take on though, and I wouldn’t trade what I’ve learned from this car for anything. Wisdom is power.
SL is a lot of car from the money but it will nickle and dime you to bits. It’s one of those you have to get free or someone to give you money to take it for it to make sense financially.
The cavalier will just go barely anyone will know what it is. I bet if you had it out you are more likely to get into conversations from people asking you what is that thing or say they haven’t seen one in decades. And the price is right. $60 battery then if you really cared check the brakes and be on your way.
This is the way.
Although my admiration for SWG is unbounded and I have no doubt that’s a very fair price for the Benz, especially given SWG’s fettling I had to go with the Cavalier. $800 is pocket change and the manual makes it guilt-free fun until it dies. The Benz, well, the purchase price is just the down payment and I don’t like that era of SL very much; give me an R107, please (obv. a pagoda is out of reach for us mere mortals).
If I’m driving over 1800 miles for one of these it’s gonna be the Benz. SWG Motors has a decent rep I hear.
The Cavalier simply because when it stops running, I will have no guilt scrapping it. I would treat it like what we in our household call, “One-way luggage.” – an old but still (barely) functional suitcase meant to take stuff to a destination and left there.
Oh and just because I know there are those here who’ll care a bit–my better half just texted me a pic of her odometer reading 150000. 2016 Mazda 6 and they’ll have to pry it from her cold, dead hands.
Or maybe after it hits 200K, whichever comes first, and I sure hope it’s the second thing.
No offense to your collegue, but I don’t care if that Kraut car ever gets any love.
The Cavalier? I want to give it a hug, and spend modest money’s worth of fixin’ to make it livable.
None taken!
This is very much a niether day.
You could not pay me to be seen in a Crapalier, and a convertible one just puts me on display that much more. I usually say that a folding top redeems almost anything, but this is the exception to that rule. Complete and utter crap from stem to stern when new, and age doesn’t improve them in any way.
A friend of mine owns this generation SL. When it works, it’s amazing. It rarely works. Even with Steven’s fettling, that $6K will be merely the downpayment, and absolutely everything on those cars costs a bloody fortune to fix. Nope, this is the worst era of Mercedes ever. Get an older one or a newer one. And never forget that the only car more expensive than a cheap Mercedes is a cheap Porsche.
Though the last thing I want to own is any Mercedes Benz more recent than the early 1990s, I voted for the Benz in hopes that it might cause a little SWG magic to rub off on me.
Great article in the NYT today and I copied part of it.
PEOPLE AT THE BOTTOM of the income scale feel the pain most. Once, they could turn to the used-car lot, but even that has also become a minefield of aging, increasingly repair-prone vehicles with six-figure odometers and five-figure price tags.
For anyone on a budget, an aging car is a trap. Auto repair costs jumped 15 percent in the last year alone, driven by the complexity of modern sensors and labor shortages. An average trip to the mechanic now costs roughly $840, an amount that around 40 percent of Americans likely could not cover with cash they have on hand. When faced with a costly repair, many are forced to choose between paying to fix their vehicle or making their loan payment. Little wonder then that repossessions — the extreme outcome of the modern automobile affordability crisis — roughly doubled in the last five years and are projected to surpass three million by the end of 2026, echoing the peak of the Great Recession.
Losing a car can force you into a state of physical and economic immobility. That is especially true in rural and suburban landscapes where public transit is a ghost.
I owned a 2005 SL for about 10 years, give me the Cavalier. The cost of fixing just one of the many relatively common failure points of the SL would cost more than the Cavalier.
I’ll take the Benz because SWG will get it sorted before he sells ot.
It will be broken again before you get it home. I am usually very much a German car apologist, but not for these things.
Oh this one was hard! I am generally team Mercedes but for $500… and w stick? How bad could it be?
So sensible! I voted for the Benz, but I freely admit to having little or no sense. 😉
A comic had a routine about dropping off an old car for valet parking. He recites a list of all the little things that you need to do to get the car running… wiggling the key, fiddling with the car locks, not using the parking brake but leaving it in gear instead, not rolling down a particular window, etc.
My son’s car’s drivers door lock doesn’t always behave and occasionally you have to open the passenger door and reach over to unlock the door. It is intermittent so not worth fixing.
A tough one. I went with the $800 Cavalier because that is the true holy Grail. But I am loathe to buy a cheaply made economy box with luxury features. That is how they get you. I’m also leery of old luxury vehicles with complicated add one but it does have the SWG seal of approval so there’s that. However short of an intervention how are we going to cure his addiction to buying salvage cars?
Those MB headlights really need to be cleaned up with a $10 restoration kit and a half hour of elbow grease. The pic advertising a freshly washed SL500 with yellowed opaque headlights makes about as much sense as taking a shower with your socks on.
I’ve already attempted this twice! Once with a kit and another time at a pro body shop with an electric buff wheel.
I’ve cleaned up many headlights in my travels, yet this pair confounds me. I’m thinking that a previous owner sprayed them with a clear coat (or some other type of coating) after having them yellow.
I’ll leave it to the next owner to try for the 3rd time to clean them up or to just get an aftermarket pair. It’s wicked weird.
Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish will clean them right up. A little aggressive but wont scratch the lens.
This was a “which do I not want the least” day here at the SBSD.
I had a Z-24 convertible back the day and really don’t wish to revisit that with the lesser version, and I’ve never cared for the noses on that generation of Mercedes vehicles (the mid ’90s version was far prettier, in my opinion) nor all the fancy hardware that fails over time and is ridiculously expensive to repair and maintain.
Then the Merc’s problematic suspension had been surgically replaced with something less failure prone and supposedly the hydraulic roof mechanism is being addressed, so WTH.
SL it is.
SL. I have little love for the J-bodies or for convertibles, so the SL wins on both accounts because it is also a hard top. Plus, I spent my childhood working on old Mercedes vacuum systems, so I think I could get the power for locks working.
Today is a no brainer and a chance to own a real piece of Americana. No, not the cavalier but a car that has been rescued by SWG himself. Nothing more American than that.
I’ll take the $800 Cavy all day long.
It is wicked enticing, right?!
I figured it would beat the SL handily, yet it’s neck-and neck at the moment. I wanted to choose a car that would put up a serious value proposition as a competitor.
It’s been eating the voting results so far this morning – at one point, 260 votes were cast and there was a 0.76 difference!
It really is. I’m not even a convertible guy, but a cheap working stick shift ragtop would be a fun summer toy to knock around in.
If I weren’t ass-deep in home renovation stuff, and had a little more money in the bank, I’d be seriously considering a trip down to North Carolina to check that thing out. But it’s just not in the cards right now.
That makes sense to me.
Although it would be a lousy OppoCross car 🙂
You’re not much of a Fancy Boy, eh?
I’m really not.
Hmmm, might these be related?
I can see how one can associate one malady with the other, and cheers to your critical thinking, Gubbin.
The car has sat for years, so I believe the fuel to be stale and causing that lean code. The locks seem to be not functioning due to a bad air pump impeller (easy fix, hoping for the upcoming weekends).
Ah, I was figuring manifold vacuum leak, but of course M-B has a separate electric vacuum pump to actuate the locks because you want to be able to unlock it when the engine’s not running. 🙂
The Mercedes SL was one of the few poster cars from my teenage years. The Cavalier was not, plain and simple.
R230 with SWG’s mark of excellence for me
My man! Thanks Baja_Engineer.