Welcome back to another fabulous week of questionable cars! This week, our mission is to see how low you are willing to go and still feel comfortable driving something daily. We’re starting off with a price cap of $1,000, and doubling it every day until we reach $8,000 on Thursday, then on Friday you will be voting on where your personal comfort cutoff lies.
On Friday, I gave you a silly scenario with the week’s winners, and you responded with some silly answers. Bravo. Despite a few rather dishonorable mentions for the big colorful Ford truck, most of you did the sensible thing and went for the Sebring or the Fusion. The Sebring won, which probably surprised some of you as much as it surprised me.
I think the Sebring is the right choice too. My mother-in-law is no longer with us, but I get the feeling she would have appreciated the comfy Chrysler convertible. The Fusion would have appealed to her sense of frugality as well, though. I could go either way on that one.
Driving a cheap car on a daily basis is not a lifestyle for everyone. I get that. I’ve been doing it for so long that whenever I actually have a nicer car, I end up needing to own a beater as well, just to have something I don’t have to worry so much about. But I know some folks can’t stand to have anything without a warranty. But the question is, where is the transition line these days? At what price point does a car start being “nice?” I know one thing: it’s not this price point. But we have to start somewhere. Let’s check out a couple of cheapies to get the ball rolling.
1998 Chevrolet Lumina – $700
Engine/drivetrain: 3.1-liter OHV V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Kenosha, WI
Odometer reading: 139,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
For a very long time, this was the unofficial car of the upper Midwest. Roughly every fourth car in any given parking lot was a Chevy Lumina. You don’t see many of them anymore; most of them went to the great parking lot in the sky ages ago. And when you do see one, it’s usually pretty rough. Time has been especially unkind to the white ones; there was something wrong with white paint in the ’90s, and it came off in sheets.
The good news is that, mechanically, Luminas are bulletproof. There is absolutely nothing special or fancy about the drivetrain: it’s GM’s 60-degree V6 and a four-speed automatic, just like millions of other cars. It has a few foibles, but they’re well-understood. Parts are cheap, repairs are easy, and maintenance is largely optional. This one runs well, and the seller says it is currently daily driven.
It’s a little grubby and dirty inside. I wish the seller had cleaned it up a little before taking the photos. I mean, I get that it’s a $700 car, but you can still take a little pride in it. They do say the air conditioning works fine. No word on the CB radio, though.
The peeling paint is actually pretty impressive: the entire hood, roof, and trunk lid are bare, and the doors and fenders aren’t far behind. There’s surface rust on the roof, but not the other panels. Is the roof not galvanized, and everything else is, I wonder? The worst rust-through seems to be around the fuel filler, which is a common spot for rust on W-bodies. It’s worth taking a look underneath to make sure it’s all structurally sound, of course.
1999 Honda Accord EX – $1,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3-liter OHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Addison, MI
Odometer reading: 309,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
If you’re looking for a reliable car, Honda is usually your second stop after Toyota. If a Camry is just too vanilla for you, or if you can’t find one, the Honda Accord is your car. Rust is a concern, as it has been with Hondas since the dawn of time, but other than that, you can’t go too far wrong with one. Even this one, with over 300,000 miles on its odometer, can probably still give you your thousand bucks’ worth of service.
This generation of Accord is powered by a 2.3-liter four-cylinder, in this case backed by a four-speed automatic. Yeah, I’d rather have a manual too, but at this price, beggars can’t be choosers. The seller says it has had a bunch of work done, and it runs fine, but the dashboard is lit up like Clark Griswold’s house on Christmas Eve. The check engine, ABS, and some other warning light are all on. Nothing that will keep you from getting home, but concerning nonetheless.
This one is kind of a mess inside too. What do people have against vacuuming out a car? It takes five minutes. There’s a tree air freshener hanging from the mirror, and a bag of beef jerky sitting on the passenger’s seat. Any bets on which smell is winning out?
The outside is pretty rough as well. There’s some badly-repaired damage on the passenger side, and scuffs and dings all over. What is encouraging, though, is that the rear wheel arches don’t show any signs of rust-though, and that’s often where it shows up first on these cars. Maybe it has escaped the Honda rust curse.
I have to be honest: compared to some of the heaps I was driving when these two were new, they don’t look bad at all. Pending a test drive and an inspection, I’d drive either one of them if I had to. But I know my frame of reference is a bit different from most. What say you, Autopians? If these are all you had to choose from to get to work, which one would it be?
Lumina for the front bench seat, cozy ride, and nostalgia when these were literally every college student’s car
I swear that every other student car in the early-mid aughts was some variant of the W Body. Good cars that depreciated so fast that even students could afford them or parents know longer cared about them.
I have a certain nostalgia for those Luminas, but I currently own one of that generation of Accord and I love it. I am 18 man-hours into changing the clutch master cylinder from hell in it though, so at this point I’d welcome one with an automatic into my lift.
In fact, I am openly shopping for them, but a little more cash gets me a much better version of it.
I would need test drives on both to decide but the Chevy looks better than the Honda, thanks to an extra 200,000 miles. On that Honda did they repair that panel with hundreds of tubes of JBWeld?
Accord! This was one of the easiest Showdowns ever. Never Lumina, ever. They are total trash, especially this one. It doesn’t help that I used to know someone who had one and he was the craziest person I’ve ever met. That Accord is so awesome by comparison. I really love Accords too…this gen not so much but they are still decent.
“Luminas are bulletproof”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Thanks for the great Monday morning laugh
“tree air freshener”
“There’s one in every car, you’ll see”
It’s completely unbelievable and absurd that the Lumina won this one…is this The Autopian? Yeah, we’re supposed to be pro car, but it doesn’t have to be pro every single car…those cars are total trash, especially this one. How do people not know this? Plus it was against a…HONDA (The most reliable brand ever- not even a debate) Yeah, this isn’t the best gen of Accord, but they are still somewhat decent- even this one. I think too many drugs were smoked yesterday
If I’m shopping for a car at this price point, cost is clearly going to be important. I’ll take the Lumina, even with the filthy interior, and pocket the $300 difference. And maybe think about rolling some Rust-Oleum on the trunk and hood one Saturday.
I would almost always go for an accord, but lord that one is bad. I think I might have to go lumina here.
The liability insurance is going to cost more than the purchase price of either of these, assuming they live another to year or two.
I went Honda, just because they’re easier to wrench on, and in this price range, I’ll be doing all of the work on it myself.
GM seems to engineer their stuff to torture mechanics, whereas I had a CRV of similar vintage to this Accord, and it was relatively easy to work on. (Note: I also had a ’91 Cavalier with the 3.1 V6, so I somewhat have personal experience with both of these.)
Accord for me. That Lumina looks so bad, even for a beater I wouldn’t want to be seen driving it. At the very least it needs a Tremclad paint job.
But I’d still rather have the Accord even with the higher mileage and slightly higher price.
One reason is I’d rather work on a transverse inline 4 rather than a transverse V6.
To be fair, if I’m selling a tired, old, clapped out, calico shitbox for $700, I’m not bothering to vac out the interior either. Anyone shopping in this neighborhood knows what they are getting and it ain’t the Ritz, it’s a Motel 6.
The Lumina probably has more life left in it at this point and with the 300 saved I can grab a few rattle cans of Rustoleum. It’s not like I could possibly make it look any worse.
Lumina is cheaper with half the miles. That’s more or less all that matters at this price.
Why the fuck are my comments locked in moderation purgatory again?
It took hours for them to get retrieved last time. Let’s try a workaround and paste the text into an accepted comment:
Accords are nice cars, it would be hard to roll around in such a thrashed, degraded example.
Luminas, however, were POSs right from the showroom floor so this one has simply achieved its natural state. Lumina for me! With that paint job no one is getting near you on the road and I’d take singular delight in finding the shiny brodozers and fancy cars who park across two spaces to prevent door dings an park this Lumina inches from their driver door.
Go ahead, m’effer. Key it. See if I can even notice.
Ha! It worked!
I had a comment that was in limbo for hours because typed the name of a political party that was prominent in Germany from 1931-1945. Never mind that the article was partially about that party and used its name several times. The software isn’t perfect, of course.
L(ewww)mina. I’m just glad I’m past the point in my life where I have to actually make decisions like this.
Accord they don’t break that easy and don’t want to work on a gm product
300,000 mile Accords break. 300,000 mile ANYTHINGS break.
Lumina because you said “to get to work” so I assume I don’t have another car. Both of these will need work from time to time, but the Limina will always be cheaper to fix.
The paint on the Lumina is almost artistic at this point!
Patterned paint damage is more interesting than random paint damage.
The Honda wins by default.
The Accord’s I4 makes the same amount of power as the big-ass V6 LOL
I have experienced ilLumination with the Bench Seat/Column Shift combo.
In an interesting twist, I have actually driven examples of both the cars featured today. The Honda was nicer to drive, but this particular Honda is nearing the end of its life. The Lumina is hideous inside and out but the drivetrain likely has a good bit of life left in it, so that’s how I’m voting today. Plus it has working AC!
Uggghhh. I’ll play the game, but not happy about it. I guess the Lumina? It’s already being daily driven and the AC works.
Bench seat? Heck yeah!
Lumina. It’s $700 and runs/drives. I don’t know think I need to further justify my vote.
I already know the Honda won’t pass a PA inspection w/o mechanical work. I would suspect the case is likely the same for the Lumina. The game is always the same – have to choose one, so I’ll roll the dice on the Chevy. If nothing else, it’s got a CB that could be pretty boss.
Don’t worry about inspection in PA, I know a guy!
LOL! – back in my garage days, we did too…”Easton Cab Co.” – those guys would slap a sticker on just about anything (in fairness, that was like 40 years ago)
Lumina + paint from roller + bright Yellow = Lemon’s racer
$500 + I keep the CB for the Lumina.
The Lumina is halfway to going from white to grey, the official vehicle color of our current time. Once the rest of it flakes off the seller can say it’s “concrete”. As much as I like its ultra ratty appearance though I gave my vote to the Accord. It didn’t make it all the way up to 300k miles by accident. The interior looks like it will clean up nicely.
Yes the Honda can get you to 300,000 miles but the problem is this one is already there. Even most Toyotas dont get to 300,000.