Project Car + $2000; What to Spend It On

I've spent enough money on two Lexus LS400s to buy 5 of them. Learning through all this, if I was to buy a new old car and had two grand, this is what I would spend it on. When you get a project car, the first thing you should do is take care of any issues it has and also do the maintenance that is coming up.

Second time's the charm in my case. Lexi2 is the perfect car for me. It's not a lemon like the first one and she is still under or at about $2,000 invested. That's counting major maintenance. I installed the windshield banner after fixing the alternator.

You can't build a house without a base. This two grand will be the base for your build. Keep in mind, also, that this website mainly focuses on older cars so this article is mainly for older cars. Personally, it took me about a year to get my current car running well with the maintenance up to date. During that year, the car was undrivable for about a week at a time - thanks to the fact that it happened when I either had a little bit of money or help.

The 1996 Lexus LS400 is admittedly an older car so unless it has been maintained completely with complete service records, don't pay more than $1,000 for a running one. If it is around 200,000 miles, know that the car will need a new timing belt, maybe a power steering pump, alternator, and probably some seals. All of these things happened to me at different times but if I had that two grand when I bought it, that's what I would have done probably immediately. There is an exception though. If the car is over 200,000 miles but the owner has service records of any of that main maintenance, it counts for a lot sometimes. If he has replaced the camshaft and crankshaft seals and/or the timing belt, you can go ahead and pay $1,500-2000 depending on other factors of course.

For your information, a typical shop quotes me $1,000 to do the cam and crankshaft seals - parts included... I think? Anyway, it's an expensive job. Timing belt will run you $5-600 if you purchase the kit yourself. I'm talking about my LS400 so the number for the timing belt is similar for all cars but the seals may be less.

That's a nice Honda, I will admit. With proper planning, you can get that for $5,000. With the visual mods. 

As a side note, if I had $5,000 to spend on a car, I would look for a good one in the $2-3,000 range so I could do this. Especially if you're getting something like a Mercedes that has ridiculous prices for parts. I recommend that you take your time to find the best prices; for refurbished parts that work great, try RockAuto.com. Again, I don't get money for saying that but that's where I get parts cheap if I need new ones. Also, if you save a hundred or two by finding a legit mechanic (unless you do everything yourself, in which case it's even better) for every job, that may leave you some money to start modifying the car.

Another project that would cost less than $5,000 today. Ofcourse, I have no idea what the specific car has done to it, but you can get a nice GT with some new rims. 

What I did personally was focus on getting the car running like new but every once in a while, I would put away $20-40 to spend on something like the wheel fenders, a windshield banner, hood pins... Buy the big mods later, start by getting your car right, but reward yourself.

Right away, to get a newly purchased vehicle reliable for a good 80,000 miles at least, this is what I would do. If you are a mechanic, do everything you can yourself. If not, spend the time finding an honest person who isn't going to rip you off and who will actually care about your car.

The list;
- Around 100,000 or 200,000 miles, do the timing belt unless you have a timing chain.

- Alternator; test it with a voltmeter by running the car and checking the voltage of the battery. A good alternator should be producing between 14 to 15 volts. If the reading you're getting is under 14, you will probably need one soon. These usually go out about every 80-120,000 miles.

- Power Steering Pump; this depends on the car. Unless it's on its way out, maybe set aside a couple hundred for when you need it. You can drive a car without it but it puts more stress on the rack and pinion which costs a lot more. Something like the LS400 is prone to rack and pinion damage without power steering but most cars aren't affected much. A 1989 BMW 325 is fine with no power steering. It's just harder to turn.

- This should be at the top but get your spark plugs and spark plug wires replaced. They've probably never been changed. If you know how to do it, check them. It will be obvious if you don't need it. But if the spark plugs are carboned up or oily or burnt, you should just spend the money on new wires and plugs. Get the right plugs! And remember that it's not always a good idea to get the "better" ones; your car may be tuned for a specific type of spark plug so if it needs copper, don't get iridium.

- You shouldn't have bought it anyway with a broken transmission unless you wanted to swap it anyway but check your transmission fluid. Smell it. If it smells burnt, you need to get it changed. Don't let some employee smell it - do it yourself. A shop will say yes just to make some money.

You can see the fenders in the side mirror - $30? Fog lights - $20. Windshield banner... $20... Use little rewards to motivate yourself to fix problems. I.e. I'm not putting this windshield banner until I fix the alternator. It's like anything else - reward yourself for good planning.

It goes without saying that any check engine light codes should be fixed too. I'm assuming you're buying a car that you're ready to fix. As in, if it has a code, you know you can fix it. Don't buy a car that you won't be able to get running. I shouldn't have to say it but too many of my acquantainces bought cars like old 240s and Supras (1980s) that are still sitting under a tarp.

If the car I wanted was far out of reach, I would buy a cheap daily driver and use that until I saved enough money to not only buy the car I want but fix it as well. Then you can sell the daily driver you were using and start dailying the car you want.

Now here comes my opinion. You guys should know I would never buy a car new aside from maybe one or two exceptions that may happen once in a decade. This is my reasoning. As soon as you buy a brand new car for $30k, it's already worth $26k. Drive it for a year or, God forbid, 3 years and it's down to $18k. Oops.

That isn't the only reason. Most people think that a new car is reliable. It's reliable while you have your warranty to fix it but as soon as it expires is when car problems usually start anyway. I'm not going to say the name but there is a very popular car out now that has a timing belt issue where they have been snapping at 80k miles and such.

There's plenty of reasons to just get the best car you can for the money. I understand if there's a specific car you want, in which case you just need to look for the best quality one you can find. But if you're looking at cars in general, sometimes buying a $1,500 car and putting $700 into it makes more sense than buying one for $3,000 and having a problem half a year later. I suppose it's counterintuitive.

You would assume that the newer a car, the more research the maker has put into making cars period, and so logically they should be better ever year. But it's just not the truth. Some manufacturers build cars that are higher quality. Sometimes it's just a particular model. Every car isn't equal and lucky for us, a lot of really good, reliable cars are plenty right now.

Unless it's based on a proven platform, it seems more often than not, brand new cars end up having a weak point somewhere the manufacturer didn't catch.

Good luck with your cars, haul ass but carefully, and don't do it before you get your car right. Have a good day people! Feel free to post any questions or email me.

- Rokas K.

norgin@gmail.com

Don't Do an Alternator Wire Bypass; Reviving Lexi the Second

One thing I learned for the 1304th time is to not take advice from my pops, especially when it comes to fixing things. Don't get me wrong - he's a good guy but he swears he's right no matter what. When I show him proof today, he will say I did something wrong. (I'm not saying crap! Because he will set out to prove it.)

The alternator bypass. I want to talk about that as that was his idea. Of course, I couldn't find anything on Google (big red flag) because I was actually doing an Alternator Wire Bypass. The idea was that the wire was old and had too much resistance. To get around this, I blindly ran another wire straight from the alternator to the positive battery terminal. If you want to know how I got to the idea that it was maybe the wire and not the alternator itself, read the previous article.

I picked up an alternator from AutoZone as quick as I could and I have to put it in today. It's me and my wife's daily driver and only car - and that's been a trip. But I still love it. These cars are known for at least getting you where you need to be if they're dying. It only took two jump-starts and some speeding to get from where I died to where I needed to fix the car.

So if we learned anything it's that if you're getting that battery light on and off intermittently then your alternator is probably dying. Simple. Just get ready to buy a new one.

Reviving Lexi the Second
The car hasn't been washed on the exterior in a few months. The inside, mainly the back, is pretty dirty from moving. It has a couple areas that need to be painted over, even. I don't know how it happened but where I had filled in the holes of the 'Lexus' and 'LS400,' dirt suddenly starting clinging around that whole area. It's almost like it soaked into the paint or something!

I'd say we're about even on the mods... *coughbullsh$&cough*

Lexi is a beast (you know it's true if your wife says it) so she deserves a lot of love. I'm keeping the interior as clean as possible - after I fix her - until I can paint the car so I can clean it up on the outside as well. There's a Virgin Mary statue I've thought of using as a hood ornament...

Thanks for reading. I will update everybody with the new, fresh Lexi after some time. Expect an article or two that doesn't involve my car soon.

- Rokas K.

Lexi: The Struggle IS Real + Alternator Bypass

And I have proof. Well, besides the fact that the majority of people between the ages of 28 to 35 live with their parents. It's hard to get started, especially depending on your circumstances, but me and my wife are finally making it. Lexi is holding on like a beast to get us through the next couple months.

You see, the battery light started coming on. A bad alternator is the last thing I need right now. There is no bus where I live for five miles and I take my wife to work an hour away (two hour trip twice a day). We moved very far out just recently, spending every last red cent.

So before I bore you and have you X out of here, here is what happened exactly and what I did that seemed to work.

I turned the car on and the battery light was on. Strange, I thought, because I had tested the alternator not long ago and it was fine. It wouldn't charge the battery in park or neutral but it would go away anywhere from five seconds to five minutes of driving.

Until, for the first time, the light came on as I was driving. That's when I knew that there was a possibility the car can die on the road.

Luckily, I was pulling up to my parents' house where I could try to fix the car. Some numbers. I was monitoring the voltage of the battery during this whole time. I've tested it with the car on and off. With the car running and the alternator working, at one point it produced an astounding 14.80 volts - like a brand new alternator. Typically it was charging around 13.76 when there was flow. Contact.

Contact is the key word. The best conclusion I could come to is that the wire going from the alternator to the battery had corrosion somewhere, stopping flow. This whole time, my car never actually died. It would turn on, even if the voltage was reading 12.11 with the car on. I cleaned all of the corrosion from the parts I could. Really it was just all of the positive battery terminal pieces I could clean and they did, indeed, have corrosion as well as some damage that I fixed.

The light never came on again while driving. While I was there at a location where I could work on the car, I decided my best bet was bypassing the bad alternator wire by using my own wire.

Maybe she's not doing THAT bad inside.

I'm still not convinced the alternator is bad. The reason is because I've had it charge like brand new and I've also seen it charge like it's bad. But if it was bad, it would never charge more than whatever state of voltage production it was at. If it was only charging at 12.54 volts, it wouldn't charge at 13.60 randomly.

(Note: I am proofreading this the next day and the battery light came back on last night - a few days after the bypass - and will not go off even though the car starts and lights aren't dimming or anything. In these cars and most others, inside lights will start dimming when the alternator bites the dust. I am about to make an 80 mile round trip. I don't feel nervous, ofcourse not...)

What I did was loosen the nut holding the stock wire, wrapped the exposed part of the thick wire I was using (it has to be really thick) around the bolt part, and tightened the nut back down. It took patience and dexterity. Use a connector if you have problems.

I had made sure to lower the wire down from above to the alternator. I ran it along the top of the motor, away from ANY moving parts! Be careful because there's pulleys close.

I had excess wire so after I decided on the best path to run it, I cut the wire so it was just long enough to reach the positive battery terminal without being loose.

Next, I used one of the existing bolts that are part of the positive battery terminal to, again, press down on the exposed wire I used to connect the components. For safety, I had the negative battery terminal off doing all of this.

I can park her right outside of my home. These cars have been a trip.

At first, I thought it didn't work, but as I drove more, I noticed that the light, if it came on, would only come on as I first start the car and now goes away shortly after. Sometimes it stays on for two seconds before I have a chance to put it in drive so something is working better.

Using the voltage meter, the battery is around 12.5 volts while the car is off. This is so even if the battery light comes on. After the car is on, it now either charges the battery like normal or does not let it go down in voltage. Good enough for me.

There's a reason I chose the title I did for this article; as I mentioned, me and my wife are very busy and we're having issues. Money issues. Car issues. However, I will be posting articles again more often. We will be fine within a couple months and I can get back to cars.

Not so Krispy Klean...

I feel bad for Lexi. She hasn't been washed in the longest time. Inside, I haven't had time to clean either and I'm still moving stuff over. The car is in bad shape as far as cleanliness. I think I'm going to end up doing a full detail tutorial for newbies like me when I can afford the products.

I really appreciate those who have stuck around. If I ever leave, I will let you guys know but I don't think that's going to happen. Go wrench on cars or something. I have no energy... Going to go pass out.

- Rokas K.

The LS400 People; Our Mods

Originally I wanted to talk about how the Lexus LS400 has possibly the biggest variety of modifications that can be done to a car. I was going to go through them but then this would be a book. Let's start with two different styles of running these cars. I will be comparing myself to Stereo Rob, a good friend and fellow LS400 enthusiast.

This website is getting to be maybe too much about Lexus LS400s but forgive me. They're a great car and I happen to work on mine a lot and hang out with people that have the same passion for these cars as I do.

Let me give you an example. This shows how individuals totally have their own style, too. My good friend StereoRob has 3 LS400s now, the latest being a Euro spec. At least that's both of our guesses. The air conditioning unit is in Celsius.

Stereo Rob's car is on the right. I really should have taken more pictures.

Nakamachi sound system. It's a premium sound system. As you can tell by his name, he wants one.

At the same time, he tears his cars up like crazy and that's what I love about Rob. Dude, I had fun riding shotgun while you did burnouts all over your neighborhood. I appreciate that!

I told Rob I would do a burnout when me and the missus finish moving. There's a bus line by the place we're moving to so if I blow up the car, it's not so bad.

Nah, I'm not scared about blowing it up. It would be fine. However Lexi2 is missing some horsepower and I can tell for sure. Undoubtedly in my mind, it's the Coolant Temp Sensor. That gets old and you lose 30-40hp. I'll order one very soon.

This is my nice junkyard find. Brand New filter... Weird.

Back to Rob. I guess the first idea he had was to cut the mufflers off and take out the air intake filter. Because it's dirty and he needs to change it... Yet I don't see one... I'm on to you.

(Before I proofread this article, I found out it came like that.)

So this thing is a 1999 with the VVTi. It breathes very freely and the European version must have something different cause I swear it feels faster than a typical 1998-2000 LS400.

Now let's compare that to me. I wouldn't dare just cut off the pipe without a plan. I am however cutting my mufflers as well. But I want to do it the right way.

I've talked about this before but there are special clamps for exhaust systems to join different pipes together. No such thing was available until recently. You would get a small exhaust leak where the clamp is letting air through. Bad.

These new clamps, $20 each and worth it, come with a special gasket material. Once you tighten the clamp around the two pipes you're connecting, it forms a permanent, heat activated and resistant, air-tight bond. You can undo the clamps later and take it off with some mean scraping, yes.

Made a new center armrest cover.

I really want to see what's the way to go. Cheap but reliable like me or super cheap, not reliable at all but faster like Rob. As I type that, I know the answer. I'm gonna beat your ass Rob! Friendly competition, you know.

We'll do a competition to see who can lay down the longest burnout.

Back to my build. For now, I'm deleting just the muffler and adding the missing pipe back on via the method above. I want extra sound, really.

Lexi2, my car for those who are new, needs a paintjob. She will get it in the next six months for sure, probably half of that. You will get a tutorial explaining how to spray paint your car and get better quality than Maaco! Look at the only white part on the bumper. I tested it there. Completely full nice tone with clear coat.

I've also flirted with the idea of an air intake system that truly works better. I'm probably going to find the biggest cone that will fit and see if, along with the exhaust, I can make an extra 20 lb-ft of torque. I'm going to fabricate an intake system where the air is rammed in through a huge hole directly into the filter. That will be kind of hard because the car is basically set up this way. I can possibly have air being sucked in through the corner light and have an electric motor inside pumping air in. You can actually call that a supercharger but we're talking 0.4 PSI of boost if lucky. The point is to get more air in cheaply so if I can get 20 ft-lbs of torque, that would be nice.

The stock intake is very good but maybe I can beat it.

You know something I've noticed about the stock air filter hole? It's the same shape as a gutter for your house that you can buy super cheap bent in all ways. In the first gen, you could take out one of the two headlights and stick that gutter right there. I'm no car scientist but I'm pretty sure that's a good intake. The cone HAS to be big enough to process all the air, however, and the intake really should be wide where it's catching air and narrow into the cone intake.

Important. If you do this and don't get your car tuned, you'll probably gain 1hp or lose power or mileage. The ECU is roughly set up to run with the stock parts. If you do enough things to throw the computer off, like straight pipe your car and lose all back pressure (this is one of many variables your ECU is following through sensors), your car will probably run like crap. Well, maybe not quite like crap but worse. I know I straight-piped an N/A Volvo 850 and while it sounded very loud, it wasn't as fast. I don't care who says back pressure doesn't matter - it does!

But when you take it to a tuner, you tell them everything you changed, they put your car on a dynometer (a device used to test a car's wheel horse power), and then sit there with a laptop plugged into your ECU. They change variables little by little based on KNOWLEDGE and eventually they are not only able to get your ECU tuned to work with the new parts but to actually get the extra power out of the new components as well.

It's not as simple as slapping on an exhaust. You can - but the good cars are all tuned. That's why they're called tuner cars. You know, if your car has high miles and seems to have lost a good amount of power, you can actually get a simple tune for $50 to get some horsepower and mileage back. It's good to do every once in a while, really.

Your engine is a very complicated machine with tons of moving parts. Some wear out, the timing changes slightly, the compression goes down from normal wear and tear. A mechanic with a good OBDII tool can see pretty much everything that's going on in the car live on a screen while the car is running.

At the same time, he can change variables as I mentioned earlier but even while the car is on. He can make the injectors spit a little more fuel at a specific time. Once somebody can nail all of that down, that's when they can get massive amounts of power out of any car with a decent engine - especially turbo or supercharged.

I went off on just a little bit of a tangent, I suppose, but I'm handbuilding my car, Rob is hand destroying parts that rob power... Let's see! I'm exaggerating. He isn't stupid. However he does have more than one LS400 so he can play with them.

- Rokas K.

Product Review: Lucas Stop Oil Leak Part 1

I mentioned this before but I'll repeat it. I want you guys to really see how I feel and how the car is when I initially use a product and then I do a part 2 when I see if it does anything.

I've had an oil leak for a while now. I believe it's the valve cover gasket(s). Seems to make sense because that is the highest point on the engine that I see oil. On the bottom, the engine is basically completely soaked in oil. Luckily it's not getting on my alternator or anything. How much oil does the car leak? I have to add a quart every two or three days, depending on how much driving I'm doing - although it still leaks when parked. That right there tells me there might be more than one leak because the valve cover gaskets should only leak when the car is running.

Quickly, I want to state that no one is paying for this (sadly). I honestly just like to let people know how and if certain products work. SeaFoam and Marvel Mystery Oil are proven to work but there isn't many good pour-in products besides those.

I want to say something about these products. You really have to know what you're putting in your car and if you're doing it for the right reason because although most of these products don't cause damage, they can.

Here is one example. I had a 1995 Lexus LS400 with over 200,000 miles on it. The engine had more sludge than usual due to bad maintenance and the problem was that it was too much for the SeaFoam. In retrospect, I should have used the type you spray in your throttle body.

Anyway, I put the SeaFoam in my gas and oil as instructed and ran the car. No smoke... Five minutes later, I see small puffs of smoke. I thought this stuff was supposed to burn off the carbon deposits?

The car never drove right again. It started throwing random codes and the ECU was getting confused. I don't know for sure but I have heard this could happen. I think because my old car had way too much carbon buildup to begin with, the SeaFoam was only enough to push it down the system. It probably went all over the exhaust system, putting carbon deposits on probably every sensor it hit. That was an exception. I have had success with SeaFoam by using it every 100k miles. But if your engine has a LOT of sludge, don't do it.

So like I said, look for information online before you use any type of pour-in magic liquid (that's what I call them).

To give you an idea of the thickness of this stuff, the red thing pictured here (that I should know the name of!), filled to the top line, would take about three minutes to drain through.

In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of how thick the Lucas Stop Oil Leak was. It was somewhat cold outside and it was moving like molasses. Pouring in a full quart took probably a good eight minutes! By the way, the directions state to fill your oil with 20% of maximum volume with this product. The LS400 holds about 5 quarts of oil so I used one quart of Lucas Stop Oil Leak (a small bottle) and then I had enough room to add some normal oil.

The directions say it needs three days to work fully so I will be updating you people on what happens. Honestly, the thickness of it is what might help the oil from seeping out so quick but if it lasts... I will be surprised and very happy.

Right now - I think I said this - I add about an quart ofoil every two or three days. Let's see how much I have to add in the next six. That way I can tell if it helped or not.

I have my fingers crossed, I'm thinking positive, and the consistency along with people's reviews on other websites gives me some hope. I'm having a new problem - yay! I'm hoping to temporarily resolve this so I can fix this stupid issue that popped up...

I thought my alternator was going out and it wasn't, thank God, but I was getting a battery icon when I would start the car sometimes. Now the car does this every time. When I start it, the battery light (low voltage) comes on. After driving a half of a mile, it goes away. I tested the alternator and it produces just over 14 volts. That's almost like a brand new one. Yet somehow, whenever I start my car now, my battery light comes on until the battery is charged more. It won't die but it also won't charge in park or neutral - I have to drive for that.

I'm thinking there's corrosion somewhere. The wire running from the alternator may have high resistance. Heck, it could be soaked with oil.

New Year's was fun...

So there's my two little problems and I will post the results of both. Look for part 2 in about a week and expect something on how I fixed my little battery issue.

- Rokas Kirvelis

P.S. This is my newest center armrest cover. Real leather, completely hand made, and it has an embossed Lexus logo. I can make them custom for dashboards too and if you want to own a piece, please get in contact with me. The logo can be whatever make you want or you can change the style completely. My armrest is torn (like most LS400s) and this makes it look much better. It doesn't slide because it is held on by Velcro - just enough to hold it in place. The piece above is missing the side stitching. This one has gold stitching but you can pick whatever colors and stitch types you want.

Contact me through Instagram - @Rokask1.

Best New Year's: DFB Will Have a Shop

The New Year brought a big opportunity for Driving for Broke. You guys know I'm broke as a joke. Either way, I was planning on renting a shop by the end of this year. It might, however, happen a lot sooner.

I ran into a man who is becoming my business partner. He has the funds and know-how as far as running a business and purchasing cars while I can tell him which cars are worth buying to fix and re-sell. I will also be fixing all of these cars. The plan is to have 3 or 4 cars for sale at all times.

This shop will not be a typical shop. I will personally attend to each car as if my mother was buying it. This way the customer gets a good quality vehicle even though it's "old." We will mainly deal in 1990s or older vehicles. It's not worth your hassle to get a new car that's actually worse. For example, my 1996 Lexus LS400 easily beats my partner's 2012 Mercedes E320 in speed. While that's actually in the same class - luxury - I suppose the E is for "economy?" But I never in a million years thought my car was faster until I gave him a little ride and he told me. You can get one from us for $1.5-2k in the future among other cars.

Anyway, it gets a little better mileage. The Mercedes, that is. It's louder, stiffer, slower, revs lower, is not a reliable Toyota (problems are coming up... 130k miles while my Lexus has 230k that feels like 75k), and is showing signs of electrical problems starting.

The Mercedes not only lacks traction control (!!) but it also has no overdrive and you can't shift manually if you want. Man, in the Lexus if you go through the gears starting at "L" (1st) and shift around 5,000 rpms, every shift will throw you back in your seats and because it has traction control (that can be turned off with a button), and it doesn't lose grip unless it's wet. The Mercedes likes to spin its tires instead of taking off (although I explained to my good friend how to prevent that).

There's a lot more things like the price difference. $25,000 for the Mercedes, $1,500 for the LS400 that made him consider selling his car now.

So here's my point. Cars reached peak quality all around the 1990s. They were still being built to last a long time and they were just new enough to have your ABS, traction control, OBDII ports, etc. Essentially, most cars past the year 2000 started being made to last about 180-200,000 miles. The companies realized they can't make money if people keep their cars for years!

They have too many electronics and depend on the ECU too much. Something small goes wrong and suddenly the car won't drive because the ECU is missing an "integral" input which could be coming from a bad sensor. If not for that, yeah your engine might run worse or whatever but you get a code, find out what the problem is, and fix it for cheap.

If you put $5,000 into a Lexus LS400, not only would it be decked out completely but it would be doing 400hp at 8 PSI, completely rocking most cars really. The car puts horsepower to the ground especially with traction control on. Although it is fun off (yes you can turn it on and off), you spin the tires so easy and obviously would use it for drifting. I had another thought. I was wondering why it seems to have such good grip. Well my car is lowered just a little in the back, putting more weight on the rear tires!

This is one of many choices of cars, many sports and luxury cars that last to 400-500,000 miles if simply maintained. So it never makes sense to buy a new car unless you really want something specific like an Alfa Romeo Competizione...

I'll pick one up in three years for $4,000. Oops did I say that? Yeah, Alfas depreciate extremely fast. As soon as you buy a new Giulia (beautiful car), you loose $7,000 immediately because now it's 'used.' Just by buying it.

It makes more sense to rebuild older, quality cars. You will be able to buy various cars of ours for cheap prices, in line with the website's $1-3,000 theme. But these will be fully inspected, fixed, and possibly painted before they go. This way you know that you have a reliable car. Buy one from Craigslist for the same price and unless you know, you're risking it. The tranny or something could blow in 6 months.

So I am extremely excited for 2019 because I knew it would be better but I had no idea I would get an opportunity like this. Hopefully my wife can stop working and just clean the house in a nurse's outfit for me.

Don't worry, I'm not being misogynistic or whatever it's called - that's what she wants to do. I love my wife.

So guys send me your good lucks and prayers so this goes well!

- Rokas K.