Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 More musical cars,

Around and around they go.

The End of Summer edition.

My Wife took off with a few friends for a multi day Girl's Trip in the Flex. This gave me an empty right half of the driveway.

I had swapped out the '96 and the '06 Mustangs back in June, so that I could get a new set of tires on the '06. I have also wanted to drive it more. We had just returned from a trip up to Tahoe, and while the car ran fine, I don't know how I feel about the car. I like it, but I don't like it that much.

Now I wanted to take the '96 Mustang out, I need to put some more miles on it. It is due for a smog check in November, along with its registration renewal. I usually park the Navigator on the right side of the driveway so I had to move it before switching out the Mustangs. I don't like to just start and move a car that's been sitting for weeks, so I let the Nav idle in the drive long enough to warm up completely.

It's still one of my favorite cars.

The '96 needs to be driven, since I've got to sort it out soon. Earlier this year the CEL had lit up. I checked the codes and it advised of a problem with the oxygen sensor heating element. I knew that I'd have to deal with that issue before renewing the registration. When I backed it out of the garage, the CEL was not on. It had gone off on it's own, but it will usually come back on after a while. The CEL tends to get ignored if it stays constantly on, so the manufacturer made sure that it will return if the condition is not addressed. 

I put in half a tank of premium gas and decided to see if it would improve with use. I was curious about the Lincoln MKC that I'd seen on CL, so I drove up to Hayward to check it out. I lowered the top of the '96 and cruised up to Mission Blvd.

It was a warm but not oppressively hot day. Top down weather is rapidly approaching, Fall and Spring are the best seasons for open air motoring. 

The '96 is always pleasant and relaxing to drive. I found the car lot selling the Lincoln on Mission Blvd. Hayward is sort of the Used Car Capitol of the South Bay, there are endless lots located next to each other for miles and miles.

it looks just as good in person.

The MKZ looked as good in person as it did in the ad. I really liked the nice blue color, so many of these are a shade of metallic grey or silver. The interior, which was in amazingly good condition, looked like new. Unfortunately it was black leather, I would have preferred a tan or light grey interior, but it's not a deal breaker. It is spacious for me in the driver's seat, and has a large trunk. I have reached the point where I can accept the push button transmission controls. 

I'm curious to try the turbo four engine, especially after driving the MKC earlier this Summer. I liked the way that car drove. I've read that the fuel economy is very good, and I haven't heard terrible things about it's reliability. Overall the MKZ is a pleasing car, and I really don't need to buy another SUV at this point, the Flex is our everyday driver. I think that my Wife would love a car like the MKZ, it is a fancy luxury car that is a bit smaller than our '94 Seville.

The next day, after I parked the '06 in the garage, I decided to take the Navigator out for a spin. I had to run by Whole Foods store  downtown, then I wanted to check out a Cadillac XTS for sale on a San Jose used car lot. I would finish up with a visit to Barnes and Noble in Santa Clara. The Cadillac was listed by one of those brokers that doesn't have a car lot, they only list the suite number. I drove by and didn't see any Cadillac around. 

I rarely buy any new magazines, so I also spent time at Barnes and Noble browsing the DVD collection. I'd have to find something really special if I was going to spend forty bucks on it! There are lots of inexpensive used DVDs offered at Rasputin's Records and Twice Read Books.

Since I still had time before the Flex would be back, I uncovered the Riviera in preparation for pulling it out of the garage, to put some miles on that car.

The Riviera came out for a drive on the hottest day of this Summer. The weather prediction was for 100+ heat. The day did not disappoint. My car was just about the only one with it's windows open, everyone else had their a/c on. Then, while I was driving, the fan started to blow hot air out the vents! It seemed to vary in volume as if the unit was trying to regulate the temperature. Since I wanted to give it a chance to work through some of it's functions I decided to let it run and observe what would happen. 

For the most part, I don't miss driving without a/c on most days, which are only in the high 80 degree range. My Wife cannot stand it, which is okay since she seldom rides in the Riviera anyway. The thought occurred to me that maybe the valve that controls the coolant flow to the heater could be stuck open, though modern a/c systems usually keep the heater core hot to aid in dehumidifying the air. The core is only cut off when the system is operated in the max position. The air control flaps are supposed to isolate the heater in normal operation. 

The Riviera ran fine, and it has not displayed any problems with the cooling system, even though I have driven it quite a bit during the last two heatwaves. 

It takes a bit of effort to keep the cars in constant driving rotation. I have written about this in prior posts. I also mentioned the need to generate new content. I don't see any way that I'm going to add another car to the fleet, though there may be some changes coming in the line up. 

I drove the '96 Mustang to the local OReilly's to get a quart of oil. While I was there I also checked their prices on oxygen sensors for the car. I got into a conversation with the young counter guy. He showed me some spacers that could be used to "fool" the OBS system. They looked like the old spark plug extenders that were used to reduce spark plug fouling. They might fool the system, but I don't think that they'd pass a smog test. I mentioned that I would rather fix it right to get it ready for sale. 

He expressed some interest in the car, which he could see parked outside and asked how much I was asking for it. I've been considering this for quite some time. While I could be flexible on the price, I wisely responded with a price that would cover the cost of the repairs and leave me with some wiggle room. I told him that I wanted three grand. 

He did not act like the price was too high, in fact he wondered why it was so low. I told him that I'd owned the car for over fifteen years and that it had pretty high mileage. Then I told him about all the repairs and maintenance I'd performed over the 65+ thousand miles that the car had been in my ownership. 

We went outside to look at the Mustang and he was impressed by the cleanliness and good condition that it was in. Most of these old SN95 Mustangs offered at this price are usually thrashed. We exchanged contact information and he said that he would keep in touch. 

We'll see.

I have been kind of burned out on C&C events, but I think that I'll head over to Ronnie's Get Together on Saturday morning. I can take the '96 Mustang and stick a "for sale" sign in the window. Maybe there will be some interest?

I had received a couple of e mails from ROA members in the Sacramento area, I told them that maybe we could get together at an event in the North Bay, perhaps around Concord. I had pretty much left this effort for dead, but maybe there's a little life still there. 

My other thought was to put the Navigator in the front of my driving rotation next month. I'll probably be using it for my Wife's craft vending during the holiday season. I'll have more thoughts about the Navigator in future posts.