Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Dependson the car (both model and individual car.) Depends on what work one can do .... have a lift? Have a machine shop? have all the tools?
When I had the Saturn, I had access to a welder, pile of scrap structural steel and a bunch of hand tools. Rather than a lift, I'd make 4-point stands - basically really overbuilt jack stands from 4x4 1/4" wall tubing, just at the limit of my floor jack and raise it one corner at a time.
Then as you get into more modern stuff it gets worlds more complicated ... i guess you'd have to buy a diagnostic computer eventually.
Like day one for anything 1997 or newer, or older stuff compatible with any OBD standard. A Bluetooth OBDII reader that works with any Android is $14 on Amazon. Used one to get exact gas mileage numbers by reading flow rate at the fuel rail and using GPS for distance traveled, as well as resetting the roughly weekly "throttle position sensor output low" error. ($60 throttle body vs pushing "reset codes" once a week. Never quite bothered me enough to pay for the part.)
I plan to drive that car until they stop selling gasoline ... but if after a couple hundred K miles it needs a rebuild, I will be paying someone else.
When shopping on Craigslist, I tend to ask myself if I'll be happy to get 100k miles with $500 in non-consumable parts (I don't count tires, belts, etc. unless the car has a problem that causes them to wear out unusually fast.) for the price they're asking, and if I'm confident I can do that. I spent a bit more on the Saturn, but got double the miles. Little Datsun pickup I had for a while got a pass on only getting about 20k miles because it was $200 and I only put maybe $100 in parts into it. Really just needed it for two trips anyway, but it was fun to drive because if you downshifted just right you could get a string of backfires and cloud of smoke that would clear off tailgaters in a hurry.