Post by Mike B on Dec 20, 2008 20:53:06 GMT -4
$20 car worth every penny
Battery, wires and plugs were all ‘dead’ Honda Accord needed to come back to life
by Laura Lane 331-4362 | lane@heraldt.com
March 23, 2008
My recycled 10-year-old Subaru Legacy was free, but Andy Roberts may have gotten a better deal: a $20 1990 Honda Accord.
In the fall of 2006, his dad was the property manager at Colonial Crest Apartments on Bloomington’s north side. Tim Roberts noticed there were quite a few vehicles in the parking lot with expired license plates, or none at all. So he tagged them, warning residents he would have them towed away.
“One of the college students stopped me and said, ‘I see that you’re going to tow my car.’ He said to go ahead, because it didn’t run. He said the motor was blown, and when I asked him what kind of car it was, he said a Honda Accord. I thought that was kind of strange because Honda Accord engines don’t usually blow up.”
The student said a friend who was a mechanic had told him the bearings were shot. Roberts decided to make the kid an offer.
“I said, ‘Would you take $20 for the car?’ And he said, ‘Sure, my mom got me a new car.’ So I went home and told my son about it.”
The tan, four-door sedan had just a bit of rust, and new tires. He suggested that Andy, then 16, purchase the car himself and haul it away from the apartment lot. “I told him it wouldn’t look right for the property manager to be towing cars out of the parking lot,” Roberts said.
When Andy got the car home, they decided to try to start it up. He charged the battery and the engine turned over but soon died. So they removed a battery from another car (“my son is into demolition derbies — there are always five or six cars out behind my house in various states of disrepair”) and installed it in the Honda.
Vroom. It started, and kept running. Until they started up a hill.
Chug, chug, glug. The car died.
“It had no power at all,” Roberts said.
So he called in his mechanic, who took the car for a drive. When he returned, he asked for a spray bottle. Then he squirted water onto the spark plugs and wires. The car fired up, and kept running. Andy remembered an old Honda he had parked out back and removed the plugs and wires.
He put them into his new Honda, “and it ran perfect,” Roberts said.
And has ever since.
“The only things that don’t work are the air conditioner and the gas gauge, and there’s a crack in the windshield. But the interior is great after 188,000 miles,” he said. “Andy has been offered $1,500 for it several times.”
Roberts said the car has a smooth ride. “It’s amazing how well it handles,” he said. “If you took a ride with him in it, you’d never know it was a $20 car.”
This is the second in a series of columns about people who have saved junkyard-bound cars or trucks. If you have salvaged an old vehicle, contact me and maybe I will write about it.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Andy Roberts shows off the 1990 Honda Accord he paid $20 for. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
One Andrew Jackson is all it cost. It had a little rust and a cracked windshield and needed some used parts. Now, it runs great. Sometimes you get way more than you pay for. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
Battery, wires and plugs were all ‘dead’ Honda Accord needed to come back to life
by Laura Lane 331-4362 | lane@heraldt.com
March 23, 2008
My recycled 10-year-old Subaru Legacy was free, but Andy Roberts may have gotten a better deal: a $20 1990 Honda Accord.
In the fall of 2006, his dad was the property manager at Colonial Crest Apartments on Bloomington’s north side. Tim Roberts noticed there were quite a few vehicles in the parking lot with expired license plates, or none at all. So he tagged them, warning residents he would have them towed away.
“One of the college students stopped me and said, ‘I see that you’re going to tow my car.’ He said to go ahead, because it didn’t run. He said the motor was blown, and when I asked him what kind of car it was, he said a Honda Accord. I thought that was kind of strange because Honda Accord engines don’t usually blow up.”
The student said a friend who was a mechanic had told him the bearings were shot. Roberts decided to make the kid an offer.
“I said, ‘Would you take $20 for the car?’ And he said, ‘Sure, my mom got me a new car.’ So I went home and told my son about it.”
The tan, four-door sedan had just a bit of rust, and new tires. He suggested that Andy, then 16, purchase the car himself and haul it away from the apartment lot. “I told him it wouldn’t look right for the property manager to be towing cars out of the parking lot,” Roberts said.
When Andy got the car home, they decided to try to start it up. He charged the battery and the engine turned over but soon died. So they removed a battery from another car (“my son is into demolition derbies — there are always five or six cars out behind my house in various states of disrepair”) and installed it in the Honda.
Vroom. It started, and kept running. Until they started up a hill.
Chug, chug, glug. The car died.
“It had no power at all,” Roberts said.
So he called in his mechanic, who took the car for a drive. When he returned, he asked for a spray bottle. Then he squirted water onto the spark plugs and wires. The car fired up, and kept running. Andy remembered an old Honda he had parked out back and removed the plugs and wires.
He put them into his new Honda, “and it ran perfect,” Roberts said.
And has ever since.
“The only things that don’t work are the air conditioner and the gas gauge, and there’s a crack in the windshield. But the interior is great after 188,000 miles,” he said. “Andy has been offered $1,500 for it several times.”
Roberts said the car has a smooth ride. “It’s amazing how well it handles,” he said. “If you took a ride with him in it, you’d never know it was a $20 car.”
This is the second in a series of columns about people who have saved junkyard-bound cars or trucks. If you have salvaged an old vehicle, contact me and maybe I will write about it.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Andy Roberts shows off the 1990 Honda Accord he paid $20 for. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
One Andrew Jackson is all it cost. It had a little rust and a cracked windshield and needed some used parts. Now, it runs great. Sometimes you get way more than you pay for. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times