Buying a beater?

[Aurora40]

A guy I know is looking to get a beater and is gonna buy an Aspire. I was trying to convince him he should get a cheap yet exciting car since he'll be in it a lot. He wasn't into that.

Anyway, it got me thinking. If I were gonna buy a cheapy daily-driver, I'd try to get a 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX W-41. Anyone remember that thing? They were very dominant in SCCA and IMSA Firehawk racing. They had 190 hp, like a 7400 rpm redline, LSD, oil cooler, electronic adjustable heavy-duty suspension, and other stuff.

Anyone know someone with one or have any experience with them?

I doubt I'll get one as I really don't need another car, but it would be nice to keep the miles off the 'Roara, and to sort of preserve a part of Olds history (sure, not as cool as like a 442, but it's pretty cool). Anyway, just figured I'd post up about it and see what others remember about the car.

[Slackmeister]

I've never seen one, but remember reading about them. Was '92 the only year they were made in the Achieva body style? IIRC, they were pretty rare.

[bretfraz]

How many of those Acheivas were made? Like.... 5??

Like a lot of specially made hi perf cars, I'm sure most of those Achievas were driven hard daily. Combine that with the horrific early 90s GM build quality and its not a pretty picture.

If I were buying a beater I'd get an early 90s Accord or a pre 1996 Taurus with the 3.0L Vulcan V6. Widely available, super cheap parts, easy to fix, if it gets trashed or wrecked... who cares?

[Aurora40]

They made about 1100 of them in 1992. 1993 was the last year with about 500 made, but they were down 5 hp from 1992.

Bret, I've had nothing but good experiences with GM cars from any decade. If I were gonna get a 90's Accord I wouldn't bother at all. The point was to get something cheap yet interesting, not a cheap scoop of vanilla...

[rek]

A-40. I've had the same experience with GM cars as well. Camaro's, Caprice's, Riviera's, now Cadillac. Regular maintenance is all I do. Besides, It makes sense to me to spend with a company that PAYS into the Social Security fund and Pension plans that SUPPORT AMERICANS. My "Beater" is a rust-free '84 Caprice 2-Dr. 148K miles. It's not exotic, but it's not a belly-button car either.

[blkZ28Conv]

My beater flavor is quite Vanilla but I love her. '98 metallic silver perfectly detailed Ford Escort 4-cylinder wagon. Perfectly, dependable, great on gas, cheap to maintain, and it allows me to fly under the "look at me" radar. Most people think I am a practical old man. Little do they know what 's hidden behind door number 1, 2 and 3.

[Accumulator]

Aurora40- I dunno, I'd be sorta leary about how well the Achieva would hold up too. I like to have a beater or two (or more ) around to help preserve the Audis and Jags, but I go for heavy-duty, fairly simple, rear-wheel drive cars. And yes, they work great in the snow (well, with snowtires and a LSD they do).

Heh heh, but I get the feeling you're kinda looking for a reason to play with an Achieva, so if you decide to go looking, just be careful to get a nice one that's been well taken care of. I can ALMOST remember them, but those aren't very big production numbers. How did the electronic suspension stuff hold up? It just sounds like a car that wouldn't age well to me...but what do *I* know about them

[Aurora40]

Originally posted by rek
My "Beater" is a rust-free '84 Caprice 2-Dr. 148K miles. It's not exotic, but it's not a belly-button car either.

I've always thought Caprices were cool. Maybe I'm a dork. They are big and comfortable and have V8's. Plus, you could crash one through an ATM, steal all the money, and the car would still start up and drive you away...

I should have bought my Dad's 1983 Delta 88 when he sold it. It had like 140,000 miles on it, a 5.0 V8, and a perfect interior and body. Sure, the power steering was so overboosted that you could turn it lock-to-lock while stopped with just your pinky... It was still pretty cool...

I did a bit of searching on cars.com and autotraderonline just to see if there were any SCX's or W-41s. I didn't see any, which is just as well as I really don't need to waste a couple grand... I'd still be curious if anyone sees any info or knows anyone with one...

I'm always a little surprised some of these types of cars aren't around on Autopia. I've never seen a Firehawk here (the original...), or an '89 Turbo Trans Am, or a Callaway Corvette, no Impala SS's that I can recall, no ZR-1's, no Corvette Challenge cars, where are all these people? No Reattas, Allantes, Toronados (I thought the 80's ones were sooo cool)... There are barely any Aurora owners... These cars are cheap, powerful, and many have great racing histories. There is a 1988 convertible Callaway with the full body kit, dymags, like 13,000 miles, for only $35K that I keep seeing in the back of AutoWeek (and it's red!)... It's a good thing I don't have a lot of money, or we'd have a lot of cars that make terrible daily drivers...

Edit: Accumulator, yeah I bet those shocks are a pretty penny when they go bad... I've no idea how they held up. I imagine similar to any other car, though. But the SCX might have been pretty beat-on...

[SuperBuick]

Aurora40...I thought I was the only one. Almost all the cars you've mentioned I've been interested in and I find intriguing. Also deserving of mention in your list would be the 1989-1990 Turbo Grand Prix, a really neat car.

Personally, I have driven an Achieva SCX W-41, and while it is very character-rich and unique (nothing like a 190hp big-jug 4 banger from the early 90s), it is an extremely unreliable car, and not one that I would reccomend as a daily driver. They had a reputation for blowing head gaskets, as well as a lot of other motor-related niggles. Nonetheless, what I wouldn't do to have one to tinker with.

While not trying to sell anything, and only because we are on the subject of cool GM cars, I have a low-miles (25k) 1990 Buick Regal that I've put alot of work into , currently for sale. I'd say its pretty unique with the quad-bucket leather seats, 3800 TPI engine, lowered suspension, and nice paint. I was going to do a manual transmission swap (from an 88-90 GP or Cutlass - 2 other rare and unique cars), but I never got around to it, and ended up buying my neon.

Oh and one other thing, a car that I had that reminded me alot of the W41 olds in terms of personality/coolness/uniqueness was my 1992 Lumina Z34 5-speed coupe. Talk about unique. That car had such a cool twin-dual-cam v6 engine (what GM called it, basically a DOHC v6). The bottom end wasn't all that powerful, but from 3500-7200 RPM (yes, 7200 RPM on manual tranny cars - all 500 of them)it SCREAMED. To this day, I've never heard a car with such a glorious, raw, raspy growl. About the only thing that comes close is an E30 M3, but that is a 4 cylinder. My buddy, a BMW zealot, agrees that the only thing as raw and unbridled that he could think of was an E30 M3.

I'll post pics of the buick and the Z34 in my gallery so you can take a look.

-Tom

[hondaguy2582]

id vote for any ford escort. Dependable 4 cylinders that last a long time. Second to honda of course

[Accumulator]

Originally posted by rek
My "Beater" is a rust-free '84 Caprice 2-Dr. 148K miles. It's not exotic, but it's not a belly-button car either.

---and---

Originally posted by Aurora40
I've always thought Caprices were cool. Maybe I'm a dork. They are big and comfortable and have V8's. Plus, you could crash one through an ATM, steal all the money, and the car would still start up and drive you away...

I should have bought my Dad's 1983 Delta 88 when he sold it. It had like 140,000 miles on it, a 5.0 V8, ...
I'm always a little surprised some of these types of cars aren't around on Autopia... no Impala SS's that I can recall ...

Yep, those GM b-bodies ARE cool. I'm sorta in limbo about a couple of them I have, on/off project cars that I oughta either finish or unload. 9C1 (cop car) Caprices are a LOT of car for the money (and some of us even prefer them to the Impala SS). The wagons are some pretty high-performance vehicles for something that can accommodate a 4'X8' sheet of plywood! LOTS of little tricks that can make these cars VERY serious machinery. And they last forever.

MANY Impala SS aficionados use Zaino. It's virtually the official product of the Impala SS folks.

[Aurora40]

Originally posted by SuperBuick
Oh and one other thing, a car that I had that reminded me alot of the W41 olds in terms of personality/coolness/uniqueness was my 1992 Lumina Z34 5-speed coupe. Talk about unique. That car had such a cool twin-dual-cam v6 engine (what GM called it, basically a DOHC v6). The bottom end wasn't all that powerful, but from 3500-7200 RPM (yes, 7200 RPM on manual tranny cars - all 500 of them)it SCREAMED. To this day, I've never heard a car with such a glorious, raw, raspy growl. About the only thing that comes close is an E30 M3, but that is a 4 cylinder. My buddy, a BMW zealot, agrees that the only thing as raw and unbridled that he could think of was an E30 M3.

Damn... That's one I forgot about. I always thought the Z34 Lumina was pretty sweet looking. Those slats in the hood and the skirts and spoiler really did it for me. The 3.4 Dual Twin-Cam is a pretty cool engine, but I've never heard one run.

I'll be keeping an eye on your gallery...

Accumulator, yeah, those Caprices run for eternity. There's no stopping those things. A buddy of mine has a '96 Impala SS in that blue-grey. He uses Kit-Wax on it or something, not Zaino... He lives way too far away (like 600 miles) for me to work on that thing...