Saw a diesel Mercury Lynx (Escort) on Ebay

[Jay2TheRescue]

Not mine, but I saw this and thought someone here might be interested in it.

Diesel hatchback, 5 speed manual. You can probably hypermile the heck out of it.

-Jay

1984 Mercury Lynx diesel

[bowtieguy]

wonder what the reserve price is?

check this out tho:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/855492550.html

[Snax]

That Lynx is disgusting and overpriced. Seriously, the owner hasn't even bothered to clean the grime off the steering wheel. I can scarcely imagine how bad it probably smells.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I have to agree with Snax here...as someone who has sold a fair amount on eBay (but no cars, at least not yet), I know that the value of a picture cannot be over estimated. The auction has ended with a bid of just over a grand...I suspect that with a good scrub job, even with the rust (which scares Californians like me) he could have gotten a much higher bid.

Personally, I like to find a scrungy looking car like that and pay bottom dollar, then scrub the hell out of it...usually it'll come out just fine.

[Snax]

My father used to work with a guy who on the side would find cars like that, clean them up, and resell them for significantly more. Clean sells. It's why I paid $1700 for an 83 Tercel with 200,000 miles on it. I've still had to do my share of maintenance on it, but it's not something that I am embarassed to have people ride in. I wouldn't even get into that Lynx unless I were flat out stranded somewhere.

[Jay2TheRescue]

LOL, yes, that car is pretty ugly. From looking at car ads it appears that everyone selling diesels is selling them "ready to run on biodiesel, or convert to WVO" I agree that he should have cleaned it up some more. I'm seriously considering a diesel wagon as an extra vehicle. I've seen a couple of Volvo and Mercedes wagons with manual transmissions. The problem is that somehow I'm not thinking that a diesel 240 Volvo wagon with a manual transmission and surface rust is worth $5,000. If I can find one for $1,000 we might have something there.

I wonder what his reserve was, but the auction says that the reserve had been lowered.

-Jay

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I've seen a couple of Volvo and Mercedes wagons with manual transmissions.

The (emphasis added) above is the reason for the below...

a diesel 240 Volvo wagon with a manual transmission and surface rust is worth $5,000.

[Jay2TheRescue]

There is a 240 wagon MT, Diesel on the DC craigslist, but its in really rough shape and they want almost $2,000 for it. I saw another in almost pristine condition with a WVO conversion for like $8,000 or $9,000 in Washington state I think. I'm not paying that much, I just want something cheap to go back & forth to the flea markets on weekends. $8,000 can buy a lot of gas for The Beast. I know GM built diesel wagons in the 70's and 80's but as I remember a lot of people I knew who had them replaced the diesel engines with gasoline engines when the price of gas fell to below $1.00/gal. I have yet to find a GM diesel wagon on craigslist. (plus, the GM wagons would be all automatics - I would like a manual tranny.)

-Jay

[theholycow]

The history of those GM diesels, as I've learned, is that they were a hastily converted gas engine design and were prone to premature death. Even if you could find one, I'd suggest not getting it.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Here's an interesting car... and a lot nicer than the hatchback...

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/831725815.html