jrecee

just a tip: http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality decent reference for minimum resolutions for certain image sizes. Obviously you can blow it up bigger but if you go bigger than the minimum anything past that will get blurrier.

This is one of the reasons why I'm buying a Z. There are a few new cars out there that I would like, but I already have a perfectly good daily driver, and can't bring myself to make $400 payments month in and month out on a new car. I realize a lot of money can go into an old car, but I don't have to worry about consistently coming up with a big payment every month. I can inject money into it as I have it. The way I see it, even if I spent $20,000 over 5 years, I still get off cheaper than buying a new car. And in my opinion, a classic car that I spent 5 years fixing up, is worth more than a $25,000 flavor of the day new car that I bought off the lot, even if KBB doesn't think so.

I appreciate the advice as well. Although there's still time for snide and demeaning comments after I mention I can't drive stick:stupid:

Thanks. That is actually only a few hours from me. I'd have to figure out the logistics of getting a car from a distance though. I've never towed a car, nor do I have a vehicle capable of towing. I'm going to keep my eyes open for out of state (yet somewhat close) vehicles. Although that orange one looks like it has potential. . .

Hmm, looks to be a 2+2 but he didn't mention it. If it was a 2 seater that seems like the type of car I'm looking for. Not sure how realistic it is to find a car used as a daily driver for $3600 on the east coast though. . .

First project car. It would be a secondary around town/sunday drive car. I guess the basic answer to this is that I'd rather have something to work on now, than something to drive every weekend 4 years from now. At the same time, I'm not looking for a complete wreck that will sit undriven in the garage for 3 years before I can take it around the neighborhood. But I won't be relying on this as a daily driver to get to work and back or anything. The hours of sanding and patching sound kind of fun I guess I'm looking for something that I can casually drive, but continue working on for the next 5-10 years. I'm not aiming for a 100 point show car or anything, even when it's "done". Does it sound like I'm in the wrong price range? Should I be looking at cars around $5k or up? I'm not completely set in my ways here. I haven't asked a whole lot of questions, most my research consisted of just reading, I didn't want to bother anyone til I was closer to realistically being able to buy a car.

Yeah, I pretty much came to the same conclusion. I was just suggesting that I have to set a limit somewhere on how much I can initially spend. I've been on craigslist, ebay, and classifieds pretty much every day for the last 9 months keeping an eye on prices, and I had kind of pinned $3000 as my pricepoint. But seeing a few cheaper cars I was wondering if anyone had any experience with 280zs in the sub $2000 range. I guess I was just second guessing the amount I was planning to spend and thinking that maybe I could get off cheaper. I guess I'm still wondering about my other question though. At $3000, what should I expect? As I said, it has to be driveable. I don't care if all it needs is "a new battery", if I can't start it up and drive it home at the purchase price, I'm not buying it. Rust, as I understand, is pretty much the biggest factor for these cars. Should I hold out for something that's totally rust free, or is that a pipedream in my pricerange (and area).

I definitely realize that the more you spend the more you get. But at some point I think you have to limit that, because in the end, I could just wait 2 years and go buy one in grade A shape for $10-$15k. But that sort of defeats a lot of the purpose (for me anyway). But thanks for those prices, I think that reaffirms to me that the $2500-$3000 range is where I need to be looking. That car I saw for $1500 has been dropped to $600, so unless he's crazy desperate, it probably wasn't anywhere near what I was looking for. If I paid $2500 for the car, another $1500-$2000 getting put into it sounds reasonable. My requirement is it has to be driveable home, and have as little rust as possible. I've never worked on a car before so I figure if I can't drive it casually when I first get it, I'll probably get discouraged and lose interest. I just want a decent starting point.

So spring is here, I have more money, and I'm looking for a 280z now. My ceiling is $3000 for the initial purchase and I'm wondering what to expect in that price range. I was planning on buying one around April-May (once I've got a bit more cash) but a $1500 car caught my eye on craigslist and I figured, hey, I can afford that right now. So I got to wondering if I could actually buy a decent car for that. Still waiting on details from the seller, but is it even possible to get a car that runs and drives decently for that?

I've got last place. I don't have one yet.

You might be out of luck unless you own a country-wide pizza chain

You could always recolor my avatar

Does anyone know what color this is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gloader3/2375226377/in/set-72157603800880945/ Not sure if that's the car of a user here. It definitely doesn't look anything like the factory colors shown on that z site. But I'm thinking that maybe avocado green or leaf green is just a really tricky color?

I can't wait until electric/hybrid cars become mainstream enough that they can stop making them so damn ugly.

""He was not a mechanic, hardly mechanically inclined... It was only when he stood back that he started to comprehend what his labor of the last couple hours had amounted to. "oh !@#$," he thought to himself, "what have i done"." I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing this over and over once I get my car.