[James92Scort]

Ok well, I don´t really NEED a new car, but everyone else i know is getting one? so why not me? I decided to go to Toyota to look at the new Corolla S models they have...well, they didn´t actually have any S models in last August, and the sales guy tried to pressure me into one. I had a few demands on what kind of car I wanted. I printed out a page of the options I wanted. HAS TO BE M/T, wanted it Lunar Mist Metallic, so i could tint the windows silver to match, didn´t want a sunroof (because of price), wanted cruise control, etc. Well, after I talked to 2 other guys, the third guy who I´ve named, "asshole," just tried to pressure me into a car. He specifically said to me "What if we could get you a Corolla S Right Now, would you take an Automatic?" I told him flat out NO. You´re not listening to me. So I left Toyota, which that specific dealership is a customer of my dads, who I work for....
So, Last night I went to Nissan to test drive the 2003 Sentra SE-R Spec V (very nice, 2.5L I4, 175 hp 180 lbft torque, 6 speed Manual Tranny, short throw shiter.) It was a pretty sweet ride, hit 80 before I knew it...heh
They were a lot nicer, no pressure, & they even listened to me, go figure... but thats where the "niceties" ended with them. I did impress the guy I was dealing with by rattling off all 17 letters/numbers of my VIN by heart, but he was surprised when I said it had 127 hp stock. Hence the "GT" symbol on the back...
I had them appraise my car, expecting at least a $1000 out of it, and I also had them run a credit check. Well, the credit check came back very little credit; again, go figure...I´m 20. I can deal with that. But when the f´in appraisal came back, it f´in pissed me off beyond belief. Those assholes told me they´d give me NO MORE than 250 bucks for my car. SCREW the "mechanic" that did the appraisal, he knows crap about Ford Escorts, I can tell you that... F*ck, my damn Pioneer DEH2100 super tuner/cd player, my 4" clarions and my 5x7 Pioneers are worth over 400 alone. I told them that was bullshit and they better be prepared to give me about 1500-3000 for my car. *IF* in the four months I planned this out on, I even come back. Then they wanted me to drop 10K down for a down payment (shit if i had 10K I´d have the pimpinest scort in Fort Wayne!) and also I´d need a co-signer to help convince that bank to loan me the money anyway. All this to keep my payments under 300 a month like I requested. A 60 month finance at 2.9% APR had me paying 179 a month. I liked that, just not the automatic 10K down... Moral of the story? Don´t try to buy a new car using your Escort as a trade in, unless you can make at least a 1/4 of the price on the down payment.
I am so f´in sick of getting treated like shit because of "credit"
People bought cars before there was credit in the early days. why does credit always gotta screw with my dreams? I´m sick of it. Maybe when i hit the powerball, and I buy Nissan of Fort Wayne, they´ll let me drive what the f I want to. hehe and sorry for the profanity, I´m a bit ticked off.

 

[2redscorts]

Yeah, lots of car salesmen are real boneheads! They´ll try to talk you into whatever they have handy just to make that week´s sales quota. Never mind that it´s not what you want. Buying a new car is not generally the fun experience it could be!
Credit´s frustrating too! First car I financed, I put 50% down, and they still charged me 11% interest on the loan cause I had no credit history. Takes time to establish credit. Pay all your bills on time, and maybe think about a small loan you don´t really need. Pay it off and that´ll help your credit rating, trust me. Use it to finance some mods to your scort!

No one will ever give you what your car´s worth if you trade it in, especially if it´s not stock. They look at some wholesale book value, and ignore all the money you´ve invested in it. Only way to get your money out is to find a like-minded enthusiast.

Hang in there man!

 

[TheBlade]

Never fear James...if you have a GT, just put in the effort (and fun) and turbo it. When you´re done you´ll beable to sell your car for more then that to any High Schooler that doesn´t want a Honda. In the process you´ll make a few mistakes, but by the time you get something else in a couple years you´ll beable to have a pretty hot sport compact, and best of all you´ll understand the fundamentals of it.

 

[siragan]

d00d james, I´ll take your GT....
I´ll sell my LX wagon (which btw runs smooth as futhermuckin buttah) and then use the money plus some I have saved up to give you a bit more for a GT! What are the specs?

 

[Zeemax]

$250??? Oh my god.

 

[siragan]

*flashes 251*

 

[91scortgtboy]

i got 252 for ya!!!

 

[James92Scort]

I´m not parting with this car for less than 3grand. IT doesn´t run smooth as butter though. it has problems with acceleration at first, I think something is sticking like the TB, the fuel pump or even a fuel injector is going bad maybe. Specs are: stock, basically.
1992 Escort GT, got the VIN memorized. GT front Bumper (cracked at location of fog lamps, so i put them closer together than stock), GT Grille, I replaced my windshield washer nozzles and they have a blue light, during the day they´re silver and still look good. I´m finding more rust over the drivers side rear wheel well. Stock shifter, (will soon be replaced with B&M Short throw) has GT Gauge cluster (temp,fuel,speedo,tach). I drive hard and only make about 15-19 mpg, stock 91-92 GT wrap around wing. It´s misaligned but I´m having the front struts replaced with KYBs, I´m getting Axxis Metal brake Pads. Currently i have two pedal covers with gray and black. cool looking but I´m getting Red MOMO covers.
My stereo system (like my post above) includes a Pioneer DEH2100 Super Tuner with am/fm stereo sounding through 4" Clarion speakers in the front(80 dollar speakers i got for 20 bucks hehe) Pioneer 5x7 speakers in the rear. I replaced the two taillights with 95 lights because i broke one and the other was cracked. I bought new headlight assemblies so they´re clean and I own a set of AVS covers, along with AVS front door rain guards. Side windows are tinted somewhere between 20 and 30%. I have new Daytona Tires 15x7 on the stock 15" GT rims. The rest of the interior is stock, the exhaust, intake and everyting internally in the engine is stock (so far). Clutch was replaced last November 2001. The timing belt blew and was replaced, two valves were bent and replaced, heads were machined to accomodate.
Specs for performance: 127 hp @6500 rpms, 114 lb ft torque @ 4500 rpms.
I´ve beat the crap out of a Mustang V6 and Malibu V6.

 

[joshuabowman]

Hey man I know what you are going through! I sold my 93 LX about 6 months ago to a dealer and they only gave me $500 for it but it´s ok. I got my 98 LX now and I paid $3600 out the door with 2yr/24000 mile warranty to boot. The way I told them is if they were going to cheat me out of money on mine then then can drop the price on the one I wanted. As for credit some times they can be d**ks about it. same shit every time. Well your credit isn´t all that great but we can give you this nice 19.9% rate on your new car which they don´t tell you that that increases the montly payment like $50-$100 a month. Man it really sucks so hang in there and maybe you will fine someone will help with a lower rate!

 

[egtdude]

hate to tell you but wholesale on a 91 with 88K miles in AZ where rust is unheard of is still just over 1K. Trade in is horrible. never trade in ANY car.

The value of the scort is so low I see no point to sell it regardless of what else I buy. I´d rather have a crazy race car sitting in the garage then the 1K

 

[James92Scort]

Well I had no real intention of getting that car at the moment. I want to actually get some use out of my new brake pads, struts and tower bar anyway. I want to get a B&M Short shifter with a MOMO knob and leather boot to go with it. I´d like to see what kind of time I can knock off my ET with not having to ram it into second gear as hard as I have to now.

 

[James92Scort]

That same Toyota dealership gave my brother/sis in law 12,000 dollars for their 2000 Civic SI with just over 53,000 miles on it. thats only 4 grand under base price of the car when it was new. I´d like to keep my car long enough to turbo it, with Blade´s help. I´d love to have it fixed and painted. Next thing I´m getting is my B&M Shifter, then the rear struts and then the 1.5" lowering springs after that. it´s going to be sweet.

 

[TheBlade]

Yeah, I couldn´t imagine getting rid of my scort. I could see getting another car but not getting rid of it. I also have to look at it this way....NO Dealership would give me anything for my car because of the turbo....but I wonder what someone would pay for a 93´ EGT with 103k on it putting down like 250hp to the ground and running a high 13sec quater or a low 14 ?

What would you guys pay ?

 

[James92Scort]

If I had the means, whatever it´d take, Blade. I´m sure of that.

 

[2redscorts]

Blade, man I totally admire you and what you´ve done under the hood of your scort. I mean, ya gotta respect that kinda HP! I´m just wondrin how that´ll effect the longevity of your engine, I mean the added stresses and all.

I´d probably be at the front of the line to buy a 250HP scort, but only if I felt it´d give me at least another 50k miles of service. I mean, with that much power I´d really wanna drive the thing! It´d be too sad to have it die an untimely death.

I share the opinion that it makes more sense to keep a scort goin, even if you get a new car, than to trade it in or sell it. Resale value really sucks, but then again that´s an advantage if you´re buyin a scort.

You´ve invested SO MUCH of yourself in that car, and no one else can ever really appreciate that. Makes perfectly good sense to stick with it I think!

 

[TheBlade]

Yeah I know the motor can´t go forever like this...that´s for sure. I´m actually expecting the weak points of the car to be the transmission and halfshafts. They´re going to snap like toothpicks if I ever get slicks on the thing.

As for the motor...This coming summer, maybe next fall I will be looking for a new motor. That motor is going to have everything done to it. I want to stroke it, bore it over a little. New rods, pistons, crank. Oversize the oil passages. The top end will have reground cams, oversize the valves and seals, sodium filled valves for some serious heat. My goal is 10% more flow in the head. That motor will be the beginning and end of the scort.

 

[2redscorts]

Yeah, you may be right about about the weak points.

Sounds like some pretty ambitious plans for a new motor. Well thought-out and all. Have every confidence you´ll pull it off too. Can´t wait to see the finished product!

Hey, what kinda 0-60 time does that 250HP give ya? Can´t be many cars on the road that can run with you, considering your cars weight and all.
Hope you get all the bugs worked out soon!

 

[MadBrad]

I know I´d get next to nothing as a trade in, but no one would buy it the way it is, and making it saleable would cost more than I could sell it for. It needs a new windshield to cert, and to do the windsheild you have to fix the rust under the glass, and why not fix ALL the rust? There´s a ton of it over the rear wheels. So that´s like a $2000 paint job. A bent or broken spring, AC doesn´t work, I could go on. When you sell non certified, no one will pay anything! I´m sad to say taking a few hundred from the dealer is the most cost effective way for me at this juncture, but I will drive it further int othe ground first. I´m keeping it for another year, maybe more, without spending money on it, and I´ll be getting my money´s worth as it gets me to work and such. It is real fast and very reliable. I could sell parts off it and gradually drive around nakeder and nakeder.

 

[James92Scort]

2reds...consider the new Neon SRT-4. They claim 215 flywheel hp, but the thing was dyno´d at 223 WHEEL hp, and that thing will run a 5.4 second 0-60, that´s also with 250 lb ft getting to the ground too. I´d use the WRX as an example but that´s AWD, not FWD. Since Blades EGT is (probably) roughly 2400 lbs, I´d say w/ 250 wheel hp and 250 lb ft torque the Scort could run with the SRT-4 and WRX, and might even take them slightly in the 1/4 mile.

by the way blade, how much torque are you planning on putting out? Torque is the real work-horse, it´s what turns the wheels really. HP is measured off of the torque curve. (torque*rpm/5252=horse power.)
meaning a stock EGT w/ 114 lb ft torque would put 97.667 hp out. (114*4500/5252= 97.667 hp)

 

[James92Scort]

Ok I think I know what I´m going to do now. The more I think about that Nissan Sentra the more I find myself wanting it. But in my frame of mind, I want to put at least a quarter of the full price down at the time of purchase. But I don´t know if I want to order one with ALL or no options. Here´s the specs on the car:
2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V
Engine: 2.5L Inline 4 w/ Continuously Variable Valve Timing Control, (CVTC) Valvetrain: DOHC, 16 Valves.
Features I love: This car comes stock with sport tuned Spec V suspension, a factory strut tower brace, fog lamps, and 17" rims
Drivetrain: 6 speed Manual (only found on Spec V) w/ Helical Limited Slip Differential

It comes with 5 Options:

Audio Fanatic Package includes: $549
~Rockford Fosgate 300-watt (peak) amplifier with 9 speakers (includes 8-inch subwoofer, which I could find a 12" sub and plop it in there later if i wanted to)
~Partial fold-down rear seat
~Vehicle Security System
~Nissan Vehicle Immobilizer System

Sunroof package includes: $699
~Power sliding glass sunroof with tilt feature
~Dual illuminated visor vanity mirrors

Side-impact Air Bags and ABS $749

Carpeted Floor Mats: $79
In Cabin Micro-Filter: $49

Ideally...I can live without ANY of these options, and the car comes in at $17,759...and the sound system without that Fosgate amp sounds kick ass.
Even with all of these options the car comes in at $19,864.00, if I can save up at least $4,996 dollars for the 1/4 price down payment I´d be good to go with a sunroof and 300 watts of stereo to go with it.

I tell you all this because, you, my fellow scort buddies pretty much know what I´m going through as a true car guy..We´ve all been there, wanting and wishing you could get your hands on something. My friends and my family don´t understand me. One day they think I´m a moron for keeping the Scort, the next day they´re telling me "drive it until it dies"... I get too many mixed reactions from them.
I´ll no doubt keep my EGT instead of trading it in, to use as a to-and-from work and sometimes on the weekend. I´m begging for your opinions here...feel free to call me a moron if you want. But I´d rather you didn´t