$100 car

[notfarnow]

A friend stopped by a couple nights ago. Was having car problems and just wanted someone to look at it.

This friend: At his core, a really good guy... but troubled. I've known him for a few years, and always enjoyed his company. Very smart... a master is philosophy working on his PHd. Really has an interesting take on things, and is witty and kind... when sober. But yeah, a different animal when drinking. Abrasive, pushy and confrontational. Eventually I stopped being around him when he was drinking, and only invited him to daytime things when we wouldn't be partaking. Didn't see much of him for a while there.

So, a few years ago when he was at his worst, he ruffled lots of feathers, lost a few friends, got nabbed for DUI. At that point I wasn't seeing much of him. But then about a year ago, he became a dad. Started trying harder, making efforts to get on track. Hard go though, when your friends don't trust you any more, and you have bad work references. The DUI conviction doesn't help either.

He managed to get a job driving a tow truck, just to get by. He was upfront about his DUI and where he had made mistakes. It was working OK, but the company insurance dropped him 2 months ago. Right now he's working at the animal rescue league for minimum wage. When he came by a couple days ago, he seemed pretty beat down by life.

His car is a 1987 Plymouth Horizon, that he bought for $100. He scabbed together an exhaust system from an old Jetta one, cut and clamped it together. Put pads & rotors on it. It was starting really slow and wouldn't down shift (automatic). I had some battery cables, that helped a bit but not much. Took out the battery to get at the shift cables & linkages, managed to free them up so it would downshift. Instead of putting his old battery back in, I took the one from my 4runner. It's pretty good, but I knew I'd need a bigger one for my diesel swap. Also welded in a couple exhaust mounts for his jimmy-jo setup.

About an hour's work, we took it for a test run and he was ecstatic. It started really easily, downshifted fine and didn't rattle as much. He was really happy with it.

I felt good for helping him out, but it ate at me a bit. That Horizon is easily worse than any of the $260 Renaults I ever drove, worse than my $400 Samurai, worse than the $200 Toyota Tercel 4x4 I bought on a dare.

He's trying to make the best of this horrible little piece of crap, driving his family around in it, crossing his fingers every time he goes to start it. Meanwhile, last week I bought a $200 VW golf diesel, well, because my wife is in China and couldn't stop me. And I just bought that thing as a lark to see what I could do with a $200 car, it is infinitely better than what this guy HAS to drive.

Anyway, I know this guy made his bed and has to sleep in it. And there's much to be learned about responsibility and consequences. Still though, it's a tough thing to watch a guy fight his way along

[masraum]

Your buddy's situation is really unfortunate. My 25yo stepson is working his way up from a low point, but fortunately doesn't have a family to worry about.

That's a shame about the Omni. I've owned a few over the years, but they were much earlier models, '79, '80 and '81 IRRC. Those had a VW 1.7L engine and transaxle. They were good little cars for what they were, easy to work on and took lots of abuse from me. Granted, I think I was paying about $500 back then.

Hopefully your buddy is working his way up and out of his valley.

[M.D. Holloway]

So you gave him the VW? Thats pretty darn nice of you! Good karma and better citizenship! You would make a great American.