My roommate has an older, he gets written notes on his car constantly asking to be sold. Must be a reason.
with just a grand for the budget, your best bet will be coring the salvage yards , out front they usally have some pieced together car for cheap, but anything under a grand is a beater and probally no heater , but they can be found another tip ive used many times is just drive around the poorest side of town and folks will have them covered with any and everything, they are discarded cars and at one time they called a junk yard to sell and as the junk yards always do is said 60 bucks scrap and the folks told them to hit the road ,when they just put a new altenator on that cost a hundred, gave up and just pile crap on top of them . you would be surprised how many folks that really happens too and will sell you the same vehicle for a couple hundred bucks just to ri it from there yard ,but in turn didnt let a scrap yard have it
Carbed anything is getting harder to find. old Toyota pickups, 2wds with a 20r or 22r can sometimes be had, they are pretty tough little trucks, and don't really depreciate much anymore. One problem is, everyone has internet. People were often clueless of the value of older vehicles, now they just google it.
I did this many times as a kid. exploiting the poor, often you may find the car stolen, in that case break it to many parts and sell those off, often insurance companies have a list/site with the detail's of the stolen cars, more accurate than the police who are often lame on this and leave it to newer cops IMO avoid german or upmarket cars those are the cars of the cheapo gangster world, and are always being hassled by the cops, better to specialize in one area, mine was us cars 1960-1990 bought of the many many bases in europe, often sold to us college student in france In usa now Id be importing suzuki jeeps from mexico, so popular with upper middleclass nerds suzuki ain't allowed to sell them in the us good luck
I finally got my chevy tracker ( suzuki vitara) running. What was supposed to be a transmission problem ended up being sticking front brakes. She runs great, and the 4wd is awesome. I put some new tires on because the old ones had been sitting flat for 10 years, changed the fuel pump, filter, and cleaned the tank also sitting for 10 years. I've put a couple thousand miles on it and everything works perfect. I am definatly a fan boy of Suzuki's.
i have a 89 samurai ,love the thing , spent last summer making it road worthy and pass inspections, never got a tag for it, want to go threw tranny and motor next, dont need it but why not , if i pass on the lady be able to get at least 8 grand for it. dont believe in the chop and lift stuff , if some kid want to buy and do it so be it, i wouldnt buy one someone did myself. this little thang has only been stuck once , got it hung on a 4 ft round pine stump in a thicket, just leaned toward the passenger door and off it came hahaha, it will go any were a atv 4x4 will go and i dont have to eat spider webs like they do hahah
For around a grand, you might consider classics like a Ford Mustang from the early '80s or a Chevrolet Camaro from the late '70s. These models have that carburetor setup without a catalytic converter you're interested in. For parts or customization advice, reaching out to audiocityusa customer service could be really helpful. They often have great tips and resources for classic car projects.
Git ya some! No electronic ignition, no computers, no airbags, no catalytic converter, YES to Gas guzzling 4-8 barrel carbs, points, plugs. Don't even think of adding ethanol. Suzuki samuri off roaders look fun.
I would look for Nissan Sentra (NOT the Altima 2.5), older Toyotas or Hondas. A Nissan Maxima 3.0 V6 was a luxury car in its day and as long as it hasn't been overheated makes a really fun car, fast and with ABS.
1/4 mile from my place a neighbor has a land rover disco(discovery) sitting on his front lawn, I eyeball with each pass for the last 20? years and often wonder if I should buy it and repair, I've done Range Rovers before but do I really need the extra hassle in my life, they are very similar vehicles, and very handy in bad weather, the SUV is best pass'e these days with many flipping to the electricity market over gas, just last day or so thousands of Chinese electric cars have arrived in Germany BYD storms into Europe as first car transport ship docks in Germany carrying 3K vehicles