sicass7

So the deal is I have a huge problem. My car has pretty much been broken for the past 1 1/2 years. I bought my FD in January of 04, and 4 days later the motor blew. I was 19, just entered the military and didnt think to have the car checked out, it was my first rotary, I thought the fact that it had 60k on it and was kept in the garage was a good thing, I WAS STUPID I KNOW. Well then I bought a motor from an A$$HOLE in Texas, who basically sent me a blown motor, but I didnt know, so I brought my car to XS Enigineering ( who broke off my fuel door, and put a little dimple in the back panel), and charged me $1000, for a hose replacement, and another $1500 to take the motor out only to find out, as they put the new motor in, that it was bad ( not there fault should have just had them build the motor in the first place) but I tried to save some money since I was only an E-3 at the time and was getting a lot of bad advice. Well, then I found SPD had them rebuild the motor and the replace all the hoses and the turbos ( which I got ripped off on a set of turbos from somebody on this site who had a "reputable" turbo company check them out ). The car is not fully registerd in my name yet either or has it been smogged. I have spent over 25K on this car and it doesnt even work right, and i am going to have to spend another 8k to get it back together and street legal enough to sell it. I dont make that much in the military as an E-4, and I am sure some guys can vouch for that ( especially the ones in San Diego)


Now the tranny has blown. The car is an auto, but I have a manual tranny on the way and a pedal assembly. The car is in good condition ( for the most part). I am about to start the hardest miltary training in the world, and I cant have this weighing on me. Basically all my complaining boils down to a couple of questions.
1) Can I sell this car as a "non op" to a person in another state without having to smog it or do anything other than register it.
2) If I "salvage" the car (STAY AWAY VULTURES) I am going to take a huge loss right? I still owe 13K on it, so this is not a good idea is it? I should add, I do not have time nor a place to dismantle the car at. Plus the car starts and is in AWESOME condition.
3)DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS!!??????????????? please do not flame me and say you F**Kin NOOBIE! I seriously have heard for the last 1 1/2 years and I am sick of it, this has given me enough grief, please dont give me anymore......Thanks guys later jimmy

POS7

Not that I'm the expert on FD resale values, but

1) Decent shape body with clear title
2) Blown motor
3) Blown transmission (auto)

equals prime candidate project car for manual swap/motor upgrade.

You may get 8k out of it. This would equate to a steep loss on your part. Sorry

"salvaging" your car may be your best bet actually. Depends on how much you get for insurance (maybe 11k?). I don't really want to know how you'll accomplish this or mention that it probably constitutes fraud....

wReX

iTrader: (6)

Volunteer for a 1yr tour in Iraq... come back with a good chunk of change... build your dream FD.

Note: I made a little over $20k being in the desert for 6 months as an E3.

Edit: Oh Navy...hmm, well I'm sure there may be something similar for you.

sicass7

the motor works fine, the whole engine bay was taken apart, replaced with good parts, the engine was built ( i had to get it heavily ported due to the fact that the guy who built it in the first place f'ed up the minor port) and everything was cleaned and put back together. so the only thing is the transmission which i already have a manual tranny on the way and pedal assembly also.

i was off the coast of iraq already. plus i dont want to build a killer fd, i realise now i just want a car i can drive and not have to worry about it.

anyone with some more advice, please let me know. thanks jimmy

CantGoStraight

Don't understand why you would consider changing the tranny at this point if you want to sell. Just more headaches and more expense. Find an Auto tranny (they go pretty cheap and get it running correctly and sell it. There's allot more than just pedal and tranny to do the swap correctly, and if your not doing it very expesive. Just my $.02 Jack

jpandes

Wow, that sucks ***. I feel for ya. That sounds like one of the worst FD experiences yet. Good luck...

sicass7

yeah i dont have the time or money, to be messing around plus the tranny will blow again if i do the auto replacemant. i guess i could put an auto in it but then when some guy is asking about an auto fd in san diego you guys are gonna be like " oh that car is ****" plus i cant smog the car until i have it running and it wont run correctly until i have a power fc and i cant put a power fc in with the auto cuz it will blow the tranny, and even if i sold it as a non op i am going to lose all the money i just put in getting the power fc and tranny fixed unless i sold it right now as a non op. but thanks for the feed back

TwinTriangles

So it's got a new ported motor among other things and all you need is a new auto trans and a PFC, Why do you assume that a new auto trans will blow right away?

DGnizer

A few things here.

car issue:

If all your problem now is a tranny and you already have it on the way why not keep the car? As stated you already spent a lot of money on that car to get it in the shape that it is now. You said it works great except for the tranny so why sell it unless you are trying to get a more gas efficient car. You are throwing a lot of money if you sell the car that you already modified and done the reliability mods.?

military/money issue:
I was an E-4 once and I know you don't make a lot of money. if you are single and you live on base you should be good to go since you don't have utilities nor rent to pay. If you live out of town make sure you get room mates to offset the cost of living out of town and still have money left over to pay for what ever. Another thing to consider is if you are indeed in the Navy and always on the ship(I feel bad for you) I recommend you sell your car immediately since you are out there in the sea more than you are at shore. You can't take your nice fd to the berthing area and the rust is just going to eat it out in the parking lot, not to mention the few unguided military members and dependents that want to break in to your car while you are on a float.

Answer to your Questions.
1. Don't screw anyone over by selling them your car and you don't even have the title in your name.

2. You don't have to do anything to the car if you are selling it. You can sell it as it is and it is the buyers problem to make it pass the emissions(not all states have emmisions) before he registers it. The price you ask for is up to you.

3. Last time I check they only pay for you around 1k for a junk car. You are better off taking your car apart and sell it piece by piece. They have this place on base(might not be on yours) just in case you don't know called the hobby shop were they have all the tools and manuals you need to work on any kind of cars(except exotic cars of course).

4. If you are going to commit insurance fraud(I'm not saying you will) just keep in mind your in the military and you can get a double whammy for fraud. think about the consequences even if you don't stay in the military. Good luck getting a good job.


My question:

What do you mean by the hardest training in the military? SEAL?



Semper Fi

sicass7

yeah i start buds for the second time soon. so i cant be worried about this while going through that training. and the motor is putting down too much torque ( or thats what i have been told) for an auto tranny. DGINZER THANK YOU! thanks for giving me solid answers. i just made 2nd class so i am pulling bah now but its still not enough. i had to take out 3 loans for this car 2 from navy federal and one from relief society i am paying right now about 800 a month for this car not including my rent, and utilities or insurance, trust me i am not blowing my money. i have a manual tranny on the way along with the the pedal assembly and i dont even have a clutch, flywheel, driveshaft, or power fc, nor have i paid cali taxes or registered the car. also i have not even started thinking about ways for this thing to pass the strict cali emmisions. as far as the hobby shop goes the closest one is on a different base and i dont really have a car to get to it, and aslo the time issue while i am going through bud/s. the rest of that stuff is going to cost me another 5-6 thousand, which i cant get togther fast enough. another thing is i am married and this isnt fair to my wife that i am giving her all these problems. i put up a bunch of flyers on base today so hopefully some guy coming off deployment will have extra cash to finish what i started, trust me i am not an ******* **** bag who is going to screw some kid over, i am going to tell them what needs to be done to fix the car and whats wrong with it. do you think 11, 000 is a fair price all things considered? the car is in awesome condition body and motor wise thanks

CantGoStraight

[QUOTE=sicass7]yeah i start buds for the second time soon. so i cant be worried about this while going through that training. That's funny **** !!!!! These cars build "Jack" for torque ! ! ! ! Couldn't help it ! ! NEWB statement for sure. Sure you can increase it's pitiful amout but it's still pitiful.
And the Auto suks up what little bit you can add. You'll have better luck getting rid of it if it's a working unit. I still wouldn't waste my time with the manual installation. Sell you PFC and manual tranny recoupe some of the money there. put the auto in get it going (no reason the auto won't hold the work done to the engine at stock boost) tell the buyer what he's got and cut your losses. Best of luck to you in the training and remember you can always come back to one of these if it's in your future. Next time start with what you want. Kinda like marriage, it's harder to change something than get what you were looking for to begin with.

DGnizer

he already said in the beginning that the tranny was blown. it will still cost him money to buy another tranny. Why buy an auto when he already got a manual in the way. BTW you will need to get a new flywheel with that tranny swap. You can sell your counter weights to any one who's upgrading to a fidanza flywheel(i don't know about the other ones). 11k is a steep price. try around 9k or 10k it all depends on how much a moded fd sells in cali. tell the next owner what he's getting and ask him if he wants to buy the manual tranny that you have for some extra dough. good luck on your training and i hope you made it this time. what ever you decide make sure you discuss it with your wifey so at least she doesn't have any bad feelings about it since you have put most of your hard earned cash in the FD and now you are disposing it.

riptor

i def feel u man. im in the navy as well. in lemoore. and im an E-3. so i know what u mean about little money...lol. no constructive advice. but good luck in buds.. and good luck with your situation..lol. im hopin to make third this time up.

POS7

Dude, just sell your car and any parts for it. You need to cut your losses. There's an expression that is appropriate here: "Don't throw good money after bad money"

sicass7

thanks guys for all the advice. yeah i have to seriously make some big desicions.

cantgostraight thats what i was told about putting down too much power. i know these cars dont have any torque but again i have a HUGE PORTING done and the auto cant deal with it, again this is what my mechanic said.

thanks for all the help later jimmy

ps POS7 nice expression i should have heard that awhile ago

sicass7

hey i just checked kelley blue book and even with the tranny blown it still rates it at $11,260 is that fair?

DGnizer

usually you sell less than what the book says. well try it if someone buys it then good for you. it won;t hurt if you try, you can always lower the price later.

sicass7

yeah. well i will try this first though. we'll see. thanks