Monday morning at Carmax auctions. I see a 1992 Mazda B2200 truck with only 44,000 original miles. What the . . . ? Yep, checked the Autocheck and the Carfax. It had 44,000 miles. Interior. Immaculate. Not even a stain. Five-speed? A snick-snick work of (old) art that seems ready for action. The selling price? $1900 plus $105 auction fee. Not really that bad. The old Ranger and its Mazda sibling seem to be the unofficial vehicles of North Georgia. If I lived in Deliverance country, I could see even keeping it. Today’s buys were a 1997 Cadillac Deville for $1455 (including auction fee) and a ratty Subaru Loyale that was purely for speculative purposes for $120. The engine turns but doesn’t fire. Based on the history I’m thinking it’s either old gas or a fuel pump.
If my 1997 Toyota Tercel ever dies (hard to believe that it will any time soon), I’m calling you! I’ve revised my expectations/needs on cars now that my son is a thousand miles away at the Air Force Academy. I’d rather have a decent running and paid for car in order to save money to be used for airline tickets to and from Colorado Springs. I’d gladly plunk down $1900 for a B2200 (heck, even $1455 for the old Caddy if it was decent).
I’m not old, but for that money I certainly could use a Caddy with the 275HP Northstar.
Can it make burnouts?
Unless youu’re hobnobbing around up in the stratosphere of “investment grade” cars, desireable older cars have tanked to the point if you’re selling, you can’t decide between selling and crushing. You can’t take advantage of cash for clunkers because they’re mostly too old. The cheaper “almost-classics”, the domain of Joe Average, won’t live to become real classics because it’s Joe Average that is getting hit the worst now and can’t buy them to fix up and drive around in. Meanwhile the poor get shnizzled by 0 down/0 trade deals on brand new econo s-boxes and the rich just flip their lease on their ‘slades for another one. The whole lower end used car market is in shambles.
A few years ago my dad bought a Mazda B2200 truck just like that one that also had low miles for $1,500. Then two years later he sold it to a high school kid for again $1,500 and the punk rolled it. Too bad that it met it’s end like that as it was a good little truck.
My ’92 Ranger is still going strong. It’s a great little truck and I’ll buy another if this one ever wears out…
Well cared for used Devilles and XJ8s are sure tempting vehicles.
That low-mileage Mazda pickup seems pretty cheap. Of course, two grand was the wholesale price. Retail would be, what, twice that?
Steven, your insider reports are fascinating. But I’m curious what CarMax paid for the vehicles, and I suppose that’s never revealed.
Perhaps some of the B&B could tell us about their experiences with selling to CarMax?
Carmax tends to offer low prices for the trade-in’s. Many of them will have tricky issues that are not easy (or inexpensive) to solve and others may have body damage issues as well.
They make a LOT of money on the trade-in side. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they make more money on this than their retail sales. They certainly do so on a per unit basis.
Brother drove two of them, the first one was a diesel, into the ground. He’s a farmer so the B’s were used and abused but both were tough as nails.
I’d love to find a small-truck with a long bed with Diesel for motive power.
–chuck
I’d love a Deville for that price if I weren’t so worried about the airbag suspension and the lower crankcase oil leak that’s a given with any Northstar. That B Series truck sounds like the buy of the day for me.
I do love old cadillacs. Fact is, they were/are being used by older folks with money, so your chance of geting nice one are pretty good. I hope to follow in your footsteps.
Question tho, here in philadelphia, the city auctions off all sorts of vehicles. It’s a crapshoot tho, they dont have keys and are all locked, so cant be started. How do you increase your chances in this environment, other than say looking at it?
Hello Steven how can you be reached your old dude.edu email address is no longer working. Thanks.
lang01c@mail.duke.edu
Actually had Carmax quote a sale price for my Fusion…it was dead-nuts what KBB showed for trade-in…no more, no less. Which is why I’m now selling my 2003 Liberty on my own.
As for the old Caddies…good friend/co-worker of mine has a Deville (I think it’s a 97, as well…maybe a few years older) with over 200k. He refuses to get rid of it, as it just keeps going and going…folks who own these types of cars tend to drive them easy and do the required maintenance, so they wind up being solid used car purchases.
Chuck Goolsbee :
I’d love to find a small-truck with a long bed with Diesel for motive power.
You’re living in the wrong country.
But you can find them in some parts of Latin America, in Europe, Asia and other high gas prices sites.
Problem with those era caddies are the engine, They almost always leak oil which requires atleast 20 hours to fix and the head gaskets crack really easily and is about 30 hours if you can find someone willing and able to fix it. And what is really sinister about the Northstar is the engine can have a blown head gasket and will run just fine, no overheating, smooth, no missing, no water in the oil… Just uses a gallon of coolant every three days. What costs several hundred dollars to fix on most cars cost several thousand to fix on a Northstar. (ps. I drove a ’99 Deville for 150K miles)
Minor data point, the 1992 B2200 is actually the last of the Mazda built trucks. The badge engineered Rangers (to get around the “Chicken Tax”) were the 93 and later B2300, B3000, B4000 etc.
Also @ Chuck Goolsbee I believe Toyota did a diesel version of their long bed in the 80s and Ford had a diesel Ranger in 80s as well so maybe a long bed as well but good luck finding either.
Two years ago I bought a ’92 Seville (4.9) with 58K on the clock for $1,500. Body and interior were as new, mechanicals needed a bit of wrenching. $600 in junkyard parts, and several skinned knuckles, and the car runs and passes inspection. Yes, it was sold to me by a geezer, a WWII vet!
Anyone have anything to say about the Devilles and Sevilles with the old 4.9 liter V8?
@John Williams:
The Cadillac 4.9L V8 is actually a really nice motor in my opinion. We had a 1991 Deville bought in 1997 with 20,000 miles. We kept it until 2004 with close to 100,000 miles and sold it to a friend that still has it and loves it and drives it every day. It became a bit of an oil leaker but we had no major problems with the motor or the car for that matter.
You probably will need to hit strutmasters.com for some rear shocks that I bet are shot and sagging though. Especially the 1991-1993 Caddies.