Hey guys, I trust you so I come with a situation:

my bonnie is dying... I know I know... but its to the point where i don't want to put any more money into it.

I need something new. I could get another bonnie for say $3k ish, 92-93... and that would be fine. Option B is a 89-93 Chevy *-10. I had a 89 before, it was great- cheap to run, cheap to fix and easy to fix. could be had for...$800-1500

Then, i saw a Corvair today. Its a 63 Monza hardtop. Looks to be great condition, i drove it and liked it. $2350

my stipulations: Daily driver. I need something with good gas mileage. all three do that. I need something cheap to fix- S10 and Corvair would win there, but the Bonnie isn't bad. I need something i can work on myself. Corvair wins hands down. I mean, the S10 and Bonnie aren't like a flippin toyota or something, but the Corvair is unbelievably simple, with parts astonashingly easy to come by..

Nonstipulations: I don't need fancy. my soon to be wife has a Mazda 626 for our traveling. This is to get me to work and back. I like my power seats in my bonnie, but i haven't adjusted them in 5 years- so its not really necessary, know what i mean? I guess i would rather not have all the extra stuff to go wrong.

There are things that can fail on all three vehicles, i guess i'm thinking it will be minimal with the Corvair, and certainly the least stressfull to repair.

What do you think? anybody with Corvair experience?

Thanks guys!

jeff

Pray you don't get rear-ended, rumour has it those cars have an unfortunate tendency towards explosion.

off topic tho......jeff you have to tell us how many miles are on the bonne

385,somethin... gettin up there...

a lady hit me in the side coming out of a parking lot- i was coming up to a light. the whole passenger side took a beating... kinda lost my desire to put in effort ya know...

Its been a fantastic car, but it seems like its gonna nickle and dime me to death anymore...

Jeff, it'* good to see you again, but not under THESE circumstances. Sounds like the Bonneville served you VERY well.

Stay the hell away from the Corvair! It will nickel and dime you.

A friend of mine in HS had a red Corvair, nice car she won best car of our class in 1999. However they are death traps, I think they roll over really easy to.

Corvairs kickass. Just drive safe. In my life time I only seen a feew that actually run. Pretty rare car.

I have owned Corvairs. The cars are not well made. They tend to burn oil, and they get lousy mileage considering the tiny weight they are haulin' around. Parts availability and cost are another significant factor, and, you need to be able to work on it yourself, 'cuz it will be hard to find a mechanic who knows 'em. My goodness, you'll be fussin' around with carburetors again. Ugh! Corvairs do very poorly in a collision. You can drive as safely as possible, and it still won't protect you from the drunk driver that runs the light or sign, or crosses the line into you. For that you need a car that is well-built, heavy, and not rusty. If my memory serves me correctly, the side guard door beam and dual master cylinder brakes were not mandatory until 1969. You will have no airbags, no crush zones, and maybe not even a collapsible steering column. If you buy it, pray you don't get hit. You really need to consider it as an antique, and not a practical daily driver.

I thought my '96 Olds Ciera was the ultimate shopping cart with a 4-banger, 4 doors and incredibly inexpensive parts, but it turns out my '95 SLE gets 3 mpg better than the Olds did, and it is a heavier, safer car. The Bonneville (or another H-body) is a better choice than the Corvair by almost any practical criteria.

Nearly 400K on the Bonnie!! What a testament.

I've got to agree, Corvair is cool and antique not a daily driver. Think worst of winter and worst of summer. It would be bad in the car.

I picked up my 95 SSEi for $2,800 in CT ...therefore I figure anywhere else in the country you could find a nice bonnie for around the same price. The S10 also works but isn't as comfortable. While you haven't moved your seat for 5 years, isn't it nice to be able to move it however you want so you don't need to move it again for 5 years?

Pros and Cons to any vehicle purchase. Good hunting and let us know what you end up with.