You do know those parts are sitting here, and I have paint guns.

not no worries but less worries than a vehicle that has some time on it. im with bill if you dont drive very far or put many miles on it fixing up an older vehicle will save some money and sometimes have a cooler car depending on the level of mods. i paid 2500 last winter for my yukon because it had a o2 code and abs code, 150k miles so put probably 1k into it, rebuilt front end, shocks and all the crap to make it tow my camper. so it saved me a ton compared to a newer yukon. but its not going to see many more miles than it has now, i put about 12k on the last truck i had in 8 years.

if you drive alot like i do with my monte (anywhere from 25 to 40k per year) than i want something newer that i can trust to go on a 1300 mile one way trip. reliability is worth some extra to me.

Dan, how much to paint those parts for me?

Also, the car gets miles put on it. I bought my Bonne September of 09 with 60k, even with me being gone 6 months of 2010 It's still got 78k on it now and climbing. Like I said, I'm really just waiting for those gaskets to take a dump.

Paint plus $100 for my time. Paint, prime, and clear should be around $100 or so.

So $200 eh? Not a bad deal. My paint is still pretty close to stock quality so just using the paint code should work.

Yep. Just let me know.

Alrighty, will do. I'll ask the gf her opinion, even though since I've already bought the parts I might as well get them painted so I can put them on. That'll be a fun project when I get home.

So, besides that...of the three cars I'm looking at does anybody have an opinion? So far I've heard Kia, no Kia, and no Ford.

Seeing the parts are stripped right now I can paint them all around, inside and out. Better match that way.

Well that was going to be the plan when I took them to my body friend in FL, but if you can do it and then I just pick them up ready to go it's even better.

theres a bunch of gms better than the malibu for one and ive been thinking if my monte died tomorrow id be at the VW dealer getting one of those jetta TDi's with a man 6spd. they also have a tdi cup version that adds the cool looks and some interior stuff. the car is only slightly slower than my monte but gets between 40 and 50 mpg and will last alot longer as well. vw is one of the few companies you hear building plants in the US to increase production and decrease prices here.