Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

My uncle's estate included a Honda. Whoever had first-refusal rights on it refused, and my mother bought it from the estate for me, since I really need a properly working car. My to-do list this week mostly involves dealing with getting the Honda through Maryland inspection, registration, etc., and part of that is to finally get rid of the Toyota I've been using for within-Baltimore-only errands because it's no longer highway-worthy. (I'll need to transfer tags and insurance 'cause I can't afford to have both cars at once and won't need the Camry anyhow once the Honda is legal.)

I'd been told I could probably get about a hundred dollars for the Toyota, so I've been talking to used car lots, garages, and such, hoping that somebody will see it either as a restoration project or as a collection of useful parts. No dice. It seems there's a glut of Camrys, all prettier than mine. One place I went, somebody thought they might take it off my hands for fifty dollars, but when the person with authority to actually make that decision showed up, he said no, they had three more of the same year with perfect bodies if they needed parts. At another place they just shook their head mournfully. I can remember when any car that still ran was worth something just for existing, but apparently even a junkyard will only give me $35 for this, and I'll have to borrow tools from somebody to remove the gas tank myself. I did find one garage that's willing to take the car as a donation, planning to restore it and re-sell it, but they won't pay me for it. (So at least it does have value to somebody even if it doesn't have any monetary value that I can collect.)

So my options are to find someone who wants a pile of 1988 Toyota Camry parts, find someone to whom a rolling DIY project is worth more than $35, or find someone who can lend me the tools to remove the gas tank and spend a bunch of time scrapping it (and hoping I don't hurt myself in the process). Or find a way to take it off the road and make it legally-not-a-car in the eyes of the Motor Vehicle Administration so I can de-register and de-insure it, borrow my brother's welding rig, teach myself to weld, and turn it into raw materials for sculpture, but that would also require finding a legal place to store it in the meantime.

I'm going to give the first two options one last try. Does anyone want a 1988 Camry sedan with a decent motor and transmission, cruise control, and three working power windows, that needs a lot of body work, brakes, a radiator, and some front-end suspension work? (Someone said that based on my description of how it feels to drive, it's probably got a broken A-frame. It feels funny but appears safe up to 30MPH if you're careful; above that it feels as though the right front wheel is trying to rip itself off the car. Turn hard to the left or right getting into a parking space, and it feels like the wheel sort of flops.) The interior isn't bad. The tape deck doesn't work but it pulls in AM and FM radio fine. I think there's at least one good tire on it, but I'd have to go and check before I promise that. Best case, somebody pays me enough to cover the inspection on the Honda. Worst case, I give it away, if not to a friend, then to the garage I spoke to earlier or a vocational school.

[EDIT 13:20 -- I also posted this message to a mailing list, and got back the following suggestion (from someone apparently already aware that I don't earn enough for the tax deduction to do me any good directly): "It probably has value as a tax deductible donation for someone else. Do you have a friend who will give you $100 for it in order to donate it to a charity for a tax deduction? The charity may give them more of a deduction than the cash value." Anyone here need the charitable deduction?]

Looking at what passes for really low budget used car lots in the poor section of Baltimore, I can see that my old way of thinking of cheap cars is out of date. But I find it really hard to scrap a car with a working motor, transmission, and steering, and a non-ratty interior. It's like I can hear the car calling out, "But I'm not dead yet!" a la Monty Python. Similarly I have trouble with the idea of throwing away a working stereo just because it's too old to sell and lacks one modern feature that its replacement has -- it still functions, so the last bit of value hasn't been squeezed out of it yet. I understand "not cost effective to repair/restore", but somewhere along the way I've picked up a strong, "It's wasteful to throw away something that still has use" meme.

Not that I expect any, but hey, any takers among my readers in or near Baltimore, MD? Anybody want a major DIY auto-restoration project? Is it worth even trying to list this car on eBay?