Think my most memorable beater was a 87 ford tempo. I bought it off the Ford dealer I worked at as a kid for $100, it was rough and had nearly 300,000 kms but it ran well. I drove that car to Kelowna B.C for a summer holiday with a few buddies, another guy brought his 91 Mazda 626 turbo coupe. I drove the junk out of that old tempo trying to keep up with that Mazda in the mountains, we hit road construction and the 626 promptly overheated, then by the time we got to Kelowna the alternator crapped out. On the way back home Mazda blew a cam seal spewing oil out all over the highway, he had to get the car towed to the next town where it spent the next four days and over $1000 getting fixed. I felt so proud my $100 beater outlived my buddies 110,000 km seven year old excellent condition car.
The little tempo served me well over the following winter. I never did spend any money on repairs. I sold it in the spring for $250. Gotta say it was one heck of a tough little car.
