Monday, September 11, 2023

Dream Machine

Finally did it!!! About a year ago, my company did a mid-year cash profit sharing, and I was thinking I'd use it to buy some sort of convertible. At the top of my list was the sexy and brand appropriate Saturn Sky. I have been off and on scanning the ads for various convertibles, but hadn't gotten farther than just looking.

Then this came up for sale. Sounded good, and the price is right in the fair range. I've seen them down to the $5,000 range, but those are usually pretty beat, and up to and over $10,000 for nicer examples, but even those often will have up to 100,000 miles.

Of course, one of my main criteria was an automatic transmission, so that eliminates quite a few of them, being a sports car, several came with manuals. Another thing I would like if I could find one at a decent price would be the Redline model, which has a smaller engine, but has an intercooled turbocharger.

This one came in right in the middle of the price range, with 80,000 miles, the right transmission, and the preferred engine!!! The interior and top are in good shape, and it's got a great color. A previous owner had added coilovers, which have it set dropped pretty low, but they ride real nice, and I can jack the height back up from where it is. Where it's at is too low for a car that was pretty low to begin with, and where it is, it wants to scrape everywhere in the neighborhood!!! It has a carbon fiber look wrap on the hood that I'm not crazy about, but shouldn't be too bad to remove. There was even carbon fiber look wrap over the emblem between the seats!!! I was able to remove it with no difficulty at all. The chrome grille bar has been painted black, and I don't like that at all. Hopefully that paint and the wrap aren't hiding damage, and both can be fairly easily removed. The side and back windows are heavily tinted. I don't mind it too much, but it makes night driving with the windows up a bit difficult, so I'll be removing that, maybe I'll put a very light tint on them. Possibly more difficult, a lot of the lights have been “upgraded”. The front turn signal and running lights had been changed out to LED ones, and... they don't work at all. I picked up replacement conventional bulbs and put them in, but only the one sides' running light is working, neither of the turn signals in the front are working yet. The headlights have been changed to LED bulbs, too, and the low beams seem fine (they have a heat sink with a fan on the back of them!!!) but the high beams are weird colors, I think the drivers' side is green, and the passengers' changes colors from blue to red, which I'm sure is illegal. The driving lights have been “upgraded” to what I think are xenon bulbs that have some sort of control box wired in before them. One is burned out, or I probably wouldn't mess with them, but I'll probably see if they, as well as the high beam bulbs, can be switched back to factory units. The rims I'm pretty sure are larger than stock, with skinny tires. I don't hate them, but when tire time comes, I'll probably see if I can get some with a bit more sidewall. The rims have a yellow stripe on the edge, which I like the look of, but which look like they need repainted. Oh, and the muffler is completely absent. It doesn't sound terrible with straight pipes, but I think I'm going to get something there, I don't know if it'll be a full system, or just a couple of glass packs or what, but I'm already seeing dollar signs. Ah well.

It had black and yellow vanity plates when I got it, which of course had to be returned to the DMV, but the color went well with the car. I asked the previous owner what it meant (I can't remember exactly what it was) and he told me it was Vietnamese for “happy”, which goes with it, too!!! The plates I got have the same last digits as the ones on Scruffy!!!

I haven't driven it a whole lot, but it's a great drive!!! Gets right with the program, it does!!! I got on one of the dead-stop entrances to the northern portion of the 110, and that's the car you want for that sort of thing!!! It got a little loose on the turn, but the traction control took care of that in short order!!! I've got my in-office days coming up, so I'll get a few days of driving it into work. Something to look forward to!!!

1 comment:

Aye said...

"DZUIZE", that was the vanity plate!!! Found the original registration today