I had an old Ford Festiva (not Fiesta), Mitsubishi made, that was great! Wonderful design for such a small car; reliable engine, great head- and leg-room. Until it melted a bit in a carport fire.
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I learned a fun new term from reading the full article:
I recently made a deal with my sister, receiving her old beater minivan in exchange for building her family a treehouse. A huge “upholstery udder” that stretches nearly the full length of the roof is its main defining feature. But I was able to buy these little push-in plastic button things from the auto parts store to keep it in check. Now it looks like those old-fashioned overstuffed leather sofas with a ton of buttons to maintain its shape.
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Wouldn’t a handful of magnets do the trick?
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I did put in a new transmission on my 94 F150 a few years ago, but they made so many of them it was actually pretty cheap so I went with it. Keeps on truckin 
I am often tempted to get a newer car (better mileage, working AC) but the way I see other people fuss over the little details which are things I never worry about, so I always end up thinking oh wait a little longer 
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I’m shopping for one of those for my 17 year old.
I agree. I think there is a lot of room between true beater territory and a “fancy” car. I drive a few years old Mazda that is usually dirty and cluttered, but it cleans up nice.
“can be made to temporarily convey itself on a road” describes every car I had until my 30s. For about 6 months I drove an 88 Hyundai Excel that ran only on the power of prayer.
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I mourn the loss of stick shift in base model small cars. The wife and I both drove hatchbacks and small sedans with manual transmission until we bought a minivan in 2001.
Now manuals are only on sports cars, hatchbacks are basically gone, and everybody needs an SUV or crossover to sit up high and conquer all those snowstorms in Los Angeles.
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Not manual, naturally, but when we were looking to replace our ancient Nissan Altima about 6 years ago with a hybrid, we ended up test driving a 1-year-old Ford C-Max, the Car Nobody’s Ever Heard Of. It’s a hatchback, which we love, has great headroom, and handles and accelerates about 1000 times better than the Prius, although the mileage isn’t quite as good. So far, very reliable.
Of course, Ford pulled the plug on the C-Max a few years ago in the US.
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Maybe if they were strong enough, but it’s not like the sheet metal of the roof is usually directly on the other side of the fabric. There’s degraded foam as well as a semi-rigid panel of fibrous material in between the hanging headliner fabric and the steel roof. Using little push-in barbed button thingys worked well as a quick cheap fix.
I did think it was funny that they had different options for different manufacturers, because for this kind of repair it totally doesn’t matter.
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Obligatory reference.
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my jetta developed the udder…i just pulled the material taut to the back window and used office clips to hold it in place.
even my vette is a beater…and one day i swear I’ll get the gauges working and stop relying on my phone as a speedo.
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Yeah well I’ll bet your Jetta didn’t have air conditioning vents in the ceiling that inflated the whole roof liner like a balloon whenever you turned on the a/c. 
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Why u so smol, car?
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I’m going to have to disagree on the 94 Sentra. I had the XE, same year. It was… ok for a while, then it started gushing oil from somewhere, and the first mechanic I took it to as a poor college student could not figure it out. So i kept dumping a quart of oil in every week, and eventually found someone to fix it. Eventually, something broke inside the drivers side door and it was permanently closed; I had to climb in and out over the passenger seat. I dealt with that for a year or two, then a relative gave me a 6 year old 1998 Honda Civic. That one is still running in 2020 (it did have an engine swap, but only because it was within spitting distance of the cost of doing the water pump and timing belts), but I also gave it to a family member. Replaced it with a brand new Honda Fit, which I do not regret, and I also don’t freak out about scratches since I have honed my 0FG on the two beaters.
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I’ve driven many beaters into the ground over my 23 years of driving. In a city with winter and hills, it’s a bit more difficult to really hit those super high mileage numbers before rust and general degradation mean that repair becomes prohibitively expensive.
Anyway, I finally got a nice car (VW CC from a family member for beater type price) and uh… turns out all cars aren’t the same. This thing handles better than anything else I’ve had, sits low to the ground so it takes corners really nicely, etc. Not even really comparable as a driving experience.
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I is couper?
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This is true. I have a number of pictures of rental cars out on dirt roads, etc.
And my college geology department was banned from renting from Budget for a number of years after the abuses we put a van through on a field trip…
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True that! Bought a 2008 GX five years ago. Fun to drive through snow and all sorts of bad weather conditions. The removable seats for the third row meant you had a massive amount of storage. It was great for trips to the drive-in!
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Manual windows <3
