...for a lot of things, but not this.
Looong story behind this, but ther short version is that a workmate's ex-GF (yes, really...) was moving house and needed to get rid of her grandmother's old 87 244GL. It ran out of rego two-and-a-half years ago and had been sitting under a tree since then.
I was luke-warm, until he mentioned that the grandmother had bought it new, "and had hardly used it - it must have low kays on it".
So he & I went and had a look. Yes, it was a low-kay car: 56,045km from new! :) It was also covered in black crap, but it had clearly been kept out of the weather until it was parked - uncracked dash, VERY straight, and the paint seemed good (under the black crap).
It's never been smoked in, and apart from a broken centre console and driver's door pocket, its as close to perfect as any 240 interior I've ever seen.
I went around today with a battery and some fresh fuel. It started after about five seconds of cranking, and then sat there and idled sweetly. :)
I rang the owner and we did a deal. I had to wait until she got home so we could pay her, so the first step was to give it a quick wash (so I could see out of the windscreen, for a start...).
Then we went and got a UVP so I could drive it home. It did the 55km to home without a hiccup. The tyres were a bit flat-spotted, but even that got better as we went.
The brakes all work, the original AM/FM radio/cassette player works, the aircon works (poorly - it needs a regas).
The main apparent issues are both caused by it sitting around for 30 months - there is a hole in the exhaust at the low point behind the diff, and the windscreen wipers are buggered.
Gave it a better wash when I got it home:
So far, the signs are that the paintwork will come up perfectly with a polish.
Still needs a few little tdy-ups, but I'm over the moon. The plan is to make it the tow-car (yes, I have a towbar) and also to have it as the "third car", but I keep thinking that its the neatest, cleanest, lowest kay car I've ever owned, so maybe it deserves more.
We'll see.
