Welcome back! It’s officially autumn as of this week, which means it’s time to start thinking about plans for the winter. For some car folks, especially in places that like to go crazy with the road salt, that means finding a sacrifical lamb to get you through the snowy months while your prides and joys stay safe and dry inside. Today we’re going to check out two such cars, from two such places.
Yesterday’s project cars brought out plenty of support for both options, but the idea of a desirable generation of Chevy truck, in running and driving condition, for less than three grand, was hard to resist. And in fact, that truck has already been sold, it looks like. Best of luck to it in its new life; I can’t imagine anything will be harder on it than ranch work.
And thank you to the VW aficionados for the clarification about the Squareback’s floors. I was told, ages ago, that they were a simple bolt-in affair; apparently that’s not quite the case. As always, I regret the error, and I will endeavor to step up my research in the future whenever necessary.
Now, as anyone who has ever lived in the Midwest knows, winter is not the time of year for enjoying your favorite car, whatever it may be. Snow, road salt, and bad driving all threaten to destroy your baby, and while there are ways to mitigate all of them, only one thing can truly keep it safe from the winter: being parked in a garage, away from all that crap. But you still have to get around, so why not find something already a little bit ruined, but still reliable? You don’t have to spend a ton on it, either; just find something “good enough.” These two look like they fit the bill. Let’s check them out.
2002 Hyundai Santa Fe – $1,800
Engine/drivetrain: 2.7 liter dual overhead cam V6, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Lansing, IL
Odometer reading: 146,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Looking back, a Hyundai SUV seemed like an inevitability. SUVs took off in the mid-1990s, just as Hyundai finally started to figure out how to make decent cars. The only real question is why did it take the Korean giant until 2001 to get in on the action?
The Santa Fe is a car-based SUV, what’s now known as a crossover, though I don’t recall hearing that term in the early 2000s. It has a transversely-mounted V6 engine driving either the front or all four wheels. This one is 4WD, with a four-speed automatic transmission. It runs and drives just fine, according to the seller, and has good heat and air conditioning. What more do you need for a winter beater?
The interior photos we get in the ad are terrible. Seriously, these are the best ones. From what I can see, it looks all right, though I do wish they’d cleaned it out. Maybe they were trying to show off how many cupholders it has, though the water bottle on the seat says that there are one too few.
On the outside, you can tell it’s a Chicago-area car. There’s quite a bit of rust in the rocker panels, and I have a feeling that those ill-fitting aftermarket flares on the rear wheel arches are hiding more. But we’re not talking about a restoration candidate here; we’re talking about a cheap way to get through until the snow melts.
2006 Chevrolet Impala LS – $1,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.5 liter overhead valve V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Cambridge, MN
Odometer reading: 265,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, I assume
For almost three decades, the Impala nameplate rode on the back of RWD, body-on-frame sedans with V8 engines. When the Impala name resurfaced in 2000 on the FWD replacement for the Lumina, a lot of old-school Chevy fans weren’t happy. But Chevy had already done the same thing to the Malibu and Monte Carlo nameplates, so it didn’t matter much. Besides, the new Impala was a pretty nice car.
This is the second generation of the FWD Impala, with a 3.5 liter “High Value” V6, a development of the old 60-degree V6 that GM built forever, only with variable valve timing to bump up the power and efficiency. It drives the front wheels through a 4T65-E overdrive automatic. The ad doesn’t actually say how well it runs, but it’s bad optics for a dealership like this to advertise a non-running car and not disclose it. I have to assume it runs and drives.
It’s a grandma-spec Impala, with a split bench seat and a column-mounted shifter. I kind of prefer this setup in this car, actually; it’s not sporty in the least, so why not make it comfortable? It’s in surprisingly good shape for a pre-bankruptcy GM car with 265,000 miles on it. This must have been a sales rep’s car or something, someone who spent a lot of time on the road, but who also never ate in the car.
It’s getting rusty, and as is typical, it’s worse on the driver’s side. It’s rusting from the inside out, which means it’s worse than it looks already. But again, it just has to last the winter.
The lifecycle of ordinary cars like these is one of depreciation, wear and tear, and eventual scrapping. They’re not meant to last forever. But when they get this cheap, if you can get just one more winter out of them, and save some other car from the ravages of salt and snow, then they have done their job. Which one do you think would make a better beater?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I’d rather have the Impala than the Hyundai
I helped a mechanic buddy do timing belt, water pump, etc on his sister’s early Santa Fe, and I commented on how the front of the engine was quite similar to a 4-cylinder 92 Camry I had recently done the same on. He told me he was reasonably impressed with them—had recommended it to her—and that they held up pretty well from what he saw in the shop.
Born & raised in corn country, though, so I’d bring a stout awl along to probe it.
The Impala.
Black rims are stupid.
All things being equal I would go Impala but twice the miles and twice the rust I have to go Hyundai. Also the term Crossover was used back then I think even before SUV. At least that is the order I remember them
Pretty sure the term “crossover” came well after the dawn of the SUV era.
Like when DRI crossed over from hardcore to metal
I would rather have the Impala,but as the concept for this is a winter car I will need 4 wheel drive.
Impala. I’ve had a ton as rental cars back in the day, they’re comfy. The rust on that thing is probably frightening but as mentioned if one winter is all you need it might survive. Or just keep it and turn it into the next coming of the Chicago Cutlass.
The 3.5 and 3.9 of this era of GM were notoriously bad with regard to that VVT system. lack of a reliable 3.8 and a quarter million miles makes he questionable longevity of the Hyundai still less questionable here. I feel like the Hyundai has a better chance of making it through the winter and the 4wd is a bonus.
Hyundai’s are horrible. As much as GMs are also generally horrible, this one is still better than the “new to the junkyard” vibes that Santa Fe is putting out there.
For me this has to come down to which one has the freshest set of winter tires, or even has winter tires.
The Impala is all right, but I’ve always kinda liked the old Santa Fe. Since they’re both a little rusty, I’ll go with lower mileage and 4WD.
Hyundai for the simple fact that the rust on the rear fenders and the rocker panel is only the tip of the iceberg. I bet that front subframe is completely toast.
Absa-frickin-lutely. You can see the door rubbers being deformed by the rust underneath. That is just polished rust.