Beater of the Week: Poll
Beater Week has drawn to a close and now the onus is on you to pick the most worthy whip of the bunch. Each one is vying for your morbid, schadenfreude-inspired affection, but there can be only one.
Your choices of automotive detritus include the '89 Buick Skyhawk, rusted and busted but still making the rounds; the '86 X1/9 that even a good tree couldn't keep down; an '88 Jeep Comanche whose mismatched body panels and hastily applied spray paint make it a rolling work of abstract art; the blacked-out and be-winged '87 'Lude; or the aptly named and expertly driven Big Momma, who's cop cred only a fool would question.
Vote below and be sure to submit your own ride by following the directions after the jump.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
far jr 10:59AM (2/10/2007)
I voted for the skyhawk because it brought back memories of my own Buick beater. The 86 Buick Somerset that carried me through college... Oh, the memories. It never let me down, but man was I glad to get rid of it! Sold it to my sister who drove it about 700 miles back and forth to college for a few years until it quit... she wasn't into frequent oil changes... she thought you just added new oil when it got a little low.
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j-dawg 11:05AM (2/10/2007)
The Caprice does not have the same air of "intentionally beater-y" as the Prelude. Instead, it represents a whole category of cars that can't be overlooked--the ex-cruiser crowd.
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chuck goolsbee 11:53AM (2/10/2007)
As I promised, I voted for the Fiat. First off, it is a classic bit of 70's Zeitgeist... the era of the ultimate beater. Second, it is a Fiat... a FIAT! That means it has been a beater since the moment it rolled off the line in Turin. To have a beater survive... still beating on decades later... that deserves my respect, and my vote. Finally, anyone can transform some Yank Tank into a beater... that is too easy, and the rice rocket crowd is also low-hanging fruit, almost a parody of themselves... the Prelude is an easy joke.
FIX IT AGAIN TONY!
--chuck
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FourBanger 12:38PM (2/10/2007)
I'm with the '89 Skyhawk, for the same reason as the first poster. My first car that was all mine was an 87 Cavalier off the same platform. Bungee cord holding the driver's door shut, low-hanging headliner--just craptastic all over. I drove it for the last two years of college, and it lived up to the "beater" name because I certainly gave it a beating. But it ran reliably, took me back and forth to college (three and 1/2 hours each way), and took me to my first post-college job in New Jersey. It finally gave up after my last trip home from NJ to MA. The radiator fan didn't work, so I had to have the heat on, even in the summer, and one day it just left a trail of antifreeze. I parked it, had the junkyard take it away (I'm not sure it had a single salvageable part), and that was it. Great little car. Great in the snow, actually.
My sister had a skyhawk like that, until the engine caught fire one day.
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D Man Sux 3:09PM (2/10/2007)
What a crappy week.
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Miranda 3:07PM (2/12/2007)
wow, I had to go for the jeep... if not for the condition then for the big OUCH and the sad looking dog.
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Phil L. 4:28PM (2/10/2007)
I appreciate beaters - so I loved all of this week's cars.
But the X1/9 gets my vote!
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Mr. Whitefolks 6:21PM (2/10/2007)
I don't believe the Honda qualifies for Beater status. The copious use of "after-market" accessories puts this Honda closer to being a Street-Mod Beater. Which brings me to my vote. Big Mama is the quintessential beater. If one of those Skylarks survived to today, I would chalk that up to divine providence and not Beater-tude. A must have feature of a good beater is that it runs reliably in any weather conditions. Big Mama is the only one that you can believe to meet that criterion.
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Big jim 6:39PM (2/10/2007)
a friend of mine in high school owned a prelude of that generation, the honda gets my vote
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