Then there were three cars, ...am I becoming a redneck? Options

[cobas]

Been a while.... long story short, I still have my Elantra GT now with 155k+ miles. It has a few minor issues like a spot of rust on the hatch door, a broken third gear synchro and a sunroof that doesn't know when to stop. But I still take care of it; just installed pads and rotors all the way around (StopTech kit with slotted front rotors!), changed the oil, etc, and I take it out now and then.

Five years ago I got a 2011 Volkswagen GTI DSG and kept the Elantra because the GTI wasn't so rock-solid reliable, had a tiny trunk, and because the DSG, turbo and throttle lag got on my nerves enough that I still wanted to drive a N/A stickshift Elantra once or twice a week. Well a year ago I finally had enough of the DSG and started shopping for used manual-transmission GTIs. But... then I drove a '15 GTI manual and... oh damnit. So now I have a '15 GTI manual with the performance pack and several more years of car payments left. It's bone stock because it came with 220hp, 258lb-ft and a limited-slip diff, I'm happy and not crazy enough to want more.

A few months ago I started thinking that it's probably time to sell my Elantra. It doesn't get used enough to justify it aging in my driveway, or the registration and insurance costs and I generally don't need/want two cars anymore. So after some pondering, last week I finally....uh... bought a third car.

This is where it gets a little weird / sidetracked... I came across an auction for a 2000 Volvo V70 SE, abandoned at an airport, going for $150, which seemed obscenely low even for a FWD automatic in 'unknown' condition, so I bid like $250 and I was pretty surprised to win the auction at $206. I rented a U-Haul with a tow dolly, recruited a friend and got the lump home. To make a long story short... well, not that short: someone installed the wrong kind of battery in it and decided to install the battery on its side. There was battery acid everywhere. It degraded the plastic transmission selector linkage, and sitting in a parking lot for an extended period corroded the selector lever enough that it was stuck and broke the linkage the next time someone tried to pull it out of Park. They probably figured Car Value < New Transmission or racked up enough parking fines to forfeit the car. Who knows. Anyway it turned out to start, run and even drive (sort of) once the linkage was fixed and a new battery installed. I drove it to the inspection station where it failed miserably: broken front sway bar links, worn ball joints, worn brake rotors, leaking CV boots, broken exhaust hangers, missing exhaust tip, dim headlamps, burned tag light, broken engine mounts, the 3-4 shift flares when warm... so... sure, it's not worth getting fixed. ("Did you just buy this? You should try to return it..." -Inspector) But is it worth fixing myself? I haven't done ball joints before but everything else seems pretty feasible. The shift flare seems like a $30 part and an hour of work rather than a rebuild kind of problem. The best part is, if you read the rules, ball joints, brakes, exhaust repairs and all the not-race-related bulbs are exempt from the $500 total limit for 24 Hours of Lemons cars.

Isn't that interesting.