The beast
After a few days of searching Craigslist we came across a gem (sort of). The car is a 1986 Toyota MR2, a lightweight sportscar whose 80's-tastic body is so angular it looks like it was designed by Tron. Looks aside the car is nimble and decently capable, but best of all was the price: $500. The catch? The car is in South Tucson.
South Tucson has a reputation here, as being an area so crappy, its actually a separate city from Tucson proper. In 2006 South Tucson had more crimes per every 100,000 people in rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and theft, than Detroit, Mich. with South Tucson losing out to Mo-Town in murders and car theft(1).
GTmotor went to check it out. Unfortunately, he was driving his beautiful 2005 Lotus Elise. "The roads get rougher, the air gets more stagnant, and the buildings start getting more and more dilapidated. My 'spidey sense' starts to tingle and I feel eyes watching me as I look horribly out of place driving a car that costs more than most of the houses surrounding me," he later recalled. As he got closer to the house, GTmotor came up on a group of guys hanging out outside. The group spots the car and starts yelling at him in Spanish. "I decided to keep driving and got the $!@#! (sic) out of there as fast as I could," he said.
A few days later, GTmotor returned. Determined and in a rental car (his daily driver Lexus IS300 was in the shop) he test drove, paid for and drove home in our new pride and joy. The Toyota was ours.
I was blown away. We had a car for $500! People spend that much on tables, and this was a car with a running (sort of) engine, tires, tags, the whole nine yards.
Behold the glory!
1: http://tucson.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=detroit&s1=MI&c2=South+Tucson&s2=AZ
South Tucson has a reputation here, as being an area so crappy, its actually a separate city from Tucson proper. In 2006 South Tucson had more crimes per every 100,000 people in rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and theft, than Detroit, Mich. with South Tucson losing out to Mo-Town in murders and car theft(1).
GTmotor went to check it out. Unfortunately, he was driving his beautiful 2005 Lotus Elise. "The roads get rougher, the air gets more stagnant, and the buildings start getting more and more dilapidated. My 'spidey sense' starts to tingle and I feel eyes watching me as I look horribly out of place driving a car that costs more than most of the houses surrounding me," he later recalled. As he got closer to the house, GTmotor came up on a group of guys hanging out outside. The group spots the car and starts yelling at him in Spanish. "I decided to keep driving and got the $!@#! (sic) out of there as fast as I could," he said.
A few days later, GTmotor returned. Determined and in a rental car (his daily driver Lexus IS300 was in the shop) he test drove, paid for and drove home in our new pride and joy. The Toyota was ours.
I was blown away. We had a car for $500! People spend that much on tables, and this was a car with a running (sort of) engine, tires, tags, the whole nine yards.
Behold the glory!
1: http://tucson.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=detroit&s1=MI&c2=South+Tucson&s2=AZ
posted by J. Mark Sternberg at
6:23 PM
1 Comments:
Did you hide it under a tree to hide the beast from other LeMons competitors sneaking a peek at the winning ride? Or are you simply trying not to scare the neighbors?
This is great. Can't wait to hear how the Beast takes shape. Can I come watch LeMons?
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