how do LVCers feel when they see a beat up mark.

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pwnisher17

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I've always been curious what people think. I drive a 94 white mark that has minor dents scratches and paint chips. Also the Hood is all cracked and my front left fender is a different color. when I see a nice mark I will go out of my too look at it. I just want to know whether you see a beat up mark as an obomination. Or a good thing bc it's one less mark in the scrap yard.
 
Yup...I see beat up Marks as future parts cars ...rarely do I get to see one that's been taken care of.

I've done so many mods to mine tho, that even a decent condition stock Mark is just kinda...Meh
 
Sad. I traded one in that cash for clunkers and it was my DD and only had 101K. But it needed work so it was quite a bit more than I could sell it for especially at that time. Plus since I was working and survived through two big layoffs I wanted to do my part to spend some money and help try to get the economy going again. They laid me off 5 days later. But when I found out what they had to do to those cars it made me sick. I even had trouble sleeping for a while. I was very shocked at the emotional attachment I had to that car. That has never happened before. Thats when I started pursuing my old dream of hot roding a Mark VIII.
 
Ah that was also one of my guesses. All my damage on te car was done by a previous owner. I just don't have money to fix it so it's prly not going to get fixed.
 
Makes me kind of sad but happy at the same time since it makes mine look that much better since I take care of mine and have fixed the flaws on it, also the whole future parts car thing is nice, unfortunately the longer they are driven and beat on pretty much limits the amount of useful parts on them...and I wasn't around on LVC when the cash for clunker thing was going on but that whole program really pissed me off seeing all those useful running/driving used cars being wasted, and then less than a year later all of those same dealers were complaining that there was a shortage of used cars and they were giving all of those incentives to trade in and save on a new car and blah blah blah..how many other pissed off LVCers were ranting around that time?? I know I would be.
 
I haven't meet anybody yet with a nice well maintained Mark VIII except the previous owner of the my 93. Ive meet quite a few with Thunderbirds though. All member of TCCOA and members of RobertP's Carolina Crew which they so graciously include me in.
 
keVIIIn; that whole program really pissed me off seeing all those useful running/driving used cars being wasted[/QUOTE said:
I know. And you would think they would let people maybe for a small fee trade there car on a clunker just by proving it was a better more efficient vehicle that what they were driving. I saw so many clunker being destroyed and they were better and more efficient than what many other people were driving. :mad:
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keVIIIn said:
Makes me kind of sad but happy at the same time since it makes mine look that much better since I take care of mine and have fixed the flaws on it, also the whole future parts car thing is nice, unfortunately the longer they are driven and beat on pretty much limits the amount of useful parts on them...and I wasn't around on LVC when the cash for clunker thing was going on but that whole program really pissed me off seeing all those useful running/driving used cars being wasted, and then less than a ear later all of those same dealers were complaining that there is a shortage of used cars and they were giving all of those incentives to trade in and save on a new car and blah blah blah..how many other pissed off LVCers were ranting around that time?? I know I would be.
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It's nice diving an older car (also not so common) and getting compliments on how good it looks. Makes it all worth it.
 
Pretty sad actually, considering these cars are as exotic as they can get over here, and always much more worth than what you'd think. But its not just the Mark, but pretty much everything more or less desirable you couldn't buy here, like every GM b-body, a performance version of an otherwise generic car (Taurus SHO) or everything remotely classic.

Also, cash for clunkers was the worst thing that could happen to the US used car market. I got a list of all cars that were turned in, and its just shocking to see that hundreds or thousands of Mark VIIIs, Caddy Fleetwoods, even some b-bodies Impala SS were wrecked without getting the chance to get some parts from these vehicles. Just sucks.
 
Here's a situation for you guys that I deal with on a daily. There is a 94 Green mark on a main road where I drive almost daily sitting infront of a guys house. It's on it's balls because the bags went, he has a new car now, it's been sitting there for about 6-7 months now. I asked him if he was interested in letting it go. No, says he is "going to work on it soon" He is a grumpy old man and that poor car is going to sit there and rot for god knows how many years. The weather is already getting to it and the tree it is sitting under doesn't help, the hood is popped open a bit and I can just hear the tears coming from it every time I drive by. :'(
 
Wait for him to die and buy from the kids
I've got a very similar situation on a 93 that's sitting in a ditch, I want it for the front clip. The body is super straight, the old man that owns it had his legs amputated last year because of circulation problems (I talked to the lady that tends his house) he wants $2000 for it..so now I wait. She says she'll pay me to tow it off
 
Sapperfire said:
Wait for him to die and buy from the kids
I've got a very similar situation on a 93 that's sitting in a ditch, I want it for the front clip. The body is super straight, the old man that owns it had his legs amputated last year because of circulation problems (I talked to the lady that tends his house) he wants $2000 for it..so now I wait. She says she'll pay me to tow it off
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Hahah oh man..that's horrible but true, one of the towns where I work has a large population of senior citizens, and I've come across a few mark viiis parked in driveways that rarely move, one of which is pretty nice..and that's always what I think about..just wait for that estate sale..
 
Sapperfire said:
Wait for him to die and buy from the kids
I've got a very similar situation on a 93 that's sitting in a ditch, I want it for the front clip. The body is super straight, the old man that owns it had his legs amputated last year because of circulation problems (I talked to the lady that tends his house) he wants $2000 for it..so now I wait. She says she'll pay me to tow it off
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That's priceless! I mean some people can't just let go, I offered money and everything but no go yet....We play the waiting game now, I mean I'm 21 I've got a long way to go and have great patience, he'll be gone soon enough :gr_devil:

OH ! and if you do get that 93, if you aren't going to be using the grill thats in it..... :D
 
We get too damn attached to these cars. I include myself. Right now I'm selling my 93 & it's a really hard thing to do for me. I don't like to see them beat up & I think that's where I end up spending so much cash on them. If I had a couple million in the bank I would have a couple sweet new cars but I'd hoard Mark VIII's, fix some of them, paint them & resell them to extend their lives.
 
I agree. With pretty much everything that's been covered here, from feeling sad about abused Marks, seeing parts car opportunities, and the tragedy of "cash for clunkers". Every time I see a Mark VIII in a scrap yard, it's a little depressing, but I make the most of it and look it over for any good parts I could hoard for whenever I get back in another Mark.

I have a buddy I went to high school with whose parents have a white Mark VIII with (if I remember correctly) the navy blue interior, which is RARE around here. Unfortunately, his mom HATED that car for whatever reason, and, on one occasion my friend was telling me about, she was mad about the car over something and drove off the road at speed and plowed through a huge ditch as a shortcut to get to the road she was trying to get to. Sometime later, the air suspension went out on the car (what a surprise!), and it's just sat in the field beside their house with about 5-10 other broken down cars. I've thought about trying to get the car for cheap for parts or maybe to fix up, but haven't done it yet.

I don't even see Mark VIII's on the road around here anymore, so anytime I see one, beat up or not, it's a little bit of a thrill. I ran into a guy about a year and a half ago with the twin to my black 93 (except his had T/A and JBL; mine didn't have that), and we talked for a few. I told him about the one I used to have and how long I've been into these cars (this guy was probably about 18, but he was already really into his Mark VIII and racing it), so he would text me from time to time if he had questions or anything. Then about a year ago, he texted me and told me he'd totalled the car and didn't have insurance so he wanted to sell it. Long story short, that's how I ended up with one of my parts cars.
 
I have to say that the only one I have ever seen in my city was a 95 that this guy had and he lived in some apartments. The car had 241,000 and was slammed to the ground. The trunk lid was bashed in and I offered him a free one but it was black. He didn't bother coming around the corner from me to get it. He drove the car almost daily, with it slammed and never bothered fixing the suspension. He has moved now because that car is gone and so is his motorcycle. He did mention moving back to Michigan. This is how it sat.

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Then, last year there was this one in the other direction, leaving my house and I caught it setting on the curb. The rear was slammed on it and the drivers window was almost half way down. It rained for a few days and they never bothered to get the window up or anything. Now that one is gone too. It probably sit out there like this for about a month and they had a garage with no car inside. Nothing was in the garage.

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It irritates me to see someone just beat one down and never do anything for it.
 
NoLimit95 said:
It irritates me to see someone just beat one down and never do anything for it.
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+1

I try not to part any out unless they're well beyond being saved. In fact, I'm in the process of selling a 93 that I picked up a couple years ago as a parts car to a buddy of mine now. I could make probably at least double my money parting it out compared to what I'm selling it whole for, but I'd rather see it get fixed up and get my buddy into these cars. I've just been holding on to that 93 because I didn't have the heart to part it out since it's mostly complete with no major body damage. Plus, it's got about every option available in 93 except the CD changer (it might even have that. I just don't remember it).

Sometimes I regret parting out the first car I did. It *COULD* have been saved, maybe. At the time, though, I was 18 and needed parts for mine, and didn't have the money to drop around $2,000+ it would have taken to get all the body work, suspension work, and interior work fixed. Plus, the Mark VIII's weren't as rare back in '04, so I didn't even think about it.

That black parts car I bought off that kid was WAY beyond saving. He slid it sideways into a tree at 60-70 MPH, and it bent the frame/body. He bent the metal beam in the driver's door all to hell, and actually almost broke it. I still say that beam saved his life, or at least saved him from being pretty messed up. I picked up the car from him just a couple days after he wrecked it, and there wasn't a scratch or bruise on him that I could see, and he was helping me load up the car and was getting around just fine.
 
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