1990 MPV for $300, is it worth it?

[Infinitrium]

I'm not too happy with my current car, a 1990 Olds Cutlass Ciera, the rear suspension is quite rotten so I'm thinking of ditching it and getting something else. There's a 1990 V6 2wd MPV not too far from here for $300, Canadian. This van has apparently had a new windshield, rebuilt tranny, motor from junkyard with less than 200,000 kms, new radiator, new alternator, new brakes all around and new front Gabriel struts. A/C and cruise still work. It's going to need some work, a muffler and a bit of pipe and some body work around the rear fenders and bottoms of the doors. What do you people think? My parents have had an 89 V6 2wd MPV for 2 and 1/2 years, and in that time very little maintainence has been done to it (EG: oil only changed twice in 2 1/2 years), but they haven't really had alot of problems with it, other than the oil pressure-fed timing belt tensioner which failed last summer and cost something like $250 for the part alone, plus the cost of a timing belt. I kinda like the 'rents MPV, rides fairly good, fairly roomy, performs nicely, has nice cold AC but the only problem is that it's rather hard on fuel. Fueleconomy.gov rates the V6 2wd for only 20mpg on the highway, and with the cost of gas at 92.3 cents per liter up around these parts, that's gonna hurt, especially because I like to drive. If something more fuel efficient comes along, I might pass up the MPV but if not, I may just become a van man.

[freud]

YES. I had an '89 and got 243K miles out of it. I now have a '95 with 150K miles. They are great vans. Fuel economy is as the EPA says it is. Most of them have valve clatter, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything. Both of mine did.