Car Lust

Hafner's $2,500 Used Car Challenge, Part 1--The Search

Hafner's $2,500 Used Car Challenge
Part 1--The Search
Part 2--The Evaluation
Part 3--Final Decision
Part 4--1986 Audi Coupe GT
Part 5--Life With My Car Lust

 As you might recall, in our recent $2,500 Challenge (challenge, results) I mentioned that this particular used-car treasure hunt was not as purely theoretical as our previous challenges; in fact, I was actually embarking on my own hunt for a $2,500 used car. I'm happy to report that I have now purchased that car, and both the search and the final purchase have been so entertaining that I can't wait to share them. I'm even happier to point out that the car pictured to the right is not that car, though I considered it. It just needed some minor work to be brought back to original condition.

My situation at the beginning of the search was, if anything, a bit too comfortable. You see, my two-car garage was filled with two fairly modern and wonderfully capable sedans. The first was my 2003 Honda Accord that excels as our family workhorse; it combines 240 horsepower, reasonable luxury, and metronomic dependability. It is a fantastic car that takes a beating from my family without the slightest complaint. The second garage stall housed a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T that we were storing for a good friend of ours who has been in Iraq for the last several years. As a free second car in case of emergency, it has served admirably. Its five-speed manual and turbo 1.8 make it a fun little ride, and it makes a nice counterpoint to the solidity of the Accord. Both cars are wonderful examples of modern automotive technology; they start every time without fail, drive impeccably, and accelerate like 1980s muscle cars.

It certainly wasn't a bad situation, but in the midst of all this competence there was something very fundamental missing. I didn't have anything truly interesting--something like my old 1983 Chevrolet Malibu Wagon or 1973 Plymouth Valiant that could capture my attention, my imagination, and perhaps even my soul. Something, in other words, from the Car Lust mold.

Happily, events were in motion that turned my empty longing into reality. When our friend recently returned from Iraq and reclaimed her Jetta, she left us with an empty garage spot and a need for an occasional second car. The perfect storm became complete when my wife look temporary leave of her senses in agreeing to give me near-complete purchasing freedom up to $2,500.

This is the kind of situation I live for. When I bought the Malibu several years ago, I cross-shopped it against a Mk. I Volkswagen GTI that made my hands smell of Cool Ranch Doritos, a smoke-spewing Merkur XR4Ti, a 1970s BMW 320i with a bird's nest under the hood, and a few other empirically awful but highly entertaining pieces of hardware. I had a riotous good time and wound up with a car I loved--what could be better?

My wife showed some glimmers of sanity by ruling out the leviathans I found in my initial search; the Jeep Wagoneers, the 1970s Chevy Impalas and Cadillacs, and the AMC Matadors were suddenly out of the picture. This is, after all, a car she would be driving intermittently, and she didn't relish the idea of navigating Seattle in one of those monsters without the service of a harbor pilot and some tugboats.

So, with a meager budget and a vague mandate to find a suitable second family car--a definition I was looking forward to stretching--I began to identify suitable prospects, the best of which follow after the jump.

Nov. 30 Weekly Open Thread

As always, this is the right place for discussion that doesn't belong anywhere else.

Suggested topic: One of my favorite events during Thanksgiving weekend is the inevitable James Bond marathon on cable. I know I'm not the only one here who marries a love of cars with an insatiable enthusiasm for Bond movies; so for those other Bond fans, which movie offers up the best cars? This isn't necessarily about which Bond car is your favorite--we have covered such favorites as the Lotus Esprit and Toyota 2000GT--but which movie offers the best total automotive smorgasbord.

The question came to me as I watched 1971's Diamonds Are Forever for the umpteenth time and lusted after the combination of a Triumph Stag, a Ford Mustang Mach 1, a Ford Thunderbird, and a Ford Econoline. The full lineup is available here; and in fact IMCDB (the Internet Movie Cars Database) makes an excellent resource for this search.

Candidates for the weirdest car mix include The Man With the Golden Gun, or the AMC movie--it bizarrely featured an AMC Hornet car chase and an AMC Matador that converted into an airplane. Live and Let Die is another odd one; it featured the infamous Chevrolet freeway.

--Chris H.

When Removing A Wheel Goes Horribly Wrong

In the spirit of When Tuning Goes Horribly Wrong, I present another truly epic message board thread; this time it's on Honda-Tech.com and is titled, "So, Don't Buy a VW."

Because, after all, it's Volkswagen's fault that the author got a lug bolt stuck and took a Sawzall to his wheel to get it off. The thread is up to 17 pages now, and it's well worth a read.

That photo makes me cringe.

--Chris H.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Today is a special day; a day in which we take a break from the frantic flow of our regular lives and give thanks for the important things in our lives. Almost all of us are blessed in ways that we are too busy to acknowledge with the frequency that we should; for my part, I am grateful for my family, friends, health, a rewarding career, and the ability to pursue my interests.

More than that, though, I am thankful for:

• The existence of cars, miraculous machines that the world too frequently ignores, underrates, and maligns. Cars aren't just a lot of fun to drive and enjoy; they democratized access and transportation by giving each of us the ability to cover great distances independently and relatively cheaply.
• This blog, which has grown beyond my self-interested and frequently eccentric murmurings, blossoming into a real destination with a diversity of viewpoints and voices.
• My fellow Car Lust contributors, who have helped carry so much of the editorial load and whose participation has made this blog infinitely more interesting.
• Our readers and commenters, who enliven this place with conversation and who make Car Lust the most commented-on Amazon blog.
• The entire Car Lust community's patience with my frequent absences from the blog, driven by a personal and professional schedule that has been remarkably frantic in 2009. 
• The virtual but very real friendships this blog has allowed me to create with my fellow contributors and with many of the commenters. I would be significantly less fulfilled as a human being had I not gotten to know (among others) Cookie The Dog's Owner and his love of Alarm fur Cobra 11; Mochi Mochi's breathless excitement about automotive beauty in odd places; Anthony Cagle's love of huge American iron; David Drucker's and Rob the SVX Guy's completely divergent views on, well, everything; Big Chris' devotion to the Chevy S-10 and booming sound systems; Nathan's earnest quest to find a poor man's BMW; David Colborne's ability to mix wry automotive commentary with esoteric military history; Chuck Lynch's appreciation for George Barris cars; ...m...'s odd attraction to both the Toyota Echo and Tommy's Dad's amazing genius at used car challenges. This is to say nothing of the honor of conversing with Virgil Exner Jr.
• Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame, who has repeatedly shown his lack of good taste by frequently linking to us over the last few years. I am convinced that most of our contributors and readers found us through his links. Thank you, Glenn.
• Amazon, to an incredible degree, for providing the resources to run Car Lust and for allowing me to donate my time to this blog and trusting me to ensure that my involvement here doesn't interfere with my job helping improve our Auto Parts & Accessories store.
• Chuck, for taking the Vega Turkey picture above. It's timeless and completely wonderful.

--Chris H.

That Sound You Hear is My Weeping

Some dark, dark news is circulating this morning--Koenigsegg has pulled out of its tentative deal to purchase Saab from General Motors. As usual, the best news and analysis is available at Saabs United.

This isn't quite the end for Saab; according to Bloomberg, the GM board will review Saab's future on Dec. 1, and there are a few scenarios that could save the brand. A new buyer could concievably step forward, for example. GM could also rethink its strategy and decide to keep Saab alive as a subsidiary, as it did with Opel when that sale fell through. I could also win the lottery, compound my winnings at the craps table, and then purchase Saab myself. The first two scenarios are only moderately more likely than the last.

So, absent some extraordinary good fortune, this news signals Saab's death knell--a truly grievous turn of circumstance for those of us who are devoted to the brand and were hoping for a renaissance under Swedish ownership. Saab is a brand with a proud history that includes some truly extraordinary cars and a devoted fanbase; a world without Saab would be drab, dull place.

I'll hold off on the full-blown eulogy for now, but make no mistake--the situation is dire. Saab is not yet dead, but its death looms on the horizon.

--Chris H.

Nov. 23 Weekly Open Thread

As always, this is the place for random off-topic conversation.

Suggested Topic No. 1--When your vehicle needs repair, do you take the car in to the dealer, to an independent repair shop, or do you do the work yourself?

Suggested Topic No. 2--How far will you be driving for Thanksgiving, and will you have to cope with wintry weather?

--Chris H.

1968-1974 Chevy Nova

There are cars we could have bought. Cars we would have bought. But this is the car I should have bought back in high school. My well-meaning parents helped me get a 1972 Vega in 1973, before the self-destructive properties of that model became so awfully and costly apparent.

They were thinking "small and economical" for my first car, but looking back in hindsight (as we all do), the long-term costs of a Chevy Nova would have been far less. And it wasn't much larger than the Vega.

The Chevy II/Nova line started in 1962 and went to 1979, and again from 1985 to 1988. But I'd like to focus on what I would have had in my high school years, the ones made from 1968-1974, which are now known as the 3rd Generation Nova. Those other cars have their own followers, and deserve separate posts.

$2,500 Challenge Results

We recently ran the $2,500 Challenge, the latest installment in our series of used-car classifieds treasure hunts. And, for the record, the Car Lust community totally outdid itself with this challenge. The vehicles this time around weren't quite as spectacular as the results of the $25K Challenge--no surprise given the more restricted budget--but they were significantly more hilarious.

As you may recall, there was a personal aspect to this challenge--I was in the market for a car in that price range and was living out my own $2,500 Challenge. And, as it turns out, so was fellow Car Luster David Colborne. We have both made our purchases and will be writing up our real-world experiences in the next week.

But, for now, here are a few of my favorites from a group of selections so stellar that I don't even have space to call out suggestions that hit on my usual favorites, cars like the Saab SPG, Peugeot 405 Mi16 and Merkur XR4Ti.

Christie Brinkley Award/Best in Class

This challenge's overall winner is this sultry Euro-spec BMW 635CSi submitted by Shawn. It is also the winner of this challenge's Christie Brinkley Award, honoring a 1980s style icon that has aged gracefully.

Just look at that 6-series--it is long, lean, and beautifully sculpted. Its performance should stand up nicely as well. Assuming that it has been cared for, its turbine-like BMW six and sport suspension should provide both ample power and responsiveness to go with its style.

This 635CSi is a smooth, classy coupe with power and panache; it might cost a little more to maintain than a 1990s Toyota Corolla, but I know which car I'd rather spend my $2,500 on.

Mazda Miata @20

It was a simpler time. . . .a time of hope and faith in the future. . . blue jeans and white t-shirts were in. . .

A commercial for laundry detergent? A documentary on the 1950s? The last presidential campaign?

No, that was the iconic introductory commercial Mazda made for the Miata. Now well into its 20th year of production, one can reasonably argue that the Miata was something of a game-changer, one of those products that comes along and everybody smacks their head and says "Why didn't I think of that?" A small roadster in the British mold that actually, you know, worked? These days, if one wants a high performance 2-seat convertible there is nearly an embarrassment of riches available, from BMW to Saturn and everything in between. I think in the intervening years people have forgotten just how novel the Miata was and what kind of market it opened up. Unfortunately, the Miata has, in some quarters, gotten something of a bad image, entirely undeserved in my opinion. But its impact on the automotive landscape remains one of the great success stories of the 1980s. Suffice it to say that a time traveler from the early 1980s would be astonished at the plethora of high performance loads-o'-fun droptop roadsters available and how the rebirth of the British roadster owes its existence, arguably, to an at the time largely unknown Japanese manufacturer

Nov. 16 Weekly Open Thread

As always, this is the place for discussion that doesn't fit anywhere else.

A few notes:

- Yesterday on the freeway I saw a Ford Fusion. There's nothing particularly remarkable about that, of course, but it caught my eye because, in terms of pride of ownership, it was the rolling equivalent of a wallet overflowing with pictures of one's grandchildren. The Fusion bore a custom license plate that said FUSION, and that license plate was encircled by a chrome Ford license plate frame. Finishing off the look was a Ford logo bumper sticker and a rear window banner sticker that looked like this, only designed to fit the rear window and saying "FUSION."

I don't think I've ever seen a prosaic family car so publicly and emphatically branded before; I don't totally understand your devotion, Mr. Fusion owner, but I applaud it.

- I was at the train station this weekend and spotted this pretty yellow coupe sitting behind a locked gate. After some pondering and some head-scratching, I finally activated some dormant memory banks and figured out what the heck it is. It's not every day you see a seemingly pristine Renault 17 in the wild. I couldn't quite tell if it was the rare performance Gordini version or not; perhaps a Renault-phile will weigh in on that topic.

Has anybody else seen any rarities or oddities on the road lately?

--Chris H.