Weekend Quickies - Saturday, July 31, 2010

1958 Mercedes-Benz L 319 - Just a Flatbed Geek? Yeah, I am, kind of. I've always thought it would be cool to own my own flatbed. Not just any old flatbed, but something cool. Something funky.

It doesn't get much cooler or funkier than this.

The ad includes a lot of pictures and a few paragraphs about the truck's history.

Located in Mexico City, Mexico, click here to see the eBay listing.

A big thanks to JaCG reader, Paul, for the link to this Mercedes.

1987 Audi 5000CS - There are so few of these cars left in the US. The whole unintended acceleration thing meant that for awhile the resale value of Audis was very low. (Even for 5 speed manual cars like this one). Many older Audis wound up in the hands of people who, frankly, shouldn't own a car like an Audi. They wound up being abused or neglected to death.

This car is a well taken care of survivor. It could use a little work to make it perfect, or you could drive it as is.

Located in Pheonix, AZ, click here to see the eBay listing.

1987 Alfa Romeo Milano - It doesn't take much to get me to write about a Milano. As I've written so many times in the past, my Milano was one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, car. Looking at this car brings back a ton of memories.

This car is listed as a 1987, but has a later grill. That's a pretty common swap, but I prefer the original earlier grill.

This car appears to be clean both inside and out. If you're looking for a true old-school sports sedan, a Milano is tough to beat.

Located in Tyngsboro, MA, click here to see the Craigslist ad. Thanks to Jon for sending me the link to this car.

Below is a picture of my Milano. I took this picture in 1989, about a year and a half after I bought it. It's easy to see why the car for sale brought back so many memories...

1980 Rover SD1 (3500)

I think that of all the "odd" car I've owned, the one that got the most attention (as in, "What the hell is that?) was my Rover SD1.

Had I lived in Europe when I owned that car, the reaction would have been "So what? It's another Rover". Here in the US, where it was known as the 3500, the SD1 was sold for only one year, 1980. Only 800 were sent here and it took Rover well into 1982 to find homes for all of them. To say it was a failure would be putting it mildly.

It didn't have to be a failure. On paper it was a brilliant car. But quality control at BL's factories in the 1980s was awful and the cars that rolled off the assembly lines were poorly screwed together and broke down often.

The 3500 came with Rover's ubiquitous aluminum V8. This engine is one of the great engines of all time. It has powered everything from Land Rovers, Triumphs, Rovers, Morgans, TVRs, MGs and a whole bunch of kit cars. Lightweight and fairly powerful, it was the perfect engine for the SD1. (In the UK the SD1 was also available with 4 and 6 cylinder engines.)

The interior was extremely comfortable, very roomy and relatively luxurious. It was also "modern" by British large car standards. There was not a piece of wood veneer to be found. The design of the dashboard was made symmetrical in order to allow for the assembly of both left and right hand drive cars. It had two gloveboxes. On a LHD car like this, there is a vent where the steering wheel would be if the car was RHD.

In every place other than North America, these were great looking cars. In North America they had the mandatory big US bumpers and awful looking sealed beam headlights. More than anything, the loss of the flush headlights (also mandated by US law at the time) ruined the look of the front end of the car. If you buy one pay whatever you have to pay for a set of European lights. It makes a world of difference.

This is a very nice SD1. The seller says that the engine and transmission have been rebuilt. He states that there is a "small amount of rust showing in front of rear arches on rocker panel area". That's not too bad, as SD1s are rust prone. Have it repaired right away and then Waxoyl every place imaginable and you should have no further rust problems. The interior looks great.

My SD1 was a reliable car. It never failed to start, it never left me stranded. It was fun to drive (mine was a 5 speed) and, as I mentioned, attracted attention everywhere I drove it. (As I mentioned in a very early post, it was too unique for my girlfriend at the time, who hated going anywhere in it. "It's too weird. People stare at us", she'd say.) I traded mine for an MGB, a move that I now regret. The MGB was a good, fun car, but compared to the Rover they're a dime-a-dozen. I should have kept the Rover and bought an MG. Oh well.

This car is located in Chemainus, Canada. Click here to see the eBay listing.

The Rover SD1 Club has a great website (which is where I stole the drawing of the dashboard from) that includes a very detailed article about the history of the SD1. You can find it here.

1975 Peugeot 504 Coupe - Hmmm...

I wrote about this car back in July, 2009. After I posted it a JaCG reader left a comment with some further information and links.

"This car was imported from Germany (not Denmark) in March/April 2003 by Classic Euro Cars (based in Florida) and sold to a buyer in Seattle who took great care of it."

Below is a picture of it in Europe...
He went on to write:

"Unfortunately, this buyer had issues garaging the car and driving was always a concern to him (scared of breaking glass a or window or being run into)."

Below is a picture of the car in Seattle with its owner (Sorry about the blocked out face. I don't know the source of this picture so I couldn't get permission to show a picture of the car's owner.)
He then wrote:

"One day he got a call from 2 guys of Brooklyn who were interesting of buying the car, which they did some time in 2004 or 2005. Looks like they're now selling it..."

That was the story in 2009.

The story in 2010 is this...

It's back on eBay. Bring A Trailer also featured this car then and now and they point out that it now has "different wheels, a different steering wheel, and an intact vintage stereo." (Back when I originally posted it I only included one picture with each post, so all I could tell was that the wheels were changed...)

It gets a even stranger. The car is listed as still being in Brooklyn, NY, but later in the eBay listing the seller writes, "Car is located at the Jersey shore about 50 miles from NYC". Did someone buy this, sell off a few parts and is now selling the rest of the car? He then goes on to write, "This rare collectable auto is offered at auction at no reserve and starting amount of $5000.00 which is one third of my purchase price, importation and repairs with maintanence..." Hmmm... First of all there is a bid on the car, but the listing says "reserve not met". So much for the no reserve price. Also, according to the JaCG reader mentioned above, this owner (the second or maybe the third here in the US) didn't import the car. He (or the previous owner) bought it from the man in Seattle.

Who knows? As I've always said, the goal of this blog is not to sell cars, but to be a little cyber car show. A Peugeot 504 Coupe belongs in any car show anywhere. It's a beautiful car and extremely rare in the US. However, if you're thinking of buying it, just remember the words "caveat emptor"...

You can find my 2009 post about the car here.

Located in either Brooklyn, NY, or the Jersey shore, click here to see the eBay listing.

Thanks to Jon and JaCG reader, Blair, both of whom sent me e-mails with the link to this car.

1987 Jaguar XJS V12 Hess & Eisenhardt Convertible

Wow. I was prowling around the internet tonight looking for a car or two to write about when I found this Craigslist ad. Cool. A Hess & Eisenhardt Jaguar XJS. A very interesting car.

I opened the ad and much to my amazement, the seller is referring people to a post I wrote awhile back about a different H&E Jag. Cool (again).

This appears to be a very nice Hess & Eisenhardt Jaguar. The seller says it needs a bit of TLC to be a show car, but would be great as a daily driver. The seller writes, "This car is on its way to becoming extremely collectible as the XJS's are coming into their age". Often when you see lines like that they're pure BS sales pitches, but in this case I agree with the seller. XJSs have always lived in the shadow (the very big shadow) of the car it replaced in the Jaguar line-up, the E-Type. People are just now starting to realize what these cars are. They're not an E-Type sports car, but a very, very nice luxury grand tourer. A very, very nice luxury grand tourer with a V12 engine.

Yes, older V12 Jags can be finicky, but with a little patience and maintenance, you're rewarded with a car that combines (as the old Jaguar slogan said) grace, space and pace like few other cars from the 1970s and 1980s did.

You can find my original Hess & Eisenhardt post here.

Located in Bloomer, WI, click here to see the Craigslist ad for this car.

1966 Citroen Chapron DS 21 - A Chance To Grab A Rare Car at a Bargain Price?

This is a strange eBay listing. The Citroen Chapron is a rare car. It's sought after by Citroen fans. Yet this eBay listing has just 3 pictures, very little text and no reserve price on the car. Also the listing title says "1966 Citroen DS 21", with no mention of Chapron or it being a convertible. Odd.

Around 1300 of these cars were built between 1961 and 1971. It featured everything that was good (the engineering, the suspension), bad (rust problems) and weird (everything else) about the DS 21, but with a convertible top.

From the seller's short paragraph, it sounds like this car is in excellent condition. It has a new top (which, according to Citroen Concours of America, Inc, costs a minimum of $2500.00) and new Michelin (of course) tires all around. The paint is described as "in near perfect condition" and the original interior is described as being in "excellent condition". Everything works on this car, including the original stock AM radio.

I have no idea why someone would put such little effort into an ad for such a rare car, but this may be your chance to grab a Citroen Chapron at a bargain price. According to Citroen Concours of America, Inc, an excellent Chapron can sell for over $100,000.00. This one, with 4 days to go in the bidding, is stuck at just over $12,000.00. It will be interesting to see what happens to this car.

Located in North Fort Myers, FL, click here to see the eBay listing.

A big thanks to Jon for sending me the link to this car!

1994 Adler R440 - I Have No Idea What This Is, But It Sure Looks Cool...

I give up. I have to meet a friend in a few minutes. I can't keep trying to figure out what this car is. I've spent too much time on it already.

It's obviously some sort of handbuilt or kit car. I've never heard of an Adler R440 before and a search of the internet turns up nothing. Is it a homemade one-off? I have no idea. For now I'll call it a kit car.

This is the Rainbow Coalition of kit cars. There's a little bit of everything in its design. Cobra, Mercedes, Corvette, MGB, Porsche, you name it, it's there. Amazingly, it all pretty much works.

According to the seller, this car was "designed & built by John Rindy of Adler Industries out of Whitehead South Dakota". He goes on to say that Adler Industries " has a reputation of building some of the finest automobiles today and also restoring some very rare cars." We'll have to take his word for that. Other than verifying that such a company does indeed exist, a Google search turns up no info about them. Damn.

This has a 350 V8 in it, fed by 2 Edlebrock 4 barrel carburetors. I'm assuming that like most kit / handbuilt cars, it doesn't weigh much and is very quick. The interior is leather and wood and looks as good or better than the interiors you find in many production cars.

Located in Pampa, TX, click here to see the eBay listing for this car.

1973 Jensen Healey - "Barn Fresh"

This is the third car I've seen recently that is being described as "barn fresh". That's a new term to me. "Barn find", I know. "Barn fresh", I don't.

I've never owned a barn, but I've been in a few and I can't imagine that anything that has sat in one for 12 years (especially a car) can be described as "fresh". But, that's how this car is being described and if the text is true and the pictures are accurate, this Jensen Healey really is pretty "fresh".

Jensen Healeys are typical 1970s British cars. They have quirks. The seller states in his ad that the car hasn't been inspected since 1998, but he will get it inspected "if sold at asking price". That sounds pretty generous, but even with a sticker there are 2 important things that need to be replaced before you drive the car anywhere...

The Jensen-Healey came with the then-new 1973cc Lotus 907 DOHC 16 valve engine. In fact, it was the first car (even before Lotus) to use that engine. This engine was the first to use a rubber timing belt. Unfortunately, it had a propensity for eating them and it is recommended that you change the belt every 18,000 miles (!!). Unless the seller can prove that he recently changed it, don't take any chances. Have the car towed home and change the belt before driving it. Also check the fuel system and replace any cracked lines and connectors. There are other common problems (leaks from around the cam cover being very common), but those are the two issues need to be addressed right away.

Jensen Healeys don't sell for a lot of money and this one, if it's all the seller says it is, is very reasonably priced at $3495.00. Even if you spend another $1500.00 - $2000.00 making it "right" (as opposed to "fresh", I guess), you'll still have a fairly rare (just over 10,000 were built in 4 years, but few survive due to timing belt and rust problems), semi-exotic (the Lotus engine), very fun to drive car for a very reasonable price.

Located in Macungie, PA, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

Get My Volt. How?

So I was listening to Chevy's Volt pricing announcment and noticed Joel Ewanick, General Motors' vice president for North American marketing, was promoting a new website for the Volt using the web address: http://www.getmyvolt.com. So I tried it to see how I could get my Volt. Unfortunately, it just took me, after two redirects, to the Volt landing page on Chevrolet.com site that has been up for months with no calls to action to order a Volt (the image above is where I was landed.) Too bad, I was hoping to see how the effort differed from Nissan's Leaf pre-order website that was very clear in how to order their electric vehicle offering.

As part of the pricing announcement, Chevy hosted a Q&A where Chevrolet Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle and Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz shared some answers to questions mainly around availability and the ordering process.

UPDATE: They added a green button sometime yesterday to start the process with a dealer in certain markets where the Volt will launch, but I checked back this morning
and it's gone.

/Lambo4x4

1967 Ghia 450 SS - Drop Dead Gorgeous

This car forced me to buy a lottery ticket tonight.

There were between 50 - 57 of these Giugiaro designed cars built. (Small Italian manufacturers were notorious for keeping poor build records.) Only 30 of them are accounted for today. When new, it cost $13,000.00 if you equipped it with air conditioning and the removable hardtop, $12,000 if you didn't. (To put that in perspective, a top of the line 1967 L88 Corvette sold for around $5800.00 in 1967.)

The 450SS was powered by a 273ci Chrysler V8. It could be had with a 4 speed manual or an automatic transmission. The suspension was torsion bars up front and a solid axle in back. Not high-tech, but effective. But it's not the mechanicals that makes this car so special. It's the looks. This car is drop dead gorgeous.

This car was inspired by the Fiat based Ghia 230S coupe. The story has it that Hollywood game show producer Burt Sugarman saw the 230S on the cover of Road & Track magazine and approached Ghia about building a similar car using a US V8. Sugarman supposedly put up a bunch of his own money to get this car produced.

There's really not much more I can write about this car. (Actually, there is, but how many times do you want to read the word "gorgeous"?) Based on my past performance with lottery tickets, the ticket I bought today will be nothing more than a $1.00 donation to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But, if by some miracle my number does come up, this car will be mine. I will probably spend the rest of my life just staring at it.

Located in Greenwich, CT, (Heck, it's not even that far from me. I could drive it home.) click here to see the eBay listing.

1959 Goliath Hansa (Borgward) Station Wagon

This is a cool old car and a very good eBay ad.

OK, first of all the brand name... Goliath-Werke Borgward & Co. was a company started by Carl Borgward in 1928. In 1931 he purchased the Hansa-Lloyd-Werke company and merged the two companies under the name Borgward Group.

The Goliath factory was destroyed in World War II. After the war, Borgward relaunched the business and sold cars under the Goliath and Borgward names. This car started life as a Goliath 1100, but in 1958 it became the Hansa 1100. (I have no idea why.)

Somewhat ahead of its time, the engine is a water cooled boxer style engine. This was not a quick car, with a top speed of under 80 MPH.

This is a 1960 station wagon (Combi) with a 1958 engine. The seller says that it's not a perfect engine, it smokes a bit and "has some noise", but the car runs and drives. The paint is a Toyota color that's close to the original. The paint job is fairly recent, but has some runs in it, which the seller points out in the pictures.

I like this line in the ad: "In thinking about this car, it is very important to understand that vehicles like this are not daily drivers. Small, rare cars of this vintage tend to be slow, unique in handling and not always easy to find parts for." Perfect. I see so many ads for obscure cars where the seller makes it sound like you could drive the car everyday. It's refreshing to see someone being very honest.

The seller also goes on to say, "What you are getting is a fun vehicle for local drives, a scarce and interesting ride that was ahead of its time in many respects, and a remarkably well preserved piece of automotive history." That's the only reason I can see for owning a car like this and that reason is good enough for me.

Located in Montpelier, VT, click here to see the eBay listing.

This car is also on a Borgward / Goliath / Hansa website. It has a bit more inof and some different pictures. You can find it here.

Can't Buy a Kia Soul? At Least Get a T-Shirt

So you love the cute hamster ads Kia has been rolling out for the Kia Soul campaign, but you don't have $15,000 to buy a car to show that love. Well, Kia now has a solution - Hamstar! Hamstar is the campaign interpreted into cotton t-shirts with a hip outline of a hamster head.

I really love how Kia has owned this campaign by demonstrating several ways to engage with their younger fans. Whether it was the tour promotion, Facebook game, or the Moochie YouTube video series, Kia has kept their presence high as it targets the youth market.

Now if only someone can tell me why Hamstar needs a Twitter feed? @HamstarClothing is up and well doing nothing since a few promotional tweets and announcing to all 24 followers that the store is live; it's last tweet on July 21st. Oh well, I guess this helped check the "social" box on the marketing campaign project list.

Still, I really like the idea of adding a line of clothing to help further the campaign; though, one wonders if too much will make Kia "the hamster car maker"?

Weekend Quickies, Sunday, July 25, 2010

1992 Saab 900 Turbo - I don't know what the numbers are, but I suspect that throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, New England was one of Saab's biggest markets. Saab 900s were commonplace here.

Not anymore.

Classic Saab Turbos are getting hard to find. Ones like this are getting extremely hard to find. This car, having spent its life in California is in very nice condition.

This is a no reserve auction. If I were in the market for a Saab Turbo, I'd fly to CA and drive this one back east. I can't think of a better way to spend a week.

Located in Santa Monica, CA, click here to see the eBay listing.

1969 Sunbeam Alpine GT - I wrote about this car back in February. You can find the post here.

I'm always a little skeptical of a reserve auction where the seller mentions the NADA price in his ad. But, there's no harm in bidding what you think it's worth and seeing what happens.

This is not a show car, but a nice driver that could be turned into a very nice driver.

Located in Salem, OR, click here to see the eBay listing.

1989 Laforza - I haven't posted a Laforza in quite awhile. This one is a 17,000 mile vehicle that appears to be in great shape.

Timing is everything in life and Laforza's timing sucked. It was introduced just before luxury SUVs became extremely popular. Most people weren't used to the idea of spending huge money on an SUV. The company that was importing / building them failed. Another company relaunched it after luxury SUVs became popular. By then most major car manufacturers were building one of their own. With so many choices available, the Laforza was overlooked. That company also failed.

It's a testament to this truck that after 2 failed to attempts to market it, it still commands a decent price in the marketplace.

Located in New Brunswick, NJ, click here to see the eBay listing.

Weekend Quickies- Saturday, July 24, 2010

1979 Lancia Beta Coupe - Wow. So few of these still exist. The Beta Coupe was a really nice looking car. It was a really nice looking car that was built from really bad steel. Few cars rusted like the Lancia Beta rusted.

Besides being nice looking they were fun to drive. Some "car snobs" look down on the later Fiat built Lancias. Yes, the pre-Fiat Lancias were great cars, but the Beta was impressive in its own right. The "car snobs" lose out by ignoring the later Lancias. (Which keeps the prices low!)

This is a rust free car. It is one of the nicest Beta Coupes I have seen. The seller writes, "If 'buy the best car you can' is the motto of the real collector, this is the Beta to buy." Normally I would dismiss that as a sales pitch, but in this case it might very well be true.

Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL, click here to see the eBay listing. (The eBay listing has small pictures, but the seller has a website where you can find the same pictures and more in a larger size. You can find it here.)

1974 Puma GTB (or GTB S2) - Honestly, I'm not real sure what we have here (other than a really interesting car). Brazil's Puma built some very nice looking VW based cars from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. I've written about a few of them (You can find one of the posts here.) This is not one of those. This was Puma's attempt at building their "own" car. Puma used plenty of GM parts in this car, including the straight 6 engine, but the frame and, of course, the body design was their own.

What confuses me about this car is the seller's claim that it's a 1974 GTB S2. To the best of my knowledge, the S2 didn't appear until 1978. I have no idea if the year is wrong in the listing or the model name is wrong. It doesn't really matter, this is a rare car (For awhile it was the most expensive car sold in Brazil) that's very cool to look at.

Located in Lakewood, CA, click here to see the eBay listing.

There is a Puma GTB club website that might be able to shed some light on this car, but you need to be able to read Portuguese (which I don't) in order to understand it. You can find it here.

1961 Renault 4CV - This was Renault's first post-WW II car. Production started in 1947 and continued through 1961. It was Renault's answer to the VW Beetle.

The 4CV originally came with a 745cc, 17 HP engine. This was not a performance car, with 60 MPH coming in a whopping 38 seconds. It had a top speed of around 60 MPH. 4CVs were offered in the US, but didn't sell especially well.

This may be the nicest 4CV in the US. It has been restored to an incredible standard. The engine is not original. According to the seller, it's a Dauphine Gordini engine. This 845cc, 36 HP, engine might give this car a 0-60 time of under 30 seconds and a top speed of around 80 MPH.

This is such a great car to look at. Only the French could design a "peoples car" with so many cool little details.

I don't know that there's a huge market for fully restored 4CVs in the US and, depending on the seller's reserve, this may be a tough car to sell.

Located in North Hollywood, CA, click here to see the eBay listing.

1967 Fiat Dino - This is one of those cars that was created out of needs and wants. Ferrari needed to build the necessary production numbers to homologate their V6 engine for Formula 2 racing. Fiat wanted a "prestige" car.

Un grande progetto. Build a Fiat with the Ferrari engine. With Fiat's huge dealer network the car (and therefor the engine) would sell more than the number Ferrari needed and Fiat got its prestige car.

Fiat produced two Dinos; a Bertone designed coupe, and, like this one, a Pininfarina designed Spider.

This is a complete car that could use a little TLC to make it a really nice car. These cars rusted badly, but this one appears to be rust free. The BRG color (the seller doesn't say of it's original) looks very good on this car.

Located in Cos Cob, CT, click here to see the eBay listing.

A big thanks to JaCG reader, Paul, for sending me the link to this car!

2003 Volkswagen Passat W8 4Motion Wagon - Another Great Sleeper

If you've been reading this blog for awhile you know that I love station wagons and "sleepers". This car is both.

The Passat W8 4Motion wagon doesn't look a whole lot different from any other Passat wagon. Put a dog and a kid in the back and it looks like your typical mom-mobile.

But, if mom's a car geek, she could give the kid and the dog the ride of their life...

The Passat W8 4Motion came with VW's W8 engine. This is an insane engine. Motorweek did a good job describing it:

More accurately described as a ''double V'', (the) W8 (is an offshoot) of Volkswagen's proven narrow-angle VR6 engine. It uses two banks of cylinders, aligned at an angle of 72-degrees. But within each bank, pairs of cylinders are further separated at only a 15- degree angle. Each bank of cylinders is topped by a 4-valve head, each with dual adjustable camshafts. While vibration is controlled by a pair of balance shafts, which move in opposite directions at twice the speed of the crankshaft. Which is itself an unusual ''flat'' configuration, designed to maximize torque.

Got it? Even if you don't understand all that (and I just barely understand it), what's easy to understand is the 270HP and 273 pounds-feet of torque this engine puts out. That's enough to get this car to 60 MPH in 6.4 seconds. All that power hits the ground through VW's 4Motion AWD system. Just imagine what kind of fun you could have with all that on a mountain road.

These cars didn't sell well. There was nothing really wrong with them, it was their price that kept people away. $34,000.00 was A LOT of money to spend on a VW in 2003 (and now). For that kind of money you could buy an Audi, which was almost as quick, had an arguably more advanced AWD system and a far more prestigious name.

But, in my mind, that's what makes this car so cool. It's not an Audi. It a VW Passat. People expect great performance and road holding abilities from an Audi. They don't necessarily expect that from a Passat. The W8 4Motion is a very cool sleeper.

It seems like most of the Passat W8 4Motion wagons for sale these days have about 100,000 miles on them and sell for around $10K. I chose this car because it's a 6 speed (the automatic transmission raised the 0-60 time by a full second), appears to have been well taken care of and looks great in silver.

Located in Weymouth, MA, click here to see the AutoTrader.com ad.

/-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1975 Volvo 164 E

This was Volvo's first foray into the luxury car market. The 164 was sold from 1969 through 1975. It didn't take a lot of effort on Volvo's part to create this car. It's essentially a 144 with a longer, differently styled nose, a 6 cylinder engine and some "luxury" touches. The styling was still pure Volvo 144, meaning it was boxy, practical, but not especially exciting to look at.

When the 164 was introduced in 1969, the US had not yet enacted its (stupid) 5 MPH bumper law. The front end had a bigger grill and a smaller bumper the dipped down below the grill. It was a much nicer looking front end than the one on this (and all 1974 - 1975 164s) car, but just about everything else about this car is better than the earlier ones. (You can find a July, 2009 post about a 1970 164 here.) By the time this car was built Volvo had changed the dashboard, redesigned the seats, moved the shift lever to the floor and added fuel injection to the engine (among other things).

The 6 cylinder Volvo was only offered as a 4 door sedan. For whatever reason, Volvo never offered a station wagon version. Given the popularity of Volvo's 145 station wagon, it seems like it would have been a no-brainer to create a 6 cylinder wagon.

This 53,000 mile 164E is a time capsule. The body and interior are in amazing condition. (The seller doesn't mention if this car has been repainted or not). The car screams "1970s CAR!". Not only are the diving board bumpers pure-1970s, but the bumper mounted fog lights, CB radio microphone mount and trunk lock protection plate are all things that were common back then, but started to disappear in the 1980s. Another amusing piece of 1970s technology is the the antenna switch. The electric antenna was not integrated into the radio electronics, so you needed to raise and lower the antenna via a separate switch.

Volvos from this era are known for their longevity and this car is no different. The inline 6 is essentially a Volvo 4 cylinder with two extra cylinders and will run forever if given routine maintenance. The only issue with this car is the Bosch D-Jetronic electronic fuel injection. It can be troublesome and, being 35 years old, it's getting tougher to find certain parts for this system. Having said that, any car that has survived this long has most likely already had work done to the FI and should be fairly trouble free.

This is a classic you could drive every day.

Located in Northfield, CT, click here to see the eBay listing (which contains a bunch of large, clear pictures.)