Yep. My grandma’s town is Pyatigorsk, which is not super far from Georgia and Armenia. Lots of JDM cars there too. I think a big part of it is that Russian domestic cars are pretty crap, and European/American cars are still pretty expensive, whereas used JDM cars are brought in for pennies on the dollar (or ruble, in…

This is an all-time great Jalopnik post.  Hall of Fame material.  

This was fascinating, thanks!

Give it time, station wagons from the ‘50s and ‘60s have really jumped in value, partly because so few family cars survive. 

Probably, people are only going to keep getting more and more nostalgic for the cars that were around when they were kids.

I use any excuse to show off my 1992. When will these be a future classic? ;-) It’s funny to think that you could buy about 25 of these for the price of a brand new one...

suspension slightly less so.

Sure, the potholes in Indy are atrocious... but where did they even get a second donut? How is that possibly cheaper than just repairing the tires? Don’t those last <100 miles? How did they lose two REAR tires, but not the fronts?

Don’t forget the ball joints and tie rod ends! I see cars on the side of the road a couple times a year with the front tires pointed in vastly different directions.

I saw a Nissan Sentra (a newer model) the other day in downtown Indy with 2 donut spares on the back. I realize this is a FWD car, but this just seemed insanely dangerous to me. 

So that’s why my car hates minorities?

The Broken Windows theory applies to cars too. Once you let little things go, things go downhill at an very quick pace. If you stay on top of repairs and maintenance, you end up with a car with 200k miles that looks brand new. If you neglect small stuff and let it snowball, soon you are selling your car for scrap with…

My understanding was that Moskvitch was what you got if you wanted better than a ZAZ, but didn’t want to stay on the wait list for a Lada.

A little correction Jason, as a ex-Lada owner and a guy living in an ex-Communist country - Moskvich 2140 was never a step up from the the 2101, even though it launched 6 years after the Lada. The Moskvitch was an utter shite car, the 2101 was a much more modern design, just by association of being a Fiat 124…

Yup.  A “vintage” SUV in the Northeast will be most likely be a rusted out mess that will eat you alive if you don’t wrench on it yourself.

Exactly. Even the land cruiser will require work. bushings and suspension components don’t last forever. As reliable as a land cruiser will be, it’ll guzzle all of the money saved on repairs through its fuel tank.

WTF with those goddamned wheels? Jebus. Someone did that on purpose.

kinda yeah. some of these items on the list are in conflict with others

cool vintage SUV = money pit  full stop.

So does a Porsche 911, that doesn’t mean it’s good for 3 adults and a large dog.