100%. Replaced the worn Altimax RT43s on my wife’s 2012 Camry SE this summer, for a while now it seemed like the car was going to need new struts soon (105k miles, many of them over bad urban roads,  harsher ride than I remember when new). Installed Mastercraft LSR Grand Touring tires, basically the highest end…

I suspect you’re very much correct.

https://nwct.craigslist.org/ctd/d/great-barrington-1989-land-rover-range/7394373752.html

100%

I feel like with some tidying up, addressing of the known minor issues, and the right ad, this is a $10k truck these days all day long in some ritzy parts of New England, or some wealthy beach community in the coastal SE

Absolutely appalling.

Yup.  Yards are absolutely FULL of GMs with Series II 3800s.  When I went parts hunting for my ‘91 Park Ave (with the earlier Series I with cast manifold), the vast majority of what was in the yard was Series II (and Series III).  Most go to the junkyard with rusted out brake lines, subframes, and totally functional…

It doesn’t have a CVT unless it’s a hybrid, and even then it’s not really a “CVT” as they are normally thought of, but something much simpler and more robust.

That 4Runner might have some pretty advanced frame rot. Look at the corners of the bumpers, they taped the rust over with aluminum tape. The bumper corners are a good “canary in a coal mine” for the frames on those trucks.

The Corolla looks like a complete piece of junk as well, though the list of recent maintenance is…

Yeah a clutch job on a modern-ish FWD car is not exactly a cake walk (it really depends).

Until you drive it and deal with the horrible rev hang

For a family with children in car seats, something like a Rav/Rogue/CRV is the easy winner for how most people use their cars (commuting, taking kids to daycare/school, road trips). The Maverick has a pretty compromised rear seat in terms of leg room (important for bulky car seats), and the seatback looks rather…

I thought the KL Cherokee suggestion was marginal at best too. it has 24 cu ft of cargo space, less than most compact crossovers, more in the range of subcompact crossovers.

My own suggestion, if the xB works out for daily driving, and you have the room to park it, is an older Suburban for weekend hauling/camping.…

I’d lump the Dodge Caliber into the same category of “designing a hateful crossover before their time.”  Granted the Caliber had a whole bunch of crappy stuff going on (dark days of Chrysler interiors, and transmissions, and suspensions, and....).  But purely from a concept of a butched up “SUV-ish” looking economy…

Yeah for $7500 this thing should be collector-grade perfect.  Not just a well kept low mile older car (a tiny econobox at that).

It doesn’t have a 15 inch tablet tacked on for him to poke at in traffic

A bloo bloo bloo

70s Malaise cars have been climbing in value and collectability too.

This old BOF truck has nice proportions and a nice usable size, simple to keep running, and to the right person could just be a reminder of a nice time in their life (driving their kids in one, or being a kid being driven in one).

Not as bad as 2000s Ford interiors tbh

Hell, it’s the $300-500 dollar range where people REALLY start crawling out of the woodwork.  Lots of desperate folks in some bad spots.

The Brazilian car pictured is a FWD model with torsion bar rear suspension, the US one in the pics is an AWD... could that perhaps affect the muffler configuration?  But I suspect you’re right and there is more to it than that.  Different emissions/noise standards perhaps, or even a cost consideration, or mounting a…

yeah especially coming off the heels of other recent Toyota/Lexus products of the apst 5-7 years, this thing looks downright handsome in the “it’s not glaringly ugly” sense.

Somehow I manage to get a 110hp 3200lb Ranger+1200lb of garden soil up to speed up an inclined entrance ramp completely safely.  Maybe you need to check the nut behind the wheel