When I’m working on my GF pressing her to buy old and big, and dump the Focus, I hear from her “But the GAS mileage!!!” My response is - you can get this sweet ride for $4,000!!!!!! Who gives a damn about mileage??!!!!

I don’t hate this and is good use of tech to help remind kids about what they should be doing. Compared to my “Car big, car hurt when hit me, remember once out of traction”.

I really tried to see promise in this thing. When looking through my magic “what a project could be” glasses, the end product is pretty fantastic. But I just can’t get beyond the sheer magnitude of work to be done on this thing. The exterior doesn’t appear to be too bad. A good cleaning, sticker removal, and repaint.…

In general, most manufacturers haven’t figured out the internet. I’m not even only pointing at car companies. My work deals directly with manufacturers to get stuff. I go to a site and I spec out exactly what I want. The price comes up with “please call” I go to a third party site and type in the model number I want…

I though exactly the same thing.

I swear, when I saw the lead image as a thumbnail on the home page, I thought it was a slightly-squashed image of a stanced Dodge Grand Caravan. Now I will forever see a Jetta wagon as a squashed Dodge Grand Caravan.

I think you should have bought today’s $4,800 NP/ND ‘87 Reliant wagon instead. Drop in a 5-speed and you’d be the only Jalop writer who actually drives a brown manual wagon.

That would be why you would buy it, to take it to car shows and let people ooh and ahh over the low miles and lack of rust or torn up interior. I had to NP it simply because of the miles and the fact that is seems to be running and driving even after sitting. Now I must go see if I have 5K laying around for a Brown…

Very alarming to see what ends up on the kleenex after I’ve been using the angle grinder without a respirator.

You must probably have rust in your lungs by now

Good lord! Whenever I see things like this I really regret not buying a running 66 (or it might have been a 67) VW Bus for $2000 in aquamarine and white in 1999. I had originally agreed to buy a green and white one in much better condition for $3000 but the dude ended up being offered $4000 and obviously sold it to…

I’ve seen less bus than that go for the same or more. It’s the old split window buses that are worth the most, then you need to know the minutiae about them to know which one to restore. A basic rule of thumb is more windows = more money. Then there are the odd factory options like the fresh air which this one appears…

That’s not the worst, by far. Dig into some of the recovery/rebuild threads on The Samba - there are some crazy restorations that have little more than the cursory VIN plate, glass, and a handful of original mechanical bits for starting points. They make David Tracy’s fleet look rust-free by comparison.

$5K does seem a bit high, especially when you factor in the cost of cleaning out the body of the drifter that’s wedged under the rear seats.

This and those hideous engine covers that don’t come close to matching the aesthetic of the truck.  Just take that crap off, the LS bits under it would look more appropriate. 

The LX takes your breath away for how much they want for how many miles it may have.

Hah, thankfully not an attack at all. That shot is from our $1,500 AWD beater off-road trip last summer (video here) in which my friend took his V8 Volvo XC90 (which had been rendered surprise-FWD thank you Haldex angle gear) and sent it full-throttle through a mud pit that involved three-wheeling on the exit. He…

“where the buildings lining the park’s entry avenue have smaller features on the second floors than on the first”

There are accounting standards, and they are verified. There’s no real reason to be skeptical here.

My exact thought process on this one: