What an excellent way of looking at that phenomenon :)

Auto-dimming mirror: when I buy the car in 10-15 year's time, what is the likelihood this still works, and if it doesn't can I dim it manually?

Me too. Less weight high up in the chassis, fewer things to go wrong, more headroom and one less place for rust to attack.

I just googled 'off road Tercel' and apparently there's quite a few 4WD ones :)

I just googled 'off road tercel' and apparently there's loads :)

I would totally buy a Tercel Mudskipper if it was basically a Tercel jacked up like a Baja Bug.

Must be aftermarket...it looks modified to me ;)

In a heartbeat :) especially if it came with the 3.0 V6 Supercharged engine from the F-Type and a 6sp manual.

I absolutely love classic cars, of any variation :) more Jalopnik classic reviews would be stellar

Eh, I've done alright so far by myself :) luckily, I rather like working on cars

You kid, but the insurance for my current Jaguar XJ40 is £780 ($1325). I'm young (23) and insurance in the UK is extortionate.

So, for £64k I'd get:

Exactly. What if they suddenly decide that increasing an engine's power beyond its stock configuration is dangerous.

Absolutely right. My mate's stunning 2.2HDi he bought for £1800. Absolute steal. It's economical, beautiful, handles nicely and with a £450 custom ECU remap it pulls like an absolute train all the way up the rev range.

Much as I dislike Hellaflush, I'm not happy with this. It opens up the floor for legislation against any sort of modifying of vehicles, which would be an absolute shitter.

The other option, the philosophy I've decided to adopt, is to buy cars that are sitting right at the bottom of their depreciation curve.

Agreed. My friend advised him to 'sit down and don't touch anything and wait for him (my friend) to come around'.

Common sense.

That's fucking amazing :)

I can't help but think that producing an MX-5-rivalling sports car would do them no end of good publicity-wise, which is what they really need at the moment.