The very, very best ones with low mileage and documented history, or $150K restorations are worth $50-60K. Average ones are worth $20K. On a good day. This one is unlikely to ever be as good as average again.

Even doing 100% of the labor yourself (paint booth in the shed in the garden?), there is no way on God's Green Earth that car is getting back on the road in anything vaguely resembling presentable condition for less than $10K. None, zip, zilch, not-gonna-happen.

Not surprised at all it is much heavier. A six has a long steel crank, and a couple of long steel cams, the steel cylinder liners, and a rather large block and head. A V8 is much more compact.

That's even the case with my Triumph Spitfire. The transverse leaf spring is the upper suspension arm, the half shafts is the lower, then there is a dinky little radius arm to locate things fore-and-aft. Though they did it to be cheap, not to be light as it is all cast iron and steel.

Assuming that is a 960/S90, the inline 6 you took out was aluminum too. The only iron Volvo 6 was the B30 in the 164e. Even the V6 in the 260s and 760s was aluminum with wet liners.

And Maine, and Vermont. Probably New Hampshire too. Though in Maine at least that car would have long since failed safety inspection, so you don't actually see them THAT bad. No sharp edges, and no holes allowed.

What could you not figure out about it? Assume it is a "fly off" system. Push the button and pull, release button once tight to set, pull again to release? There's no ratchet. Very common on ye olde Englishe Crockes, though neither of mine have it.

Wrapping has actually become pretty popular. The BMW kids do it all the time. Done correctly, you really can't tell it isn't paint. Lasts a few years, depending on how you treat the car. Much cheaper than paint, and you can just peel it off. But in this case, I too wonder what it is hiding.

If it was easy to fix, why have they not fixed it? Comes under the heading of "the A/C just needs a charge" - yeah, sure it does, after you spend $2K finding and fixing the leak!

The 55mph speed limit was repealed in 1987, which was rather more than 20 years ago. It was also completely and utterly ignored at that point. I was a senior in high school with a newly minted license when the limits went to 65. Traffic speeds did not change one bit, except when there was a cop in view. Traffic ran…

Germans don't really do simplicity. A w123 is a MUCH more complex car than a 240, even in it's simplest base 240D form. By the time you get to a US-spec 300D turbodiesel you have a very complex vacuum system, and the HVAC system from hell to deal with. Even the later automatics are vacuum controlled. The earlier ones…

And HUGE windows. My favorite current airplanes to fly on. Which is good, because I do it all the time. An E-175 and an E-190 today. PWM-DCA-LGA on US Airways. Two more tomorrow going home. Thanks to cancelled flights yesterday, I was in coach today, and even in coach they are perfectly reasonable. Back up front…

I owned a very nice, low mileage '79 300TD. The idea that it is more reliable and easier to maintain than something like a modern Toyota is frankly laughable. They are well built cars, and they should be, they cost an absolute fortune new. But they are also maintenance intensive to keep them running properly, and if…

Like the mutant offspring of a new Impala and a Mazda6. With a dose of CUV.

Nope - you can't outrun this level of hideous.

They are all in Portland ME. Though numbers are now dropping. Classic 900s that are not convertibles are getting rare finally too. The new cockroach Saab up here is the NG900S - all over the place.

At least for BMW, there is no fundamental difference between ordering a car or buying off the lot. But if the car on the lot has been there a REALLY long time, you can use that to your advantage of course. BMW rarely if ever limits incentives to cars in stock like other makes do.

With todays silly-low interest rates, I only put down enough to ensure that the car will NEVER be upside down on the loan, even if I don't pay it off early. Planning to put $7500 down on my BMW. With the $5700 discount, that is more than enough to not have to worry about it. The rest of the money stays in the market…

Can't stress this one enough - when I bought my Fiat Abarth in 2013, Fiat was offering 2.9% financing on Abarths, but .9% on the other models. I was pre-approved by my credit union for 1.9%. The Fiat dealer was able to get me the .9% on the Abarth even though Fiat was not technically offering that deal on that car.…

Having just done this (put the deposit down this afternoon), I'll add a few things, some of which are specific to the car I just ordered, a 2015 BMW M235i. Which is a bit special in that it is a fairly low production car with limited dealer allocations.