In this price range, you shop on condition, not make/model or features. I don’t see any red flags here, so it’s certainly worth a look.

This thing was made for Catalina. It’d be perfect there.

That trailer hitch (?) looks like it’s giving me the finger...

First thing that came to my mind, too. Sharp-looking little car.

Had a two-door one of these, also red, also 2.3 automatic. Got kinda roped into buying it (long and boring story). It was... uninspiring. Nothing really wrong with it, but nothing really there either.

So the way to fix that horrible awkward roofline is to cut the whole front half off, and paint the back half black. Looks much better now!

Yeah, that’s about how long it took most Alliances to implode...

That lower glass front panel is a stroke of genius for visibility, but I do worry about rock chips...

Actually, I’ve only been stuck so badly I had to be towed out once, but it happened in a Cadillac Cimarron, which I guess is a little embarrassing:

I was with my dad, driving back up to college after Christmas break. It had snowed, but the plow trucks were out, and the roads were more or less OK. I can’t remember if it…

I had no idea you could get those with a manual!

I think I have to go with the NUMMI-mobiles: Corolla, Nova, Prizm, from the mid-80s through the 90s. Simple, humble little cars, but rock-solid, efficient, incredibly durable, and actually kinda fun to drive in their own way (as long as you got a manual). I put a bazillion miles on an ‘87 Nova, and my current commuter…

Nope. If you need a commuter, just get a Camry and be done with it.

...is that... a whole row of Mk1 Sciroccos behind the reporter in the lead image? Oh man...

‘70s Chrysler C-bodies in general are the epitome of “land yacht” to me. There’s an effortlessness and a presence there that makes the comtemporary Cadillacs and Lincolns come up a bit short.

This truck only makes sense for a certain lifestyle: one with wide rural roads, mile-long driveways, and where “going to town” means a ten-mile trip to the lumber yard with a quick stop at the Honk N’ Holler for beer.

This has a strong whiff of “star college ball player who just turned pro and got a huge signing bonus” to it.

Freezing rain + fog. Can’t go, can’t stop, can’t turn, and can’t see.

That’s quite a racket. My first RC car was a Grasshopper; thing had maybe 50 parts to it. Shake the box hard enough and it would probably assemble itself.

Neutral: I bought a cheap beater for $500 cash in early March, just before the COVID hit the fan. The transaction was typical: sign the title on the hood of the car, hand over an envelope of cash. But the DMV was strange: it was in that window when no one wore masks but the distancing had started. They were only…

Nissan trucks, for sure. Between my wife and myself, we’ve had four: a 1983 720 pickup, a 1991 D21 Pathfinder, a 1998 D22 Frontier, and her current car, a 2003 Infiniti QX4. They’ve always been reliable and long-lasting, and I like the feel of them much better than similar Toyota trucks.