1st Gear & Neutral

This is a “not me” car, but $5K for one still mostly original and in seemingly reasonable shape? Sure.

$21K for what?! No. Just no.

Can you say “Lord of the Flies” writ large?  Whoever designed this thing has absolutely no concept how people actually live and socialize.

From the outside, looks nice.

90% of this list is stuff that if you came of age in the mid-late 80s, you’d probably remember seeing them. Some of them are purely mundane cars that were never designed to be memorable, and most are simply 4 wheeled mediocrity. Not necessarily bad cars, but not great either. 

If it was a “no tech prepper” special, it would still have the original powertrain, or possibly a 4x4 transfer case grafted onto it. You can actually take apart an old VW flat 4 with minimal tools in the middle of nowhere.

Cool - a death trap made into an even deadlier trap. Shove that off the nearest cliff, please.

The problems for FIAT in North America had a lot to do with a lack of effective supply chain for parts. So, when things did break (which wasn’t unusual in cars through the 60s and 70s), minor faults would turn into weeks and months of waiting for the correct parts to be located and shipped to wherever the car was.

Fair enough - I’m looking at this one as “it’s a restoration project” - it hasn’t run for quite some time, and likely needs a fair number of parts that are now bordering on being made of unobtanium.

Price is high for the car - I’d consider it if it was the Si model (an Si that hasn’t been modded beyond recognition is scarce as heck), but it’s not.

I’m going to throw a nomination in that will probably drive a few people here nuts:

Seems to me Cadillac could resurrect some of its 70s era designs, and plunk the bodywork overtop a chassis with enough batteries to cruise across the country ... that could be a very interesting side venture for their EV projects.  

Well - that’s a whole world of nope.

Ugh. Just No.

TBH, I’m surprised there’s no mid to late-70s Datsuns in here - I don’t know what happened to their design language from about 74-78, but they released some real design turkeys in that time. 

$15k? It’s pocket change for the right owner.

Reluctant NP.

I find it really hard to assess a vehicle that never sold in the local market, and isn’t a particularly popular import either.

Dead pedal is actually an ergonomic feature - it gives you a place to rest your foot so it won’t fall asleep on longer trips.  All of my standard shift cars have had one.