Bad news champ, I'm in the business of collecting these cars after their accidents. Buying cars at auctions after their accidents. I know plenty of how things work. Distracted driving was the issue in the post from yesterday. Not the vehicle's safety itself.

A lot of the idea was mine, but the choice of which "cool but inexpensive old car to wrench on" was his - just like the blue PV544 that my pop and I found at a yard sale. You know what? Having lived it now from both sides - that works for me.

My first car (in 2011) was (is? I still have it) a 1971 Chevelle. It was fortunate to have lap belts. Your argument is invalid. Plus, I bought it myself.

Maybe if I had a daughter. My son and I enjoyed rebuilding his Datsun 260Z and learning the finer points of car maintenance. I hope he keeps it as long as I have kept the '59 Volvo PV544 that I refurbished with my (late) father so many years ago. I suppose THAT is my goal.

Don't ever call a Volvo 240 a POS, especially if you're about to trot out a couple FWD Camrys with leather.

Ok, Ok Safety miser. Just relax.

I stand corrected. Though seeing the difference in underside rust between two cars after 10 years in southern NH, one that got underside washes a few days after each snow storm and one that didn't, I'd be wary of how long any of these might last underneath.

Safer? How is this thing not safe?

And on that day, Nate with shorter name learned a valuable lesson: Never buy the automatic.

I'd buy that for my son as a first car. NP.

That'd look so good.

How about on a Fiero? Perhaps starting to look dated, but still a bit curvey.

Liquid tire chain option (RPO V75) that came on the 69 Camaro. I know it was mostly used for VHT Trackbite but living in South Texas, having this on a new car when we get our annual ice day might actually help some of our less experienced drivers.

Heck, I'd extend that to hand crank windows too.

A brown, manual wagon? You maverick.

Do hidden gas tank fillers count as a feature?

A manual transmission attached to a small wagon. Seems to be all but extinct over here. Like this one. I sure miss it.

More of these

Very true. When you're considering a car that makes an S60R look dependable, you know you need to run away fast!!

Great article Doug. I test drove a few of these and ultimately went with and S60R instead because of the timing chain issue among other things. It has it's own set of problems, but not $8k problems!