You could also get struck by lightening, have an airplane fall on your house, or be at the movie theater during a terrorist attack. Do you let any of those possibilities dictate how you live your entire life?

Truth be told I don’t daily drive my 84 VW Rabbit GTI so I’m at less constant risk of getting in an accident,…

I wanted one of these in the WORST way when they first came out. At the time I was driving a 3rd gen prelude but there’s no way I could have afforded one of these in college.

It’s a shame that towards the end of it’s run Honda basically didn’t bother to advertise or promote it. I think that combined with the price…

Unless there’s an outright immediate BAN on gasoline engines or a significant tax on gasoline or registration cost for them I don’t see there being a short term, immediate phasing out of them anytime soon.

There are getting to be few and far between now, but there’s hardly a day that goes by that I don’t see something…

Agreed. Should have gotten a supercharger to go with it.

Exactly. As easy as it is to rip on the body kited Corolla back in those days, or the “stance Cavalier” now, I have to at least remember what it was like being 16 years old and wanting to mod the econobox turd that was given to me as a hand-me-down from my parents. Not everybody gets to start off with something…

They exist, but in the rust belt states they have probably fallen apart and/or reside in a junkyard now. MK3 2.0s are all over pick and pull lots these days.

In a MK3 a 2.0 is a pretty lame motor, but dropped in a MK1 it’s great. Just enough of a power upgrade and they are damn near bullet proof.

A friend of mine bought…

If this thing cost about $4,000 to $5,000 less and was actually outfitted like an RV I’d say NP. I also feel like I couldn’t willingly contribute to some smelly trust fund hipster douchebag’s #vanlife #travelblog.

And the other problem with RVs besides the upfront cost if you get to the “condo on wheels” level of luxury is the maintenance. My Aunt and Uncle own one that they strictly drive straight down to Florida or whatever their destination is for the winter and park it. It never moves for the rest of the winter or summer.…

Yeah, it would be a tough decision to buy a car like this and decide to keep it 100% stock because that’s obviously the advantage it has these days, or build it how you’d want to and drive it. On the plus side it’s got plenty of miles so it shouldn’t be stored in a climate controlled garage as an immobile…

Oh God, you have my deepest sympathy here! I HATE those things. The Upper Peninsula gets them really bad too. One year I was on my way home along US 2 heading back from downstate and there was a huge swarm near the lake in Manistique. The sky was literally BLACK with them and there were so many on the road that it was…

^^^^
THIS.

I like the idea of something like this as a city car if I lived in a densely populated area and had a short commute within the city, but I would feel nervous about being flung like a hockey puck if a Chevy Suburban hit me at speed in this thing.

Yeah, a turbo at this level of experience doesn’t make sense. It’s added complexity and expense if the stock one fails or if monkeying with the boost or tune grenades the motor. I have yet to add forced induction to any of my project cars because I’ve always lived by one rule:

If I can’t afford to replace the motor or…

Yeah, it’s frightening how much it all adds up. I still haven’t done a receipt tally on my project but I’ve spent $2,700 on it on major parts or repair work this year alone, and I’m willing to bet that I’ve doubled or almost tripled my purchase price in 4 years of ownership. And that was what I thought was going to be…

I second the list idea. That was a major help and motivator for me getting my car back together. When you break it down into small tasks (that may or may not be in linear order for getting it finished) it’s easier to make at least some kind of forward progress on a regular basis. If one thing pisses you off, move…

Don’t ever feel bad about paying someone else to fix it if you find the work above your experience or skill level, difficult to pull off with the tools/space you own to work on it, or if it’s a road block in you getting the project going or finished.

I’ve had to bring my 84 GTI to a specialist mechanic a few times…

Thanks. I’ll have to keep an eye on these in a couple of years and see what they price out at then.

Nice! I am definitely jealous as that’s pretty much exactly what I’d like to do. A friend of mine who worked for a VW dealership at the time picked up a W8 wagon that he figured out how to have them work some loopholes and make a it a CPO car for him and get the chains and some other repair done. He put it on Audi…

That’s awesome man! Nice work!

What do they price out at these days?

I still have this terrible idea that I want to wait until the Phaeton or the W8 powered B5 Passats absolutely bottom out in value and I can scoop one up for a few grand in decent running condition and just enjoy it until it catastrophically fails then junk it. Kinda like…

Good question. I have to think that 50K cars for a subcompact is actually DAMN GOOD sales if this were a smaller non-Big 3 car company that would be great sales numbers. I think of “bad” as like 3,000 or less.