Eh, if you're buying the right things on CL and you always bring a friend to the meet-up, you're usually fine, as long as you use common sense.

Pretty much how I do it. Got my newer, reliable daily for standard duty, and the '84 Volvo in varying states of assembly in the garage. Drive the old Vo when I can, and know for sure I have at least one car that will start in the morning.

My younger siblings are 20 and 16, and their tastes are NOT in line with this study. My brother (20) wants my parents' Subaru Outback that he drove in highschool OR a used midsize euro-sedan of some kind. My sister (16) wants a black Jeep Wrangler.

Those empty brake-light openings *_* hawt

Lol just take it off. Here in the great state of Florida, we don't have to run a front plate. Just unscrewed the one that came on my car and threw it in the trunk.

I like the way this man thinks. Kinda like the 1st gen Lexus IS was just a rebadged Altezza.

Just a matter of note, an '86 would have the B230F, as the B23F was an '83-'84 only motor in the 240. Additionally, the trunk lid and window surround trim appear to be '88+ as the lid is raised rather than indented, and the window trim is thick rubber, rather than the thin chrome of the pre-88 cars. I can image the…

It has a big, angry, Ford face.

Thank you for this informative and potentially useful article. As Jalopnik has slowly slid to meet the lowered standards of Gawker, content like this is getting fewer and farther between on these pages. I think I'd definitely spend the extra few hundred dollars to go with the oil-fed option, and know for sure that…

It has the ass of a euro Ford.

Well, well played.

Really this tells me that they need to be teaching basic financial literacy in high school. Longitudinal studies suggest that high school language classes fail almost entirely at producing any fluent, bilingual students. So maybe they should carve a little time out to teach students how debt works.

Yeah, I read through the whole thread. The Ram 1500 is a perfect example of "what frickin pillar is that?"

These ARE gorgeous. I'm amused that most of them are from Roadkill.

Thanks for clearing that up. I figured that's how it works, but it does seem to fall apart a little in these types of situations.

Welp, now I need to find reasons to use "terrorbeast" and "hoonicorn" in conversation.

I can't wait until a few Hellcat-equipped cars have gotten totaled in rear-end accidents. I'd love to see what engine bays this batshit motor fits in. Let the age of the Hellcat swap begin.

Volvo. I love the idea of a bunch of practical but not over-serious Swedes crafting cars for people who see the value in something more solid than an econobox, but less flashy than a luxury car. This probably stems from deep nostalgia, as my parents bought a 240 when I was born, and went on to have a string of Volvos…

Talbot Lago

As a life-long Volvo guy, it looks like a VW Taureg, a Subaru Forester, and a BMW X3 had a nasty, nasty orgy. Hopefully it grows on me.