Road Test: 2006 Saturn Vue



Two days, 700 miles. What a fucking shitcan. I've played videogames that had better steering feel. Throttle response brought to mind the proverbial phone call to the engine room. Its dangerously tippy, leaning, lurching handling and sketchy torquesteer was only made worse by traction control that cut in and out with flaky arbitrariness. The high sills and low seat made for a bafflingly bunker-like driving experience — isn't the whole point of an SUV so that you can sit up high in traffic and block everyone else's view? Did I mention it leaked? It leaked. Fifteen thousand miles on the clock and there's water dripping onto my knee.

This car actually made me angry with its shittiness. Seriously, if I was dating someone and found out they drove a Saturn Vue I would break it off immediately. If I found out my neighbor was a Saturn engineer I would make my dog shit in his yard. And I don't even have a dog. I'd get a dog.

Road Test: 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan



Three weeks, 6500 miles. Nearly identical to the last one. Most memorable was a drive one afternoon from Tampa to Tallahassee. Dude in a new Jetta blew past, radar detector conspicuously perched atop the dash. I had my rabbit and gave chase. We ran together for close to two hundred miles at speeds that rarely dipped below 90 mph and occasionally approached the century mark. And I thought: Say what you will about minivans, this one is carrying four people and a considerable amount of crap in complete comfort and safety at great speed with absolutely zero drama. Before Jetta dude headed east at I-10 we'd knocked an hour off what should've been a five-hour drive. And it had satellite radio. Sweet.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1988 BMW M5



Or, as the seller would have it, ///M. Cute. The car, however? Not cute. More like the anitpodal opposite of cute, in fact. How does a guy who builds a car like this start making up BMW emoticons? A fucking ninja assassin of an automobile. Me want.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

No Substitute for Cubic Inches: 1980 Volvo 245



Okay I don't understand some things about this &mdash like why you would have to replace the whole instrument panel with a homemade-looking one, and why the wheels are painted white &mdash but the concept is sound and the execution looks pretty good. Once you're done hacking his ebay listing again, go to the root level of the site where dude's posted the extra photos and check out the wedding pics. Ewww.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

I ♥ the 80s: 1981 Mercedes-Benz 500 SLC



Two words: gooseneck equalizer.

(Um, also? He's lowering the price by $1,000 every day that the car doesn't sell. Maybe when it gets down to a grand he'll start peeling away pieces of whited-out trim.)

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Warning: Stunts Performed by Trained Professionals

Do not attempt at home, or with your own Ferrari.

Diaper Delivery With Style: 1993 Chevrolet Lumina APV



Speaking of minivans, remember the days when you could buy one that actually had some character? Back when a car company might actually be willing to go out on a limb, take a risk, and be a style-leader rather than just peddling perpetual blandness to the lowest common denominator? Well, I remember them too. And I'll take my minivan bland, thanks.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Road Test: 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan



Three weeks, five thousand miles. If the best that can be said about a Chrysler minivan is that it's an appliance of perfectly adequate utility, that's also the worst that can be said about it. Sole complaint: three college graduates &mdash one of them a fucking professional recording engineer &mdash could not figure out how to get the damn thing to play an iPod connected through the RCA jacks on the front of the stereo. Twenty pages of owner's manual dedicated to its operation, and not a hint of advice. Thanks guys.

Spotted: 1987 Dodge Caravan Triple-Axle WTF Edition



Killer sun-visor, too. September 21, Marietta, Ohio.

Caravan Stalker

Spotted: 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme



Another sleeper, parked next to a gas station on the outskirts of Toronto. Check out the massive slicks paired with skinny bicycle tires up front &mdash awesome! September 20.

Cutlass Stalker

Spotted: 1990 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1



The rare and even more rarely identified-as-such "King of the Hill" ZR-1. I've never been able to decide whether it was totally cool or just a blown opportunity for GM to build a car that was roughly twice as bad-ass as its then-standard 'vette and send it out into the world dressed all but indistinguishably from its lesser siblings. Dude isn't giving much away with the LT-5 vanity plates. September 17, Chicago.

ZR-1 Stalker

Spotted: 1980 AMC Eagle Green Bay Packers Edition



Pretty apt, actually, considering the Packers' season so far. Parked on somebody's property at the edge of I-94, Wisconsin, September 13.

Packer Stalker

Not Like I Was Gonna Buy a Volkswagen Anyway, But Still...

Boner Fest 2006



Yeah sure, the Mangusta's cool, but look behind it: a Lancia Zagato!

Click on the pic to see more from Watkins Glen.

Komedy Korner, Kont., Kont.: 1996 Ford Probe GT



Okay you know what else is really funny? I think this is a beautiful car. No, seriously. One of the best designs of the '90s, in fact. Thanks, you've been great.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Komedy Korner, Kont.: 1979 Plymouth Arrow



Of course, if you wanted to be pretty funny in 2006 you could drive this. Does anyone else remember it being sold as a Mitsubishi "Celeste"? I don't.

p.s., fifteen hundred bucks for a car with five hundred thousand miles? wtf?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Komedy Korner: 2001 Isuzu VehiCROSS



If you want to be really funny in the year 2020? Drive one of these.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Here We Go Again: 1984 Maserati Quattroporte III



It's like they say about having kids: if you keep waiting for "the right time," it's never gonna happen. Nevertheless, this is not the right time.

Click on the pic and buy me my fuckin' Q3.

I ♥ the 80s: 1988 Chevrolet Corvette



I'll admit it: when I first saw one of these I thought it looked pretty hot. The whited-out wheels and rub strips and all-black greenhouse? Sweeeet. Actually it still looks kinda sweet, in a Van Hagar way. The steering wheel might be a bit much though.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Execs Rub Eyes, Gather Clothes, Wonder What Happened Last Night

If Only I Had More Money Than God, and a Garage: 1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS



Ferrari porn time again. Seems like an awful lot for a Dino, but gawd is it beautiful. Fucking sex on wheels. Me want.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1972 Lancia Fulvia



Those perfect proportions, the exquisitely thin pillars, the gorgeous interior. I bet it sounds wicked, too.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1967 Triumph TR4A



Besides being ridiculously fun to drive, this car is guaranteed to double in value in the next five years. One would only need a small garage.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Funny, No Mention of the Wife This Time: 1969 Lotus Elan S4



Dude is so whipped he even went back and edited his earlier ad. Somebody offer him ten, quick.

Click on the pic to check out the ad.

I ♥ the 80s: 1984 Renault Alpine GTA



Like a De Lorean, only French-er. And no gullwing doors. And no stainless. Same engine though!

Not sure what's more surprising: that seller found at least two people willing to bid this thing up to $14K, or that he apparently set the reserve still higher than that! A strange car to go ga-ga over. If exclusivity's that important to you, I know where you can pick up a nice EXP, cheap.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

I ♥ the 80s: 1982 Ford EXP



My heart is racing. Palms sweaty. Somebody get me a drink, fast. Yes, it is none other than the elusive Ford EXP, perhaps the stupidest car ever offered for sale in these United States. A rebodied Escort, itself a irredeemably awful car, the EXP was so devoid of even marginally desirable qualities that beleaguered ad execs were reduced to building a campaign around the factoid that it happened to be Ford's first two-seater since the original Thunderbird! Whoo! Because who doesn't look at those tired-froggy eyebrows and think '55 T-Bird?

This is a shockingly well-preserved example. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Art School Confidential: 1964 Plymouth Barricuda



I don't think dude has any idea his stuff could be hanging in a high-dollar gallery in any number of newly gentrified hipster neighborhoods around the country, but that only makes it that much more "authentic," right? Consciously or not, the choice of low-resolution camera phone (visibly reflected in several of these images) to record the gorgeous decay of his subject results in effects that are at once startlingly beautiful and utterly fresh. Never mind the car, let's see if he's offering prints.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

"Built to Honor the Victims of 9/11": 1969 Chevrolet Corvette



And no bids? Really?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

The One Hundred Thousand Songs of Johnny Z.: 1981 De Lorean



Okay, so this is possibly the most cheese-ball car of all time, but tell me this: if it somehow happened that you had a $100,000 recording budget, would you not be morally obligated to buy one just to park outside the studio and do lines off between takes? You totally would.

Slow and by all accounts clumsy handling, but whatever. A Giugiaro tour de force, and rarely has such a stunner of a design been executed with so few compromises. The freakin' stainless, man!

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Timing Is Everything: 1975 Sebring Vanguard Citicar



Anybody other than me feel a little funny about sitting on top of eight batteries?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1949 Hudson Super Six



With three hours to go this auction is holding at $3200. Okay, a little rust, but c'mon people!

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Smell the Vinyl: 1977 Datsun B210



I love that they chose to repaint it in the original '77 mustard ochre. Beautiful. Too bad it's an automatic.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

King of the Tract: 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme



I'm speechless?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1995 Buick Riviera



Of course weird does not always equal bad, and even Buick manages to get something right by accident every so often. For as unassuming as they seemed at the time, these '90s Rivs were pretty radical: a cab-forward flagellum of an automobile with unusually thoughtful detailing and judicious use of chrome that complemented its bold shape. Or maybe it's just me. Anyway I would totally rock this, at least until the novelty wore off and I realized I was driving a torque-steering front-drive fat GM pig after all.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

I Dreamed I Dream: 1993 Buick Skylark



I think we're just now far enough removed from the '90s to fully appreciate just how weird things got over at the General during the Clinton years. Case in point: this Skylark. The curiously bearded grill. The droopy not-quite fender skirts. You get the sense that somewhere back there was a really cool initial concept sketch, but along the way to the production line everything that made it cool got lost and what was left was just ... this.

I have to say, though, that this example, especially with its cop black steel wheels, looks kinda bitchin.

Somebody needs to go over to seller's house and confiscate every copy of HTML for Dummies they find there. I'm guessing there'll be more than one.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

I'll Take Two: 1988 Mercury Sable LS



Quick, no looking: does Mercury still exist? Not easy, is it? For years Mercury was great because you always knew that if what Ford was selling wasn't goofy-looking enough for you, you could just go into the showroom across the street and Mercury'd have something even weirder. Here's your chance to take home one of the most confounding designs of the '80s for a mere fifty bucks.

"This appears to be a non-garaged automobile, however, if it were the vehicle's choice, it's owner would have garaged it." Ummm...

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

The Car's Never Won a Superbowl Either: 1985 Buick Riviera



I just hope they painted over Gary Anderson's autograph.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Going Twice: 1972 Lamborghini Espada



More stunning pics of the car featured last month, now being offered again. I have it on good authority that the exhaust leaks in three places and the car's prone to overheating on hot days. Still, are we not talking about the coolest ride in the known universe? Is $55K too much to pay for that?

Click on the pic and agonize. "No one really knows..."

You Know Your Marriage Is Doomed When...

Your pet name for your wife is "Circumstances." Wanna bet she hasn't been with him for thirty years? Wanna bet she ain't gonna be? Keep your Lotus, dude.

Dept. of Ewwww: 1977 Ford Mustang Cobra II



Is it just me, or is there something unsettling about the above image in combination with the seller's use of the word unmolested? And what's up with people caring about matching numbers on a Mustang II ferchrissakes?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Dept. of WTF: 1982 Volvo 244 GL



You know, I gotta wonder why nobody thought to put Mercedes headlights/an Audi front bumper/a BMW 745 rear bumper/M3 mirrors on their 200,000-mile twenty-four-year-old beater Volvo before. I mean, it seems so obvious to me now.

"DRIFT CAR RALLY EDITION." Mmmm-hm. Thanks to Liz for the heads-up.

Click on the pic to check out the ad.

ESL Moments: 1982 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta



Points for creative spelling, arbitrary use of quotation marks, inexplicable use of initial caps. The topper though is the reference to the person who, it would seem, handles his wardrobe.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Li'l Deuce Coupe: 1968 BMW 1600-2



Some people do know how to take pictures of their cars.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Dept. of Probably Not Dept.: 1987 Renault Alliance GTA



Okay, it's one thing if you can't take a picture of your car. More alarming is the fact that dude apparently paid to have someone rebuild the engine in his Renault Alliance for him. Wouldn't it make more sense to, I dunno, just throw it away?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1963 Ford Ranchero



What could be freaking cooler? Well, maybe if it had a three-on-the-tree. Still, pretty cool. (Incidentally, those gauges can't be original, can they? Nah, not with km/h on the speedo...)

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage (and a French Mechanic): 1957 Panhard Dyna Z



Front-wheel-drive, independent suspension all around, all-aluminum air-cooled flat two cranking out upwards of 50 horsepower (aided in part by hemispherically shaped combustion chambers — it's a hemi!), and they'd been using all this technology for ten years by this point.

More importantly, look at the interior! And check out this spectacular promotional lit! (Scroll down a little bit, you'll see it.) More photos, please.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

I &hearts the 80s: 1980 Mazda GLC



Is it possible that there is a better-preserved 1980 Mazda GLC wagon in the world? Seems unlikely to me. Seems exceedingly unlikely to me in fact that one of these should have survived at all, which makes this example all the more miraculous.

I kinda can't get over it. Those puny little 155/80 tires — 80! The little instrument binnacle surrounded by fake wood, the two-spoke steering wheel, and that switchgear ... all wrapped, of course, in sensible biege — but with pinstriping! There is something deeply charming to me about all of this. I kind of really want it.

"The lines of body style are as acceptable and pleasing today as when introduced." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1970 Fiat 500



Who doesn't love a Cinquecento? The reserve on this one seems a little high, but then again maybe not given its apparent condition. It was once explained to me in Italy that the hole in the roof is there so your girlfriend has somewhere to put her legs. Who doesn't love a Cinquecento?

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

If Only I Had a Garage: 1970 Saab 99



Someday I'm gonna own me a pre-GM Saab.

"There is no bodywork present on this vehicle" is a curious disclaimer, particularly in light of the photos which seem to suggest otherwise. "We are unable to tell if the mileage represented on this vehicle is actual miles, because the odometer cable is snapped," is a little more troubling. But man it sure looks good. Me want.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

Spotted: 1973 Toyota Prius Trans Am SD-455



Anticipating the GM-Toyota alliance that would spawn the Prism/Corolla decades later, only a handful of these Super Duty Priuses were ever built. It's said a disproportionate number of same found their way to western New York.

A rare bird indeed.

Prius T/A Stalker

Spotted: 1962 Vauxhall Cresta PA



Yes, even among the vainglorious VW Bentleys and poseur Porsches, one might still run across something cool in London (your chances improve in the East End). Another one can be seen here.

Cresta Stalker

Road Test: 2006 Ford Focus ZX4



Twelve hundred-some miles over (mostly) two days, and not a bad little car, even for an auto-equipped stripper. It even sounded kinda cool, with a cute little muted growl when you got on it. I would seriously consider ... renting one again.

Missed Connections: 1985 Maserati Quattroporte



Sorry for the disappearing act; it's been a busy couple weeks.

On July 24, gripped by a passion I can only compare to the experience of being batshit in love, I sent the following message to the seller of the above automobile:
Hi there. I wonder if you would consider letting the Quattroporte go for less than $5000 — is $4000 out of the question? Also, I'd love to pick up the car and drive it home, but I'm going to be traveling for work for the next few weeks. If we can agree on a price, would you be willing to house the car until I can get out there (say, August 10)? Let me know either way. I've got cash in hand, would be happy to PayPal or wire a deposit now, however you prefer. Hope to hear from you soon!

I was ready to pull the trigger; I even would've been happy giving him the full $5,000 he was asking. Dude never replied.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.

"Considered by Some to Be the Best American Sports Car Ever Built": 1985 Ford Mustang SVO



C'mon now. Not even its mom thinks the SVO Mustang was the best American sports car ever built. Kind of an interesting curiosity though, representing as it did the last gasp of newthink in Detroit before the success of its 5.0 sister put everyone back on the old no-substitute-for-cubic-inches path. This wasn't so much Ford building a sports car as it was some autistic child building a Saab out of Tinkertoys.

Click on the pic to check out the auction.