For $12,995, Fini Is The Last Word In Fieros insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $12,995, Fini Is The Last Word In Fieros

Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe custom Fiero looks wilder than a rock star with two-days worth of bed head. Is its price however, too much of a walk on the wild side?

Harry Nilsson once sang that one is a lonely number, and that proved to be the case for yesterday’s claimed one of one in the U.S. nineteen ninety… that's right, one, Mazda Familia GTX. According to an overwhelming 76% of you, it’s going to remain lonely, that many having having given its price a Crack Pipe loss.

Despite being voted over-priced, yesterday’s Mazda was laudable for its seemingly factory fresh and original condition, a rare sight in a GTX. You know in what marque that seems even more rare today? That’s right, the Pontiac Fiero. And today we have the most balls to the wall outrageous Fiero custom that you’ve ever seen outside of a Peyote-high hallucination. Don't you judge me.

Described as the Fini Fiero, this chameleon painted custom started life as a 1987 Fiero. That’s just one year shy of the major suspension redesign, so while outlandish on the top side, it’s still running on the bouncy bits that, in back were taken from the Chevy Citation, and in the front harken back to the Opel Kadett of 1852.

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In ’87 the Fiero could be purchased with either the 98-horse Iron Puke, or the 140-pony Chevy 2.8-litre six. Neither of those was apparently good enough for the Fini however as it rocks a Northstar V8 late of a Caddy. It also sports an automatic transmission which is probably a good thing as it wold be hard to concentrate on shifting yourself when you’re preoccupied with the car’s audacious appearance, both inside and out.

Let’s start with the cockpit, which unlike most Fiero customs actually looks like somebody put some thought into the mods, and actual craftsmanship into the execution. Sure the basic Fiero IP is there, but it’s now wrapped in a leather hood that snakes down to the wide center tunnel. A Pioneer head unit and what looks to be a Grant steering wheel accessorize the space.

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On the outside, whoa doggies! The front of this car looks like something that might have come out of the British maker TVR’s barn back in the day and features… what are those, old Celica headlights? The sculpted sides lead to a rear that’s even more audacious than that of Kim Kardashian, and carries enough round red bauble lights to make followers feel like they're playing old school Coleco Football.

Large reverse extractor vents flare from each B-pillar, and chrome five-hole alloys are tucked under the tight-lipped wheel arches. The whole thing is painted in pearlescent paint that switches from purple to blue depending on how the light hits it.

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The seller notes that fifty grand and over 2000 man hours have gone into this cars creation - more than that for the Federal Governments Healthcare Reform website form the look of things. Of course you're almost never going to get your investment - either in time or blood sweat and tears - back upon selling any custom car.

As such, the price for this wild child of a Fiero is $12,995, and you need to say whether that's a deal or not. What do you think, is a Lincoln-shy of thirteen grand for the Fini financially sound? Or, does that price mean fini for the Fini?

You decide!

Portland OR Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Civardi for the hookup!

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

For $12,995, Fini Is The Last Word In Fieros

The Cadillac ELR Will Cost $75,995, I.E. As Much As A Tesla Model S insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The Cadillac ELR Will Cost $75,995, I.E. As Much As A Tesla Model S

The Cadillac ELR and Chevy Volt share the same underpinnings. The Chevy Volt, which isn't selling super fantastically, starts at $34,185. The ELR, when it hits dealers in January, will start at $75,995. Jeepers.

Cadillac seems to be hoping that the tech and style of the ELR will bring people in to the dealers since it is their techiest offering and, I guess, their only Tesla rival. And tax credits can possibly get the price down to $68,495.

The issue is that, at that price range, the person better really want a Cadillac. If they're in the electric vehicle market at that price range, then the Model S is what they want. And even though this is an extended range electric vehicle, Cadillac says that it's an electric car.

The ELR has a theoretical total range of 300 miles with gas and electric factored in. The Tesla 85kW, which costs $73,570, has a 265 mile range. And charging for Teslas is now super fast.

I'm not a detective, but I think I see an issue here. Hopefully, Cadillac knows something that I don't. The ELR is gorgeous, but that might not be enough.

The Cadillac ELR Will Cost $75,995, I.E. As Much As A Tesla Model S

For $4,995, Let Rover Take Over insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $4,995, Let Rover Take Over

Eve got Adam to sample the original forbidden fruit and as a result their landlord sent them packing. Similarly, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Rover is, for Americans at least, about as forbiddingly fruity as they come, but does its price speak of forbidden pleasures as well?

If your pleasure includes rotary-powered Vegas then you probably liked yesterday’s 13B-rocking hatch. Sadly for the seller, 65% of you didn’t find his nearly ten-large price to be all that pleasing. On the plus side however, it was nice to see a Vega once again.

You know what else is a rare sight in the eyeballs of most Americans? Yep, that’s right, non-scandal plagued politicians, they’re seemingly rarer than hens teeth these days. Oh yeah, and Rovers too, they’re also pretty rare here.

Just not today.

This 1993 Rover 216 SR is quite possibly the only one legally registered here in 'Murica, having been originally bought in Italy (hence LHD) by a U.S. serviceman who then rotated both himself and the car stateside. That's the story in the ad, and it's sticking to it.

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Let’s first get the whole rarity doesn’t equate to desirability bit out of the way because that’s just plain hogwash. And if you’ve never been to a pure hogwash I heartily recommend you do so soon as they are more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Come to think of it, a barrel of monkeys would probably make a hogwash even better, so keep that in mind.

Where was I? Ah yes.

Look, according to my junior college econ 101 teacher, supply and demand are directly related to value, and a swing one way or the other can drive prices up and down faster than a sweaty fat kid on a rocket pop. As such, the fact that this is probably the only Rover 216 SR that Americans can easily buy right now, the supply does not meet demand and hence it can command a relatively high price.

That is, unless of course no one wants it.

But who wouldn’t want so exclusive a coupe? Especially one with the bona fides that its Honda underpinnings provide. That’s right, the 200-series Rovers, and their 400-series siblings, come from the era when Rover collectively threw up their hands and said eff-it, we can’t make cars worth a crap, lets just re-badge some Japanese shit and hope nobody notices.

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Okay, so that’s an overly simplistic and possibly litigious encapsulation of the events that took place, but we’re not here to talk about my potential legal troubles, we want to give this 216 a once over.

Rocking midnight blue metallic paint over a fifty shades of grey cloth interior, this little Rover’s Honda roots are not hard to discern. The seller describes the 62K car as a targa roof and unlike its Honda (or Acura here in the States) cousins, almost the entire roof pops up or pops out.

That, along with the angular ‘90s styling sets this Rover apart from the similarly sized and kitted Acura Integra of the era. Under the Rover’s hood however things start to look more familiar. There you’ll find Honda’s DOHC D16A8 1.6-litre four. That 120-horse mill was never sold here in the States, but other derivations of the D-series were and seriously, who doesn’t want the D? A five-speed stick send power to the front wheels.

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Other considerations are the note in the ad that the timing belt has been recently refreshed, possibly countered by the other admission that cabin cooling is limited to the 2-55 variety. The seller also claims that there is no “significant damage to the body.” Hmmm.

Aside from that this seems like a cool opportunity to own something that’s fairly easy to maintain while still being slightly weird enough to be interesting. Instead of JDM it’s GBDM, and that’s close enough to BDSM to get me excited.

The clean Minnesota title also should go a long way to keep owning it from becoming a masochist’s dream. Still, those in places like California may want to confirm relations with your Oregon friends if you want to call the car your own.

So, what do you think about this veddy British coupe with a hint of Japanese underneath? More importantly, what do you think about its $4,995 price in light of the fact that it’s potentially the only legal one in the States for sale right now? Is that a sweet deal? Or, is this a Rover whose price means it should just keep on roving?

You decide!

eBay out of Wayzata, Minnesota, or go here if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

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When new, Chevy's Vega was shipped from the factory standing up on rail cars. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Vega has twin turbos for the twin … Read…

For $4,995, Let Rover Take Over

The 74-Horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage Starts At $12,995 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The 74-Horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage Starts At $12,995

Do you think that the best small cars ever made came from the late '80s and early '90s? Mitsubishi has a car for you! It's the 74-horsepower, five-speed, $12,995 Mirage.

Amazingly, Mitsubishi still sells cars here in the US, and this Mirage is supposed to reinvigorate their sales.

That $12,995 sticker is for the basest-of-the-base 1,193 cc three-cylinder Mirage, with a five-speed manual and just 74 horsepower. If you want a CVT, that's going to be another thousand dollars, and if you want the seriously, luxuriously opulent 'ES' trim, it's going to cost $14,195 for the stick and $15,195 for the CVT.

I really want to like the Mitsubishi Mirage. I really do. Sure Top Gear Magazine called it "truly, profoundly terrible," I like the idea of a too-light, tinny, cheap-as-shit hatchback like the Mitsubishi Mirages and Geo Metros of old.

The 74-Horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage Starts At $12,995

For $20,995, Does This Porsche Have Its Engine In The Wrong End? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $20,995, Does This Porsche Have Its Engine In The Wrong End?

Fencers typically begin a match with the warning en garde. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Porsche 944 is in Guards Red, and will foil pretty much any Épée. It’s up to you to determine whether or not its price will have you sitting on the fence.

The Scoville scale offers a measure for the perceived heat of a chili pepper. At the top of the scale, with a Scoville heat ranking of one and a half to two million units, is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, a Caribbean fruit with the general appearance of a shriveled and sunburned scrotum. Yum!

On the other end of the scale, with a ranking of zero is the Bell pepper. Just below that on the heat register, with a 76% Crack Pipe loss, was yesterday’s custom Porsche Cayenne. I guess if you want to bring the heat you’ll want to look to something smaller, redder, and packing far fewer miles.

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With that, I give you this 1989 Porsche 944 S2, in Guards Red, and with but 22K on the clock. Now, I know what you’re thinking - Aww man, not another Porsche. That’s the third one in a row, and the last two were both total bovine excrement!

But here’s the thing, I’m thinking that this is about the right time to grab a 944. That's because I believe that they have bottomed out in the market and are starting to follow their 911 big brothers back up the dollar tree. And, if you’re going to go looking for an investment in the used car lot, you better go with the best one you can find.

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This 1989 944 S2 is not only the ultimate edition of the naturally aspirated model, it’s also remarkably low-mileage and - from the pictures at least - looks like it just rolled out of Neckersulm. The reason given for its present state of affairs is that it was part of a collection.

Riding on its factory Design 90 wheels and featuring the nose from the Turbo, the S2 differs even more greatly from its predecessors under the hood. There, the DOHC 16-valve four was punched out to a full 3 litres of displacement. That made it the largest series production four of the era, and one that was good for 208-bhp at 5,800 RPM.

Interestingly, that 2,999-cc mill was also lighter than the outgoing 2.5 by a substantial 15%. The weight loss was due to siamesed cylinder jackets and other various nips and tucks. The concurrent switch from cast to forged aluminum for the block also helped to stem high-RPM wear.

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Here that massive four-pot is backed up - as God and Ferry Porsche intended - by a five-speed manual transaxle. The shifter for that box resides in an all-black interior that looks brand new, if by new you mean Porsche’s somber design aesthetic from 25 years ago.

The iconic high-backed seats face a fully instrumented dash which was part of a restyle brought to the car four years prior. There only two actual boner killers in this car’s interior, the first being that these cars don’t share Porsche’s traditional left-hand ignition switch placement. The other is that, for a car so clean, it’s disappointing not to see the little triangular vacuum cleaner marks - like in a hotel hallway - in the carpet under the huge glass hatch.

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That hatch is rimmed with a rubber ducky spoiler which is paired on the S2 with an under-tray air manager just south of the rear bumper. Both of those features are still intact on this extremely low-mileage car, as are the ding guards on the flanks, including their 16 Ventiler announcement just ahead of each door.

As I have noted, I think this is a good time to pick up a 944 model, and if this car lives up to its description and pictures, you probably couldn't do much better as a place to start. The thing of course is that quality costs money, as anyone who has paid for an escort of the non-automotive variety will attest. In the case of this Porsche that means an asking price of $20,995. And that ain’t chump change.

You see, while 944s may be starting an ascent value-wise, there are still a lot notties among the hotties, and you can find some real dogs out there for far less than this car’s expected price. What you now need to decide is whether this one is worth the extra spend. What do you think, is this remarkably clean and un-used 944 S2 worth $20,995? Or, is that too much of a premium for this Porsche?

You decide!

eBay out of Los Angeles, or go here if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

For $20,995, Does This Porsche Have Its Engine In The Wrong End?