For $9,500, It's A Familia Affair insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,500, It's A Familia Affair

Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Familia GTX is the 323 - for America at least - that was never meant to be. It’s RHD, AWD, and JDM, but you need to determine if this rare Mazda’s price is Jay-Day-Um.

Mazda, Monza. Monza, Mazda. There, now that the introductions are out of the way, we can get down to brass tacks, which is to say, the vote on yesterday’s 1975 Chevy Monza. That Vega redo is considered to be one of Chevy’s all time great designs, and for 63% of you, the price on that particular blue one was also pretty good looking. No one volunteered to change the plugs in its V8 however, owing to its historically insanely tight confines.

They say the candle that burns twice as brightly only burns half as long. Mazda’s Group A homologation 323 GTX, with its all-wheeling drivetrain and turbocharged twin-cam motor burned very brightly indeed, but only for two years here in the U.S..

A result of Mazda’s desire to go Group A racing and that body’s requirement that racers be homologated from a production car with a minimum of 5,000 units, the 323 hatch-based car failed in the market mostly due to its astronomical price - about 30% more at the time than that of VW’s GTI. In the end, Mazda managed to sell just 1,243 of their hot 323s here over the course of the 1988-1989 model years.

But that’s not to say the model didn’t live on elsewhere after the fact, as this 1991 Familia GTX proves. Offered up on the 6th generation 323 platform which we did receive even in this awkward-looking three-door hatch form, this GTX takes everything good about the old GTX and makes it lots more right-hand drive!

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Other than letting you pretend you're a mail man, the 132-horse twin cam turbo four and 5-speed stick ought to still be good for sub-eight second zero to sixty runs, and the all-wheel drive system will help keep those runs on the straight and narrow.

Considering the collective meh response to the factory offered GTX here in the states, it's not all that remarkable that very few of the later model have been brought over here, and in fact the seller lays claim to this bi-wing beast being the only one.

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In addition to the two-for-one hatch accoutrement, there's also some snazzy alloy wheels and mud flaps for all four fenders. Racy! Inside, the car looks amazingly clean and backwards owing to its steering wheel being on the wrong side. The heavily bolstered seats look to be in as-new condition and feature an accordion-like snood on the headrests that make their appearance reminiscent of those African ladies that stretch their necks out by progressively adding rings.

The ad states that the car has only 43,000 miles on it, and that it is all original, right down to the wordy feature description just aft of each door. Considering that these were sold here in a more tepid form, a lot of the parts - exclusive of the all-wheel drive bits and left-handed shift knob - shouldn't be too tough to source.

It's also said to come with 'papers to register and transfer.' Seeing as it's under the Fed's blind eye after 25 years of age and is not sporting any sort of U.S. State plate in any of the pictures, I'd like a better idea of how difficult this originally purchased in Japan car would be to make legal.

Still, the ad also notes that 'The Right Buyer will know what it is' and seeing as the seller is so sure of that individual's existence, I guess we can cut him some slack on the whole legality issue.

We can't on price however, and it's now time to weigh in on whether you think this really rare Group A homologation satisfier is equally satisfying at its $9,500 price tag. What do you think, is it worth that to have a rare GTX? Or, that price make this one about as popular as its factory predecessor?

You decide!

Maine Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to audigoboom for the hookup! And if this is on Bring a Trailer, thanks all to hell to them as well!

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For $9,500, It's A Familia Affair

For $9,650, Go Postal insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,650, Go Postal

Benjamin Franklin was our nation’s first Postmaster General, and the Postal Service is the rare government agency actually authorized by the Constitution. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe custom Postal Jeep is also a rarity, but does its price require too many Benjamins?

I wonder at what point two grand became the threshold for why-the-eff-not car purchases? I mean, for me at least, that’s still a lot of dough. According to 80% of you, yesterday’s BRE’d 1980 Datsun 210 was also a lot of car, at least for that much bread.

But lets say you had a little more to spend. And similarly you wanted something that was far more - how shall we say - quintessentially American. In that case, perhaps your tastes would lean toward today’s 1972 Postal Jeep Rat Rod, which combines a pair of uniquely American taste treats into one.

At a party a DJ delivers the tuneage. The Jeep DJ on the other hand delivers mail, or at least they did until they were replaced by more modern - and far less interesting - postal vehicles. The decommissioning of the Postal Service Jeeps has led to there being a bunch of the right-hand drive sliding door DJs on the market over the years. What to do. . . what to do.

Of course if your immediate answer to that quandary is drop it on a Chevy S10 frame, give it a 350 V8 for power, and make it look like the patina patrol has pissed all over it, give yourself a gold star.

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The DJ Jeep was a two-wheel drive edition of the CJ, and served the Postal service for decades. They came with a number of different engines over the years, from the stout AMC six to the lout GM Iron Puke, but none of those were really suitable for putting any real power to the pavement.

The SBC here likely remedies that, and the rural mail box on the hood, which seems to serve as a hood scoop, is a nice way to go all in on the theme. Seriously, this bad boy is totally postal apocalyptic.

Postal Jeeps normally had just a single seat, a vinyl toadstool of limited support and comfort that was apparently designed to keep the carriers on their feet as much as possible without complaint. This one's a lot less of a penalty box inside with pair of real chairs, resplendent in grey mouse fur and looking like they came out of a Grand Am or something.

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Between those is a Hurst shifter for the auto box and for convenience's sake and owing to the S-10 underneath, the steering column now pokes through on the left side instead of the right. Another happy-happy, joy-joy on the inside is the floor which has been carpet bombed in banged up license plates.

One of the issues with the DJ as a postal vehicle was its relatively small size and hence carrying capacity. Considering the Postal Service's vow to get the mail through at almost any cost, you'd of course want to load up as much as possible on each and every run. This one adds to the space by dropping an old-school pickup bed box in the back just above the rear axle.

The whole thing has been dropped and while it lacks certain conveniences such as A/C or power windows, it does have power steering and brakes so driving shouldn't be a total chore. Plus, sliding doors!

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There's not much in the way of description in the ad, the seller obviously deciding to let the pictures do the talking. It does offer up an asking price however, which is $9,650, bulk rate. What do you think of this DJ for that much hay? Does that price make this custom truck a special delivery? Or, for that much will you leave no forwarding address?

You decide!

Raleigh Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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For $9,650, Go Postal

For $9,100, Become Vegan insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,100, Become Vegan

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 rotors of its adopted Mazda mill, but you’ll still need to decide if its price makes its seller a stand-up guy.

Yesterday’s Hurst Commando was pretty damn rare, seeing as it’s claimed to be one of only 100 of the special editions ever built. That apparently wasn't enough to account for its twenty grand asking, resulting in a narrow but decisive 57% Crack Pipe loss.

You know what else is pretty rare these days? Vegas, that’s what. No, not Las Vegas , but Chevy Vegas. Developed under the code name XP-887 and guided by Ed Cole - the very same executive responsible for the Corvair - the Vega was intended to take on both the imports and the new home-built smaller cars from domestic competitors Ford and AMC.

But sadly it didn't go as planned, and Cole's design edicts created rifts with the Chevy engineers. Newly elevated to the position of Chevrolet General Manager, John DeLorean attempted to fix the things that were wrong with the XP-887 - issues mostly resulting from Cole’s mandates - but there was only so much that could be done.

In the end, the Vega was released in September 1970 with a somewhat flaky corrosion-prone unit-body, and an aluminum engine that, lacking liners, tended to eat itself alive over time. The poorly engineered engine mounting (the mounts spec’d were too soft) made that engine seem course and vibration prone even when it wasn’t ovaling its bores. To top it off, the Vega ended up being almost 10% more expensive than its VW Beetle target, as well as Ford’s Pinto, its direct competition. Unequivocally it was a disaster, but at the very least it was a damn good looking failure.

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Today’s 1971 Vega Hatch still looks pretty sweet, and this one appears to have stood the test of time, having not returned to its base elements like so many others. It also solves the whole beer can engine issue by having its Chevy four-pot dumped at the recycler and adopting a pressurized Mazda 13B out of an FD RX-7. So equipped, the ad touts the car as something that even Jay Leno doesn't have. Take that, Jay!

That engine isn't the only Rising Sun part this Vega has adopted, there apparently also being the seats, 5-speed gearbox, wheels, brakes and pumpkin as well being fitted. How that all goes together goes unexplained, but the ad does note that it’s neither a trailer queen or a clown prince, having been built 4,000 miles back by “two experienced rotary engine mechanics.”

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The 13B-REW now resident under this Vega’s hood is also an engine made of aluminum with its own history of reliability issues. Of course most of those had been worked out by the time this one had its sequential turbos applied, and as you might imagine 250 horsepower can atone for a multitude of sins.

Visually, the car has been dressed in skirts that share the body’s virginal white paint. The nose has had its bumper cleaved so that it’s now bumperettes, while inside the dash has been replaced with aftermarket gauges and the space has been fitted with a cage.

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The seller wants $9,100 for this wonderful mashup of Vega and Mazda (Vegzda?) and it's now up to you to say if that's a decent price to be unlike Jay Leno. What do you think about this custom rotary Vega for $9,100, does that price seem very nice? Or, would even Leno turn this one down?

You decide!

San Francisco Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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For $9,100, Become Vegan

For $9,000, Who Doesn’t Want To Drive A Miata? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,000, Who Doesn’t Want To Drive A Miata?

You wouldn’t order dinner at a five star restaurant and then not eat it would you? That’s an allegory of what the seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe MX5 did, and now you need to decide if its price makes it worth waiting for.

This is the time of year when the kids are all going back to school. And if you wanted to take them back old-school you could do far worse than yesterday’s resto-modded 1979 Jeep Cherokee Chief. Not only that, but for 66% of you at least, it was also priced to go to the head of the class.

Speaking of class, looking back upon it now Mazda really schooled the competition when they introduced the MX5 Miata back in 1989. That little car proved that an Elan-esque sports car could be profitably built and sold in decent volume and a reasonable price.

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At its debut, the Miata was feted not only for that feat, but for the innate sense of joy provided by driving it. From its perfectly weighted shifter to its easy to master handling, the little convertible immediately secured a spot in the pantheon of automotive legends.

So good was that original Miata that many owners stopped using shortcuts to get to and from destinations, preferring instead to take the long route. That is, except for the purchaser of today’s two-top 1990 Miata in Classic Red, because since buying it they couldn’t seem to be bothered to put more than 240 miles on the car.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa! Pick that jaw up off the floor, you don’t want to get it full of cat hair or the Roomba. Why, you might ask, would someone buy a car as sweet as a Miata and then not drive it? Well, death is the only acceptable answer, but in the case of this car the ad claims that the owner simply didn’t want to learn how to drive stick.

Now, refusal to three-pedal is seemingly the American way, foiling many a carjacker faced with a stick, and allowing Constitutionally derived freedumbs for your right hand to do whatever it is you might want to do with it when you don’t have to row-yer-own. And no, I don’t want to know what that is.

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The take rate for manual transmissions on new cars in the U.S. is about 7% these days, and of course even the Miata has been available with a slusher for years because well, some folks just can’t manage a stick.

You may think however that buying and parking a manual gearbox Miata just because you don’t want to master its 5-speed is akin to dating Sasha Grey and never once giving her brown recluse a go. That being the case here - the stick shift Miata I mean, not Sasha’s third eye blind - the fact of the matter is that this is a 23 year old MX5 with only 240 miles under its belt, and an interior not imbued with two decades worth of other people's farts.

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Yeah, the old maxim of use it or lose it applies here, as it’s not just miles but time as well that wears on a car. The seller says that it was garaged the whole time and while the paintwork looks great, there seems to be some discoloring of the upholstery that could be fading or worse, mold. Or maybe it’s just the crappy photos!

At any rate, in the grand tradition of paying more for less the seller is asking beacoup bucks for this 240 mile Miata. The price is $9,000, and it’s now up to you to say whether that’s a deal for this “good running” car, or if that price means that you’d rather not drive it too.

You decide!

Indianapolis Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to James Inge for the hookup!

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For $9,000, Who Doesn’t Want To Drive A Miata?

For $9,999, Socket To Me insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,999, Socket To Me

Tesla may have made electric cars cool, but they still cost a lot of cold hard cash. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe CRX will let you rock down to electric avenue for a ton less, but is its price low enough to prevent a chilly reception when you get there?

In a jaw-dropping rebuke to both American craftsmanship and constitutionally guaranteed individuality, yesterday’s Ted Nugent-strength crazy 1987 Custom Comanche amazingly went down in a 91% Crack Pipe loss. No one could have possibly predicted that. Heh, I’m just kidding, I mean even Stevie Wonder could have seen that coming.

You could also see today’s 1990 Honda CRX coming - and going - but you might just not hear it. No, you haven’t suddenly gone deaf or profoundly apathetic, this Honda two-seater is electric baby.

That’s right the CRX in its name now stands for Circuits, Relays and... um... er, Xtra batteries! A home brew, this innocuous looking Honda has traded gasoline for the grid, and now sucks on Edison’s teat rather than Exxon’s.

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The result is something less than a Tesla but still more cost efficient than as a gasser when just the cost of fuel and standard maintenance are considered. The ad notes a 70 mile range, which is probably good enough to get you to work or your local titty bar and back, and if not, move closer!

Giving the car that range is a collection of CALB LiFePO4 batteries that offer a net 18.72 kWh. That’s over 64,000 Joules! Now - owing to its having had over a century of development and refinement, its low volatility, as well as a robust infrastructure to support it - there exists no more efficient mobile energy storage medium for cars than gasoline. The thing of it is though, we’re going through dead dinos faster than The Walking Dead goes through black folk, and eventually we’ll need to find a workable alternative.

Why not get a head start?

The seller says that this home built electric works 100%, needing absolutely nothing, and has a cool air dam. He also claims that it’s able to be charged from a standard 110V outlet, meaning that you don’t need one of those fancy pants 220 circuits with their hoity toity plugs. That also means it probably takes like 8 - 12 hours to charge the car before you can go another 70 miles, so bring a book.

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Another downside of some electric cars is the off chance that they will electrocute you, and the seller notes in his ad that he is seeking to sell the car to someone with a modicum of mechanical/electrical knowledge and not someone whose last words are certain to be hold my beer.

If you think you fit the bill you might have a gander at the specs of the electrical conversion. Those are linked on DIYelecticcar (who knew?) and give a good idea of everything that went into the making the beast silent but deadly.

One spec that stands out is the claim of a new clutch. This is a stick shift car and that’s a bit of a nut scratcher as electric motors provide 100% torque at pretty much any RPM, typically negating the need for a tranny. How this one works goes unexplained.

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Other than the electrical work, the car looks to be in pretty good shape and has new paint according to the ad. It also has “Integra springs” but the backend still hangs like a G’s baggy jeans, probably owing to the weight of the batteries behind the seats. Or maybe it’s the front end sitting high due to the lighter components up there? I don't know, it just looks a little funny.

If you want an all-electric car your options are still pretty limited, and damn expensive. The Tesla will set you back six figures while the far cheaper Nissan Leaf is still thirty grand or so. At $9,999, this converted Honda is a fraction of the cost of either. What would paying more for the Nissan or Tesla get you? Well a warranty for one thing, plus a significantly greater range.

Still, sometimes cheap trumps smart and so here we are considering the value of this electric Honda and its $9,999 price tag. What do you think, is that a fair price to get your plug on? Or, is this an electric car with a price that lacks a charge?

You decide!

H/T to Adam Zipperer for the hookup! BTW, how cool a name is Zipperer? Pretty damn cool, that’s what I say.

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For $9,999, Socket To Me

For $9,900, Get That Grand Feeling insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® For $9,900, Get That Grand Feeling

I think I can count the number of Buicks I’d like to own on the fingers of one hand. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Grand National is one of those digits, but is its price a middle finger to its buyer?

The thought of a twenty-nine year old Lincoln burning oil may not be too surprising. However, when that oil being burned is diesel, and its doing so in a BMW six powering a Lincoln named Mark, then you might just take notice.

Yesterday’s 1984 Lincoln Mark VII not only had the Bimmer can full of rocks under its hood, but its exemplary presentation and claims of drivability - hey, the airbag suspension still works! - led to its six grand asking receiving a reasonable 55% Nice Price win.

The eighties were kind of a heyday of great American coupes. Not only the Lincoln, but Ford’s Thunderbird as well rising from the ashes of baroque behemothness to become amazing drivers. And then there was the Buick.

A lot of cars are named after somebody or some place, but few are named for a state of being. Buick’s Regal is one of those notable exceptions. That illustrious name has over the years been applied to a number of cars unworthy of the title, but some, like today's 1987 coupe, aren't just Regal, they're Grand.

That's right, this black beauty is a Grand National, a model named in honor of Buick's 1981 and 82 Nascar Manufacturer's Cup wins. It also looks pretty nice, rocks T-tops, and the seller says the back seat looks as virginal as the tuba player in your high school band. In fact he lays claim to the upholstery in its entirety being devoid of tears, rips, or other blemishes.

That, and the claim that it runs "amazingly" are pretty much all you get as far as description of the car's condition. Instead the seller chooses to focus on the car's mileage - or kilometerage as it were - seeing as the nation this Buick is so grand aboot just so happens to be Canada.

As such the ad makes a big deal out of the car's 141,000 total kilometer mileage, which the seller maths out to 5,500 per year. That's about 88,000 miles to those of you averse to the metric system on religious grounds. Of course for all we know it could have put on any number of those miles in the past year. Just saying.

Seeing as the seller can't be bothered to give us much info on the car - or more than a single picture - I'm not going to assist him by delving in the rich history of the model. Suffice to say that by '87 the turbocharged and intercooled 3.8-litre V6 had been pretty well sorted out, and pumped out close to 300 ponies. There's a THM200-4R backing that up, and of course the suspension was given the 'heavy duty" treatment to coax as much handling out of the plebeian G-body platform as possible.

The seller notes that these cars typically go for the mid-teens and up, making his $9,900 (Canadian, meaning about $9,600 U.S.) a bargain. Here's the thing, the lack of pics and description, along with the ad noting this to be a screaming deal makes me wonder if there's something fishy about the car. I mean, is the car under some sort of gypsy curse or perhaps haunted? Do they even have ghosts in Canada? I don't know, but there are some flags raised with this ad, and they are all red.

But maybe it's too legit to quit, and that $9,900 price isn't simply a ruse to lure in unsuspecting buyers who are aren't seen again until their teeth are spotted being used as a necklace by a guy with Buick keys in line at Tim Hortons. Let's say that's not the case. In that event, what do you think about that price for this kind of mysterious Grand National? Is that a deal, or is that just too many grand?

You decide!

Vancouver Craigslist, or go here, if the ad disappears.

A tip on the lid to Rob Young for the hookup!

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For $9,900, Get That Grand Feeling