While cheap cars in decay are a pretty cool thing to look at, formerly expensive cars in decay are arguably much more interesting. You expect a cheap, daily use car to eventually move beyond a point of economic viability, while expensive cars are much more likely to soldier on, supported by garage-mates or the budgets of wealthy owners. Seeing a decayed luxury car prompts all kinds of questions… who first owned it? Where has it lived? How did it get to its present state? How can anyone let something that beautiful go to ground? And on that pensive note, check out this 1959 Lancia Flaminia Berlina, for sale for $2500 somewhere in Lake County, CA, just north of the Napa/Sonoma wine country.
Faded Glory – 1959 Lancia Flaminia Berlina
May 20, 2014No Oxymoron – 1985 Porsche 944
May 19, 2014After a recent article highlighting oxymorons in car-nut land, here are a couple more: Front-engine Porsche. Cheap Porsche. Or are they? If you were a young car nut looking for an older sports car, one with some good durability behind it given regular maintenance, and attractive enough to have been featured in movies, what would you pick? Sure, the Miata is an obvious choice, and they have their place, but they’re far from unusual, and arguably derivative of existing designs. E30 BMWs are also a good option, but even if their performance lives up to the claim, their styling doesn’t really scream sports car. So how about a cheap, front-engine Porsche? Check out this 1985 Porsche 944 for sale for $2950 in Los Gatos, CA.
Not Bad – 1968 MG BGT
May 19, 2014With the attrition of increasingly older post-war sports cars, the remaining examples seem to be becoming more and more costly. So where you could get a running (if somewhat dilapidated) car with the remnants of an open top and a fruity exhaust note, perhaps enhanced by a couple of leaks, that is no longer as common an option. Poking around classifieds will still net you some of those deals of the past, though, and many of those are the cars highlighted here. Check out this 1968 MG BGT, for sale for $1200 in Petaluma, CA.


