As mentioned in a previous feature of two Fiat Spiders, finding an early spider is not as easy as uncovering a later car with the large, double tube bumpers they had from 1975 to 1985. However, one pops up every so often, and in spite of their rarity, style and sporting specification, they still fail to bring in big, or even moderate numbers. One example of this secret bargain is a very early 1967 Fiat 124 Sport Spider, for sale in Edmonds, WA for $4000.
While the first generation Corvairs are arguably the less-attractive older sister, they do have some things going for them, including rare variants that didn’t make it into the second generation. They can also benefit from improvements to the younger generation, among them powertrain upgrades, which appear to be as simple as a direct swap of the engine and fan shroud. Their design was also quite influential, finding its way into cars like the NSU Ro80, NSU Prinz 4, and BMW E10 (2002, etc.). One of the rarer variants of the first-generation Corvair was the Lakewood wagon. You can find this 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Lakewood for sale for $3900 in the San Gabriel Valley, CA.
Some makes and models of older cars are so obscure that the most common way to find them is as a sun-baked hulk in someone’s yard. Such is often the case with Borgward, a Bremen, Germany-based manufacturer of upper-middle-class luxury cars that slotted in the gap between Mercedes and VW/Opel. With a top speed of over 80mph, 4-wheel independent suspension, a hydraulic clutch, and more competitive features, it was quite a nice car in its day, and fairly successful with production of just over 200,000 cars. Unfortunately, the parent company failed to take advantage of economies of scale across its four divisions (Borgward, Hansa, Goliath, and Lloyd), and thanks to this and a slump in demand at home and abroad, went bankrupt in 1961. The current seller of this Borgward Isabella coupe, for sale for $900 in East Los Angeles, CA, will probably also not be clearing a profit on his car.
Rusty But Trusty 