Almost Italian – 1953 Hudson Jet

April 9, 2015

Looking for something from the immediate post-war period, with its we’re-on-a-postwar-budget trim styling, and its hey-look-I-have-integrated-fenders styling, but don’t want to go with the obvious Big-Three choices? Well, back in the early 1950s, there were still a decent number of smaller American manufacturers trying to keep going. And while senior Hudsons get the most attention for their upside-down bathtub styling and Twin-H power, the Jet has an interesting story of its own. Check out this 1953 Hudson Jet for sale for $2400 in Eugene, OR.

1963 Hudson Jet right front

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Xtra-Caddy – 1982 VW Rabbit Extended Pickup

April 9, 2015

Sometimes, the goal is to do what the others do, but with better bang for your buck. A couple of weeks back, one of the other car blogs (what, there are others?) featured a stretched VW Rabbit pickup in unfinished project condition for a whopping $7500. At RustyButTrusty, it’s time to challenge the notion a rather obscure pickup with questionable build quality (both from the Westmoreland, PA factory and the conversion) should cost as much, as, hmmm… a pretty nice driver BMW 2002. So here we have a rather obscure pickup with questionable factory and post-conversion build quality for the price of, erm, a project BMW 2002. Check out this 1982 VW Rabbit pickup XtraCab conversion, for sale for $2650 in Olympia, WA.

1982 VW Rabbit Pickup left side

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The One That Got Away – 1973 BMW 2002 Automatic

March 30, 2015

Do you ever see a car listed for sale and think, hey, that’s a good deal, I should go check that out? Then, life gets in the way and you don’t follow through. Sometimes, you even make it to the test drive, but then the thought of getting it home and debugging any previous owner issues seems overwhelming. And that’s what happened to the RustyButTrusty fleet manager (yours truly) this past weekend, with this 1973 BMW 2002 Automatic, which Was for sale for $1500 in Portland, OR.

1973 BMW 2002 Auto left side

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