Posts Tagged ‘hatchback’

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Boost to 55! – 1990 Saab 900 Turbo

February 1, 2016

With the story of Saab pretty much sealed – as a matter of fact, they may never reappear as a passenger car brand since Saab AB reminded the Chinese electric car company building the 9-3 they have no rights to the name – the 900 seems to be guaranteed a place as one of the iconic models produced by the company. And there are very few modern cars that will duplicate the experience of a turbo car of the 1980s-1990s, with that kick in the pants midway through the rev range (other than a couple of high output fours made by Toyota, Honda, and Subaru). Let’s take a look at this 1990 Saab 900 Turbo for sale for $3950 in Seattle, WA.

1990 Saab 900 Turbo left rear

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Big Brother to XR2 and XR3 – 1987 Merkur XR4Ti

January 28, 2016

Nowadays, people don’t blink twice at weird model names. There are plenty of offenders, but BMW’s naming scheme is probably among the worst, which is how you end up with the BMW X5 Xdrive40d. Would it have been so horrible to call it the X535is? It’s enough to make you pine for the days when CR-X HF or XR4Ti was considered awkward, never mind the simplicity in names like Sentra XE. Nonetheless, for a make and model that were new to the American market, the marketing machine that was and is Ford could have definitely done something a little more evocative than a jumble of numbers and letters, which did their best to disguise the virtues of a turbo all-wheel drive coupe. Wait, you say it’s not all-wheel drive? But XR4… it has “X” and “4” in the model designation? Which, as it turns out, just designates it as the bigger brother of XR2 and XR3 (Fiesta and Escort, respectively). Let’s take a look at this 1987 Merkur XR4Ti for sale for $1500 in Grandview, WA.

1987 Merkur XR4Ti left rear

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2 Waters Please – 1982 VW Quantum and 1978 VW Rabbit

January 27, 2016

Until recently, VW was on pretty solid ground as a growing presence on the North American market, but let’s take a look back at a time when VW’s existence here was very much in question. The North American Quantum definitely epitomized that time, with a pokey 1-7-liter 4-cylinder, awkward styling, and a marketing strategy that didn’t know where it wanted to be – frugal and well-made like a Beetle, or spartan-lux like most of its European contemporaries. Indeed, there’s little except maybe the goodwill and better service network from the Beetle days to differentiate this from a contemporary Renault, and we all know where Renault went in the late 1980s. So let’s check out a remnant from those early water-cooled days, this 1982 VW Quantum for sale for $1299 in Portland, OR.

1982 VW Quantum right front

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