Many people will have you believe that shortly after today’s featured Buick was built, everything went downhill. The feds forced big bumpers, impact bars, smog equipment and retarded timing on cars and made them into shriveled up versions of their former selves. But that’s not entirely true, as some interesting solutions came out of those difficult times, including one of the first truly successful applications of turbocharging to a passenger car (yes anoraks, Corvairs and BMW 2002 turbos came first). Have a look at this 1978 Saab 99 turbo, for sale for $900 in Portland, OR.
Posts Tagged ‘hatchback’
Projekt Saab – 1978 Saab 99 Turbo
May 28, 2014Accidental Easter – 1977 VW Rabbit
April 9, 2014How can you not like a 1970s compact in bold safety colors? Most compact cars, especially inexpensive ones, have devolved to being in boring grays and golds, and black, white, red and maybe blue if you’re lucky. Thanks to Fiat and Mini, small cars are getting their color back, but unless you go with the trendiest (and somewhat premium) brands, you’re still stuck with the basic choices. Back in the 1970s, the Germans were the least afraid of using bold colors. Check out this 1977 VW Rabbit, for sale for $2 (must be $2000) in Tukwila, WA (just north of SeaTac airport).
Rad! – 1985 Merkur XR4Ti
January 25, 2014Sellers who pack their listings with unrelated keywords are mostly an annoyance, but every so often the perp does give it a little thought, and you unintentionally find an interesting car, thanks to their efforts. Even if you were just fuming because listings for Lexuses are filling up your search results. Regular readers probably are already familiar with the Merkur – based on the European Ford Sierra, with the 2.3-liter Lima four, turbocharged, two spoilers (one is not enough!), and other awesome 1980s styling cliches. Going for the manual transmission got you an additional 30hp to 175, so do not go into an automatic lightly. This first-year 1985 Merkur XR4Ti is for sale for $3100 in Pacific Beach (near San Diego), CA.


