Good morning! It’s Friday, so it’s time to do something special, and I thought it was time for another eight-way battle between all the week’s vehicles. No theme, no special instructions, just choose your favorite.
I guess we should finish up with yesterday first. The pair of project Blazers took home the win, despite having been sitting in the same spot for years, apparently. There was some worry over parts availability with the Lotus, but I get the impression that what is shown in the ad is only some of the included parts. Cars like this tend to come with boxes and boxes of stuff, whether you want it or not.
I would take the Lotus project in a heartbeat. Why? Because there’s every chance, with a project like that, that you won’t actually finish it, so I choose the classier unfinished option. I can proudly tell people for years to come that I’m “restoring a Lotus,” but I never want to be that neighbor with the two dead Blazers in his yard.
All right, let’s recap the week’s choices, so you can pick your favorite. I’m not going to bother listing prices, because some of them are already sold, so it’s all purely hypothetical at this point.
1988 Acura Legend L
More than one of you commented on Monday that this car, the first-generation Acura Legend, is “peak Honda.” I can’t argue. Honda was on a roll in the ’80s, and it threw everything it had into its flagship for the Acura brand. This era of Legend looks great, drives beautifully, and holds up well. The only two things that could make this one better are a manual transmission and a clean title.
1994 Pontiac Grand Prix SE
General Motors’s W platform made a lot of old-school car guys upset when it came out. In fact, I think some of them still haven’t forgiven the General for replacing the old RWD G-body with this car. But the truth is, it’s a hell of a lot better car to drive than the G-body. For one thing, the W-body cars actually handle, at least halfway decently. Trying to drive fast in an old mushy car like the G-body is kind of like having sex on a waterbed: It sounds like it would be fun, but really it just makes you seasick.
1987 Chevy Cavalier RS convertible
It used to be easy, back in the body-on-frame days, to turn a coupe into a convertible. Just chop off the roof, add in the soft top and mechanism, make a new, smaller rear seat, and presto: drop-top. With a unibody structure, things get more complicated; you have to add bracing to compensate for the missing roof, and the result is never as stiff as the original. But we’re not talking about a sports car here; this thing will take thirteen or fourteen seconds to reach 60 MPH, and will only take fast corners reluctantly. But who cares? Why be in such a hurry? It’s a nice day.
1989 Merkur XR4Ti
This car’s name will always be pronounced “Murker Zurfer Tee” in my head, because that’s what my friend Brian called them in seventh grade, and it stuck. It’s a cool car, and supposedly a great car to drive; I’ve never driven one further than in and out of a service bay, so I can’t really comment. If you want one, though, I think you’d be wise to shop around a bit more. This one seems a bit sketchy – and rusty.
1999 Mercedes-Benz S320
In the TV series Entourage, fast-talking agent Ari Gold gets caught changing the badge on his wife’s Mercedes S-Class to make it look like a more expensive version than it is. You could be forgiven for doing something similar or eliminating the badge altogether, on this one. It’s a short-wheelbase S320, with a mere six cylinders to its name. I mean, can you imagine? How terribly, terribly common.
Not-a-1998 Lexus LS400
This car was listed incorrectly in its Craigslist ad. I know; I’m as surprised as you are. That never, ever, ever happens. It’s older than they say it is, and there’s a chance it has more miles on it than they say, as well. But whatever. It’s boring and I don’t like it much anyway.
1967 Lotus Europa project with parts
Having now spent as much time as I have with British car enthusiasts, I think I understand this car a little better. I can picture it sitting on a flatbed trailer at a swap meet, in the bright sunshine, surrounded by cardboard boxes and plastic totes haphazardly piled with a jumble of parts – some brand-new in the package, some crusty with old-car gunk. “It’s all there,” the seller would tell you, “just never got around to finishing it.” Hell, I know what this car smells like, just from the photos.
1982 and 1984 Chevy K5 Blazers
With this truck, there’s only one thing I really want to know: What’s under the seat? It seems to me you always find something interesting under the seat of an old beat-up truck. In my old Datusn, I found a half-full box of .22 shells, the previous owner’s scuba diving certification card, and a nice Swiss army knife, which I still have. My current Chevy yielded a road atlas, a torque wrench, and way too many takeout food containers for comfort. This one? I’m expecting a few beer cans and shotgun shells, at the very least.
So that’s what you’ve got to choose from. Use whatever criteria you want to choose; all I ask is that you make your case in the comments. I want to know why you’re choosing what you choose. See you Monday!
(Image credits: sellers)
I voted Lexus. It will last forever and can be passed down to future generations like an heirloom.
Had to vote Legend. My brother had one of these in gold, a 1990 I think. Before they got really big. That car was such an awesome highway cruiser. You had to be careful because you would be cruising along and realize to were driving 90. It handled great and was as reliable as they come. He still misses that car.
The Acura is a little trouble, but I think it’s good effort invested. The Lexus would be my 2nd.
I voted for the LS a couple days ago, but the MY discrepancy switched me over Mercedes this time.
I vote for Roy Orbison, thanks for that!
I love the Merkur but the Mercedes is the better buy. Rust can be a demon.
I voted for the exarforti because it’s the only manual rwd here that has at least a chance of running. I just hope it isn’t too rusty underneath.
88 Legend. I’ll put some bronze rims on it and blast Ludaversal all day
I’m going peak Honda here. Always loved these and had a chance to drive one in the md-90’s. Sublime.
My inner redneck is coming out. Blazer!
I heard people call those Merkur “Ecksrati” and I wanted to jump out of a window face first. In any case, Ford should have just kept it as the Ford Sierra instead of trying to get cute
I have a feeling that if Ford had tried that, there would be a letter from GMC saying “I don’t think so.”
haha I forgot about the truck!
The Legend really is legendary! I voted for the LS400, which is also an awesome car with a cooler interior and 4 doors.
I want the Grand Prix. The tackiness is too good to pass up, and it’s in remarkable condition for a W body that didn’t appeal to the early bird special crowd. Keeping it running will be a breeze with cheap parts galore. It makes me want to put on an overly colorful track suit and whistle the intro song from Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.
Yeah me too. It’s not the best option, but given my life situation it’s the most useful. I have a sports car and a van, but a comfy cruiser would be a good addition. The Lexus would probably be a better choice for that, but it’s less fun. Europa would be the next choice because I could definitely do worse than a classic Lotus
The blazer seems to me to be the most honest and achievable project. The rest are either forever money pits (lotus, mercedes, merkur), questionable seller, title (lexus, legend), or no way in hell (gp, cav). Couple of days with grinder, buzzer, some sheet metal and a mig. Splash on metalprep, sealer and cheap white paint to hide the rest. A couple of weeks to fix up the interior, suspension, brakes and debug the electrics and you’d have a fairly decent rig for not much money (my labor is free).
why does everyone hate on the W bodies? They were solid, decently reliable, semi fun cars for their time, where they Acuras? no but for what they replaced light years better!
I owned an Intrigue. Nice car, rusted like crazy and being a unibody was not easy to fix. I’ve owned several German cars and will never own another. I already have a nice honda, I also owned a Merkur Scorpio. The Cavalier … i dont fit that well. I can use a truck like thing on the homestead. I’d prefer the c10 from last week though.
Maybe it is my age, but the W body GP and Cutlass Supreme coupes were cars we teenagers would have loved to own.
Same! I had a 2000 GP coupe but this body style is so much better
I already have the reliable daily driver ticked off, so anything else would be fun to drive, interesting project car. XR4Ti for me.
Tough choice between the Blazers and the Benz. The Blazers appeal to my inner redneck and I absolutely love ridiculous old 4wd trucks and SUVs. However, I think these are beyond my ability to repair. If I were less mechanically inept, I’d buy these in a second.
So I’m voting for the Benz. It seems like an obvious choice for me. For vehicles, I tend to favor quantity over quality. I would like a luxury sedan, but not if it means I can’t also have an EV, an unnecessarily large diesel pickup, a few classic vehicles, and a motorcycle or three. This Benz should last long enough to scratch my luxury vehicle itch without having to compromise by selling any of my fleet. If I got to drive this a week before it catastrophically failed, that would be enough. I could repeat the process every few years when I got the urge to drive something luxurious (It is occurring to me I could just rent a luxury car for a week, but there is something about owning a car that can’t be replicated by renting one).
My current superannuated Acura needs company.
We’ll take the Legend.
Couldn’t decide between the Acura and Lexus. I’d much prefer the Legend coupe but ended up clicking the LS400 based on title issues.
Acura for me, and the Mercedes for second place.
I feel attacked.
Anyways, I’m the only one who voted for the Grand Prix. If I’m buying an old crappy car, as all of these are, it might as well look good, and dead Lotus aside, the GP is the looker of this motley crew.
nope I voted for the GP too!
There are currently a dozen of us! A dozen!
I voted GP, but if the LS or Acura were clean titled and not sketchy, I’d probably lean towards them.
I’d find some honeycomb wheels from the period and it’d be badass.
I wanted to re-vote for the Lexus, but given the various inaccuracies of the ad, I’m not sure I’d trust anything the seller says.
Given I’m in the market right now for a truck type thing, I’m currently the lone vote for the K5.
A bunch of vehicles I don’t want, and then two not-great examples of cars I might want in the Blazer and LS400. Mmmm…I guess I’ll go with the LS400.
I initially thought the practical choice, but we don’t do that here. Cavalier to enjoy the last few weeks of nice weather before the thought of road salt turns it into rust.
The real advantage of the Cavalier is when you drop the top, you’re no longer smothered by the old car smell that all of these inevitably have!
Well, maybe not the Lotus. Not sure there’s enough car in one place to have the smell.
I’m still in it for the XR4ti. While this one may not be perfect, a chance to own perhaps one of the best examples of Ford’s frequent “hey we sell stuff in Europe where people really know cars unlike here you yokels so buy one already” strategy. It’s ’80s rad in a more oblique way.
Sticking with the Lotus kit car. So many possibilities here. Wow lotus has 100% of the vote! Wait, I’m the only voter so far.