Anything You Want, You Got It: Legend, Grand Prix, Cavalier, XR4Ti, LS400, S320, Europa, or Blazer

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)