Here Are Seven Unforgettable Cars That’ll Put A Smile On Your Face: Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness

Welcome back to Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness! One of my favorite pastimes is searching for rare and weird vehicles for sale online. I’m always looking for something cool to look at and maybe buy, so I have a hilariously long list of vehicles just gathering virtual dust on my computer. I don’t always know what I’m looking for. Sometimes I find a Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI and buy it, and sometimes I find a lightly-used Boeing 757, but that’s the beauty of the internet.

Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness cracks open a morsel of my search history to show you the vehicles I’ve been looking at, lately. Some of the vehicles are affordable, after all, I do try to buy some of them, while others are better fits for a collector like our Beau Boeckmann.

This week, I’ve decided to search for cars you don’t often see for sale if you’ve even seen any for sale at all. Not every car is going to be something you haven’t heard of, but let’s see if you know about what I’ve found!

1963 Goggomobil T300 – $5,422 – $7,049

We’re big fans of microcars at the Autopian. Not only are they so cute and so handy, but they’re an affordable gateway into classic car ownership, too. Goggomobil is a famous one and our friends at the Lane Motor Museum has the scoop on the Goggomobil T300:

Hans Glas and his son Andreas began producing scooters in their agricultural repair shop in Germany shortly after World War II. Their first product, the Goggo scooter, named for Hans’ youngest son, was an instant success as it met a demand for low-cost vehicles in the economically depressed country. This success helped pave the way for a line of Glas automobiles. Glas’ first prototype featured a front-opening door, like the BMW Isetta; however, it was replaced by conventional side-opening doors in 1955, when the first Goggomobil T250 was introduced. The Goggomobil T300, a model with a more powerful engine, began production the following year. The Goggomobil was well received in Germany as well as other European countries and even in the United States. The T300 came from New South Wales, Australia. The father and son team tried expanding their business, developing larger cars for an unfortunately unresponsive market. The company was sold to BMW in 1966; production of the Goggomobil continued until 1969.

I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that you can bid on this sweet car in an auction lasting the next 18 days. The bad news is that if you win, you will have to figure out how to get the car from the Netherlands. But hey, the high-end auction estimate for this little car is just $7,049, so it’s not exactly an arm and a leg.

Classic Car Auctions says this example has been dormant for years, so you’ll have to revive the car once you get it over here. At least the car comes with export papers, so it’s ready to find a new home. Once you get the car running, you’ll get to experience the ravenous power of a 293cc twin-cylinder two-stroke making 15 HP bolted to a four-speed manual. Not fast, but fun! The Lane says you might be able to hit a top speed of 60 mph. However, with a power output so low, this is certainly dependent on whether you had lunch before taking a drive.

If that doesn’t deter you, head over to Classic Car Auctions to place a bid.

1994 Mitsubishi FTO GR – $9,000

Here’s an often-forgotten Japanese import. If you’re like me, you grew up driving the Mitsubishi FTO in video games. Now you can have one in real life! Here’s what Mitsubishi has to say:

The FTO sport coupe was launched in October 1994. Anteceded by the Galant FTO launched in 1971 as a younger brother of the Galant GTO, and as a younger brother of the GTO that debuted in 1990, the new FTO was developed as a model that gave ready access to sports car performance. A nimble coupe, the FTO was instantly identifiable as a sport model by its very, for a Mitsubishi Motors’ model, curved design and by its long deck, wide track and short wheelbase proportions. Front and rear overhangs were pared to the minimum and overall height was kept low to achieve superior driving dynamics and present a road-hugging appearance. Top trim levels used a 2.0 L V6 MIVEC engine that powered it to a “fastest machine in its sport car class” label at the time. This was mated to Mitsubishi Motors’ new INVECS-II Sport Mode automatic transmission that employed Learning Control feature to tailor gear shifting timing to the preferences and driving abilities of individual drivers. It also featured Japan’s first Sport Mode on a Japanese-built car allowing enthusiast drivers to shift up and down as if it was a manual gearbox. A car that delivered fun-to-drive qualities in abundance, the FTO was selected 1994-95 Japan Car of the Year.

This FTO is a GR model and it sports a 2.0-liter V6 making 168 HP. That reaches the front wheels through a five-speed manual. The seller says nothing about its condition, but the car looks to be in decent shape with the equivalent of 54,860 miles on its odometer.

It’s $9,000 from the seller in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

2003 “ScootSki” – $3,300

Here’s one that would be in my collection today if it weren’t in Texas. Several years ago, some enthusiasts discovered a way to reuse all of those disposed of BRP Sea-Doos and Kawasaki Jet Skis littering Facebook Marketplace. Why not put a motorcycle underneath? Sure, the PWC will never float again, but you end up with a motorcycle or scooter producing more smiles per mile than perhaps any normal car.

While I could not find the first-ever “ScootSki,” I have found that people have been doing this since at least 2010. At least one guy even turned a stand-up PWC into a street-legal scooter! There are videos on how to make your own, but if that doesn’t sound like a project you want to take on, just buy one that already exists like this ScootSki in Texas.

Like many builds, this ScootSki combined a cheap Kawasaki Jet Ski hull with a cheap scooter. In this case, there’s a 2003 Jonway 250cc scooter underneath. Jonway, along with countless Chinese brands, used to make a clone of the Honda Reflex. The engine should be a 249cc water-cooled single attached to a CVT. The scooter should make something like 16 HP, which would have been good for about 75 mph in stock form.

The seller of this ScootSki doesn’t mention a top speed, but confusingly, says the scooter “runs almost over 60 mph really well.” The ScootSki has the proper lighting and mirrors to make it legal, plus an aftermarket coolant temp gauge in case the scooter underneath gets a bit hot with its new suit on.

It’s $3,300 from the seller in Sherman, Texas.

1964 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country – $36,000

If you like your roofs long and your steel vintage, this might be one for you!

The Chrysler New Yorker enjoyed a long run. It was introduced in 1938 as the New York Special before becoming the New Yorker in 1939. Chrysler then kept the name alive in some way for decades until 1996. As Hemmings writes, K.T. Keller was at the helm of Chrysler and the climate wasn’t great. The Airflow, despite its forward-thinking, was a sales flop. One series launched in response was the C-23, which matched the Imperial with its 125-inch wheelbase. They also had some luxurious features for the era like an illuminated speedometer, a powered clock, and hydraulic brakes.

The New Yorker grew to become Chrysler’s top mainline luxury model. New Yorkers designed under Virgil Exner enjoyed large fins, curvaceous taillights, and stunning pillarless doors. Elwood Engel became Chrysler’s design head in 1961 and took the firm’s cars in a different direction. The fins were left in the past and bodies became squared off with slab-sides.

This white over red example came from the factory with air-conditioning, power windows, power brakes, power steering, an electric clock, and more. Power comes from a 413 cubic inch Firepower V8 making 340 HP gross. Recent work includes an upgrade to fuel injection and an air-conditioning system overhaul.

It’s $36,000 or best offer from the seller in Montréal, Canada. The vehicle has 66,077 miles showing on a 5-digit odometer.

1941 Studebaker M5 – $30,000

Here’s a classic truck you won’t see every day if you even knew it existed!

Studebaker was founded as a wagon builder in 1852. The marque would expand into electric cars in 1902 before assembling gasoline cars in 1904. In those formative days, Studebaker had partners in the Garford Company and Everitt-Metzger-Flanders and sold their vehicles. Studebaker would finally start marketing its own cars in 1912. Its first commercial vehicle was a delivery car and between 1914 and 1915, the company began building trucks and buses.

As Hemmings writes, Studebaker was late to get into the lucrative truck market. Its first attempt came in 1937 when it made the car-based Coupe Express. That truck looked awesome and was even featured on a previous Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness, but didn’t really make Studebaker into a major truck player. Sales were poor, but Studebaker didn’t give up on the car-based pickup.

Next came the Studebaker M5, which was based on Champion car, but was styled more like a truck. The truck kept the Champion’s dashboard and its 169.6 cubic inch L-head straight-six. That engine pumped out 80 HP to the rear wheels. To save on development costs, the running boards were the same on both sides of the truck and the fenders up front were the same as the fenders in the rear. Differences from the Champion include a leaf spring suspension and a straight front axle where the Champion had an independent front suspension.

Trucks were pretty basic in those days and options included a heater, radio, clock, windshield washers, and more. Yep, you didn’t even get to wash your windshield or heat yourself up in the standard truck. Even dual taillights were an option.

This 1941 Studebaker M5 was restored in 2013 and still has its original drivetrain. It cost $660 new in 1941, or the equivalent of $14,676 today. The seller, Litchfield, Connecticut, wants $30,000 for the truck today.

1960 Fiat 1100 D – $8,000

Here’s a small Italian family car that’s oh so adorable.

Back in 1937, Fiat introduced a small family car known as the Fiat 508 C and the Balilla 1100, later renamed to just the 1100. It was refined for its day with an independent front suspension and an overhead valve engine. Fiat continued to sell this car after the end of World War II, but the company soon got to work on its replacement. That car would come in 1953 as the 1100.

This new car departed from the old pre-war car’s design by moving to a unibody construction from a body-on-frame construction. Reportedly, Fiat worked with America’s Budd Company on the body stampings, and by going to unibody, the new car benefited from an 11 percent weight loss from the previous generation. Yet, the new car was also slightly larger on the inside. The new 1100 also came just three years after Fiat’s first unibody car, the 1400. Reportedly, Fiat’s engineers worked on a V4 to go into this car, but fears of delays meant that the project got shelved.

This 1100 D is said to run and drive, but it needs some work to be perfect. Power comes from a 1.2-liter four making around 48 HP SAE and those ponies reach the rear wheels through a manual transmission.

It’s $8,000 from the seller in Missouri City, Texas.

1969 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible – $39,999

Here’s a beloved classic car you probably do know about, but I want to feature it, anyway. Just picture yourself riding down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue with the top down in this bad boy.

As Mac’s Motor City Garage writes, the Oldsmobile 442 was introduced in 1964 in response to the smashing success of the then-new Pontiac GTO. The first 442s were packages applied to the F-85 and Cutlass. These featured tuned 330 cubic-inch V8s with 310 horsepower and a beefed-up suspension. Noteworthy was the name of the package. While Pontiac nabbed its name from Italy, the 442 described the vehicle’s build. That “442” translated to a four-barrel carburetor, a four-on-the-floor transmission, and a dual exhaust system. As the 442 was upgraded, it later came to mean a four-barrel carburetor, a 400 cubic-inch engine, and a dual exhaust.

However, observers in our audience will be quick to point out that later 442s had two-barrel carbs, single exhausts, and engines nowhere near 400 cubes. Eventually, 442 came to signify a performance version rather than anything specific. GM’s marketing was also sort of sloppy, as you’d see the vehicle stylized as “442,” “4-4-2,” or “4.4.2” depending on what ad you read.

This 1969 Oldsmobile 442 is not a numbers-matching ride, but it does look sweet. The seller says the engine under the hood is a 365 HP 455 cubic inch V8 from the 1970 442. Other modifications include Hooker headers, Edelbrock intake, Edelbrock carburetor, and MSD ignition.

It’s $39,999 from Weisco Motorcars in Denver, Colorado with 80,222 miles on the odometer.

That’s it for this week, thank you for reading!