America’s fanciest car event is approaching fast. In two weeks, automobiles and enthusiasts will converge upon Monterey, Calif. for Pebble Beach Car Week, a place where you can see cars you’ve never expected to see in your life. We’re talking eight-figure Ferraris, priceless one-offs, astonishing coachbuilt creations, and just some of the finest metal to grace the land. Not exactly the sort of place for regular cars, right? Well, you might be surprised.
As is tradition, each Car Week comes with its own round of auctions, and while some auction houses peddle blue-chip machinery, others are more adventurous. Mecum is known for offering a wide array of vehicles under the gavel, and the company’s 2024 Monterey Car Week auction is no different.
Among some serious poster cars and iconic classics sit cars you’d expect to see on Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace, or out on the roads, or even in junkyards. Let’s look at some of the most regular cars up for auction at Car Week 2024, because man, this ain’t some black-tie stuff.
2007 Cadillac CTS
Hey look, it’s a 17-year-old Cadillac with nearly 90,000 miles on the clock. If that doesn’t scream used car, I don’t know what does. What’s more, it only has four photos attached to its auction listing. Want to see the front or even the right side of this Cadillac? Too damn bad. This is prime retirement-home-to-used-car dealer material, but it’s not posted in front of Crazy Bob’s Auto Sales, it’s in Monterey during Car Week.
There isn’t even a shot of the odometer in the auction listing, but it claims to have 89,685 miles on the clock. Assuming it’s in Monterey and the bits of the car we can’t see aren’t absolutely effed-up, that gives this thing a Kelley Blue Book private party value of between $3,567 and $5,738. Really, that ought to be the ceiling.
2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue
Cue your puns now. Crossing the block at Mecum Monterey will be this burgundy 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue, the weird W-body with the 3.5-liter Shortstar V6. Plus, this cherry example has a mere 16,869 miles on the clock, meaning this is as close to a certified pre-owned Intrigue as you can likely get in 2024. Talk about an interesting car to preserve. Some might even say it’s intriguing.
It’s really anyone’s guess as to what this Intrigue will go for, because how do you really put a value on a near-showroom example of a car few people thought to save? Kelley Blue Book puts a maximum private party value of $3,857 on this thing, but that doesn’t factor in the allure of the auction. Still, how magnificently middle-of-the-road is this?
1998 Mitsubishi 3000GT SL
A Mitsubishi 3000GT certainly doesn’t look like regular traffic, but it’s safe to say that not all trims hold equal cachet. The twin-turbocharged, all-wheel-drive VR-4? Awesome, and it’ll always be awesome. The 218-horsepower 3000 GT SL with its naturally aspirated V6? It’ll always look awesome, and there really isn’t any shame in driving something closer in concept to a Camry Solara than a Supra because horsepower comes with problems. Still, is it Monterey material yet? Are we old?
This particular 3000GT SL features gleaming period-correct chromed wheels, almost 118,000 miles on the clock, and the coveted five-speed manual transmission. It’s a pretty nifty regular car, but also definitely the sort of car you’d expect to find on Craigslist rather than at Monterey, especially with a Kelley Blue Book private party value of between $3,789 and $6,544. Then again, that’s just how Mecum rolls sometimes.
2008 Pontiac G6
Feeling fly yet? Aside from being mistakenly associated with a song that wasn’t even referencing the Pontiac, was there anything hugely hateful about the G6? The fact that the temperature gauge is the only one in the cluster to spin backward irritates the living shit out of me, but otherwise, it seems like an adequate car for leaving places and arriving at other places. I reckon its styling has aged better than that of the 2008 Malibu, but I didn’t exactly expect one to turn up to Monterey.
This 2008 G6 Coupe comes with a 200-horsepower 3.5-liter pushrod V6 attached to a four-speed automatic transmission, so it likely won’t set your hair on fire. However, it also has an odometer reading of 30,278 miles, which means it looks positively fresh. This one’s a nice example of a mediocre car, and even with a Kelley Blue Book private party value of $5,802 to $7,177, this thing should attract a few eyeballs during Car Week.
2002 Toyota Tacoma SR5
If there’s a blueprint for a midsize pickup truck in America, it’s this. The Toyota Tacoma is an icon, popular to the point of being ubiquitous yet beloved to the point of being collectable. Not only are they almost as reliable as the mythology surrounding their reliability, but they can really be anything, from a work vehicle to a hobbyist’s truck to a street truck to an overlanding rig. Perhaps because of their durability, low-mileage ones are hard to find, but this one’s one of the lowest-mileage examples I’ve seen lately.
With a claimed 10,000 miles on the clock, this Tacoma looks properly showroom fresh. Better still, it’s specced in a desirable way, with the five-speed manual gearbox and the TRD package. Even without four-wheel-drive, it’ll almost certainly go for mad money, yet to most people, it simply looks like a truck, and blends in with everyday traffic.
So yes, even at America’s fanciest celebration of the automobile, there’s still room for some rather regular cars. Nice examples of regular cars, but regular cars nonetheless. How about that?
(Photo credits: Mecum)
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Intrigues get dumped on regularly in articles like this. I owned a ’99 and really enjoyed it. The engine was always willing, it got good mileage for what it was, it handled great, the interior had good room, the control layout made sense, the seats were comfortable, it had good usable trunk space, and it had a cool look that was distinct without being over the top.
I’m intrigued by the Intrigue. I don’t want to be. Just am.
Intrigues are pretty decent cars. Owned a 98. There are at least three in decent shape that I regularly see in the nearby town of about 12k.
Saw the G6 in the header image and thought it would at least be a hardtop convertible.
Honestly I would rather have the sedan with the weird multi panel sunroof. Those are so weird and I love them!
I see a couple of those around town every now and then! The roof almost looks shredded at first glance with all of the panels up but I agree they’re pretty cool.
Saying nothing about the Olds as an overall machine, I thought and still think it might have been the most handsome sedan of its era. There was a lot of pseudo-aero ’90s bloat still on the market back then, where the Intrigue was shapely and lean for its size, with narrow pillars, simple but distinct character lines, and headlights that were identifiable but trying too hard.
I’m with you. I liked all of the Oldsmobiles post Aurora. I liked the general design language they were going with, including the Alero. Too bad they died soon after.
The Intrigue aged extremely well, though I’m disappointed it didn’t get the show car’s name: Antares would have been a kick-ass name for a sedan.
Those are some remarkably clean interiors for their age. Not sure what to make of the Tacoma – only 10k miles and a showroom interior on a truck, back when trucks were just… trucks.
That’s not a Tacoma TRD. While it’s true you could get a 2WD Taco with the TRD Off-Road package, those were all PreRunner trucks, which were auto-only and had 6-lug hubs. The one in the ad has 5-lug hubs (with awful wheels, I might add). Manual was only available on 5-lug 2WD trucks, or 4x4s. There isn’t a good enough angle of the side of the truck to see the ride height, but I think this guy just put a TRD bedside sticker on a regular landscaper-spec Tacoma.
I had a 2002 Intrigue that served me for 10 years and 212K miles, I’d snap up this example in a heartbeat if I could get it for around $4K.
And why is the W-body ‘weird’?
I think they are saying the Intrigue is the “weird” W-body, the rest of them all pretty much shared powertrains and such, the Olds was the only one to get the short star, thus making it “weird” compared to the others.
My buddy had one as his college and post-college ride. It served him well as well, and agree with all the other comments that it was a pretty good looking and competent mid-size sedan for the era.
I have a certain inexplicable fondness for late Oldsmobile, I kinda want all of them and their long headlights.
I saw a freakin’ Achieva this weekend. I still think it’s a (for GM) surprisingly well-executed design. Mostly though, I was struck by how compact, by modern vehicle standards, it seems.
There’s a gold-ish 4-door Achieva for sale near ATL airport, I haven’t bothered to check it out though.
Hey, there’s a chance that’s my old car. A very, very small chance, but I owned one. 4 dr gold color with a spoiler for some reason. It went away in the divorce, followed by better things.
I owned an Achieva S coupe with a 3.1 – it was my first new car purchase out of college. Really liked that car – well equipped, punchy look without all the “stick-on” stuff that Pontiac was doing.
I had a black with red interior one as my first car, hand me down from Dad with almost 100k miles. Had the SCX looking wheels and the spoiler. Fun car for a 16 year old for sure.
There’s a guy near me who’s still rocking an Alero….and it’s a stick shift V6! True unicorn stuff, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I kinda want it.
I love that 3000 GT SL just like it sits. Mechanical simplicity in a good looking package.
I don’t know if I’d describe any 3000GT as mechanical simplicity. Mitsubishi wasn’t really doing that when that was designed.
Will they finance?
I had an 03 CTS with a stick. I’d totally buy another if I could get one in good condition. They’re not remarkable in any way but i think they look funky and it drove really nice.
The styling has held up. A very handsome car.
A friend of mine had an ’04 CTS-V. I thought it made a pretty decent Accord.
We had a 2006 Malibu with that 3.5 V6 and the 4-speed auto. It was a lemon and was literally falling apart when we traded it in on a new 2013 Mazda CX-5 in December 2012, but damn if that 3.5 wouldn’t haul ass when asked to. I mean, “haul ass” for a boring GM rental-car spec sedan, that is.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon who you talk to), the 3.5L in the Malibu is a GM “high feature” V6 that replaced the 3.5L “Shortstar” V6 used by Oldsmobile. Despite the similar displacements, they are not the same engine.
I am referring to the 3.5 in the G6, not the Intrigue. 🙂 The G6 and our Malibu were both the same car underneath the sheet metal.
My mistake. Too many GM 3.5L V6s in the article.
All good. GM was not known for a wide variety of options in the FWD V6 world at that time, so the Shortstar was something of an anomaly.
Both the fuel gauge and temp gauge spin backwards 😛
Both go counterclockwise from low to high
I still see Pontiacs used as daily drivers where I live, so that G6 isn’t totally crazy on the eyes
I want to see a bidding war over that Intrigue. How many late stage Olds are left that haven’t been used up?
The 2wd Toyotas don’t command nearly the same insane Toyota Tax that the 4wd’s do. That’s a pretty swanky one, my family has a 96, with ZERO options. Such a fun little truck to zoom around in.
If it were a 4×4 Tacoma with the manual transmission and was as clean as what’s shown in this article, would it be… dare I say it… A Holy Grail?
It would be and it would also probably sell for at least 30k
That Tacoma will probably bring a bonkers price.
For sure. I keep waiting for one to just fall into my lap free of charge, but so far the gods have not gifted me with one.
*Andrew looks in the driveway, still no Tacoma from the gods*
“Curse you, Saturn!”